ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's a sample of the trivia items on IMDB for The Outer Limits.
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An example of a television network deliberately killing a popular series by moving it to an inappropriate slot on their schedule. This series was a big hit, especially among younger viewers. For the second season, ABC moved it from Monday nights to 7:30 Saturday. It was not only an inappropriate timeslot for younger viewers, it served as the lead-in for The Lawrence Welk Show (1955).

Note from me: I can't say I was really a big fan of the original series, but the rival series which began in 1995 had quite a few excellent episodes.

The second-season episode The Duplicate Man features the famous Chemosphere House. Designed by architect John Lautner, the house is seen in a few exterior shots but the inside shots were on a set designed to resemble the house's interior.

Note from me: I'm going to have a house just like this when I grow up, and you're all invited over for dinner and a sci-fi movie!









Architects of Fear: When this episode first aired, the alien was deemed too frightening to show by several ABC affiliates. They instead showed a black screen whenever the alien appeared.

Note from me: Although the suit seemed a bit too heavy (especially the head) to move around the way it should have in the episode, the design really is quite good. And creepy.





Controlled Experiment: Grace Lee Whitney would later appear in Star Trek as Yeoman Janice Rand. Interesting enough the Martians violate Star Trek's prime directive of not interfering with less advanced alien societies, in this case Earth.

Note from me: I've often said that Janice Rand would look much better without that silly "hornets nest wig"! Here's Grace in this Outer Limits episode with a nice hairdo .





Here's a comparison of Grace with-and-without the wig.





And here's Yeoman Janice Rand in the lovely 60s hairdo!


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Captain Starlight]

That futuristic house is amazing. It's like where Tarzan's great grandson would live, 100 years after the Burroughs stories.

[WadeVC]

[Pow]

Sad that the audience always loses when a TV network decides to kill off their very own series. You'd think that a network would be supportive of their own shows, especially if the show is winning its time spot. Nope.

I've read that it can get into egos, turf-wars, and so forth amongst the executives. They all want to promote their fave series, naturally. These are the ones that they developed. However, some execs also want to squash another series even though its at their own network. Who knows why? They don't like the other exec, they want to promote themselves to the head honchos, they are aggressive.

One sure show killer is any massive change at a network among the management. A new regime sweeps in and the old one is history. New regime wants to cultivate their shows at the expense of the previous regime. Best way to do this is make sure the previous regime's series get cancelled to make way for the newer regime's newer shows. Doesn't matter if the current shows are doing well in the ratings, doesn't matter if the current shows are loved by the viewers. The new guys & gals just want to win at anyone's expense.

So they resort to tried and true tactics. Shift a show to a time spot that won't do it any favors. Move a series all over the schedule multiple times. Make it hard for viewers to keep track. And then there's the old preempt a series for a number of weeks in order to try out a new one. The network will tell the audience that their just doing this temporarily. You know, give the established series a nice vacation. Right. It's hunting season, and unfortunately, your show might just be in the hunter's sights.