I saw this series on TV in 1959, and I wonder about three episodes–their titles and whether in amy wise they are accessible now:
- Beginning with an announcer who said about repairing the human body, “Once it stops, death occurs. [Therefore we] must make repairs on the run.” A chart was shown for a chimpanzee in “hibernation.”
- A little girl who seemed precocoious–making many people suspicious of her–when she said she was “from the third planet from the Sun.” someone opposed to her said she just admitted she was from Mars, but a defender growled to him, “The ‘third planet from the Sun’ is the very Earth you’re standing on!” (Touche’!)
- Some new neighbors of one family; the new neighbors loaned them a flashlight–which they didn’t think anything about until that evening when a fuse blew–and when they switched the flashlight on in the basement pointing it at the fuse box, they just saw the box and the conduits! It was an X-Ray flashlight!
I don’t know if they’re available on video, but the Sci-fi Channel was rerunning them early Saturday mornings for years up until a year or two ago.
I also saw your episodes 2 and 3 in the 50’s. And I also saw them when they were re-run on the Sci-fi Channel.
I’m sorry to say we don’t get cable TV. Hey, if you have a VCR I’ll be glad to send you a payment for taping those episodes and sending them to me…
I’m not sure what programs the previous poster was referring to (if you’re still listening in, please supply the name), but I am familiar with the programs “Lights Out” and “Tales of Tomorrow,” which aired on late Thursday and Friday nights on the Sci-Fi channel.
However, they do not have the complete series in the package that they’re showing. I’ve seen every one (of those programs that I mentioned) at least twice, and I have not seen the episodes you mentioned. That’s not to say that they weren’t in one of those–I just didn’t see them.
There were numerous anthology programs in the '50’s, so it’s difficult to know which one it might have been, since few of them had such lasting popularity as to have episode guides readily available. You might have been seeing a new program in 1959, or it might have been a rerun of an older series.
Looking at “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows,” the only obvious sci-fi programs on the schedule in 1959 were “Men into Space” (not an anthology series) and “Twilight Zone” (which does not contain what you described.
Zgystrdst, if you’re still out there, I’d like to know the name of that series on Sci-Fi that included them.
I know Twilight Zone well; the series I saw was aired in summer 1959 and may even have been in syndication then. And it was titled “Science Fiction Theater.”
OK. It was aired from 1955 - 1957, with 78 episodes, produced by Ivan Tors, who would later go on to create “Sea Hunt,” “Daktari,” “Flipper,” and “Gentle Ben,” courtesy of “The Directory” that I mentioned above.
I haven’t seen that program on Sci-Fi in the two years that I’ve had that station.
I’ll do some more digging, though, because it sounds like something I’d like, too.
Sorry, Mjollnr. The site mentions Science Fiction Theater but doesn’t advertise it. 