Ray Bradberry hosts one of TV’s best SF anthology series. Most of the episodes were based on his stories.
Typical episode: “The Earthmen” w/David Birney – In 1999 a third mission to Mars lands. The crew of four are supposed to find out what happened to the first two missions. They come to a structure and knock on the door.
A strange woman answers. She’s a telepath. She sends them to another farm. This man is even stranger. He says he’s going to kill the person who sent them to him. Everyone refers to themselves by one initial.
Their next stop seems a bit friendlier. Captain Williams (David Birney) is told by Mr.X to put his thumb print on a card. It’s a key to a room where they can stay. They enter the door with the key and are greeted by applause and even carried around the room on everyone’s shoulders.
It doesn’t take long for them to realize they’re in an insane asylum. The key won’t open the door to let them out. They’re told it can only be done with the mind. Captain Williams gets the door open and there’s Mr.X.
He tells Williams that his crew are just hallucinations. Now things get even stranger. This is a very creepy episode and defintely worth seeing.
“The Town Where No One Got Off”- One of my favorite episodes of the series. Everything works. Great performances from Jeff Goldblum and Ed McNamara. It was shot in the historic village of Alton, Ontario, Canada. and looks terrific.
Cogswell (Jeff Goldblum) is on a train. They’re passing small towns and he tells a salesman across from him that he’d like to just get off and live in one of them. The salesman spots him for an aspiring writer and tells him if he has any guts he’d just do it. Cogswell decides to get off the train at the next small town.
While walking around the few people he sees either ignore him or are hostile. Along with that he’s being followed by an old man (Ed McNamara) he saw sitting in a chair at the train station.
Finally the old man walks up to him. Things start getting creepy. A must see episode.
David Birney starred as Bernie Steinberg in “Bridget Loves Bernie” (1972-73). In 1976-77 he was Frank Serpico in “Serpico.” In 2007 he appeared in “Deep Water” as Leslie Warwick, an episode of “Without A Trace.”
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