Pre-Star Trek Shatner on Thriller

Kirk in spooky form

I recommend a couple of great episodes of the early 60s horror/suspense anthology series hosted by Boris Karloff, Thriller, starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner. The episodes are called The Hungry Glass and The Grim Reaper. Both of these hour-long gems can be found on YouTube.

In the first one, Shatner plays a young husband who buys a haunted house in New England--a house where all the mirrors have been removed--for good reason.

In the second episode, Shatner plays the nephew of a batty middle-aged mystery writer (played by Natalie Schaeffer, aka "Lovey" Howell from Gilligan's Island) who has purchased a macabre painting with an evil past.

Both episodes rely on the writing talents of the great horror writer, Robert Bloch. The Hungry Glass is based on one of his short stories and he also wrote the screenplay for The Grim Reaper.

A few years later, Bloch would write two episodes for Star Trek:TOS: Wolf in the Fold and Catspaw (the Halloween episode.)