Television: Anthology Series of the 70s You May Not KnowsteemCreated with Sketch.

in #television5 years ago (edited)

The Evil Touch.jpg

Robert Lansing starred in one of the best episodes of the Australian-American horror anthology series called The Evil Touch.

Here are six 70s series that featured great stories in the supernatural/suspense genre. Some you may know and others may be totally obscure. They are all well worth checking out, though.

Thriller (1973-1976) — This Granada Television series from the UK is considered by many horror/suspense fans to be one of the best anthology shows ever made. (Not to be confused with the excellent American series of the same name, hosted by Boris Karloff.)

The 70-minute episodes are divided between crime thrillers and spooky tales, the latter covering the usual 70s obsessions with devil-worshipping, demonic possession, ESP, and reincarnation. This series had a content-sharing agreement with American broadcaster ABC, which featured many of the episodes on its late-night series, The ABC Wide World of Mystery. Many popular American television actors of the 60s and 70s guest-star in the episodes, along with British actors: the Yanks include Barbara Feldon from Get Smart and Donna Mills from Knots Landing.

I’m only on the first season, but so far the stand-out episodes include A Place to Die and Someone At the Top of the Stairs. The whole series is currently streaming on Amazon Prime in the US; many episodes are also posted on YouTube.

The Evil Touch (1973-1974) -- This was a half-hour, collaborative Australian-American production hosted by distinguished British actor Anthony Quayle (Lawrence of Arabia.) Each show was filmed in Australia, and features an American familiar TV face, such as Leslie Nielsen or Darren McGavin, supported by Australian actors (who knew there were so many Yanks living Down Under in the early 70s?).

As a kid, I would occasionally catch this show--after it was syndicated in the U.S.--on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Stand-out episodes include The Lake, Scared to Death, and Dear Cora I’m Going to Kill You. Unfortunately, it’s not available on disc or streaming anywhere. Many episodes can be found on YouTube, however.

Shadows (1975-1978) -- This half-hour anthology series was aimed at tweens and teens, but most episodes are sophisticated enough to appeal to adults. The writing is top-notch. One episode was written by playwright J.B. Priestly, another by sci-fi novelist P.J. Hammond, and another by feminist novelist Fay Weldon, of She-Devil fame. Joan Aitken, who wrote for Rod Serling's Night Gallery, contributed two scripts.

Best episodes include The Inheritance, The Waiting Room and ...And Now for My Next Trick. Trick --written by Hammond--is one of the best anthology episodes I've seen, period.

Many actors who appear in Thriller also appear here. This series is available on disc in the UK; most episodes are also on YouTube.

Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1972-74) -- This hour-long CBS series is also one of the finest horror anthology shows in television history. Unfortunately, it got little support from executives and died a painful, undeserved death.

It started out under the title of Ghost Story, featuring portly British star Sebastian Cabot (the beloved butler/valet from the 60s sitcom Family Affair) as the host. Cabot plays the owner of a creepy hotel called the Essex, who introduces stories about supernatural things that have happened to his guests (did Stephen King watch this show?).

Midway through the show’s run, the format and title were changed, and Cabot’s role as host was dumped. This show also suffered schedule changes that confused fans and doomed it. Created by horror/sci-fi legend Richard Matheson, it attracted some pretty high-caliber talent. One episode was directed by A-List director Richard Donner. Another episode, the excellent House of Evil, features two Oscar winners, Melvyn Douglas and Jodie Foster. Helen Hayes, the First Lady of American Theater, shows up in another great episode, and so does Janet Leigh, the screaming shower queen from Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Fortunately, this series is offered on disc, although the set is kind of pricey. Many episodes are currently posted on YouTube; watch ‘em before the copyright cops find ‘em.

Night Gallery (1970-1973; the pilot is from 1969) -- This one-hour show from NBC will forever be known as Rod Serling’s “other” series. Over the years, however, fans and critics have begun to appreciate it on its own merits.

Serling hosts the show from a darkened art gallery that presumably only sells works of the creepy and strange variety. Each painting (and some of them are pretty great!) illustrates a story segment of the show.

Some of the episodes have achieved near-legendary status among horror/fantasy fans, such as Green Fingers, The Caterpillar, and They’re Tearing Down Tim Reilly’s Bar, which won an Emmy.

Steven Spielberg directed two segments for the pilot; John Badham directed five episodes, and Leonard Nimoy directed himself in one. One short segment features Vincent Price, and another episode is narrated by the great Orson Welles; another stars Sally Field (this episode is one of my favorites).

The series format switched to one segment per episode midway through its run. Sadly, Night Gallery was dogged by continued conflict between Serling and producer Jack Laird, and Serling eventually lost interest in the show. He died two years after it ended. On disc; some episodes are posted on Daily Motion. Beware: when the syndication package was sold, the series was combined with episodes from another show called The Sixth Sense, starring Gary Collins. Amazon lists the first season of this doctored series on its streaming service, but it is not the original first season at all.

Dead of Night (1972) -- This was a short-lived, 65-minute BBC series that only showed seven episodes. Despite its brief tenure on the airwaves, it made a strong impression on viewers. The series was known for "pushing the envelope" of what was thematically kosher for the era. Only three episodes survived a BBC archive purge; those were released on disc in the UK. All three surviving episodes are posted on YouTube; the best one, entitled Exorcism, is a corker.

Sort:  

Thriller (1973-1976)

These used to scare the crap out of me.. not just the content.. but the theme tune.. its really creepy and I was just a young nipper at the time.

Someones uploaded a bunch of full episodes to YouTube.

Did you also watch Journey to the Unknown as well? That was five years earlier and it has a really creepy theme as well (someone whistling from an empty amusement park at night.) It was a joint US-Hammer production. I enjoy seeing all the old American television stars from the 60s and 70s in both Journey to the Unknown and Thriller, and some British stars who were famous at the time in the US like Judy Carne and Susan Hampshire.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.36
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70846.59
ETH 3567.69
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.79