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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

The Savage Curtain

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5906.4: Over the planet Excalbia, the Enterprise is intercepted by who appears to be Abraham Lincoln, floating through space. Beaming aboard, Lincoln is welcomed by Kirk, who is somewhat awed by the presence of one of his most revered figures of history. “Lincoln” extends an invitation to Kirk and Spock to visit the planet, whose normally lava-covered surface sprouts a zone of Earthlike safety just for the landing party. Kirk, Spock and Lincoln are joined on the surface by an image of Surak, who initiated the doctrine of emotional restraint on Vulcan. A rock-creature appears and introduces Kirk and Spock to four more illusionary figures from history, this time the fiercest conquerors, tyrants and villains of the past, from Earth’s Genghis Khan to Kahless the Unforgettable, who, as Surak did for Vulcan, set the standard of behavior for the Klingons. The creature pits the best and most noble – Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak – against the most vile historical figures. The rewards for Kirk and Spock, should they survive, are their lives, and the lives of everyone aboard the Enterprise.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Herschel Daugherty
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Lee Bergere (Abraham Lincoln), Barry Atwater (Surak), Phillip Pine (Colonel Green), Arell Blanton (Chief Security Guard), Carol Daniels DeMent (Zora), Robert Herron (Kahless), Nathan Jung (Ghengis Khan)

Notes: Colonel Green was seen again in one of the final installments of Star Trek: Enterprise, depicted as a xenophobic warmonger whose rants inspired John Paxton’s attempt to oust all alien influences and visitors from Earth a century before Kirk’s tour of duty on the Enterprise.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

All Our Yesterdays

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5943.7: Arriving at the moon Sarpiedon, whose mother planet is due to explode in three hours, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find just what the ship’s sensors indicated on the surface – no life forms, though an advanced civilization obviously once existed. But they then find several copies of Sarpiedon’s librarian, Mr. Atoz. Some of the clones are helpful, others belligerent, but they all tell the landing party that all the people of Sarpiedon have already escaped to safety, and Atoz, thinking that Kirk and the others are natives who arrived late, advises them to do the same. The library turns out to be a file of “time periods” into which a device Atoz calls the atavachron can propel them, as it has already provided an escape for the rest of the moon’s inhabitants. Hearing a woman screaming, but not realizing that she is one the other side of tha atavachron’s time portal, Kirk leaps into a time period similar to the 1800s, and Spock and McCoy stumble into an ice age trying to retrieve him. All three must try to survive long enough in their respective environments for the time portal back to Sarpiedon to return – if that moon still exists in the 23rd century for them to return to.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxwritten by Jean Lisette Aroeste
directed by Marvin Chomsky
music by George Duning

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Mariette Hartley (Zarabeth), Ian Wolfe (Mr. Atoz), Kermit Murdock (The Prosecutor), Ed Bakey (First Fop), Anna Karen (Woman), Al Cavens (Second Fop), Stan Barrett (Jailer), Johnny Haymer (Constable)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Original Series Season 03 Star Trek

Turnabout Intruder

Star Trek ClassicStardate 5298.5: Visiting Dr. Coleman and the ailing Dr. Lester, a colleague of Kirk’s from Starfleet Academy who has always envied him due to her inability to achieve a captaincy in a male-captains-only Starfleet, Kirk is rendered unconscious by Lester. It turns out to have been a trap, and Lester puts herself and Kirk into an unknown device that transfers their minds into one another’s bodies. Lester, in the form of Kirk, doesn’t have time to kill Kirk (now in the female body). Lester and Coleman make every attempt to leave Kirk on the planet, but must bring “her” aboard to save face. Kirk, still suffering a severe shock from the mind transfer, is unable to warn McCoy about Lester’s plan to command the Enterprise (especially when Lester keeps ordering Kirk sedated). Lester, however, is unable to conceal her lack of knowledge of command procedures and, more specifically, Kirk’s character, and when Spock learns the truth and attempts to help Kirk, Lester has him placed under arrest and tries to speed Spock’s court-martial toward a conclusion which would have Kirk and Spock executed.

Order this episode on DVDDownload this episode via Amazon's Unboxteleplay by Arthur H. Singer
story by Gene Roddenberry
directed by Herb Wallerstein
music by Fred Steiner

Guest Cast: James Doohan (Mr. Scott), George Takei (Lt. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Sandra Smith (Janice Lester), Harry Landers (Dr. Coleman), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Barbara Baldavin (Communications Officer), David L. Ross (Lt. Galoway), John Boyer (Guard)

Notes: Only 47 days after the final episode of Star Trek aired, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

The Dead Man / The Housekeeper

Night GalleryThe Dead Man: Dr. Talmadge is summoned to the home of an old friend and colleague, Dr. Redford, who introduces him to a man named John Fearing. Fearing, just by thinking of a disease, can manifest the symptoms of that illness. Redford says that Fearing’s ability is hereditary, and he hopes to learn more about it and harness it to cure all disease. Over dinner, Talmadge notices that Redford’s wife can barely hide her attraction to Fearing, who appears as a perfect physical specimen when he concentrates on being well. In his next experiment with Fearing, Redford hypnotically conditions his human guinea pig to imagine himself dead. Is he taking his experiment to a new level…or eliminating a rival?

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Douglas Heyes
from a short story by Fritz Lieber
directed by Douglas Heyes
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Carl Betz (Dr. Max Redford), Jeff Corey (Dr. Miles Talmadge), Louise Sorel (Velia Redford), Michael Blodgett (John Fearing), Glenn Dixon (Minister)

The Housekeeper: Miss Wattle applies for a housekeeping job with the wealthy but eccentric scientist Cedric Acton. His plans for here go beyond tidying up the house, though – Cedric feels his wife has become too entitled to be tolerable. He wants to transplant another woman’s personality into his wife’s admittedly attractive body, and tells Miss Wattle of the riches she’ll be “inheriting” as the new inhabitant of that body. She reluctantly goes along with it, but finds she has no interest in remaining part of this experiment. When she tries to leave her “husband”, she comes face to face with the new housekeeper…her own replacement.

Night Gallerywritten by Matthew Howard
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Larry Hagman (Cedric Acton), Suzy Parker (Carlotta Acton), Jeanette Nolan (Miss Wattle), Cathleen Cordell (Miss Beamish), Howard Morton (Headwaiter)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

Room With A View / Little Black Bag / Nature Of The Enemy

Night GalleryRoom With A View: Ailing eccentric Jacob Bauman is confined to his bed, waited on by a butler and a nurse. “Mr. B” pries into his nurse’s private life to a degree that makes her a little uncomfortable, but he tries to put her at ease by reminding her that he’s the perfect confidant since he rarely speaks to anyone. She admits to some jealousy when her boyfriend looks at other women, and Bauman starts planting the idea in her head the she should act on that jealousy.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Hal Dresner
directed by Jerrold Freedman
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: Joseph Wiseman (Jacob Bauman), Diane Keaton (Nurse Frances Nevins), Angel Tompkins (Lila Bauman), Morgan Farley (Charles), Larry Watson (Vic)

Little Black Bag: Disgraced and discredited, William Fall was once a medical doctor, but is now an alcoholic shambling from alleyway to alleyway. After an argument with a fellow homeless alcoholic, he discovers a medical bag in a trash can. A chance encounter with a Puerto Rican woman and her dying child gives Fall a chance to try out his lucky find. But he discovers it’s no ordinary medical bag: it’s from the year 2098, and its instruments seem to guide even Fall’s shaky hands to cure the child. The rush of resuming his calling as a healer thrills Dr. Fall…but his drinking buddy, who has followed him around as he heals people of everything from arthritis to cancer, sees only dollar signs, even over Fall’s dead body.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based on a story by C.M. Kornbluth
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Burgess Meredith (Dr. William Fall), Chill Wills (Heppelwhite), George Furth (Gillings), E.J. Andre (Charlie Peterson), strongArthur Malet (Ennis), Eunice Suarez (Puerto Rican Mother), Marion Val (Puerto Rican Girl), Johnny Silver (Pawnbroker), C. Lindsay Workman (1st Doctor), Matt Pelto (2nd Doctor), Robert Terry (Dr. Nodella), Ralph Moody (1st Old Man), William Challee (2nd Old Man)

The Nature Of The Enemy: A tandem lunar landing mission involving two American spacecraft goes horribly wrong, as one of the vehicles crashes during descent. The press focuses on the crashed ship’s final transmission, during which its doomed pilot said his lander was under attack. In Houston, an impatient flight director named Simms tries to defuse the near-panic over that transmission while maintaining communication with the crew of the surviving lander. They report that the wreckage of their sister ship has been fashioned into something resembling a mouse trap…which only makes sense if the moon is made of cheese after all.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Allen Reisner
music by Gil Melle

Cast: Joseph Campanella (Simms), Richard Van Vleet (Space Man), James B. Sikking (1st Reporter), Jason Wingreen (2nd Reporter), Albert Popwell (3rd Reporter), Jerry Strickler (Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

The House / Certain Shadows On The Wall

Night GalleryThe House: A woman confesses to her psychologist that she has had the same dream for years – of driving toward a country house with an odd sense of anticipation – shortly before discovering that the house in question is not only real, but it up for sale. The realtor trying to close the deal gives her a somewhat skeptical warning that the previous owner thought the house was haunted. Not only will she buy the house, but she’ll find she knows its “ghost” very well.

Download this episode via Amazonteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Andre Maurois
directed by John Astin
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Joanna Pettet (Elaine Latimer), Paul Richards (Peugeot), Steve Franken (Dr. Mitchell), Jan Burrell (Nurse), Almira Sessions (Old Woman)

Certain Shadows On The Wall: Emma Brigham dies after a lengthy illness, giving her three siblings – two sisters and a brother, Stephen, who left his medical practice behind to care for her full time – a sense of relief. But while Emma’s sisters are relieved that she is no longer in constant pain, Stephen is relieved that her death could result in a substantial inheritance. Emma’s shadow appears on a wall in her house, and nothing can block or outshine it. Stephen begins obsessing over getting rid of the shadow. But is it Emma’s spirit or his conscience?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
from the story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Louis Hayward (Dr. Stephen Brigham), Agnes Moorehead (Emma Brigham), Grayson Hall (Ann Brigham), Rachel Roberts (Rebecca Brigham)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

Make Me Laugh / Clean Kills and Other Trophies

Night GalleryMake Me Laugh: Jackie Slater, a struggling comedian, is dying to make his audiences laugh…but he consistently bombs on stage. A mysterious man claiming to be a miracle-performing guru offers to work wonders for Jackie: anything Jackie says will bring his audiences to nearly uncontrollable laughter. While this boosts Jackie’s career to incredible heights, he finds it to be a hollow victory. He decides to leave comedy and take up dramatic acting, but his attempts at pathos only bring about more laughter. Can he ever again bring someone to tears?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Steven Spielberg
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Godfrey Cambridge (Jackie Slater), Tom Bosley (Jules Kettleman), Jackie Vernon (Chatterje), Al Lewis (Mishkin), Sidney Clute (David Garrick), John J. Fox (Heckler), Gene R. Kearney (2nd Bartender), Tony Russel (Director), Sonny Klein (1st Bartender), Michael Hart (Miss Wilson), Georgia Schmidt (Flower Lady), Sid Rushakoff (1st Laugher), Don Melvoin (2nd Laugher)

Night GalleryNotes: Steven Spielberg returns, racking up his third professional television directing credit (his second was a segment of the Night Gallery pilot movie in late 1969). By the end of 1971, he would go on to direct episodes of such series as The Name Of The Game, The Psychiatrist, Columbo, and Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law, ending the year with his first TV movie directing credit, Duel. Within three years, Spielberg was a movie director and no longer a TV director. Tom Bosley, of Happy Days fame, makes his second Night Gallery appearance here, having also appeared in Night Gallery’s pilot movie.

Clean Kills and Other Trophies: Obsessive big-game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman is unable to keep himself from expressing his disappointment that his son, now 21, does not share his preoccupation with hunting. He threatens to leave his son out of the will unless he can kill a deer. Dittman’s lawyer is aghast, immediately recommending that the junior Dittman take legal action against his father. The day of the hunt comes and goes without a kill…or at least without a death in the animal kingdom.

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Walter Doniger
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Raymond Massey (Colonel Archie Dittman), Tom Troupe (Jeffrey Pierce), Barry Brown (Archie Dittman Jr.), Herbert Jefferson Jr. (Tom Mboya)

Notes: Herbert Jefferson Jr. would go on to numerous guest starring roles in the 1970s before landing a regular role in Battlestar Galactica.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

Pamela’s Voice / Lone Survivor / The Doll

Night GalleryPamela’s Voice: After five tumultuous years of marriage, Jonathan ends his marriage, not with a divorce, but by pushing his wife, Pamela, down a flight of stairs, killing her. Her ghost still taunts him, however. He can see her, and then he can hear her. And he can’t get away from her. As she rants at him seemingly endlessly, it’s as if she was still alive, and to Jonathan, death is looking like it might be a pretty good deal…or maybe that’s his problem.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Richard Benedict
music by Robert Prince / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Phyllis Diller (Pamela), John Astin (Jonathan)

Lone Survivor: An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to bear the name Titanic. One survivor is recovered from the boat, wearing women’s clothing and wondering if it’s 1912…only to be told that it’s 1915, and he’s aboard the Lusitania. He predicts the ship’s doom – it will be sunk by a German torpedo – but no one listens, especially when he claims to be a Flying Dutchman doomed to repeat an eternity of shipwrecks. The Lusitania’s crew steers the ship into the crosshairs of history. An oceangoing ship pulls alongside a lifeboat that seems to be the name Lusitania. One survivor is recovered from the boat, and learns that he’s aboard the Andrea Dorea…

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by Gene Levitt
music by Robert Prince

Cast: John Colicos (Survivor), Torin Thatcher (Captain, Lusitania), Hedley Mattingly (Doctor, Lusitania), Charles Davis (Officer of the Watch, Lusitania), Brendan Dillon (Quartermaster, Lusitania), William Beckley (Richards, Lusitania), Terence Pushman (Helmsman, Lusitania), Edward Colmans (Captain, Andrea Dorea), Pierre Jalbert (Officer of the Watch, Andrea Dorea), Carl Milletaire (Quartermaster, Andrea Dorea)

Notes: Canadian actor John Colicos (1928-2000) is a genre favorite, probably best known for his appearances as Count Baltar in the original 1970s version of Battlestar Galactica and in episodes of both classic Star Trek and Deep Space Nine as Klingon warrior Kor. He also appeared in Mission: Impossible, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Starlost, Wonder Woman, and was the voice of Apocalypse in the early ’90s animated X-Men Series.

The Doll: A retired British colonel looks after his niece with the help of Miss Danton, and both are disturbed when the girl begins telling them that a doll found among the colonel’s personal effects by Miss Danton is not only talking, but is making threats toward other dolls. The colonel never intended for the doll to be given to her, and must now contend with an escalating series of disquieting events, including the dismemberment of another of his niece’s dolls. This doll is linked to a dark chapter in the colonel’s colonial past, and its awakening may leave them all with no future.

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story by Algernon Blackwood
directed by Rudi Dorn
music by Robert Prince

Cast: Shani Wallis (Miss Danton), John Williams (Colonel Hymber Masters), Henry Silva (Pandit Chola), Than Wyenn (Indian), Jewel Blanch (Monica), John Barclay (Butler)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 1

They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar / The Last Laurel

Night GalleryThey’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar: Randy Lane, a former hotshot salesman, crowds his day planner with “outside” sales pitches…which are usually spent in one local bar or another, but his favorite has always been Tim Riley’s, which is now scheduled, along with other older buildings in its block, for demolition to make way for a new bank. When he passes the boarded-up bar, it seems like he steps into the past – old friends are there, and the old times are back…and then it fades. The police respond when Randy breaks into Tim Riley’s now-empty bar, adding a rap sheet to his already shaky record at work. Can he shake off the ghosts of his past and return to his present before it’s too late?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Don Taylor
music by Benny Carter / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast: William Windom (Randy Lane), Diane Baker (Lynn Alcott), Bert Convy (Harvey Doane), John Randolph (H.E. Pritkin), Henry Beckman (The Policeman), David Astor (Blodgett), Robert Herrman (Tim Riley), Gene O’Donnell (Bartender), Frederic Downs (Father), John Ragin (1st Policeman), David M. Frank (Intern), Susannah Darrow (Kathy Lane), Mary Gail Hobbs (Miss Trevor), Margie Hall (Switchboard Operator), Don Melvoin (1st Workman), Matt Pelto (2nd Workman)

The Last Laurel: Marius Davis, coping with a recent crippling accident, obsesses over his paranoid belief that his wife has embarked on an affair with Davis’ doctor. By sheer force of will, Davis is able to conjure up an astral form that has touch and mobility, and he plans to eliminate his worst enemy in cold blood. But who is truly his worst enemy?

Night Galleryteleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story “The Horsehair Trunk” by Davis Grubb
directed by Daryl Duke
music by Benny Carter

Cast: Jack Cassidy (Marius Davis), Martine Beswick (Susan Davis), Martin E. Brooks (Doctor Armstrong)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 2

The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes and other stories

Night GalleryThe Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes: TV executive Wellman is annoyed when one of his producers auditions a ten-year-old boy who supposedly has a spotless track record of predicting the future. When the child’s predictions start to come true, however, Wellman changes his mind, signing the boy (and his grandfather, who accompanies him) to a contract. One of his predictions is a big one – war and hunger will come to an end – but maybe that’s because people will also come to an end.

teleplay by Rod Serling
based upon the short story by Margaret St. Clair
directed by John Badham
music by Oliver Nelson / series theme by Gil Melle

Night GalleryCast:
Michael Constantine (Mr. Wellman), Clint Howard (Herbie), Bernie Kopell (Reed), Ellen Weston (Dr. Peterson), William Hansen (Godwin), Gene Tyburn (Floor Director), Rance Howard (Cameraman), Rosary Nix (Secretary), John Donald (Grip)

Miss Lovecraft Sent Me: A babysitter arrives for her first night of looking after her new charge in a castle-like mansion. She’s put off by the eccentricity of the child’s father, who apparently works nights. Now she wonders if she should stick around long enough to meet his child…

teleplay by Jack Laird
directed by Gene Kearney
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Joseph Campanella (Father), Sue Lyon (Betsy)

The Hand Of Borgus Weems: A man believes that one of his hands is under the control of some malevolent force, and is trying to commit murder. He demands that his doctor amputate the offending hand immediately…but his doctor’s hands may not be any more reliable than his own.

Night Galleryteleplay by Alvin Sapinsley
based upon the short story by George LAngelaan
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: George Maharis (Peter Lacland), Ray Milland (Dr. Archibald Ravadon), Joan Huntington (Susan Douglas), Patricia Donahue (Dr. Innokenti), Peter Mamakos (Nico Kazanzakis), Robert Hoy (Everett Winterreich), William Mims (Brock Ramsey)

Phantom Of What Opera?: We all know the old story – the apparently dashing Phantom of the Opera is horribly disfigured beneath his mask. But what happens if the object of his affection and obsession isn’t much better off in the looks department?

Night Gallerywritten by Gene Kearney
directed by Gene Kearney
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Leslie Nielsen (Phantom), Mary Ann Beck (Beautiful Prisoner)

Notes: The cameraman in The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes is called “Rance” on screen – the real name of the actor playing him, Rance Howard, whose sons happen to be Clint and Ron Howard. Rance Howard would make a handful of appearances in the ’90s space opera Babylon 5 as the father of Captain John Sheridan.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Night Gallery Season 2

The Different Ones / Tell David… / Logoda’s Heads

Night GalleryThe Different Ones: 17-year-old Victor Koch is kept hidden away in isolation by his father, Paul, due to a physical deformity, but does not take kindly to that isolation, whether his father means well or not. Paul contacts a government agency dealing with cases like Victor’s, and is offered three options: taking no action, euthanizing Victor, or sending Victor to another planet as part of an exchange program that would welcome him with open arms. Paul opts for the most merciful of these options, sending Victor to the planet Boreon. But who will Boreon send as an exchange student to Earth?

Night Gallerywritten by Rod Serling
directed by John Meredyth Lucas
music by Oliver Nelson / series theme by Gil Melle

Cast: Dana Andrews (Paul Koch), Monica Lewis (Official), Jon Korkes (Victor Koch), Dennis Rucker (Man), Peggy Webber (Woman), Mary Gregory (2nd Woman)

Tell David…: Ann, lost while driving home in a thunderstorm, decides to momentarily take shelter at a house she spots along the way. The couple who live there, David and Pat, have an array of futuristic gadgets and seem to live an idyllic life; when Ann finally gets home, she is reminded that her life is anything but ideal, but David and Pat have invited her to visit again soon. When Ann does visit again, and mentions that David is her own son’s name, coincidences and details of conversations begin convincing Ann that she’s glimpsing her son’s future – a future which David says his mother did not live to see.

Night Galleryteleplay by Gerald Sanford
from the short story by Penelope Wallace
directed by Jeff Corey
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Sandra Dee (Ann Bolt), Jared Martin (Tony Bolt / David Blessington), Jenny Sullivan (Pat Blessington), Jan Shutan (Jane Blessington), Francoise Ruggieri (Yvonne), Anne Randall (Julie), Chris Patrick (David Bolt)

Logoda’s Heads: Major Crosby leads an expedition into Africa, searching for the missing brother of Henley, a younger member of the expedition. The few leads they have bring them to a village whose witch doctor, Logoda, is said to have magic thanks to the decapitated heads of his enemies. In trying not to cross Logoda, Crosby and his team ignore more immediate threats.

Night Galleryteleplay by Robert Bloch
from the short story by August Derleth
directed by Jeannot Szwarc
music by Oliver Nelson

Cast: Patrick Macnee (Major Crosby), Brock Peters (Logoda), Denise Nicholas (Kyro), Tim Matheson (Henley), Albert Popwell (Sgt. Imo), Zara Cully (Emba), Roger E. Mosley (Second Askari)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Search

PROBE

SearchHugh Lockwood, code name “Probe One”, barely survives a high-risk operation in a foreign country, but he’s never quite alone – he can always hear the voice of his superior, Director Cameron, via an implant in his ear, while Cameron monitors his missions from the high-tech safety of PROBE Control, headquarters of a high security search operation. Lockwood doesn’t have much time to celebrate his victory, however, before another mission calls, this time a hunt for stolen jewels originally recovered from Nazi Germany. Things go awry quickly: the first lead Lockwood questions goes missing, and her daughter contacts him, certain that her mother has been kidnapped. It appears that Nazis who escaped the Nuremberg Trials may still be at large, trying to regain their fortune and regroup, unless Lockwood can stop them.

written by Leslie Stevens
directed by Russ Mayberry
music by Dominic Frontiere

Wonder WomanCast: Hugh O’Brian (Hugh Lockwood), Elke Sommer (Uli Ullman), Burgess Meredith (Cameron), Lilia Skala (Frieda Ullman), Angel Tompkins (Gloria), Sir John Gielgud (Harold Streeter), Kent Smith (Dr. Laurent), Alfred Ryder (Cheyne), Ben Wright (Kurt van Niestat), Robert Boon (Felix Ernst), Albert Popwell (Dr. Griffin), A. Martinez (Carlos Lobos), Byron Chung (Kuroda), Ginny Golden (Miss Keach), Jules Maitland (Reinhardt Brugge)

Notes: Conceived as an action/spy series with ultra-futuristic (by 1972 standards) gadgetry, PROBE got a series greenlight, but only if it changed its name, as there was already a running PBS series of the same name on the air. PROBE would reappear later in 1972 with additional cast members under the name Search…but then had to be titled Search Control outside of the United States, so as not to conflict with an ongoing UK series called Search. The series was conceived by Leslie Stevens of The Outer Limits fame.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Ghost Story / Circle Of Fear

The New House

Ghost StoryAfter a brief stay at a posh hotel owned by the debonair Winston Essex, the Travises arrive at their new home on Pleasant Hill. Expecting their first child within a month, Eileen Travis is already a bundle of nerves, but nearly every night she thinks she hears something in the house late at night, and she dispatches John to check the house every time. Eileen hears, from various neighbors, that Pleasant Hill was once the site of a cemetery, or an 18th century gallows where a 19-year-old girl was hanged for stealing a loaf of bread. Many of Eileen’s frights involve a woman’s cackling laugh, and she begins to think that the hanged girl is haunting her home. But when her daughter is born, the strange nighttime noises seem to stop for a while…until the hanged girl’s ghost returns, with her eyes on the baby.

written by Richard Matheson
directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
music by Billy Goldenberg

Ghost StoryCast: Sebastian Cabot (Winston Essex), Barbara Parkins (Eileen Travis), David Birney (John Travis), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Ramsey), Sam Jaffe (De Witt), Allyn Ann McLerie (Miss Tate), Caitlin Wyles (Thomasina Barrows), Ivor Francis (Priest), John Garwood (Sgt. Booth)

Ghost StoryNotes: The executive producer of Ghost Story was schlock horror auteur William Castle, in the wake of his most high-profile credit as producer of the Roman Polanski-directed Rosemary’s Baby in 1968. Richard Matheson was already renowned for published works such as “I Am Legend” (which had, at this point, already been adapted for the big screen as The Omega Man) and numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Search

The Murrow Disappearance

SearchA high-ranking advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff goes missing, and PROBE is called in to find him, with a pre-mission briefing from an anonymous source code-named Saratoga. Lockwood is once again on the case, and the narrow trail of clues leads to an exclusive club for high-roller gamblers who happen to have high international security clearances. When Lockwood’s papers, identifying him as a UN official, are sniffed out as being forged documents, his cover is blown – and when the missing man turns up dead, the stakes have never been higher.

written by Leslie Stevens
directed by Russ Mayberry
music by Dominic Frontiere

SearchCast: Hugh O’Brian (Hugh Lockwood), Burgess Meredith (Cameron), Angel Tompkins (Gloria), Capucine (Silvana Tristano), Maurice Evans (Mr. White), David White (Mr. Llewellyn), Ted Hartley (Lee Cardiff), Ginny Golden (Miss Keach), Vernon Weddle (McEgan), Lawrence Cook (Compton), Richard Stahl (Dr. Behrens), Elven Havard (Ambulance Attendant), Loren James (Chauffeur), Melissa MacKay (The Singer), John Raynor (Pale Man), Jay MacIntosh (Adele Murrow)

SearchNotes: With PROBE having gone weekly (and having gone through a name change), Leslie Stevens called upon his old Outer Limits cohort Bob Justman (producer of Star Trek and, later, of the early first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation) to produce Search. Joining Justman on Search was fellow Trek veteran Fred Phillips, the makeup artist who devised Spock’s ears.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Ghost Story / Circle Of Fear

The Dead We Leave Behind

Ghost StoryCountry life suits forest ranger Elliott Brent just fine, but his wife Joanna is another story. The dull routine on which he thrives is boring to her, and she’s begun finding distractions – male ones, almost every time she goes into town. Elliott has bought her a television set to try to curb those tendencies, but she’s made up her mind to leave him. Angered, he lashes out, killing her; after he buries her, he tries to resume his normal life while also covering up what he’s done.

Order the complete serieswritten by Robert Specht
directed by Paul Stanley
music by Billy Goldenberg

Ghost StoryCast: Sebastian Cabot (Winston Essex), Jason Robards (Elliott Brent), Stella Stevens (Joanna Brent), Jack Kelly (Motorist), John McLiam (Titus Paul), Skip Ward (Tommy Harper), Burr Smidt (Jud)

LogBook entry by Earl Green