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An alien with six-fingered hands conducts a scientific experiment as an unidentified female actor looks on in a still from the science fiction television show, ‘The Outer Limits,’ c. 1964. (Photo by United Artists/Courtesy of Getty Images)
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The sixties were one of the most creative decades for the arts. Mostly known for innovative rock n’ roll, now called classic rock, the time period also broke ground in the areas of pop culture, dress, movies and literature.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series on sixties television, we highlighted the goofy comedy shows of the period, and the innovative spy series (links below). But it wasn’t just comedy and espionage. The sixties Cold War space race and UFO craze inspired many science fiction and occult-type shows. Following are three of the scariest.
(1) “The Outer Limits”: If this baby boomer were to pick a sci-fi show that truly scared him as a youth, it would be this. Not only were many of the episode premises scientifically plausible, but the acting and direction were superb. William Shatner, Robert Culp, Robert Duvall, Cliff Robertson and David McCallum all cut their teeth with appearances on “The Outer Limits.”
A spooky tone was set up immediately as each show began. A disembodied voice came on, saying: “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission.We will control the horizontal, we will control the vertical…” It was as if the show literally had taken over your television!
Themes dealt with dangerous aliens (“Corpus Earthling”), unhinged nuclear power (“It Crawled Out Of The Woodwork,” “Production And Decay Of Strange Particles”), monsters (“Don’t Open Till Doomsday,” “The Zanti Misfits”), alien government infiltration (“The Invisibles”) and grotesque body distortion (“The Mutants”), to name a few.
American actor John Anderson (1922 – 1992) as the Ebonite Interrogator in a promotional still for ‘Nightmare’, an episode in the US TV science fiction series ‘The Outer Limits’, 1963. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
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One episode, “The Architects Of Fear,” was even censored in prime time by the network because the “Thetan” alien was deemed too frightening for youngsters. As such, the screen faded to black whenever the alien was present.
Eerie, well-placed music produced by Dominic Frontiere only heightened the terror in each episode. In the end, though, there was usually some resolution or positive lesson for mankind. The achilles heel of the series was what now seems like hokey special effects. Back then, though, the gadgets were considered state-of-the-art.
“The Outer Limits” ran on ABC from 1963-1965, and was revived in the mid-1990s. As with most revivals, the retread had nowhere near the punch of the original.
Actor Burgess Meredith (1907 – 1997) as Henry Bemis, in a scenes from “Time Enough at Last”, episode 8 from the first season of the CBS series ‘The Twilight Zone’, August 1959. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
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(2) “The Twilight Zone”: Some think of “The Twilight Zone” as a half-hour version of “The Outer Limits.” In some ways, it is. Like “The Outer Limits,” many famous actors got their starts in it, including Burgess Meredith, Elizabeth Montgomery, Robert Redford, Jack Klugman, Peter Falk and Lee Marvin. Both series were plenty scary. And there was a spooky beginning and ending narration as in “The Outer Limits,” but in “The Twilight Zone” it was handled by genius creator Rod Serling.
As for the differences, “The Twilight Zone” dealt more with the occult and supernatural, and its endings had more of a surprise or twist, a la short story writer Saki (H.H. Munro). “The Twilight Zone” originally aired on CBS from 1959-1964. Like “The Outer Limits,” later episodes were produced but again, never had the punch of the original.
UNITED STATES – JANUARY 10: THE INVADERS – (pilot) – Season One – 1/10/67, Roy Thinnes starred as David Vincent, who discovered that the Earth was being invaded by beings from another planet. These beings took human form, and were virtually undetectable from human beings., (Photo by ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
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(3) “The Invaders”: This series featured an architect, David Vincent (played by actor Roy Thinnes), who has discovered an attempted covert alien invasion by life forms whose planet is dying and need a place to relocate. Why not Earth?
The beings resemble humans in many respects, and are hard to identify. Vincent notices that one way to tell is that their fourth finger is elongated. They also lack a pulse, don’t show emotion and can’t bleed.
In each episode, Vincent travels to another place where the aliens are multiplying, and desperately tries to alert government authorities, having mixed luck. In some ways, the plot resembles today’s UFO believers trying to convince the public and authorities that extraterrestrials have visited Earth.
“The Invaders” ran on ABC for two seasons, in 1967 and 1968. It is not as well known as some other sci-fi series, but certainly was as scary.
Many folks will be surprised that “Star Trek” isn’t included here. It along with “Lost In Space,” “My Favorite Martian,” “The Jetsons”and “Fireball XL-5” will be featured in a separate space-themed piece.
