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Amazing Stories

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About This Episode

We’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of Amazing Stories, the 1985 anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. With its mix of science fiction, fantasy, and heartfelt storytelling, the show brought cinematic wonder to television in a way audiences had never seen before. We’ll look back at its legacy, revisit some of its most memorable episodes, and explore the creativity and optimism that made it truly amazing.

(May contain some explicit language.)

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Show Notes

TRANSCRIPT

Speaker Transcript
Jon Welcome back, Gen X Grown Up Podcast listener to this, the backtrack edition of the Gen X Grown Up Podcast. I’m John. Joining me as always, of course, is Mo. Hey, man.
Mo hey how’s it going
Jon know it’s not a show without George. Hey, George.
Jon You know, in this episode, we’re celebrating the 40th anniversary of Amazing Stories, the 1985 anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. With his mix of science fiction, fantasy, and heartfelt storytelling, the show brought cinematic wonder to television in way that audiences have never seen before.
Jon We’ll look back at its legacy, revisit some of its most memorable episodes, and explore the creativity and optimism that made it truly amazing. Yeah, I’m playing all words there like that. But before, George, I got shit to say.
Mo that’s sorry
Jon Before we get into that, but time some fourth listener email.
George Nope. nope
Jon The three of us are here. We might listen. If anyone else does, you are our fourth listener. Thank you for writing in. And I want to welcome ah Rick P to the show as our fourth listener this time around. Rick dropped us a line. The subject was Super Mario Brothers.
Mo Oh, that was fun episode.
Jon Great. Yeah, yeah. ah Rick says, hey guys great show talking about super mario brothers i didn’t discover this game until nineteen ninety when i was in college had a roommate with an n es you guys briefly mentioned strategy guides and five years after the game was released the guides were still available which is a testament to the staying power of the game anyway i was stuck on a level or was struggling to find something hidden and i would head over to the mall go to the bookstore, flip through a massive strategy guide that included images of every level from the beginning to the flagpole.
Jon Once I found what I needed, I’d put the book back on the shelf and head home to continue the game.
Mo you
Jon maybe Maybe I should have just bought the book, but I was a broke college student. So there you go. Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah, why not? I use the library as my personal video rental store in college. Actually, that worked really, really well because you could just check out movies and they’ll pay for it. And then take them home and copy them on my double VHS.
Jon ah He goes on to say, one question I have, though. He goes on to say, one question I have, though, is the pronunciation of Mario. Now, I’ve always pronounced it as you guys did, Mario.
Mo Right.
Jon But the announcers in the old commercials played between segments pronounced it, Mario. What’s up with that, Rick?
Mo Huh.
Jon You guys give that any thought before?
Mo It’s Mario. I was just Mario. That’s who what I thought it was.
George I mean, I’ve heard it both ways.
Jon i did too.
George I just felt like Mario just felt more intelligent than Mario for some reason to me.
Jon ah Yeah, I wondered if it’s like a regional dialect thing or something. i So I tried to answer the question. I did a little search, and the best I could find was like, in the U.S., it tended to be Mario.
Jon But in the U.K., because of the way they pronounce other things differently, they tended to go Mario. But it’s a Japanese game, so whatever they say is probably what I would say is correct.
Jon So I like Mario. i’m going to stick with Mario. It works for me.
Mo Yes, Super Mario.
Jon Yeah, whatever. Rick, thank you for writing in. We’re glad you enjoyed the Super Mario Brothers episode. We love it every time the fourth listener takes time to drop us a line.
Jon If you’d like your email feature here on the show, it’s drop dead easy. Just hit us up at podcast at genxgrownup.com. You know, we read every single one, sometimes multiple times, and eventually it’s liable to make the show just like Rick’s.
Jon All right. That good business in the rearview mirror. We’re going jump into the body of this backtrack featuring amazing stories right after this amazing break.
Jon Now, as I mentioned in the intro to this episode, Amazing Stories is celebrating this year its 40th anniversary, 1985, right?
George Mm-hmm.
Jon When it came out.
Mo wow
Jon And whenever we feature a film or a series like this, the best place to start, frankly, is at the beginning to dig into kind of the origin of the show, how it came to be. And as often the case, I dubbed these guys to do the research for this episode. So ah George, you kind of took the lead and jumped in and dug in a lot of really interesting background on how Amazing Stories hit our televisions. You want to share some of that?
George Yeah, absolutely. So first off, it did debut September 29th, 1985 and ran through April 10th of 1987. And it was specifically created by Steven Spielberg to run on NBC.
George Now… What I found in the research was that the reason he wanted to do a television series, because obviously Spielberg in the mid 80s, he’s a film director, he’s not TV, right?
Jon Big deal.
Mo He was a big deal.
Jon Right.
Mo Yeah.
George ah But it came about because he had a desire to use his ideas in short stories that weren’t big enough to be feature films, but he still wanted to find a way to get them out to audiences.
Jon That makes sense.
George And he wanted to return to working in television because he had done some work in television on shows like Night Gallery, Marcus Welby, and a television movie named Duel before he became Mr.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon The truck one, right?
Mo and remember, Jewel.
George Jaws summer blockbuster guy, right?
Mo Yeah. Yeah, the truck one.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah. So ah the series title was actually licensed from an original magazine called Amazing Stories that was first published back in April of 1926.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Jeez.
George So I guess it hadn’t entered the public domain yet, but they they gave up some money to get that title.
Jon yeah It’s funny, I remember seeing that magazine all the time in comic book stores, and i went, isn’t it funny that that’s the same name as this series?
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon I didn’t really know that they had gotten its inspiration from that, but it was a big sci-fi magazine. Lots of big science fiction authors would put in their short stories.
George Oh,
Jon It makes me think… probably like Spielberg did. Oh, he has these big ideas, not big enough for a movie, but big enough for a TV show. I always figured these sci-fi authors, they had ideas that weren’t big enough for a novel.
Jon They sent it into science, you know, or sometimes up and coming sci-fi authors would be in there.
Mo Yeah, that’s a good start.
Jon So I didn’t know they were connected like that.
Mo Yeah. And I think people need to understand like how big a deal it was that Spielberg was doing a TV show.
Jon Right.
Mo Because that was that you never i mean i was unheard of.
George oh yeah
Mo like You either did movies or you did TV. The two never really met. you know Or you started with TV, moved to movies, and you didn’t come back.
George Right.
Jon And that was everyone. Directors, actors, writers.
Mo Yeah.
Jon You lived on TV or movies.
Mo Actors were everything.
George Yeah.
Jon One or the other. Yeah.
Mo And so the fact that he…
George Yeah. And if you did do movies and then you went to TV, it was like a demotion in your career.
Mo Right, exactly. It was like like you did something wrong or something, right?
George Yeah.
Mo but um And so Spielberg, I mean, and he was at his peak. I mean, he was peaking here because but Close Encounters was here. E.T., Jaws.
George E.T.
Jon E.T.
Mo i mean I mean, all these movies now under his belt.
Jon Raiders.
Mo So he said this was a big deal.
George Raiders. Yeah. Right.
Jon Yeah.
George Now, interestingly enough, NBC, they gave the series a two year, 44 episode commitment right off the bat.
Jon Yeah. No question.
Mo That’s ah unheard of. Well, it’s because of Spielberg, right?
George That’s crazy.
Jon Spielberg.
George It was because of Spielberg, but so it wasn’t just, they were like, Oh, we love you Spielberg.
Jon It was Spielberg. Yeah.
George He actually made that demand. He said, look, I’m not going to do this unless you give me at least two seasons to make sure that I get done what I want to get done.
Jon Huh.
Mo All his stuff. Again, Spielberg, he’d get away with that.
Jon Hmm. And he has that pole, right?
George And he could. He did. Exactly.
Jon Right. Oh, if you don’t like that, go find another Spielberg.
George So…
Jon Oh, you can’t find one?
George Right.
Mo I go to ABC, they’ll give me this deal. Mm-hmm.
Jon Right?
George ah Yeah, I mean, any network would have jumped at the chance at this series based on just his bona fides alone.
Jon No kidding.
Jon Yeah.
George Now, the other thing is, not only did NBC back it with the two-year 44-episode commitment, they also gave the series a budget of $1 million dollars per half-hour episode.
Mo he
Mo That’s crazy.
George Now, at that time…
Jon Half hour. Yeah.
George An hour-long TV show got $900,000.
Mo That’s crazy.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George So this is more than double the cost of a regular one-hour show at that same time in TV history. Now, it’s not just that they committed to giving him two years.
Jon Damn.
George They committed to big money.
Mo Yeah.
George And we’re going to see when we get into the next segment where some of that money probably went.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep. I remember researching and Star Trek The Next Generation at one point. And I remember that was an hour-long syndicated series, an hour-long science fiction, always in space.
Jon And it basically had a million dollars per episode budget.
George And it was six years later.
Jon They had to do… yeah Right. It was… 80… No. 87.
George ninety one 91.
Jon no
George Next gen, 90, 91.
Jon eighty seven Next Gen was 87. It was a couple years later.
George Oh, did it start 87?
Jon think so. Yeah.
George oh wow.
Jon I think maybe DS9 started in 91.
George Okay.
Jon So you’re close. Anyway, maybe that’s wrong.
George Maybe that’s what I’m thinking of, yeah.
Jon Anyway, was just a few years later for twice as long an episode, always in outer space. They had the budget that they had for half hours. So that was the but interesting thing.
George Yeah.
George Now, Spielberg didn’t stop there with his demands. He also wanted exactly, or at least, one-third of the directors for the series to be newcomers because he felt the series could serve as a good training ground for writers and directors.
Jon Oh,
George So almost like his Project Greenlight kind of thing before that was its own thing.
Mo OK. Mm
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mo hmm.
George I mean… I don’t know if that’s altruistic or if he was like, well, if I get cheap directors, I can afford bigger stars. Cause it’s like i said, we’re going to find out there were some big names in this series in a lot of these different episodes.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Yeah.
Mo Yeah, huge.
George And these are just 30 minute episodes and they were produced weekly.
Mo Mm hmm.
George So if you think about that, I don’t know if he filmed them every week, like a traditional TV show, or if he did it like a movie where he had like 30 days worth of filming, to do all of the episodes like you might see these days.
Mo yeah Yeah, sure.
George That part, I’m very curious, and I have to go back and do some more research, but I kind of ran out of time.
Jon You know, it’s interesting. I hadn’t thought thought about this until you just you know talked about their schedule. The fact that this is an anthology with different actors and different directors, they could be shot simultaneously.
George Mm-hmm.
George Exactly.
Jon You could have two or three in production at one time because it’s not the same cast.
Mo there They’re not sequential.
George Yeah.
Jon I mean, maybe they shared editors or something or ah but ah oversight like Spielberg.
Mo Maybe not, though. I doubt it, though. Who knows?
Jon Maybe not. Yeah. Yeah.
George I mean, yeah.
Mo And also, people remember, we say a half hour episode. We’re actually talking about 22 minutes, right? Thereabouts with commercials and everything else.
George Right.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah.
Mo So but still, though, again, that to produce that much to pay that much money for 22 minutes of content. That’s for and the 85. That’s crazy.
Jon Well, you can see it on the screen, too.
George It’s nuts.
Jon I mean, there they’re well-produced things, especially for 85.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Now, the other thing that kind of a little bit interesting, the series was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, and it did win five of those Emmy Awards that it was nominated for.
Mo Oh.
Jon No.
George However…
Jon Yeah.
George The bulk of those Emmy Awards, seven nominations, were for two episodes combined. So, The Mission, which is of very well-regarded episode from the series, and Gather Ye Acorns, they accounted for seven of the twelve nominations.
Jon Yeah.
George ah There were a lot of reasons why we only got two seasons of Amazing Stories that we’re probably going to talk about in a little while, but… it wasn’t that it wasn’t heralded as a groundbreaking series.
Jon No.
Jon you know And after all those Emmys, I even dug up and I was i was trying to bounce off of that and see what else was out there. There’s an award out there named the Edgar Award. It’s based named after Edgar Allan Poe for you know science fiction, horror, fantasy.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon And there was one episode that earned a best TV series episode of the Edgar Awards. It was called The Amazing Fallsworth. I don’t remember the episodes well enough to tell you what that one was about. Like I could name off Star Trek episodes probably. but ah ah So in addition to its Emmys, it was it was lauded by audiences and other industry professionals alike as being, wow, look what you’re putting on TV. It just wasn’t quite, hadn’t quite been seen before in that way. And that’s why it got so well recognized. and
George Yeah, and I mean, just to go a little bit into the history of it, because we’ve got our segments and everything.
Jon Yeah.
George While the very first episode attracted a full one-third of American television households,
Mo this is
Jon Spielberg.
George it didn’t do that well in the ratings after that. So I i’d have to go back here and find it, but it was it was something like…
Jon Oh.
George My goodness, where is it? There’s… like out of like 60 shows in season one, it ended ended up ranked 40th or so.
Mo Oh, wow. That’s pretty low.
George And in season two, it ended up ranked in the low fifties.
Mo Oh, wow.
Jon Oh.
George So,
Jon Oh, yeah.
George spending a million dollars an episode Spielberg with his hands-on approach in season one, which he pulled back in season two, because the executor’s like, look, you’re 40th, dude. You got to figure something else out.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Mm hmm.
George Let somebody else do the heavy lifting maybe.
Jon Yeah.
George And then the, worse ratings in season two it’s no wonder that it wasn’t until 2020 we’re gonna talk about it later that we got something else in the amazing stories franchise but we only got two seasons of this thing 44 episodes exactly what they contracted for and nothing extra which when you think about that when is it that you heard spielberg putting out something that people were like okay glad that’s over with let’s move on
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Jon That’s enough of that right now.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Speaking of that ratings fall off, it just makes me wonder, I thought before we wrap up this segment, how we all watched it in some form or fashion. We remember it well. How did you how did you watch it?
Jon How often? yeah I can tell you that I definitely watched that premiere. I know did because it was I remember was a big deal.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It was on the cover of TV Guide.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jon It was it was a big article about it and everything. And because it was an anthology, meaning a different story each time, you didn’t have to come back next week to see what happened because they were self-contained little movies.
Jon But I would to continually seek it out. As I was going back, re-watching a few episodes for this but this backtrack, I found like, oh yeah, I remember that one and that one and that one. Clearly, even though in the second season, I was still digging it up and finding it.
Jon Do you guys remember like how much you watched? it Are you part of the audience that fell off or did you keep watching it? about you, Moe?
Mo um so So this came out late in 85, right? I think it was like September, right?
Jon Yeah, right.
Mo It was the first date. So.
George September 29th. Yep. Yep.
Mo Yep. So um so i actually didn’t watch it till see. back I didn’t watch it till I came home from college. Because, you know, and I had to wait for reruns.
Jon Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mo Remember reruns? ah the
Jon Yeah.
George ye
Mo You know, so actually, I probably I actually probably didn’t start watching it until probably 86 when the rerun cycle started. but um But I remember it being a I mean, they were advertising the crap out of this thing.
Jon yeah
Mo I mean, you could not if you turn on NBC, odds are you can see a commercial for this amazing story show coming up.
Jon Sure. What you, George? What you remember?
George I pretty much remember watching every single episode. Now, I’m not going to say every single episode stuck with me, but if I look at an episode title or just a sentence or two of the description, the episode does come flooding back.
Jon Okay.
Mo Mm-hmm.
George i
Jon Mm-hmm.
George So I’m pretty sure I was watching them as they aired. I know I did for the first one and for pretty much the whole first season. The second season where it gets a little fuzzy, but But that first one, Ghost Train, directed by Spielberg himself, and that was another thing that I didn’t include in the history origin, he didn’t want his name associated with the series for promotional purposes after the first episode.
Jon Okay.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George He said, no, don’t make it about me.
Jon Oh.
George Make it about the series and the stories.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Um, and he had a very like strict policy. This was kind of like, he loved the old anthology series like twilight zone and outer limits, but he wanted this to be a more family friendly version of that, which I think as we’ve rewatched some of these episodes for, preparation, this podcast, think we’ll all agree.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mo just
George That’s pretty much what we got. Um,
Mo yeah
George I look back at it now and I’m like, you know, some of the episodes are outstanding television.
Mo oh yeah
George Some of them kind of suck.
Mo Oh yeah, ah for sure.
Jon you know, I’ve kind of always made the, in my head, Amazing Stories is the center point between the wonderful world of Disney and the Twilight Zone. It’s anthology.
Jon It’s kind of creepy. It’s kind of supernatural, super normal, but it’s also very kind of sometimes uplifting characters you can root for. You know, it’s not all the, in the, the dour kind of like, Oh, life and death kind of things.
Mo Yeah.
Jon No, it’s often is some life and death involved, but in a more, again, use it to kind of family friendly, easily ah consumable in primetime approach.
Mo Heartwarming.
Jon and All right, we get back from this break. You you talked about where did the budget go? And so the nature of this series led to some pretty remarkable talent in some of these episodes.
Jon We’re going to run through some of that right after this.
Jon Now, two things are aligning here for Amazing Stories. ah The first is it had tremendous budget with which it could procure talent. And the second is that it’s an anthology series, meaning every episode is a self-contained story.
Jon Think Twilight Zone, right? Think ah Outer Limits, stuff like that.
Mo Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jon ah But less science fiction horror, as we said, a little more fantasy. So they were able to get… Spielberg was attached to it, though his name wasn’t ah prominent, as you were saying, George, but it was a prestige TV show before prestige TV was a thing.
Jon So they were able to get a lot of people who were at the top of their game or are already in other projects being well known.
George yep
Mo he
Jon And here they are showing up in Amazing Stories, which added to probably its notoriety.
Jon Now, I pulled a little list of those, and we’re just kind of running through them and talk about who they are and you might recognize. why don’t you kick us off?
Mo Sure. ah One is ah Bronson. How do you pass the name? Pinchot?
Jon Pinchot.
George Pinchot.
Mo Okay. ah The first one is Bronson Pinchot for the director.
Jon Perfect Strangers.
Mo He was the mummy daddy.
Jon he was a
George No, Mummy Daddy is the episode name.
Mo Oh, the director.
George His character is the director.
Mo Oh, it got backwards.
Jon He was the director.
Mo I’m sorry.
Jon yeah Oh, sorry. Yeah, he was director the series.
Mo ah I’ll do it again.
Jon Yeah, I’m trying to it.
Mo So ah we got Bronson. ah Oh, shit. Pinchot, right?
Jon Pinchot.
Mo Pinchot.
Jon It’s Balky from Perfect Strangers.
Mo Oh, duh.
Jon Bronson Pinchot.
Mo Okay. Okay, we’ve got Bronson Pinchot, who was ah the director in the episode Mummy Daddy.
George here
Jon That was Balky on um Perfect Strangers, right?
Mo Yeah.
Jon Got him.
George Yeah. I don’t think you guys are going to know the next two actors. They’re kind of no names. Kevin Costner and Kiefer Sutherland, ladies and gentlemen,
Mo who Who’s that first guy?
Jon Who? but
George ah they played captain and static in order for an episode called the mission.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. And that was a great one I remember, too. That’s one that stuck with me a lot.
George Yeah.
Jon The mission. Yeah. ah Gregory Hines. So maybe not known as a great actor. Great, great performer.
Mo Dancer.
Jon Certainly. He played the magician Fallsworth in an ah and episode called The Amazing Fallsworth. He’s a magician, which, you know, cro creepy, spooky things happen around, fanciful things around his around his act. So Gregory Hines was in one.
Mo Yeah. ah Milton Berle, you know, old established, you know, megastar that I mean, you know, back in the 60s and 70s, you know, he was in it.
Jon Oh, yeah.
Mo He played himself basically an episode called Fine Tuning.
Jon he
George Yeah, and you know another one of the vaudeville guys, Sid Caesar, he played Lou Bundles in Mr. Magic. There’s just an incredible amount of talent from all generations of actors up until that point.
Jon Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought this was interesting. This next one. There was a series that you guys watched some time ago. was a Sandman or something where it has like the characters are playing death and life and misery and what are things like that.
Mo Yeah, yeah.
George Yeah. Yeah.
Jon So there was one called Guilt Trip.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon It reminded me also a little bit of Inside the Disney movie about the emotions.
Mo yeah.
Jon Lonnie Anderson and Dom DeLuise together, respectively playing love and guilt, the two human emotions in this episode. And it reminds me of, and I think we’re probably going to see a lot of places where ideas that were in these spawned other ideas in in other media.
Mo Yeah.
Mo The funny thing is Burt Reynolds directed that episode.
Jon Did he?
George Well, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon ah ah how appropriate.
Mo Yep.
Jon Yep. Well, so Dom DeLuise was his kick his sidekick and Lonnie Anderson was his wife probably at that point.
George yeah
Jon So, Yeah.
Mo So, I mean, and talk people like Harvey Keitel, I mean, the wolf, right?
George Right.
Mo he paid Byron and Vanessa in the garden.
George Yeah. And then my Tiger Blood guy, Charlie Sheen, he plays Casey in No Day at the Beach. I mean, you know, when he’s not off brat packing it with the rest of the crew.
Jon ah Now, i don’t know big this guy was at the time. Joey Pants, Joe Pantoliano, played a character named Joe in episode one for the road.
Mo Oh, yeah.
Jon Now, this is well before he would go on to ah start in Memento, one of my favorite films and The Matrix, of course.
Mo The Matrix.
Jon Yeah, huge in that. But and
Jon in this case, this casting
George Don’t forget Eddie and the cruisers.
Jon Eddie the Cruisers.
Mo Oh, yeah. Any cruisers?
Jon That’s right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And in this case, it kind of reminds me. Remember, you go back and watch. I keep bringing up Twilight Zone, but there’s obvious parallels. You go back and watch an old Twilight Zone, you know, and you’re like, here’s this no-name young kid. Whoa, that’s George Takei.
Jon Like, holy crap, he’s in this before he was bigger.
Mo Yeah. Oh, that’s Robert Redford.
Jon Right, exactly. yeah
Mo um Also, one of my, you know, of course, favorites, Mark Hamill. I mean, of course, he was going to be one.
Jon Who?
Mo He played Jonathan in Gathering Acorns.
Jon Mark who now?
George Yep.
Mo Yeah, yeah.
Jon Just a nobody.
George Tim Robbins played the backseater to Maverick in Top Gun, but he also played Jordan’s Phantom in Mirror Mirror in Amazing Stories.
Jon Now, so if you’re a Dexter fan, or frankly, if you’re an anything fan these days, John Lithgow, who was already a well-known actor, right?
Mo Oh, true.
Jon So he he starred as a guy named John an episode called The Doll. And that another example of somebody who, man, he’s continued to have a career before that, during that, and after that, continued to be a huge draw.
Jon Is he about to be Dumbledore in the new Harry Potter, right?
Mo Yeah, in the TV series.
Jon He’s still acting. I think he said that might be his last role.
Mo He’s getting up there.
Jon I think I might be done after this.
George Hmm.
Jon So he’s committed to like seven years or something.
Mo Yeah, he’s been around for a while.
Jon Yeah.
Mo yeah Of course, then there was the married couple of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman. you He was taxi, she was cheers. They paid Herbert and Lois in the wedding ring.
George Right. Oh, nice.
Jon isn’t Isn’t that kind of stunt casting? Is that what they call that? When you cast like people that have roles, they’re already associated with each other and you put them together in a show.
Mo Yeah.
Jon You know, like recently I just heard that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are on Broadway doing Waiting for Godot.
George They are.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah. but So that’s stunt casting. And that’s a great example of it.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Hey, you know, these two are married. Wink, wink, nod. They’re going to be in the show together. I think that’s funny.
George Nice. Well, I mean, you know, somebody who’s super popular back in that time period, ah Christina Applegate, who’s just coming onto the scene.
Jon Oh, yeah.
George She played Holly in an episode called Welcome to My Nightmare. I don’t know if that’s because she knew what her career was going to become later
Mo and
George or
Jon ah Let’s see. Who do we got next? Oh, Dirty Dancing himself, Patrick Swayze. So when did when did Dirty Dancing come out?
George yeah
Jon Would this have been um before or after?
Mo well that was 90s right was it eighty was it that was 84 wow was that early okay okay
George and Dirty Dancing 84 maybe 86 it was somewhere around in that area
Jon Was it? Yeah, but it was it was either right after right before. He was definitely a star on the rise or maybe he’d already hit. But yeah, he played he played Eric in an episode called Life on Death Row. And I think that he’s actually is the guy on death row.
Jon And it’s it’s like CSI or Law and Order casting. If there’s a big star, he’s not going to be incidental to the story. As soon as you see his face, he’s the guy we’re going to pay attention to.
Mo Right.
George right
Mo You know he’s important.
Jon And there’s Patrick Swayze.
Mo Yeah.
Jon So he’s the guy.
Mo Yeah. um David Carradine, Kung Fu. you know, ah Kill Bill.
Jon Oh, you can walk the rice paper for grass supper.
Mo you He paid Calvin in the episode Thanksgiving.
George Right.
George And then, you know, they decided, okay, we’re done with enough actors. We’re going to go into the musical world and pull some people to join the fun.
Jon Hmm.
George Adam Ant played a guy named Ted on such interesting neighbors. Can you imagine if Adam Ant was your neighbor?
Jon Yep.
Jon no No. ah Yeah. Well, you said musicians. Now you might not have known this one and you might not have picked up on it because he was in heavy makeup and prosthetic.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon There’s an episode called Miss Stardust where none other than a weird Al Yankovic played Cabbage Man.
Mo Really?
Jon Yeah. 85. Yep.
Mo Holy cow.
Jon yep
George Well, ah that was big into his food phase, so that makes sense.
Jon Or maybe he’s 86.
Jon That’s a good point. I think this was a second season. I’m pretty sure Cabbage Man was. Yeah. In in that Miss Stardust episode. Yeah.
Mo Yeah. And also Griffin Dunn. um He’s been in so many things, but he played Dick in Secret Cinema.
George Oh, yeah.
Mo The.
George i
Mo Yeah.
George I remember him as the mauled friend from American Werewolf pair in London.
Mo Yes.
Jon Oh, is that who he is?
Mo Yes, that’s who he is.
Jon Okay.
George Yeah.
Jon I couldn’t place him.
George Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Put some flaps of bloody skin on him. Now I can pick him out of a lineup.
Mo OK, there you go. oh One other thing I want to point out, too, is that the music of this show, they got John Williams and James Horner to do some of the epi music for some of the episodes.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo I mean, mean, geez, I mean, I said only Spielberg though could probably get those people to come on board something like this.
Jon Yeah.
George Yeah.
George Not just those two guys, Danny Elfman, Billy Goldberg.
Mo Oh, Danny Elfman, that’s right, Danny Elfman.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
George I mean, they’ve got a lot of solid, solid musicians in this lineup.
Mo Yeah.
George No question.
Jon Yep. And if we’re talking about where the money went, but we haven’t didnt mentioned the opening credits is CG rendered.
Mo really
Jon There’s a flying book down the hallway.
George Well, some of it is…
Jon Well, there’s some live action integrated, but you have this book flying through a hallway and all these elements coming flying at you.
George yeah
Jon So they had to pay. That wasn’t cheap back then, doing CG render stuff. This was just after young Sherlock Holmes, where we saw that fully CG character for come out of the stained glass, or maybe right after, I forget.
Jon But yeah, that wasn’t, you didn’t just knock off a CD CGI intro back in those days. That was big money. You had to pay a house to do it. It was probably, it probably yeah ah was, who’s the, what’s the Skywalker ranch?
Jon The Lucasfilm industrial light and magic.
Mo Is this like magic?
George Industrial Lag and Magic, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I think they’re the ones that did it too. Yeah.
George You know one of the biggest names we didn’t talk about in that part right there, but it was just as a director?
Jon Okay. We. Hmm.
Mo Hmm.
George On the Harvey Keitel episode, guess who directed that episode?
Jon Ooh.
George Clint fucking Eastwood.
Jon Did he? Nothing surprises me about this series anymore.
Mo Geez.
Jon it just that You’d expect all these A-listers to come out.
Mo I know. And this course. Yeah. It didn’t score ZZ also direct one the episodes.
George Scorsese was also a director, yeah.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo Yeah. That’s craziness.
Jon Yep.
George Absolutely.
George Hey, did you know Danny DeVito also directed that episode?
Mo Seriously.
Jon Did he?
George Yeah. Yeah.
Jon oh Sure.
Mo Before throw mama from the train, I guess.
Jon We’ve got all this talent. Why not? Sure. e
Jon It’s bananas. All right. So look we’ve talked about the origins of this show, some of the power talent that was behind it. I mean, everybody thinks Spielberg. There’s ah just a roster we’ve gone through of stuff.
Jon When we get back from this next break, we’re to try to each choose a single episode to champion and talk about why it’s one of our favorites. Stick around.
Mo Okay, so in this segment, we each picked an episode that we’re going to champion for various reasons, right?
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
Mo So, John, which one did you pick? I think I know which one you picked, but let’s see if I’m right.
Jon Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we talked a little bit about how so so many of these were talent on the rise sometimes, or maybe even it it had a legacy beyond its origin.
George Yep.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon In the second season, it was the one and only fully animated episode called Family Dog.
Mo Mm-hmm.
George Yep.
Jon And it was also… but but
Mo remember
Jon Maybe we need a new dog or maybe we need a cat. Anyway, I’ve watched that thing so many times. I had it on a single VHS just looped over and over.
George Yep.
Jon It’s so good. It looks so it was also a backdoor pilot for a animated series called family dog that did get a run one season of like 10 episodes, but never got as good as the pilot was in this.
Jon Now this one had three segments. ah The first one, there was just a family dealing with the deal, their dog. He doesn’t like his food.
Mo Yep.
Jon He spit it out in the, in the dad’s slipper or things like that.
George No, the wife slipper.
Jon ah And that was a white slipper.
Mo ah most of yeahp
Jon That’s right. Uh, then there’s, uh, ah, they watched their Christmas home movies back.
George It was a bunny wabbit, and it was in the string, and it was dead.
Jon It was dead. And then you need those two to set up what’s I think the best part, the third part. And that’s when they send the the dog to guard dog school because a burglary happened and the dog didn’t do anything.
Mo Yeah, just like that
Jon And so they’re going to try to teach him to be a guard dog.
George It’s because they all fed it that crappy food at the dinner table.
Jon And it really,
Mo yeah he couldn’t move.
George He couldn’t do anything.
Jon It couldn’t move. And it’s like, now
Mo He came to me.
George does not become a white hot ball of Kenine Dad-Orrr!
Jon now
Jon Fury.
Jon Notable talent in this one. I just called him out. Music. Danny Elfman. ah Written and directed by Brad Bird. Notable Disney and Pixar director.
Mo Pixar.
Jon Yeah. ah Voices. ah Brad Bird did voices, Annie Potts and Stan Freeberg, amongst others. Those are notable ones I pulled out.
George Right.
Jon this If you’re going to make an animated little cartoon, let’s just pull the most talented damn people you have for all, for every department, music, writing, directing, voice. It was just a perfect storm. I love that episode. I rewatch it all the time.
Jon Once in a while, I go back and watch the series, but not every, not all the time. It was kind of subpar, but yeah. Yeah, Family Dog is the one that I’m going to champion. And clearly, you guys agree it was a pretty good one, so you remember it too.
Mo It was, it was, yeah, it was definitely a good one.
George Oh, 100%. i was I was just going to let you choose which episode you wanted because it was either Family Dog or the one that I’ll talk about later were going to be my choice.
Jon Me too. It was one or the other for me, so sure enough, yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon All right, Mo, let’s I’ve talked enough about my Family Dog. I love it.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Let’s move on to you. Which one do you remember most fondly?
Mo So the reason why i picked this episode is not because it was my favorite episode. It was because I rewatched bunch of episodes, you know, to get ready for the show.
Jon Okay.
Jon Mm-hmm.
Mo As soon as I saw this episode, i it all came floated back to me about how freaking confused I was. watching this. Like, I didn’t, like, back when I watched this, I was like, what?
Jon Okay.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo What? um It’s called Secret Cinema. And it’s about this young woman named Jane who believes that her life is being secretly recorded and manipulated and influenced and all that stuff.
Mo Like, kind of very much sounds like Truman Show, you know?
Jon Right.
Mo you know it but But she’s more aware. I guess she’s a little bit more aware. Like, she’s actively looking, trying to figure this out. And the way that show is just a very bizarre episode because Weird things keep happening to her.
Mo Like just for no reason, someone get a pie thrown in their face for no reason. Like just happens, you know, and everyone.
Jon ah Just like a stunt for the show and she’s…
Mo Yeah, it’s just and and people laugh.
George Right.
Jon Oh.
Mo Everyone laughs about it, you know.
George A stunt for the movie within the show. Yeah.
Jon Right, right, right. Yeah.
Mo And then things happen. and then So she’s convinced she goes to her psychiatrist doctor and he’s like, oh, no. i mean, and then she’s getting her. Then she finds out the secret cinema where they show certain shows and then she gets her hair done by a nurse.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo who says it’s part of our training. It’s not a problem to do hair. I mean, it’s just bizarre.
Jon but
Mo um
George Yep.
Mo and And then how it ends up is that there’s this big scene where she kills her boyfriend and and then you hear cut and they pan out and it’s on a set. And she’s on a set and she’s still confused, but she’s actually on a set.
Jon but She should know by then, right?
Mo and that’s So she’s like, wait a minute, you know,
George Well, because she walked into an apartment that was built with fake walls and everything, so…
Mo Yeah. So she had so.
Jon wow.
Mo And so anyway, she’s like, well, you know, why didn’t I get like why? I thought, you know, stars get paid a lot of money and dah, dah. And then it goes a little bit forward. I guess she uses it.
Mo I guess the fact that she’s being used for this thing, because then they come up and she’s like wearing this bank and she’s like, I’m in every one of his movies now.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo And, you know, has two pies in her hands with those pies at the people.
Jon ah
Mo I mean, it was it was just a bizarre, bizarre episode that. um And the only really name that recognized in it was Griffin Dunn. mean, the rest the people, if you saw them, it’s like, oh, I’ve seen that person in this show.
George Right.
Jon Yeah.
Mo I’ve seen that person in that show kind of thing. But man, it was a weird episode. and That’s why he’s just stuck with me.
Jon Okay.
George So when Mo put this on the list, I couldn’t remember the episode, but I got the Truman reference just from the description.
Mo Hmm.
George I went and watched the episode, and then I went down a secret cinema rabbit hole on Google, because there is a lot more to this episode than what meets the eye.
Mo Hmm.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George It’s not a Transformer, but still, there’s a lot more to this one.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Uh, first of all, when the Truman show came out, there was an article written in the LA times where they interviewed the writer of the Truman show and asked him was secret cinema from amazing stories and inspiration for your movie.
George And he said, I’ve never even heard of that. No, it wasn’t. israel Bullshit. Trust me. That guy watched this episode because it’s almost verbatim. Even the plot points in the beat and everything, it’s almost the exact same thing as the Truman show.
Mo Mm-hmm.
George Um, but then that’s not the only like kind of weird web of Hollywood that’s in this secret cinema episode.
George There was actually a movie 20 years earlier in 1966 called the secret cinema where a young woman believes that her life is secretly being recorded influence and film for an unknown audience. Sound familiar?
George Yes.
Jon the Same description.
George Completely different person, but this one was a pure horror film, which is what many people have talked about when they’ve watched the Truman Show. They’re like, I don’t know if this is like a social commentary or a pure horror film, right?
Mo yeah
George Because you can look at it from different angles. I just think it’s really neat that Spielberg stole it whatnot, he obviously had to have known about that movie.
George You’re not going to get the same title and the same description of something.
Jon Right. Not that exact. Obviously.
Mo yeah
Jon Yeah.
George In 66, he would have been a young man at best, I think, right? i don’t know when he was born, but based on when he produced movies like Jaws and whatnot, he had to be a young man. And I’m guessing he had to have seen that movie.
George And then to do that in Amazing Stories, is it an homage? Did he steal it? I don’t know. But it’s a great episode.
Mo Yeah.
Jon But a horror spin on it. that That could be interesting.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah.
Mo ah Yeah, definitely could be.
Jon so Now I could want to seek that out and see.
Mo I’m not trying to find the original one now. Yeah.
Jon That could be good, right?
George Oh, yeah. i’m
Jon All right.
George I’m scouring the public domain as we speak. Yeah.
Mo So, George, what was OK.
Jon right Now,
Jon you pitch them. You’re fine.
Mo OK, so so, George, what was your choice in this?
George Yeah, so I had a coin flip, Family Dog or The Mission. Either one of those episodes, I would be happy to champion because they’re both tremendous.
Jon Yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yep. Mm-hmm.
George But The Mission specifically about a B-17 bomber being flown by a crew where there is a young man in the underbelly gun turret of the B-17 bomber.
Mo Yeah, so I remember that one.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George is His character is called Jonathan. The actor is Casey Zemesko. He’s been in a lot of different stuff. um I’m thinking like he was in back to the future.
George ah What else did he play? Oh my goodness. I’m trying to remember all the different things. He was in a secret admirer stand by me. He was one of the rough guys of the bad group that followed the kids to the, yeah, he was one of the bullies.
Jon The bullies gang?
Mo Oh, really?
Jon Uh-huh. Okay.
George ah Anyway, So he is this young, imaginative kid. And the pilot, as I talked about earlier, that was Kevin Costner, the radio guy. That was Kiefer Sutherland.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George um They had all these different people in this B-17, and it is just destroyed through the battle to the point that it loses its landing gear.
Jon Yeah.
George Couple that with the fact that the the belly gunner, the bull, what is it?
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Like the bull turret. I don’t know. Anyway, that gets locked and the kid can’t get out of it.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George So if they land this plane, he’s going to get crushed.
Jon He’s in there.
Mo He’s crushed.
Jon Right. Yep.
George So what does he do? His imagination takes over.
Mo Ugh.
George He gets out his drawing pad because he is an artist and he draws the landing gear for the B-17 bomber on his pad and then just starts holding it and thinking and praying and whatever.
Mo she
George And then the landing gear just magically appears in cartoon form on the B-17 bomber and they land safely.
Mo yeah it was a cool episode
Jon so I’ve, it was so, it it’s not even just like, Oh, it’s an animated tires and wings. It’s like Tex Avery tires. They’re big bubble. Like with, like with the fake patch on it, you know, all the lighting is right.
George Yeah, exactly.
Mo yeah
Jon It’s, I think it’s, you it, it, it doesn’t look like just super candy colored, but it looks like you pluck this out of a road runner cartoon or something. And now it’s on this real plane and it fricking worked.
Jon They landed the plane.
Mo Yeah.
George Yeah.
Mo The
Jon And and i like they got him out finally. And then he like he was concentrating super hard. And then finally they got him out and he just collapsed. The the is that what i’m remembering at the end? like It goes away.
Mo the whole plane like crashes down or something like that.
George Yeah, the whole plane just, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah. Once he like they pull him out of this haze that he’s in where he’s willing this wheeze wheels into existence. They vanish after they’re all safe.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Oh, it gives me chills thinking about it.
George Now, oh, I know. Now, there’s no wonder that we got such a star-studded cast and such a good episode because this was one of only two next to Ghost Train that were both directed by Spielberg himself.
Mo Oh,
Jon Is that right? So just that, just those two.
George Yep.
Jon I didn’t know it so few.
George Yeah.
Jon Wow.
George So, I mean, you got to think, obviously, you know, people like Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Costner, they’re all going to come out of the woodwork to work with him at that point.
Jon Mm-hmm.
George Right.
Mo oh yeah.
Jon Yep.
George I mean, like John said, he’s Indiana Jones, he’s Jaws, you know, he’s everything in the 80s, ET, whatnot.
Jon Yep.
Mo Close encounters ET. Yeah.
Jon Right.
George Yeah. So I just think… In my mind, I still, to this day, I’ll flip a coin because I can’t decide if it or Family Dog are the better episode. Family Dog obviously got the series, so maybe you’d say it’s better, but they’re by far the two best episodes, in my opinion, in the series.
Mo They’re different.
Jon Very different, yeah.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And you had Brad Bird on the other one, so he’s no he’s no Spielberg, but he’s kind of the Spielberg of animation, isn’t he?
Mo Hey, the man the man can make an adult cry.
George Yeah.
George He can.
Jon Right. You son of a bitch.
Mo You son of a bitch.
Jon He’s done it many times. Ha ha ha.
Mo Okay.
Jon In the last segment, we were just talking about how Family Dog, the animated one that I was championing, it got a spinoff.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon It was kind of a backdoor pilot, got a spinoff, but that was kind of planned ahead of time. That was far from the only way that some of these Great Amazing Stories episodes or this series continue to have a lasting impact on pop culture.
Mo Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, right when the series was out, you know, 85, 86, TSR, who published Dungeons and Dragons, you know, and they were massive back in 85.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
George Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mo They actually published six tie-in novels under the Amazing Stories banner that were basically choose your own adventure books.
Jon Ooh, really?
Mo You know, I’ve been trying to find those, actually, so I’ve not been able to find them yet.
Jon Have you ever seen those?
Jon Oh, no, that sounds interesting.
George ah ah You know, TSR wasn’t the only ones to put out books.
Jon I’d read that.
George So in 86, so kind of the midpoint between seasons one and two, a guy named Stephen Bauer wrote two novelizations of the series. They were both published by charter books in the U S and Futura books in the UK.
George So, This series, I think it’s not just half-hour episodes, like John said.
Mo Yeah.
George It’s also a lasting cultural impact. To be able to get novelizations, like eight books written about the series, while the series is on TV, that shows just how influential Spielberg was.
Jon yeah
Mo yeah
Jon what other tv show is getting that treatment if if any yeah yeah of course little robots yeah they’re so cute
Mo yeah nobody
George Yeah.
Mo Yeah. So I don’t know if you guys remember the movie batteries not included. um
George Absolutely.
Mo it was is ah It was a super I enjoyed it.
George Yeah, the little robots from Alien, yeah.
Mo Yeah. Little robots is really cute. Adorable ones made out cans. Anyway, that was actually um that was originally supposed to be an episode for amazing stories. But I guess Spielberg liked it so much.
Mo He’s like, I’m gonna make this a full movie.
Jon Oh, that’s the flip side of what you said, George.
George Yeah, exactly.
Jon Stories that were too small.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And then it’s like, you know what? Now that to think about it, I think there is enough meat on the bones for this.
Mo I can make a movie. There’s a movie in here.
Jon Make a movie.
George Right?
Mo and So he did. Yeah.
Jon I’ll be damned.
Mo And he directed that too. So yeah, makes sense.
Jon Yeah, of course. Of course. you know The thing about amazing stories is, i think I mentioned this term before, the prestige television. that That was a term that kind of came along. Like 99, 2000, that era kind of kicked off by The Sopranos because we had talked about how there used to be this division.
Jon There was movies and there was TV.
George Right.
Mo Yeah.
Jon And then when The Sopranos hit, people went, wait a minute, this is on TV? Well, it’s HBO. It’s special.
Mo Yeah, it’s not TV.
Jon But then, but right but that wasn’t it, right?
Mo is it
Jon Then you’d have things like The Wire and The Breaking Bad, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, things like that that were
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon they became this golden age of television that kind of, it kind of, we’re kind of still living in the tail end of it, I guess. And it’s things that kind of the institution has begun, I think, but there was this era and amazing stories was kind of a decade before that kicked off. They kind of set the groundwork for, there doesn’t have to be a division. Look what you can do on television. If you’ll just invest the talent and the money in it.
Jon And we talked about how it is an anthology format.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon That was something that had not been around for a while. It was the, it was just, just genre stuff. Oh, it’s the horror will be anthology that your, your outer limits is and your night galleries.
Jon But this made the anthology format a legitimate artwork for network TV audiences that it kind of hadn’t been before. was kind of niche.
George I think it both suffered from and was benefited by appointment TV era. Right.
Jon Sure.
George So I think that had that exact series, I’m not talking about what we’re going to discuss in just a few moments, but this exact series, the two seasons that we got, had that been done in today’s format of streaming services that can pump a lot of money as well into these shows,
Jon Yep. where we’re going.
George I think it might’ve been better received because can you imagine amazing stories as a binge series?
Jon I think so.
Mo Yeah.
George Number one, it would have been five seasons because 40 episodes, you would have put that over eight, 10 episodes a season, right?
Mo Yeah, that’s true.
Jon That’s right.
Mo Yeah, have been five seasons. Yeah, for sure.
Jon And be four years in between each season.
George Yeah. And we’ve seen other things that have come out like black mirror and, um, you know, ah several other ones that have done that thing.
Jon Yeah. Oh yeah. That’s a great example.
Mo Yeah. 104?
Jon Yep.
George You know room one, what was that room? One 22 or one 44 or whatever, two 12.
Mo I know what you’re talking about.
Jon Yeah. what One oh something.
George I forgot what the room number was, but you know what I’m talking about?
Jon Sure.
Mo Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.
Jon That one. Right.
George yeah Yeah. I think amazing stories probably would have done more amazingly in today’s format.
Jon Hmm. Look, George used the amazing too. It wasn’t just me.
George I did.
Jon He it more amazingly.
George I got suckered in. Yeah.
Jon ah You know, and the last little bit that I dug up that I thought was really interesting is that we’ve alluded to this all along, but to put a real fine point on it, they raise the expectations for what TV production values could be.
Mo Could be, yeah.
George Mm-hmm.
Jon what the budgets might be, what the market might tolerate, what kind of talent you could get.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Oh, it’s not just, sure, we had musicians. We had we we at Gregory Hunt, tap dancer we had in there. We had all these folks who you brought in like, oh, it doesn’t just have to be your regular stock TV people.
Jon you any Any of this great talent could be in there. Pave the way for other fantasy oriented shows and anthology shows ah that had previously just kind of been, oh, that’s the syndicated thing from the 50s or 60s.
Jon We don’t do that anymore. It brought it to the forefront and said, oh, here is what television can be. And that’s what it kind of decade later it started to become. Amazing Stories just kind of was the bleeding edge and led the way.
Mo Yeah.
George Now, we did get an Amazing Stories reboot just a few years ago, 2020, Apple TV+.
Mo Yeah.
Jon That’s right.
Mo Yeah. I mean, yeah.
Jon ah Now, Moe, we legally did get it.
George yeah
Jon It did happen.
Mo We did get it.
George We did get one.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George um Now, there was an episode in that series called The Rift that I’m fond of because the guy who wrote the comic book that that episode was based on, I’ve met him and talked with him.
Jon Yeah.
George ah He’s a good friend of Jerry mein Renner, ah the Marvel Hawkeye guy.
Mo Oh, Hawkeye guy.
Jon Yeah.
George ah They have a production company together. That’s the only episode that I moderately liked in this new series.
Mo Yeah.
George But I think it was because they literally just took the title of Amazing Stories without any of the Spielberg heart.
Mo i agree 100%. There
Jon Hmm. Yeah. Did they, don’t know how much of you, I only watched a couple of episodes.
Mo there’s only there was only five, I think, so…
Jon Did it, do remember, did they remake the mission for this one or am i remembering wrong?
George Yeah, like five or eight. Yeah.
Jon Did they, or no, no.
Mo I think so.
George Well, the Rift is kind of like the mission, but different.
Mo Mm-hmm.
Jon Maybe that’s what I’m remembering. Okay. I had a feeling maybe. Yeah. But again, they people say it kind of lacked the heart. yeah.
George Yeah.
Jon They tried. I think you could still do that today. Maybe they just didn’t have the right angle in on it. ah you You lined it up, George. In today’s modern streaming, this is the kind of, this is the Black Mirror kind of event television that could work, I think.
George Mm-hmm.
Mo and
Jon Too bad that 2020 didn’t. Yeah.
George Yeah, I would be down for somebody taking another stab at it, but with the original series more at its heart, i would I’m going to watch it.
Mo Yeah.
George You put amazing stories in front of me, I’m going to watch it.
Mo Yeah.
George If for nothing else, for that goddamn intro. down or du du du And the little the cavemen guys with the flame.
Mo Yes. With the book thing.
Jon Mm-hmm. Yep.
George I love that whole…
Mo Yeah.
Jon Right.
George I think, to me, it’s one of the best intros in all of television history. I love it.
Jon And the intro tells a story.
George And then you get some… Yeah, it tells its own little story of our progression of storytelling, right?
Jon Yeah. Right. because like Because the caveman at the end is on their TV in their living room, right?
George That’s what the whole intro Exactly.
Mo Yeah.
Jon It’s it’s so cute.
George Exactly.
Jon and It’s so neat. ah
George i I mean, you’re I just think that I would love Anthology Series if it was done in this format. Maybe give it a little bit more of an adult flavor because, you know, we’re older now and we appreciate that a little bit more.
Jon Sure.
Mo oh Yeah, it was very PG, the old one, the original one, yeah.
George It doesn’t have to be so PG like the TV series originally did.
Jon Yeah. Agreed. Yeah.
George But yeah, you could you could do some really great stuff. Even if you just took these 40 plus episodes and remade them today.
Jon Yeah. With some modern stars.
George I’d be down for watching that.
Mo Yeah.
Jon Yeah.
George Hell yeah.
Jon All right.
George Another family dog? Absolutely.
Jon What’s that? The mission with Timothee Chalamet? Okay, let’s go.
Jon All right. Well, we can lament the loss of amazing stories, but we still have the original 44 episodes and then whatever happened in 2020 to look back on. It’s been fun to walk back through this. And I’ll tell you, going back to rewatch some of these, I’m like, I forgot how good these were and surprised how well they still hold up today.
Jon So it’s kind of gone into my, I’m not sure what to watch.
Mo Yeah.
Jon I’ll just watch one of these rotation because they’re that good. All right. That I think is going to wrap it up for look back 40 year anniversary of Spielberg’s amazing stories.
Jon What do I say after that?
Jon Uh, let’s wrap it up for blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, but don’t worry if you’re worried, don’t worry. We’ll be back in a few weeks with another backtrack next week is a standard edition of our show until then. Oh, wait, wait, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Jon Fuck. I forgot the patron.
George Yeah, it’s not.
Jon I forgot the patron. but
George Well, and next week’s not a standard edition either.
Jon That’s going to,
Jon yeah Yeah, that’s right.
Mo That’s right.
Jon illllll i’ll add loop I’ll change all that. but but but but but Start again. Boop. I think then, on that note, we’re going to wrap up this Backtrack looking back on 40 years of amazing stories. Before we leave you, I want to take just a second to thank another wonderfully kind soul who decided to support us financially over on Patreon.
Jon ElleryR.
Mo up cool
Jon Thank you. Thank you so much. Ellery headed over to patreon.com slash Gen X grown up, set up a free account, opened up his wallet, set up a small recurring pledge for as little as a dollar. and That’s all it takes to get access to behind the scenes content, stuff that hits the cutting room floor for the podcast, anything we would throw out there to thank our supporters.
Jon Ellery, you’re now part of that squad of amazing folks who see what we do and give it away for free, but want ensure we’re supported so we can keep doing it. ah Thank you for your generosity. I think that’s going to wrap it up then.
Jon ah Don’t worry. We’ll be back in a few weeks with another episode. And we have, a i think, a rewind coming your way next week. So stick around for that. We’ve got the holidays coming up. And don’t forget that you had our geek gift guide coming up in a few weeks so you know what to buy your family and friends.
Jon ah Until then, I am John. George, thanks so much for being here.
George Yes, sir.
Jon Mo, you know, I appreciate you.
Mo Always fun, man.
Jon Fourth listener, it’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though. We cannot wait to talk to you again next time. Bye-bye.
George See you guys.
Mo Take care, everybody.
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GenXGrownUppodcast

About The Author

Mo As someone who barely manages to squeeze in as a GenXer my memories include more of the 70's than those younger GenXers. Reading and movies are my passions with some video gaming thrown in there for good measure!

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