Panic!

It was the scariest show (of course I was only 8 years old) but even to this day I recall the opening with the cracked glass. Does anyone know where I can get copies of the show? I've looked on amazon and ebay without any luck. The one episode I recall was a painter or mechanic or somebody like that who was working inside a water tower. He got trapped and had to be rescued. But he was petrified and went a little nuts and the guy who rescued him had to subdue him in the dark inside this metal container. It was creepy and made me claustrophobic just watching it. I recall that he threw a wrench at his rescuer and the way it clanged on the side of the tower scared me.

That's saying a lot when I can barely remember only one episode.That beginning with the broken glass was something else,it set the viewer up to have their emotions worked over.Although I can't remember the episodes each show left a feeling it lived up to my expectations,it batted 1000.There were popular shows like twilight,hitchcock,thriller,one step beyond,science fiction theater,etc.Those shows were good but to me never batted 1000,even as a kid once in awhile after watching those shows I found myself saying "Yeah,right".There is one episode of Panic I remember a little of and maybe no one else has commented on.It's nightime and a man is walking down the street when he notices in the distance a crowd of twenty people or so.They seem to be very interested in something or someone and he goes over to investigate.He soon finds out that the interest of the crowd is a little girl maybe about eight years old.Although standing her hands are covering her face and she is sobbing loudly.As the crowd ttys to comfort her she lowers her hands and looks up seeing the new arrival to the crowd.Then while pointing at him she states loudly" That's him! He's the one". Our main character starts to look around at everybody with a surprised look on his face exclaiming his innocence.People start toward him and he takes off running.That's it,can't remember anymore.

I wish I had the episode listings of this old show. You were always on the edge of your seat watching the predicaments the characters got into. Here are three I remember:

1) My favorite episode was the one where Mercedes McCambridge played a young deaf woman who still lived at home with her struggling parents. She was going to a school for the deaf and seeing ear doctors (pun?)periodically. One day her ear doctor solves her hearing problem. She comes home to excitedly tell her parents that she can hear, only to overhear them plotting her death (for the insurance money I presume). I nearly had a heart attack!

2) A businessman gets a new job in a high-rise office building (25th floor or so). He gets hired on a Friday and decides to bring his family down to the office on Saturday to see it. He uses his key to get in and take the elevator up to the 25th floor. While they are looking at his office a fire breaks out (in the elevator?). The phones weren't working on the weekend, and the stairs were the only way down. For the life of me I can't remember what happened at the end!

3) This one is real fuzzy, but it has to do with a couple of young boys left together while their mother runs to the store. They decide to make some peanut butter sandwiches, but they are tainted with botulism (I don't remember why or how). I think they were ready to take their first bites when the mother returned home.

Probably will never be seen in reruns. I don't think there were more than 10 or so episodes ever made. I recall my favorite episode that featured a little boy who was notorious for lying. He is wandering through a desolate area not far from the town where he lives and comes upon a truck that has fallen into a pit or hole. It's a circus truck. At the bottom of the hole is a man (the driver) with a broken leg who is trying to fend off a tiger. How does the boy (remember, a notorious liar) convince the townspeople what has happened and that the man needs help quickly?

"Panic" was also in syndication for one year, I believe, in the very late 1950's or early 1960's under the title "No Warning"

One of the best things about the show was the voice-over at the beginning of each episode done by Westbrook Van Voorhis (you just don't see names like that anymore.) He had a great deep voice that added much intensity to the show intros. I only remember fragments of episodes, one had a scene with two boys hiding under a porch and overhearing some sinister conversation, and the other episode had something to do with a lighthouse. I believe that when I was watching this show in Washington DC, it was on at the same time as "Twilight Zone" and it was always a tough decision which one to watch. I hope these shows are not totally lost or destroyed, so we can see them again.