The Sixth Sense

In January 1972, "The Sixth Sense" began as a midseason replacement series on ABC and was a 60 minute episode per Saturday evening. (ABC had quickly dispatched most of their new shows that had begun earlier in September of '71.) While not a runaway hit by any stretch of the imagination,especially when your main audience would've been watching "Mission: Impossible" on CBS, the show was picked up for the following fall (in the same killer time slot)and was a distant memory by winter. While not nearly as subversive as "Kolchak" or even "The X Files," the series had a distinct flair for creepiness for early 1970s standards. Having seen some of the cut and paste jobs done in the syndication package, I can say without doubt that the show was much more interesting at its full 60 minute length. One hopes that with the new interest in old TV shows on DVD, Universal might dust off the sixty minute episodes for those of us who often championed shows without a prayer on ABC.

This is another under the radar gem that is also a forgotten one as it's never been talked about and barely in the memory of the sci-fi and horror community. This was a show that was no doubt ahead of it's time as it was one of the first that tackled paranormal investigation which makes sense as in the 70's the unexplained phenomena subculture started to open up more widely to the public. This show no doubt predated "The X-Files", "Gravity Falls", etc.

It's not quite a classic like any of them, but it could have been had it been given a little more time. I honestly never knew this show existed, I only roughly heard about this show as only a few episodes premiered on the "Night Gallery", I honestly thought they were anthology stories for the show despite not behaving like them. Really liked that TV advertisement for it, which was eerie and kind of creepy with that music and the strange female head that said, "Come with me.", hearing that let you know your in for a trip. Also, really liked the intro which is a honorable mention in favorite intros, the music is just eerie and even the graphics with it, it really had a feeling of mystery, danger and wonder wrapped in one.

Really like the cases as each of them are also a different form of psychic phenomena, it really made me wonder what was the next one going to be like and the other question how Mike is going to solve the mystery and cure the client. The suspense is good and even a little scary as the episode always present a dark foreboding eerie atmosphere where nothing is what is seems and whatever you never thought was possible is. It's also thought provoking as we're sort of the assistant detective, just like Mike is trying to make sense out of the whole strange shebang.

The main protagonist Mike Roodes is solid, Gary Collins whom is no longer with us puts in a good performance, he kind of looks a bit like Robert Redford ok not quite but has the same hairstyle anyway (Robert Redford playing a Paranormal Investigator that would have been something). He's got a little charisma, but I like how he has a certain sensitivity where he is always treating his clients and the psychic subject matter with respect; which made him the kind of person I'd want to call in case I experience the same type of problems. He can hold his own against danger with the help of his psychic powers, sharp intellect, and anything else he possesses like his fists.

What is interesting about him is he's not so much a paranormal investigator but a psychic doctor as he is helping people that are not just experiencing psychic phenomena but also to people whom either have the ability temporarily or permanently and he is there to help them and himself make sense into the matter and to control and cure it. I really like that it sort of is a mix in genre making this not just a mystery show but also a medical show. My only real problems which dull the senses of the show are for one thing some of the plot lines are a bit formulaic making the show a bit predictable, I felt the show would have benefited greatly with a little more variety in format. Another problem is the pace of the show is kind of slow making the show not very exciting, I feel Mike needed a nervous situation or two to keep things going but also to see Mike's psychic abilities tested more.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a revival, and in this we can have that variety in format where Mike he helps not just another rich woman in danger but maybe even a guy, child, and someone in the middle class. But also, let's put him on a few other cases, other cases to mix things up like maybe some house or area that is deemed haunted, demonic possession or even travel the world on certain other paranormal cases. We could also get a little more depth into Mike as to how he came into being with his psychic powers and how he's came to the position he's in now. It's all a thought anyway to consider.

This is a hidden gem worth opening an eye to.

Rating: 3 stars

I was just a preteen in the early 70's, but I too fondly remember this show. I was into all things horror and scifi, and compared to Night Gallery, The Night Stalker, and a handful of others, none was as genuinely eerie as The Sixth Sense. ESP wasn't really about reading minds or predicting shapes on the backs of cards, but mostly about ghosts reaching out from the grave for one reason or another. That's about where the similarities with the Bruce Willis movie end. Well, that, and the creepiness factor. I imagine I'd be embarrassed by the early 70's production values if I saw it now, but it's still on my DVD release wish list. And to second another opinion read here, don't even bother with the episodes that were trimmed down to about 22 minutes for inclusion in the dying season of the Night Gallery--they were horrendous, incomprehensible, and totally lost the disturbing edge that was often built over the hour-long version.

This show aired in the Fall Season of 1972-73 and was quickly forgotten, probably due to it's genre (paranormal drama) and it's half-hour length. It centered on a professor (Gary Collins who actually acts in this) who explored cases of the mind, e.g. ESP and telekinesis.

Sadly, no one really remembers this series and the fact that a popular movie came out with the exact name makes it even more of a rarity. Not a bad show, it will cause somewhat of an air of suspense, all in a bite-size package.

Fortunately, this series was reedited into the syndication package of "Night Gallery" (which itself was badly edited) and can be seen wherever half-hour segments of "Night Gallery" is being shown. The only difference is in the very beginning where the typeface is different and a few more credits given to Anthony Lawrence and one other person. There is still the Rod Serling prologue (which he was paid handsomely for) and even some paintings to accent these episodes. Not a bad fate for a half-forgotten TV show.

It's two-hour pilot, "Sweet Sweet Rachel," is often aired as a movie. If anyone has a copy of this pilot or some of the episodes, please email me. I would be very interested in completing my collection.

Created by writer Anthony Lawrence, after the 1971 TV movie "Sweet, Sweet Rachel", and supervised during the first season (the first thirteen episodes) as an executive story consultant, the framework of "The Sixth Sense" is detective story but with wild macabre elements throughout the ESP phantasmagoria: delirious visions, hallucinations, apparitions, delusions, nightmares, mind transfers, memories from strangers, premonitions. As in the tradition of the private eye helped by his secretary, Dr. Michael Rhodes is supported by assistant librarian Nancy Murphy who only stays during the first seven episodes. The show's first ambition is to introduce to the audience the paranormal by rational and scientifical means and therefore, Dr. Rhodes plays the edifying and idealistic College professor who encounters hostility and skepticism. Too rigid and anecdotal to turn into a success, "The Sixth Sense" displays good episodes as "The House That Cried Murder", "Lady, Lady, Take My Life" (featuring a psychic lynch mob), "Once Upon a Chilling". Actually, "The Sixth Sense" is the second attempt to spread the ESP genre, after the 1959 anthology "One Step Beyond"--hosted and directed by John Newland; Newland participated in three "Sixth Sense" episodes: "Dear, Joan, We're Going to Scare You to Death", "Through a Flame, Darkly" and "And Scream by the Light of the Moon, the Moon"--, but with a regular conventional character and an early 1970's psychedelic film-making style. Many directors from other Universal fantastic shows worked on "The Sixth Sense": John Badham, Jeff Corey, Daniel Haller and Barry Shear from "Night Gallery" and Allen Barron from "Kolchak, The Night Stalker".