Ripley's Believe It or Not!

This was one of the finest show's of the early 1980's. Jack Palance was always one of the scariest actors to grace the motion picture and television screens and this show only added to this mystique. Not only was it educational, but it was fun as well and it showed what a gift Palance had for storytelling. The one segment that really showed that talent was when he related the murder of Rasputin. Not only did he tell the story, but he almost seemed to act it out and made it come alive. Of course balancing things out were his female co-hosts and the best of them was his daughter Holly. She brought a sense of normalcy to the show and really made the show informative as well as bizarre. Too bad the new version couldn't take lessons from this version. While that one seems to delight in shocking people, this version was very enjoyable to watch.

I loved this show! I really did. It was on Sunday nights from 1982- 86 from 8-9 PM. I watched it all the time. For example, there was one episode about the B-19, which was the largest plane built, but it never made it to combat. That was in the first season. At the beginning of another episode, he talked about the death of Rasputin. Holly Palance, in one episode, talked about the tomato, and why people in the 19th century thought it was poisonous. It was an education. Over the four-year run of the show, there were three co-hosts, Holly Palance, Catherine Schirrif, and country singer Marie Osmond. Marie Osmond was on in the last season. My rating: *****.

This program was never number 1 in the ratings which means either the ratings are more political than real, or a whole lot of folks missed an excellent program.

Jack Palance is tour DE force doing this show. A lot of his opening sequences were classic. The show had lots of material to draw from as Robert L Ripley never seems to run out of facts that are astonishing. What is even better is how they were assembled by Palance & Crew. The Mancini theme & storytelling has rarely been done better than it was here.

Holly Palance was excellent support on these shows too. The shows were never boring as a lot of major work in production of sequences show quality in every part. A fine program that was better than a lot of them when it aired. If you look at the syndicated attempt made since & compare it with this show, you will see the quality of production difference immediately.

I enjoyed just about everything in this show. The stories were great, the music was fantastic, and who can beat Jack Palance. It was Must See TV for my entire family. I really like the balance of subjects and the little small factoids before commercial breaks. Hard to find this one now, although I think the Sci-Fi channel did some reruns for awhile. The new Believe it of Not shows don't hold a candle to this one. They only show gross and disgusting stuff. How long will it take tv execs to realize we don't want to watch someone shove red hot needles in their eyes or eat live rats while we're eating dinner. Gross! Why can't they be like the original. I miss you, Ripley!

It's too bad they don't have shows like this anymore. I know there's a Ripley's show on today, but that seems to focus more on the strange human stunts like contortion-ism and pulling cinder blocks with your ear lobes. The original Ripley's talked more about History and traditions of other cultures. To me it seemed much more educational.

When this show first came on (I was about 10 years old), it kind of scared me because they showed scenes from "The Elephant Man" and "The Howling", which were brand new movies back then. I was a little squeamish with the effects from those movies, but now I love them and own those movies today. Wish I could own episodes of Ripley's, because after I got over my squeamishness, I really grew to love that show.

Jack Palance made the show. He put a real flare on his presentations that only he could pull off. I liked how he would end a sequence with "Believe it........... Or Not!". He would always put that breathless type of enthusiasm behind his narratives, so that you felt he really loved the subject matter. The female co-hosts did great jobs too. I liked his daughter Holly the best.

I can still see and hear the opening credits in my mind. This was just a quality show that you don't see too much of these days. Forget "reality TV" today, we should go back to these showcase shows like Ripley's, That's Incredible and Real People.

I wish they would bring this version of Ripley's to DVD. Not just a "Best of", but the entire series. Like I said, it was more educational and family oriented and I think we need to bring that back.

Believe it...... Or Not!