Cuentos asombrosos

Steven Spielberg produced, wrote, came up with ideas for and even directed episodes of Amazing Stories, so naturally this would have to be the greatest anthology ever right? Unfortunately wrong. Some episodes are just fantastic, but all too often it was a mixed bag. In fact, that might have been it's downfall is it was way too mixed. Some episodes were light comedies, some were dramas, some were horror, and one was even animated, which made this a similar, but not as good 80s version of the Twilight Zone (which also was around).

Normally I'd like having a mixture of stories in an anthology show, but they just didn't fully work here. Some of the more fantastical dramatic episodes felt like they would be better being shown late on night on the Lifetime network, like the episode "Ghost Train", which was directed by Spielberg himself. In that episode, it gave the message of hope, and gave us a fantasy story, but overall it was just a build up to the ending which didn't blow me away anyways. The horror episodes tended to work better than the drama, but there were far more dramatic ones, and they grow tiring to watch. Acting wise, this anthology got some big stars, similar to the original Twilight Zone. Kevin Costner, Kiefer Sutherland, Milton Berle, Dom Deluise, Harvey Keitel, Beau Bridges, Charlie Sheen, Forrest Whitaker, Tim Robbins, John Lithgow, Rhea Perlman, Danny Devito, Patrick Swayze, Christopher Lloyd, June Lockhart, Kathy Baker, Weird Al Yankovich and many other well knowns have been in episodes of the show. It's fun to see well known actors in almost every episode of the series. Great directors have also had part in episodes including Spielberg himself, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Bob Clark, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Paul Bartel, Joe Dante, Robert Zemeckis, Danny Devito and even Martin Scorsese. I'd actually recommend this more to fans of the directors and/or the 80s than anyone else.

Amazing Stories was sometimes amazing, usually good, occasionally mediocre, and every once in a while a real stinker came out. But, this show has nostalgic value to me, and it's sort of fun to sit on boring afternoons and watch some episodes. John Williams' theme music for the show is sure to be caught in anyone's head who watches this, too.

My rating: Good show. 30 mins. per episode. TVPG

When this show premiered Spielberg was at the top of his game/fame. He was a director(Jaws, Raiders, ET) and executive producer(Gremlins, Back to the Future). Amazing Stories was a big event series. It had a million dollar per episode budget(quite high for the 80s), state of the art title credits and many famous faces(especially behind the camera). It didn't even need to show its worth in the first season, it was locked in for two seasons. Alas it was mostly a dud, and was nowhere near as good storywise as the original Twilight Zone or Outer Limits.

There was no equivalent of "To Serve Man" or "Nightmare at 20 000 Feet" in Amazing Stories. No "Zanti Misfits" or "Architects of Fear." Stories that you could watch once and probably remember well, and be able to relay to someone else in a few sentences and still be entertaining because the idea was good.

The best live action episode was in my opinion, "Mummy, Daddy." It had energy, humor and clever ending, which was improvised, and if it had followed the script as originally written(concluding in the hospital) would have been a dud as well.

"Family Dog" also stood out.

I remember "the Main Attraction," "The Mission" (mainly for the cartoony ending), "Gather Ye Acorns," "Miscalculations," "Mirror, Mirror" and "Go to the Head of the Class."

But beyond some fancy special effects and occasional laugh, the stories just don't hold up.

Doing a memorable anthology show is hard, but the cheaper Tales From the Darkside was locked into the horror genre and didn't do so badly.

The most memorable thing about it was in fact the opening credits, and as others have said, the series never lived up to the concept. It was probably held to a higher standard because of Spielberg's film history at the time, but for the small screen, he was no Rod Serling.

As my 175th review, I chose this as I was given the Season 1 set for Christmas & have been looking at this series for the first time. I remember the ads for it years ago, but never watched it because the NBC people moved the series around so much that I could never find out when it was on.

In the season 1 shows, the first 6 episodes were really solid. Then the next 6 tailed off. The third 6 got better again. I have not watched the last 6 yet. The DVD's do feature some deleted scenes though so far the deleted scenes i have looked at have not been anything major.

What this series did have was names & not just Spielberg's - consider Clint Eastwood directing an episode with Sondra Locke in it. Mark Hammil does an episode,Kevin Costner, Sid Ceasar, Milton Berle, & others.

The episodes range from cute - Aliens touring Hollywood to World War 2 Missions to depression era stuff to the Alamo. The good thing is Spielberg did not try to get corny & do a Rod Sterling type of introduction to each one. This gave him a little more time to develop plots than Sterling format. Actually the aliens, the Alamo & the VooDoo sitter are pretty good.

The bad news is that some of the plots are quite predictable. Given the overall quality of the DVD I have seen though, the DVDs are the way to watch these. I think too many commercials are put in on the Science Fiction channel & these shows make no sense when they are shortened at all. In fact, I would not be surprised that even when they ran on NBC they were shortened too which is why the series failed.

Even with predictable plots, The DVD sticks a lot into each episode so shortening these hurts them.

Spielburg is truly one of our cinematic giants and were so lucky to have him. I remember that he said that he based Raiders Of The Lost Ark on all those cliffhanger movie serials that he saw as a kid. He is like a person with the mind of a genius and the heart of a child. Amazing Stories was his contribution to television and this series has been unfairly forgotten. It should have run longer and I am glad some of the episodes are out on video. It was imaginative and daring just like the movies Speilburg directed. It told different stories every week and used some of our finest actors in the roles. The one that touched my heart the most was one about a man who was a soldier in World War II and came home resented by his little girl. She wandered off in the woods during a picnic and was lost forever. Years later, when the old man's wife is on her deathbed, he hears a knock at the door and he opens it to see his little girl. She has come for her mother and takes her away. This was one of the most moving stories that I have ever seen and it almost brings tears to my eyes thinking of it even now. Some episodes were dramatic and some were funny but the point is that all were masterful and original. Fred Allen once said "No wonder they call tv a medium, nothing on it is ever well done". I think even Fred would have loved Amazing Stories.

The epsiode I remember from this show is probably the one that everyone who watched rememebers most. This one is "Go to The Head of the Class." I was probably 10 or 11 when I first saw it and enjoyed watching it with my older brother and sister. It is packed with moments that make you jump. Now that I am older, I enjoy when it comes on TV and still jump at the shocks. Christopher Lloyd is brilliant as the cruel teacher. The way he says Mr. Braaaand and Miss Simpson will always be a standout. The kids do well also. The music by Alan Silvestri is fantastic and chilling. This is a scary episode, but a lot of fun! So don't lose your head and catch it next time it comes on cable.