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 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!

Because I was so young, half the bits never made sense to me. I remember this one story on an artist who made very life-like sculptures of people. They showed him doing the lifecasts, and my young mind thought this was about people who voluntarily allowed themselves to be encased in plaster and die and become mannequins. I was scared of this show and of mannequins for quite awhile after that.

Believe it...or not!

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: *****.

I loved watching this show when I was in high school. Jack Palance and his daughter Holly did a wonderful job in putting together an amazing show. He had a ball hosting it and he took us along for the ride. I loved it when he acted out certain parts. Jack is a ham but he is always a joy to watch. I remember when he won his Oscar for City Slickers and did push ups on the stage! and that wonderful speech he gave! (Billy Crystal...I crap bigger then him!)I think that my favorite story that they did on this show was the one about Phineas Gage. He was a Vermont railway worker who suffered a horrifying accident in 1848. He was shot thru the skull and brain with a heavy iron bar and lived a normal life for another thirteen years!