Panic!

It seems that little by little, over the years, we are piecing together the episodes of "Panic" that short-lived series from the late 1950s. A key piece of the puzzle appears to be someone at IMDb getting a list of "guest stars" and when you click "more" on that list, you get titles of all the episodes. There were apparently over 30 of them, many more than I thought. (Shows how your memory plays tricks on you.) Anyway, the episode listed as #1.11 "Peter and the Tiger" was obviously the one that I was referring to in my post of Nov 3, 2000 (darn! four years ago!)and that crabturtle also mentioned. Episode #1.1 "The Priest" obviously corresponds to the one I mentioned in my post of Nov. 20 2003. (I wonder why I only post in November ???). Also, the episodes #2.2 "Hear No Evil" and #1.16 "Botulism" are obviously two of the three referred to by stattad.

Anyway, I believe the episode #1.6 "The Airline Hostess" is about a flight attendant who realizes there is a bomb aboard her plane, which is, of course, in flight. I think there may have been a note left on the plane, or something like that. The show deals with how the flight attendant and other crew members narrow down the list of suspects on the plane. At the end, it's down to two men, both of which seem to be holding their hands on an object and not moving. One has (I think) his hat and coat in his lap, seemingly covering something, and the other has a hand on a briefcase and never moves the hand. Finally the crew decides that since the bomb is about to go off (don't remember how they know this) they have to take a chance and pick one of the two suspects and disable him. Of course if they pick the wrong one, they're all dead. The decision, is left to "The Airline Hostess". She first chooses the man with the briefcase, goes over to him and offers him a cigarette. He says something like "you'll have to help me light it" He takes his one hand and uses it to lift his other hand off the briefcase - he has a paralyzed hand. Obviously, the bomber is the one with the hat and coat - and the crew is able to disarm him and (I seem to remember) throw the bomb out the window (!) before it goes off.

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"

I just now remembered another episode of the short-lived TV series Panic. This one involved a Catholic priest. He hears the confession of a stranger, who confesses to planting a bomb somewhere in the city. - But before he can reveal where he planted the bomb, he dies of a heart attack. Now the priest is forbidden to reveal what he heard in the confessional - thus his panic. - What the priest is able to do, however, is find the bomb himself -- which is the story line of this episode.

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.

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.