Ghost Story

I liked this series. The one episode I remember best is "Concrete Captain," where the body of an old sailor is entombed in a block of concrete. He was killed by the grandfather of one of the characters in the story (I think it was a mercy killing) by having a harpoon chucked through his heart. The top of the harpoon still sticks out of the concrete. Then the ghost of the sailor comes back to haunt everyone.

I also liked the theme music. I actually recorded it off the TV one night with my first cassette recorder. I still have that tape.

When they changed it to "Circle of Fear," I thought it was a mistake. The theme music was dumb, too.

This series apparently was supposed to give Rod Serling's Night Gallery a run for its money. The show only lasted a season, but what a season! I first saw this show on an independant VHF channel about 15 years ago, in that age when independent channels had to conceive their own programming, and the result of this UPN and WB network-free environment was the broadcasting of little-known gems like this show. Best episode I remember: Martin Sheen playing a construction worker who, while demolishing an old house, stumbles upon a strange box with a mirrored interior containing a toy horse on wheels. Once the horse is out of the box, all kinds of weirdness ensues! This episode was heavy on symbolism and kinda esoteric--I remember not really understanding the entire episode at the time, although a sorta explanation is given for the horse's being in the box. The whole episode was bizarre and was that much creepier because it wasn't really explained. More challenging than your average anthology show episode. Kinda far out for the seventies.

I loved this too! I was a KID when it first aired, but have always been haunted by the images in that "Concrete Captain" episode. Truly creepy. I just found out the name of the series yesterday - I couldn't remember it for the last 32 years - and it brings back memories. I remember Jodie Foster in one, with an old actor whom I cannot remember; and another episode where there's something moving around in the well in the cellar of a house. Great stuff. They just don't show this stuff on TV anymore; episodic TV like this is thought not to work, and the 70's allowed for more downbeat endings that didn't necessarily need to be ironic. Wish someone would give us a scary series again soon. BUFFY was neat, but not scary.

Oh, yeah - I always thought Sebastian Cabot was perfectly cast. He was quite creepy! Loved him as Satan in THE EVIL.

Despite, typical seventies TV cinematography, marred by over-lighting, and bland paint by numbers art direction, (the show often looks like an episode of "Qunicy"--hardly ideal for supernatural horror--just imagine, ten years earlier it might have had the glorious monochrome of "Boris Karloff's 'Thriller') this program is, nonetheless, unjustly forgotten. I saw it in its original prime time incarnation and though it can't approach the sophistication of Britain's "Journey to the Unknown," and had more duds than hits, several episodes were standouts, and the entire series needs to again see the light of day.

The pilot, (entitled, "The New House") aired in March, 1972, and featured Sebastion Cabot as the program's host, grandly swaggering about an old world luxury hotel, as he expounds upon his fondness for the glories of earlier times. He then spots Barbara Parkins, (never more beautiful than here--her close-ups are lovely) the protagonist of the teleplay at hand, seated at the bar, and expresses his doubts as to her future happiness (with good reason as you will soon see!) All this serves as the springboard for her saga--a tale of witchcraft--with elements not unlike "Crowhaven Farm". This episode, despite being marred by some excessive lovey-dovey dialog between Parkins and on screen husband David Birney, is effectively rendered, and surprises in the power of its extremely bleak denouement.

The show changed its title to "Circle of Fear" in Jan. 1973, though the stories continued to be supernatural in character. Amongst the better "Circle of Fear"s were:

1) Still lovely Eleanor Parker's riveting performance as a tortured mother in a splendid yarn of spectral siblings, "Half a Death" written by the accomplished Henry Slesar.

2) The Janet Leigh episode, "Death's Head" which contains a deliciously foreboding visit to a seaside carnival gypsy, who later turns up in a woozy nightmare sequence.

3) The story depicting Martin Sheen and Kim Darby as newlyweds coping with a malefic toy horse.

4) The always superb Shirley Knight, (in an outstanding Emmy worthy characterization) as a diffident young typist who finds new meaning in the phrase, "office politics" in "Legion of Demons." This episode is extremely provocative and disturbing in its images and dialog, some of which make it hard to see how it got past the censors--and is arguably the best written of the series.

Unfortunately, the series had more bombs than clicks, which may account for its premature demise. Still, tastes vary, and there are doubtless viewers out there who will enjoy the Helen Hayes, Melvynn Douglas, and Tab Hunter episodes as well. As for the trivia-ites, note that the Jody Foster episode features the Samantha and Darren Stevens house from "Bewitched."

The pilot episode for Ghost Story/Circle of Fear was titled "The New House" and was the story of a young couple who purchased a house over the site where an innocent girl was hanged. To this day, I remember vividly how everyone in my family was scared to death as the ghost of this girl terrorized the wife, who was pregnant with her first child. It was definitely one of the best scary TV movies, and it is a shame now that it is missing. The end of this movie was so terrifying that I remember we turned on "The Odd Couple" when the movie was over so we could relax and laugh some. The fact that I can still remember this movie so well so many years later is a testament to just how scary it was. I hope one day it can be located again.