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.

Ripley's Believe It or Not with Jack Palance was a quality show. Jack Palance would travel all over the world for his on-site introductions to show segments. It is another of the missing TV shows that belong on DVD. The first season was the best. In season two, when Holly Palance came in as co-host, the writing and production staff was cut, from the credits I saw on the shows I taped from the series. Jimmy Sangster, of Hammer Film Studio fame, was one member of the writing team in season one and part of season two, before the apparent budget cutbacks. The closing credits show the effort that went into this show, credits crammed with the names of professionals who worked on this documentary series. I have read that the budget for this show was $1.5 million per episode, a lot of money in the early 80s. All that money bought a lot of photographers, negative cutters and support staff then. The segments on the shows varied from the serious (the WW2 man who wasn't there) to the goofy (supposedly Jack Palance, in an ape suit, riding around Las Vegas in an open air convertible prior to introducing the Marquis performing chimps). ABC should reissue season one of this show on DVD.

I absolutely love this show! Jack Palance was excellent as the host! I loved it on ABC in the eighties. I last saw this show in 1997 on the SCI-FI Channel and I miss it terribly! I was able to tape many of the episodes off of TV, but I have watched them so much that they are getting worn out. Some tapes from 1984 and 1985 are literally on their last legs! I wish this 1982-1986 version of Ripley's Believe it or Not would get a release on DVD as Season Box Sets. So far, there is only the Dean Cain 2000-2004 version on DVD and it was only released in a BEST OF-style DVD. I did write to Columbia Pictures a while ago, but there has been no response. I urge Ripley's fans to write and beg for this excellent show to be released on DVD! That's my rant! Bodger1.

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!