On September 16, 1963, at 7:30 pm ET, an ominous voice began pouring out over ABC's airwaves as the picture on the TV screen proceeded to go haywire. "There is nothing wrong with your television set," the voice intoned. "We are controlling transmission. We can control the vertical. We can control the horizontal. For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear and think. You are watching a drama that reaches from the inner mind to...THE OUTER LIMITS."

And so, with narrator Vic Perrin's deep, hypnotic voice, began one of the most overlooked yet high-quality sci-fi shows TV ever produced. For two years, and over 49 one-hour episodes (all filmed in black-and-white), the phalanx of writer, directors and performers that worked on executive producer Leslie Stevens' and producer Joseph Stefano's anthology series did their best to creep America out with their intense tales of misguided scientists, alien invasions and supernatural phenomenon. Weekly, Perrin's foreboding narration would guide us through supremely intelligent and imaginative scientific-fact-based stories dramatized by, among others Harlan Ellison (A Boy and His Dog), Robert Towne (Chinatown), Stevens (later the producer of 70s-era sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), and Stefano (who came to prominence by writing scripts for Playhouse 90 and for adapting Robert Bloch's novel Psycho to the screen for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock).

Each week would also bring what series producers took to calling a "bear," their code name for the (usually) anthropomorphic monster that would rear its not-so-comely head every episode, courtesy of makeup supervisor Fred B. Phillips (who also handled makeup chores on the original Star Trek series). From the arachnid-like aliens in The Zanti Misfits to a horribly bug-eyed Warren Oates in The Mutant, each of Phillips' creations made an indelible impression in the mind of anyone who watched — exactly what the network brass at ABC wanted obviously, since they began to insist on having a monster parade through each episode. That, plus the accomplished special effects from Projects Unlimited (the FX company led by Oscar®-nominated Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth effects supervisors Jim Danforth, Paul LeBaron, and Ralph Rodine), helped disguise the fact that the series was produced on a relatively low-budget.

Beautiful black & white photography from cinematographers like Conrad Hall (an Oscar® winner for 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and a nominee for 1967's In Cold Blood, among a few others) and John Nickolaus (Roger Corman's The Terror) also added immeasurably to the show's effectiveness. Nevertheless, from the time of its first airing to its last episode, the show never got the critical acclaim that it deserved, its thunder consistently stolen by Rod Serling's Twilight Zone series, which stood as an obvious "OL" influence, but which didn't always sport the horrific and sometimes even artsy bent that "OL" often had in spades (One big problem: the inclusion of "monsters" also made "OL" seem sillier and not as prestigious as its Serling-produced counterpart).

But, obviously, the "OL" scripts were more than pointless exercises in sci-fi goofiness, for they attracted a slew of notable guest stars, among them Martin Landau, William Shatner, Cliff Robertson, Sally Kellerman, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Carroll O'Connor, Chita Rivera, Gloria Grahame, Nick Adams, Vera Miles, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert, David McCallum, Adam West, Jill Hayworth, and James Doohan.

THE OUTER LIMITS may have been short-lived (in its second season, ABC programmed it against the CBS hit The Jackie Gleason Show, which killed its chances for everlasting success), but it was the writers and the producers penchant for pushing the boundaries of imagination that has kept viewers and fans returning to the series almost 35 years after it was first aired.

Starting next year, the realm of the weird will no longer be confined to the small screen. Working with Trilogy Entertainment, along with producers Mark Victor and Michael Grais, MGM plans to give The Outer Limits the big screen treatment. The film will be produced by Victor & Grais, along with Pen Densham, Mark Stern, Guy McElwaine and John Watson. Mark Skelly will executive produce.

New and b/w (1960s) episodes on the Sci Fi Channel, times shown are Pacific & EST and are new color eps except as noted:

01-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE BRAIN OF COLONEL BARHAM   
01-OCT-02 4:00 PM  NIGHTMARE   
02-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE PREMONITION   
02-OCT-02 4:00 PM  PROMISED LAND   
03-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE PROBE   
03-OCT-02 4:00 PM  THE BALANCE OF NATURE   
04-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE GALAXY BEING   
04-OCT-02 4:00 PM  HUMAN OPERATOR   
07-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE HUNDRED DAYS OF THE DRAGON   
07-OCT-02 4:00 PM  PHOBOS RISING   
08-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE ARCHITECTS OF FEAR   
08-OCT-02 4:00 PM  BLACK BOX   
09-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE MAN WITH THE POWER   
09-OCT-02 4:00 PM  IN OUR OWN IMAGE   
10-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE HUMAN FACTOR   
10-OCT-02 4:00 PM  ALIEN RADIO   
11-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S IT CRAWLED OUT OF THE WOODWORK   
11-OCT-02 4:00 PM  BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME   
15-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE MAN WHO WAS NEVER BORN   
15-OCT-02 4:00 PM  BLANK SLATE   
16-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S TOURIST ATTRACTION   
16-OCT-02 4:00 PM  DEJA VU   
17-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE SIXTH FINGER   
17-OCT-02 4:00 PM  DESCENT   
18-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE MICE   
18-OCT-02 4:00 PM  DONOR   
21-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S DON'T OPEN TILL DOOMSDAY   
21-OCT-02 4:00 PM  ESSENCE OF LIFE   
22-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S O.B.I.T.   
22-OCT-02 4:00 PM  FATHERS AND SONS   
23-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE BORDERLAND   
23-OCT-02 4:00 PM  THE GRELL   
24-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S NIGHTMARE   
24-OCT-02 4:00 PM  HAVEN   
25-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S CORPUS EARTHLING   
28-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE INVISIBLES   
28-OCT-02 4:00 PM  RIPPER   
29-OCT-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE CHILDREN OF SPIDER COUNTY   
29-OCT-02 4:00 PM  IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK   
01-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S SPECIMEN UNKNOWN    
01-NOV-02 4:00 PM  SHROUD   
04-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S SECOND CHANCE    
04-NOV-02 4:00 PM  SMALL FRIENDS   
05-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE MUTANT    
05-NOV-02 4:00 PM  STARCROSSED   
06-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE GUESTS    
06-NOV-02 4:00 PM  STRANDED   
07-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S FUN AND GAMES    
07-NOV-02 4:00 PM  SUMMIT   
08-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE SPECIAL ONE    
08-NOV-02 4:00 PM  TRIBUNAL   
12-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S A FEASIBILITY STUDY    
12-NOV-02 4:00 PM  WHAT WILL THE NEIGHBORS THINK?   
13-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE PRODUCTION AND DECAY OF STRAN    
13-NOV-02 4:00 PM  JOYRIDE   
14-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S THE CHANELEON    
14-NOV-02 4:00 PM  THE OTHER SIDE   
15-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S MOONSTONE    
15-NOV-02 4:00 PM  HEARTS AND MINDS   
18-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S NIGHTMARE    
18-NOV-02 4:00 PM  THE VOYAGE HOME   
19-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S CORPUS EARTHLING    
19-NOV-02 4:00 PM  TRIAL BY FIRE   
20-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S COUNTERWEIGHT    
20-NOV-02 4:00 PM  THE HEIST   
21-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S KEEPER OF THE PURPLE TWILIGHT    
21-NOV-02 4:00 PM  RELATIVITY THEORY   
22-NOV-02 9:00 AM  1960'S DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND    
22-NOV-02 4:00 PM  BEYOND THE VEIL   
     No more episodes until 1 week in mid-December
16-DEC-02 9:00 AM  (1960'S) THE ZANTI MISFITS     
17-DEC-02 9:00 AM  (1960'S) CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT     
17-DEC-02 4:00 PM  ORIGON OF SPECIES   
18-DEC-02 9:00 AM  (1960'S) ZZZZZ     
18-DEC-02 4:00 PM  LIVING HELL   
19-DEC-02 9:00 AM  (1960'S) THE BELLERO SHIELD     
19-DEC-02 4:00 PM  THE SECOND SOUL   
20-DEC-02 9:00 AM  (1960'S) THE FORMS OF THINGS UNKNOWN     
20-DEC-02 4:00 PM  THE CONVERSION   
23-DEC-02 4:00 PM  SHROUD 

b/w episodes on TNT in year 2000:

EP#     DATE               EPISODE TITLE 

16 10/28/2000 Controlled Experiment:
A Martian administrator (Barry Morse) journeys to Earth to examine a strange local custom, known as murder.
11 8/23/00 5:00 AM Nightmare
10 8/24/00 5:00 AM Tourist Attraction
1 8/26/00 5:00 AM Galaxy Being
20 8/29/00 5:00 AM The Bellero Shield
30 8/30/00 4:30 AM The Chameleon
Aug. 12, #2 Hundred Days Of The Dragon
To create an impostor for the U.S. president, an Asian uses a serum that alters human form.

Aug. 6, #19 The Invisibles

Aug. 5, #26 The Guests
Lovers must decide whether to stay in a strange place and keep eternal youth or to return to their true ages

Aug. 2, #25 The Mutant
A scientist mutated by rainfall on an alien world holds colleagues hostage and demands to return to Earth

July 30, #40 Wolf 359
A scientist (Patrick O'Neal)'s wife (Sara Shane) works to destroy a creature who escaped from a miniature, artificial planet. Additional cast: Dabney Coleman

July 24, Soldier by Harlan Ellison
An ultimate future soldier created only to kill (Michael Ansara) finds himself in the 20th century, and protects Lloyd Nolan from a similar enemy who also came back thru time.

Click here for New Outer Limits episode descriptions on the Sci-Fi Channel
The original b/w Twilight Zone episodes are also on the Sci-Fi channel.

Episodes of The New Twilight Zone are on TNT.

Episodes available on video include Harlan Ellison's Demon With A Glass Hand

Return to TV Listings Home Page on Star Base

Official b/w Outer Limits info page on TNT.com (if it's still there)

Every episode of the 1963 series is at TheOuterLimits.com

Previous broadcasts

Email: tvg@scifans.com