Limited

I finally watched all 49 original episodes of The Outer Limits.  Took me about two months.  For all the failings of the show (characters do a lot of dumb things to keep the plot moving), it was still fun.

The first season has 32 episodes, the second, 17.  Even with fewer episodes, the second season is more variable in quality.  Perhaps that's because producer-writer Joseph Stefano quit after the first season.  At least the second season has probably the most famous episode, Harlan Ellison's "Demon With A Glass Hand." (The episode that competes for most famous is probably the first season's 'The Zanti Misfits.") The second season also shortened the iconic opening of the show, which was a mistake.



Each of the 49 hour is self-contained, except for the two-parter "The Inheritors." There's nothing special about the plot, so I'm not sure why it required two episodes. The most notable thing about it is its star, Robert Duvall--who also stars in season one's "The Chameleon."

That's probably what's most fun about the show.  You always wonder what soon-to-be-famous--or formerly famous--face will be featured in each episode.  Some of the names: Donald Pleasence, Warren Oates (hard to recognize with gigantic eyes), Nick Adams, Eddie Albert, Adam West and so on.  And these were the leads. Sometimes you saw someone in a supporting role whom you'd get to know better in a few years--Russell Johnson (Gilligan's Island), Michael Constantine (Room 222), Carroll O'Connor (All In The Family), Marion Ross (Happy Days), Ted Knight and Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Dabney Coleman (many movies), etc.

Then there's the Star Trek connection.  ST was influenced by TOL, sometimes even using similar plots. Of course, TOL was borrowing as well.  For instance, there's the "Arena" plot where a person (or two) from Earth is pitted against an alien (or two)--loser's planet is destroyed. And a bunch of episodes deal with a dying alien race that wants to colonize Earth (if your planet is in trouble, probably best to clean it up--the expense of flying your people millions of light years away is tremendous), and maybe just as many with the problems of Earth trying to colonize another planet.

But the ST connection wasn't just plots, it was actors.  Grace Lee Whitney, James Doohan and Leonard Nimoy (twice) appear in supporting roles. (We also get a double dose of Sally Kellerman, who would be in the ST pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before.") And then there's William Shatner himself, who stars in season two's "Cold Hands, Warm Heart." Why does he get to be the lead?  Simple. He was on the star track.

The show also represents (as did Twilight Zone and Star Trek) your basic liberal viewpoint of the era.  A belief in the power of science (tempered, of course, with wisdom and love).  Hope for the future.  A concern for freedom and the individual.  Each shows end with a narrator delivering a homily about how we need to be careful about the future but there's still hope and blah blah blah.  The casting is fairly progressive, with many supporting roles filled by African-Americans and Asians.  It's still pre-feminist, however, with women mostly playing wives and girlfriends, rarely scientists or astronauts or anyone with an important job.

Finally, there are the monsters.  They're both the glory and main cause of silliness in the show. Almost every episode has some gruesome being--often humanoid, since someone's got to wear the costume.  You sit and wait (usually not too long) to see what we get this week.  A couple episodes seemed desperate.  In one, the bad guys are rocks.  In another, there are killer tumbleweeds.  It's not easy doing a completely new show each week.

Oh yeah, and everyone smokes.