Amazing Stories: Season 1

There are some things that are just special. Special things or moments that are benchmarks for a certain period in your life. Well, this show was one of them for me. Along with the likes of "The Goonies", "Stand By Me", and any John Hughes film of the 80's, this show was one of those treasures from my childhood that makes me look back fondly on it with such great nostalgia. I loved this show. I watched it regularly, and was always looking forward to seeing what strange trip Spielberg and crew were going to take us on this week. Of course, at this time Spielberg could do no wrong, so it was obvious to me that I was going to be right there for this show. I had already seen "E.T." and I had gone to the theaters with my dad to see "Temple Of Doom" 11 times. Spielberg wanted a show every week that he had described to the network would be like campfire tales. It's too bad that in it's time, the show was never really appreciated for what it was. It was not a big hit, but Spielberg was already promised a two season pick up. I have no idea why the show was not regarded very highly by people back then, and it still seems to fight for respect and recognition today. It doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, this was a wonderful and fantastic show that delivered the goods every week. Sure, not all of the episdoes were huge winners, but they never disappointed in creativity and were always fun to watch. So, what does season one have to deliver?. The premiere episode, "Ghost Train", is a pretty good one, but the first real classic of season one is the episode, "Mummy, Daddy". This is one of many that I always remember. It's about an actor named Harold who is playing a mummy in a movie. He goes to his wife who is going into labor, and doesn't know that a real mummy has come to life. Classic episode. Then there is "The Mission". Starring Kevin Costner, this has to be one of the most remembered episodes. A world wat II crew's belly gunner is stuck in his seat in the bottom of the plane and it appears that he will be crushed upon landing...until a miracle happens. A brilliant and magical episode. "Fine Tuning" is kind of a silly, but fun, episode about a teen who picks up an outer space signal that aliens are coming, and the aliens come to Hollywood and want to take people back with them. "Mr. Magic" has the great Sid Caesar playing an aging and fading magician who gets a new shot at his career with the help of a magical deck of cards. "Remote Control Man" is another favorite of mine. A harried man with a horrible family life is able to bring TV images to life. One episode that will always be cherished by moi is "Santa '85", a charming ep about a boy who helps Santa after he's jailed while delivering presents. Another top ep I remember quite fondly. Shot in black and white, "No Day At The Beach" finds a put upon GI try to save the lives of his comrades in World War II. Charlie Sheen appears in this one. John Lithgow stars in "The Doll", a finely written piece about a man's obsession with a doll he got for his niece. These eps are the best of the bunch. Not that the others are bad. The show got top notch talent behind the scenes with people like Richard Matheson, Martin Scorsesse, Paul Bartel, Joe Dante, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Bob Balaban, Mick Garris, and of course, Steve Spielberg. The first season also had an array of great guest stars like Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Costner, Gregory Hines, Milton Berle, Charles Durning, Sid Caesar, Charles Nelson Reilly, Harvey Keitel, Beau Bridges, Seth Green, James Cromwell, Joe Pantoliano, Forest Whitaker, Sam Waterston, Tim Robbins, Eve Arden, Griffin Dunne, and others. The show was amazing shot and filmed, and even when the stories went to the extremely goofy and silly, I think it was meant to be that way. Some were quite cheesy and hammy, but I believe that it was the show's intent to be kind of slapsticky in the old school ways. Hopefully, the show will finally get the respect it deserves. It is a fine, fine show that was wonderfully designed and brings back so many fond memories. Who knows what more Spielberg could of given us if the show had continued. Seasn two contained more of my absolute favorites, and I hope that DVD is soon on it's way. Do yourself a favor and get this DVD to rediscover the magic of this wonderful show.

In the 80's, Stephen Spielberg could almost do no wrong. He had a ton of hit movies under his belt, and decided it was time to try a project he'd been toying with for years. "Amazing Stories" was a show produced by Spielberg in which every episode was supposed to be a mini-movie. Indeed, most of these came from ideas he had or had read but couldn't fill out enough for a movie. Thus the world was treated to thirty-minute vignettes of sheer brilliance boasting a cast of well-known 80's icons like Charlie Sheen, Kevin Costner, Andrew McCarthy, John Lithgow, Dom DeLuise, and Kiefer Sutherland. The budget for a series like this today would be astronomical, so we'll probably never see the likes of it again. Like "The Twilight Zone" before it, each episode stood alone with a trip to the odd or surreal moments of life. Some were touching (like "Vanessa in the Garden" and "Grandpa's Ghost"), some were funny (like "Mummy, Daddy" and "The Main Attraction"), and some were just plain scary (like "Mirror, Mirror" and "The Doll")--but most were perfect. Collecting just the first season, this DVD set showcases 24 of the best episodes of the series. The production values on the episodes was amazing at the time, and as a result they really aren't as dated as you'd think. "Remote Control Man" is funny because you see cameos from some of TV's biggest stars at the time (Dirk Benedict of "The A-Team", Gary Coleman of "Diff'rent Strokes", Richard Simmons, and even Lou Ferrigno as the Incredible Hulk just to name a few) as a man's dream remote slowly turns his life from perfect television bliss to chaos. Other great episodes include "Mummy, Daddy" (my all-time favorite episode), in which an actor from a horror movie tries to get to the hospital where his wife is having a baby--while still in costume as a mummy. "The Mission" is a special hour long episode starring Kevin Costner and Kiefer Sutherland about a World War 2 bomber crew coming home from a brutal mission, and finding themselves forced to make a life-and-death decision for one of their own in the process. "The Amazing Falsworth" has Gregory Hines portraying a nightclub psychic who finds himself accidentally reading the mind of a murderer somewhere in his audience. The funny episodes are balanced out with serious ones, and that's what keeps the show from getting old. There are even moments of sheer terror in a few shows like "Mirror, Mirror" where a horror author sees a hooded figure trying to kill him in the mirrors. Are there duds in this set? I don't think so. And I hope they bring out the second (and final) season too because it had some great stories as well. Stars like Christopher Lloyd and Weird Al Yankovic got into the act in the second season, and of course the cartoon episode "Family Dog" (which later went on to become a short-lived series of its own) can't be forgotten. The set contains about 20 minutes of deleted scenes from various episodes, but that's all by way of extras. It's a shame since it would have been great to hear commentary by at least a few of the stars or directors on the shows, but at least it's something--which is more than can be said for a lot of other sets out there. While I can't say I'm thrilled with the packaging, I'm just glad to see this wonderful show finally come to DVD.

Ah, 1985, when I could still eat an extra large pizza, when games were fresh, when Star Wars was still kind of a new thing (ten years on), and 80s music from new wave to hard rock filled the air waves.Another trend came to television, the "Twilight Zone" format, where a show told different stories with different characters every week. And so it is that Steven Spielberg produced a really rocking TV series that told Twilight Zone like stories, but unlike Rod Serling's series (and it's 1980s reincarnation) "Amazing Stories" had fairly decent endings. The characters didn't get screwed over like in so many of Serling's shows (that man must have been a pessimist).Amazing Stories was and is truly great entertainment. If you liked the Twilight Zone, if you liked The Outer Limits, if you liked Voyagers!, if you liked any of the tall-tale formats from the 1980s, then this show is for you.And what's amazing to me is that even though Spielberg didn't direct (or so far as I know) each episode has his signature style in terms of editing and production values. It's got that ultra-Hollywood gloss to it; i.e. pretty good production values (seriously, for a TV series no expense was spared) in terms of name list talent, stories, scripts and even John Williams scores this series with an almost E.T. like music with a lot of uplifting melodies and instruments. It's that kind of a TV series.Overall it's just a really charming TV series. It's what happens when you let one of the greatest Hollywood talents have a crack at a weekly TV format, and let him do it his way. You get this.A real treasure. I'm sorry they don't make these anymore. Check out season 1 at the very least. A good watch.Enjoy.

Alles super

'Amazing Stories' was an anthology series developed by Steven Spielberg in the 1980s. The Spielberg name attracted a multitude of big stars both in front and behind the camera to the program- (Actors) Kevin Costner, Tim Robins, John Lithgow, Bronson Pinchot, Harvey Kietel, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, (Directors) Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Irvin Kershner, Joe Dante, Clint Eastwood, (Composers) Danny Elfman, John Williams and many more, aswell as budgets to match (1 million an episode). As a result the program was released to almost unheard of anticipation, and perhaps inevitably it failed to live up to its 'potential'. It was criticised for just not being 'amazing' enough and also in many cases because the of some slightly bizarre endings that ruin otherwise strong stories such as Scorcese's 'Mirror, Mirror' and to a lesser extent Spielbergs hour long 'The Mission'. The show only managed a second series on the basis of the contract rather than its success as a show.I personally wasnt around when this was released, back in 1985, and whilst I agree that the show suffers from the problems mentioned, I still very much enjoyed it. The tone ranges from drama to comedy to sci-fi to horror, with a completely new story every week. Its true that a few episodes were fairly missable but thats only probably about 6 of the 24 really, the rest ranged from good to occasionally superb. Highlights include 'The Doll'- a lonely John Lithgow finds love when he buys a doll for his niece (for which he won an Emmy), 'Mummy Daddy'- an actor playing a mummy tries to make it to the hospital for the birth of his son in costume and 'The Mission'- Kevin Costner captaining a WW2 bomber. Id really recommend this series if you enjoy anthology shows or the short stories of writers such as Paul Jennings or Roald Dahl. Hopefully Universal will release the second series if this one sells well, it certainly deserves to anyway.

Die komplette erste und zweite Staffel gibt es von Turbine Medien auf je einer Blu ray mit allen 47 Folgen (zwei Folgen waren Doppelfolgen: Die Notlandung und Der ungeliebte Lehrer = 49 Folgen)!Was macht diese außergewöhnliche Serie so einzigartig?!Es sind die namentlichen, erstklassigen Kultregisseure und zum damaligen Zeitpunkt noch einige unbekannte Schauspieler, die die Serie zum Kult aufstiegen ließ, auch wenn 4 Folgen nicht sehr originell oder auch sehr kitschig waren!Die Kultregisseure der Serie sind:Steven Spielberg (Die Notlandung + De Geisterzug)Martin Scorsese (Das Phantom im Spiegel)Danny DeVito (Regie+Hauptrolle "Der gestohlene Ring")Brad Bird - Regie + Tim Burton als Zeichner und Autor (Armer Köter)Joe Dante (Geistreich + Das Monster aus dem Märchenbuch)Clint Eastwood (Verliebt in die Kunst)Kevin Reynolds (Der Flugzeugabsturz)Phil Joanou (Liebemachers Puppen + Der Weihnachtsmann)Peter Hyams (Der Hellseher)Tobe Hooper (Der Wettbewerb)Robert Zemeckis (Der ungeliebte Lehrer)Paul Bartel (Der Kreative + Versteckte Kamera)William Dear (Die Mumie)Norman Reynolds - Star Warsfans dürfte wohl dieser Name sehr bekannt sein (Das Wundermittel + Der Träumer)Burt Reynolds (Die Himmlischen)Robert Stevens (Ein ungewöhnlicher Umzug)Todd Holland (Die Brunnenbewohner + Jedem seinen Alptraum)Joan Darling (Die Zähmung + Das Wunschkind)Irvin Kershner (Ein tödliches Toupee)Tom Holland (Die falsche Formel)Timothy Hutton (Der Geist lebt weiter)Nur die gesamte Serie beinhaltet den ganzen Kult, denn es gibt auch einen Kinofilm, der aus drei Folgen zusammengestellt wurdeDer Kinofilm-Zusammenschnitt beinhaltete nur die Folgen: "Die Notlandung" + "Die Mumie" (beide Folgen - erste Staffel) + "Der ungeliebte Lehrer" (aus der zweiten Staffel), also nichts neues!Fazit: Alle Folgen auf zwei Blu rays in DVD - Bildqualität, englische Originalsprache und deutscher Tonspur zu jeder Folge (1. und 2. Staffel) für kleines Geld, was will man mehr, wenn die DVD-Boxen erheblich teurer sind, leider aber keine deutschen Untertitel bis auf eine kurze Szene (Der ungeliebte Lehrer)!ps.: Die Serie ist auch unter dem Titel "Fantastische Geschichten" bekannt!

Stephen Spielberg is a movie artist! I remembered watching "Mummy Daddy" over and over again as a kid. We didn't have much, so when something came on TV we would record it to VHS and watch the same shows over and over again. It is great to have these shows on DVD so we can watch them with our next generation! We all love these shows and it's been so long since we saw them, it's like watching them again for the first time. They are all high-quality shows. I am pleased to own them. :)

Okay, all of these are probably good but "Mummy Daddy" is superb and so funny! I've had a hard time finding a copy of this particular episode and play as an antidote to all that serious mummy stuff. So this one episode is so funny, so clever that I declare it GREAT!