Amazing Stories (TV series)

Amazing Stories
Genre	Anthology, fantasy, horror, science fiction
Created by	Steven Spielberg (uncredited)
Developed by	Steven Spielberg Joshua Brand John Falsey
Directed by	Various
Theme music composer	John Williams
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	45
Production
Executive producer(s)	Steven Spielberg
Running time	30 minutes[1]
Production company(s)	Amblin Entertainment, Universal Television
Release
Original network	NBC[2]
Original release	September 29, 1985[3] – April 10, 1987
Chronology
Related shows	Family Dog

Amazing Stories is a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series created by Steven Spielberg. It originally ran on NBC in the United States from 1985 to 1987.

The series was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards and won five. The first season episode "The Amazing Falsworth" earned writer Mick Garris an Edgar Award for Best Episode in a TV Series. It was not a ratings hit (ranking 40th in Season 1 and 52nd in Season 2), however, and the network did not renew it after the two-year contract expired. The 1987 science fiction movie *batteries not included was originally intended to be featured in Amazing Stories, but Steven Spielberg liked the idea so much that he decided to make it a theatrical release.^[4]

The series title licensed the name of Amazing Stories, the first dedicated science fiction magazine.^[5]

Episodes

The series list below is annotated with the Book numbers as they appeared in the US release on VHS; the Japanese LaserDisc and UK VHS (PAL) releases are indicated with volume numbers. Note that Vol. 7 and 8 are switched for the UK VHS release. All episodes have a running time of around 25 minutes, with the exceptions of "The Mission" and "Go To The Head Of The Class" (both running 50 minutes).

Season One (1985–1986)

Season Two (1986–1987)

Soundtrack

In 1999 Varèse Sarabande released a CD containing a rerecording of the scores for the episodes "The Mission" and "Dorothy and Ben" (John Williams and Georges Delerue respectively) plus Williams' opening and closing themes, performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by John Debney.

In 2006–2007, Intrada released three volumes of original music from the series, covering the impressive lineup of composers who worked on it and featuring all of the most noteworthy scores (with the exception of Danny Elfman and Steve Bartek's "The Family Dog," because the masters could not be found – a brief suite is on Music for a Darkened Theatre: Vol. 2, however), as well as two alternate versions of Williams' main title theme, one used just once (Alternate #1, on "Alamo Jobe")^[6] and the other never used.^[7] The album is also notable for the premiere release of the music Williams composed for the Amblin Entertainment logo (although the logo music is not heard on the show itself).

Other than Williams, Bruce Broughton and Billy Goldenberg are the only composers to be represented on all three volumes. The running times below indicate the cumulative time for each score rather than the time of each track. (The series theme is not quoted in any of the episode scores, with the exception of "Ghost Train.")

Volume 1 (2006)

CD1:

• Amazing Stories Main Title – John Williams (1:02)
• Ghost Train – John Williams (15:45)
• Alamo Jobe – James Horner (10:01)
• Gather Ye Acorns – Bruce Broughton (18:37)
• The Doll – Georges Delerue (10:09)
• The Amazing Falsworth – Billy Goldenberg (8:47)

CD2:

• Amazing Stories Bumper #1 – John Williams (:04)
• Moving Day – David Shire (13:41)
• Without Diana – Georges Delerue (12:39)
• Mummy, Daddy – Danny Elfman & Steve Bartek (13:26)
• Vanessa In The Garden – Lennie Niehaus (13:23)
• Welcome To My Nightmare – Bruce Broughton (16:04)
• Amazing Stories End Credits – John Williams (:29)
• Amblin Logo – John Williams (:15)

Volume Two (2006)

CD 1:

• Amazing Stories Main Title Alternate #1 – John Williams (1:03)
• Boo! – Jerry Goldsmith (12:13)
• What If...? – Billy Goldenberg (12:32)
• Dorothy And Ben – Georges Delerue (10:10)
• The Main Attraction – Craig Safan (12:09)
• Such Interesting Neighbors – David Newman (17:13)
• Thanksgiving – Bruce Broughton (12:14)

CD 2:

• Amazing Stories Bumper #2 – John Williams (:04)
• Hell Toupee – David Shire (13:41)
• One For The Road – Johnny Mandel (8:40)
• The Remote Control Man – Arthur B. Rubinstein (12:53)
• The Greibble – John Addison (15:43)
• No Day At The Beach – Leonard Rosenman (11:04)
• Santa ’85 – Thomas Newman (13:05)
• Amazing Stories End Credits – John Williams (:29)
• Amblin Logo (Christmas Version) – John Williams (:15)

Volume Three (2007)

CD 1:

• Amazing Stories Main Title Alternate #2 – John Williams (1:03)
• Go To The Head Of The Class – Alan Silvestri (26:58)
• The Wedding Ring – Craig Safan (12:51)
• Mirror, Mirror – Michael Kamen (24:56)
• Mr. Magic – Bruce Broughton (12:50)

CD 2:

• Amazing Stories Bumper #1 – John Williams (:04)
• Secret Cinema – Billy Goldenberg (7:56)
• Life On Death Row – Fred Steiner (13:57)
• The Pumpkin Competition – John Addison (14:29)
• Grandpa's Ghost – Pat Metheny (11:06)
• The Mission – John Williams (29:55)
• Amazing Stories End Credits – John Williams (:29)
• Amblin Logo (Alternate) – John Williams (:15)

Reception

The series gained a number of positive reviews.^[8][9][10] However some reviewers were unimpressed with the show with Jeff Jarvis of People saying "Amazing Stories is one of the worst disappointments I've ever had watching TV."^[11]

Primetime Emmy Awards

Spin-offs

One episode of the show, "The Family Dog", was spun off into its own series. Six years after Amazing Stories finished its run, Family Dog ran on CBS for ten episodes before being pulled off the schedule.

The video game The Dig originated as an idea Spielberg had for Amazing Stories, but decided it would be too expensive to film.^[12]

In 1985–86, TSR published six tie-in novels under the banner "Amazing Stories". They were branching (Choose Your Own Adventure style) books where the reader chose where to jump at key points.^[13]

1. The 4-D Funhouse by Clayton Emery and Earl Wajenberg. Cover by Jeff Easley.
2. Jaguar! by Morris Simon. Cover by Jeff Easley.
3. Portrait in Blood by Mary L. Kirchoff (credited as Mary Kirchoff). Cover by Jeff Easley.
4. Nightmare Universe by Gene DeWeese and Robert Coulson. Cover by Jeff Easley.
5. Starskimmer by John Betancourt. Cover by Doug Chaffee.
6. Day of the Mayfly by Lee Enderlin. Cover by Doug Chaffee.

The 1987 film Batteries Not Included was original planned to be a segment for the series, but Spielberg thought the story would work better on the big screen instead of the small screen.

New series

Bryan Fuller is writing a new edition of the series for NBC; Spielberg will not be involved.^[14]

Home video and rebroadcasts

DVD

Between 2006-2009, the The Complete First Season was released on DVD in the US, UK, France, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain and Australia. In 2009, both series were released in Germany and Japan only. In Germany both seasons were released as 12 separate DVDs or a complete box set, which was also reissued in 2011. All countries' DVDs contain the original English soundtrack, while Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Japan have a second soundtrack, dubbed in their respective languages.

VHS

A selection of the original series episodes were released in the VHS format in 1993; these were titled "Book One" through "Book Five" in the US. In Japan and Europe episodes were cut together as movies and released in 8 volumes during the late 1980s, early 1990s. A 3-tape VHS (PAL) set was released in the UK in 2001.

Europe/Japan VHS series

• Amazing Stories: The Movie (1987)
• Amazing Stories II (1987)
• Amazing Stories III (1988)
• Amazing Stories IV (1988)
• Amazing Stories V (1989)
• Amazing Stories VI (1989)
• Amazing Stories VII (1990)
• Amazing Stories VIII (1990)

US VHS series

• Amazing Stories: Book One (1993)
• Amazing Stories: Book Two (1993)
• Amazing Stories: Book Three (1993)
• Amazing Stories: Book Four (1993)
• Amazing Stories: Book Five (1993)

Foreign broadcasts

In 1992, the series was somewhat erratically screened in Britain by BBC1 and BBC2 – billed in the Radio Times as "Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories" – with episodes airing at any time from early on Sunday morning (such as "The Family Dog") to weekday evenings (like "Such Interesting Neighbors") to very late at night (for instance "Mirror, Mirror"); it later received a more coherent run on Sci-Fi. Three of the episodes ("The Mission", "Mummy Daddy" and "Go to the Head of the Class") were packaged together as an anthology film and released theatrically in several European countries such as Spain, France (July 10, 1986) or Finland (June 26, 1987), and also in Australia on September 17, 1987. It later appeared on LaserDisc in Japan as Amazing Stories: The Movie shortly afterwards.

As of 2006, the Sci Fi Channel in the United States showed episodes on an irregular schedule. The MoviePlex channel also showed the series as a collection of "movies," which are blocks of three episodes.

Both the first and second seasons are available in Canada to Shomi subscribers.

References

External links

• Amazing Stories at the Internet Movie Database
• Amazing Stories at TV.com
• "Amazing Stories". Official site (Sci Fi Channel). Archived from the original on February 9, 2005.