Rating: Summary: overall 5 star collection Review: It's 1963. Imagine a family gathered around a television set in their kitchen. Now imagine a 4 year old watching the show from behind the corner of the living room. This 4 year old bravely tries to watch this unusual, thought provokingly original science fiction television show. That kid would be me and the show would be The Outer Limits. Although I'd prefer to see both volumes available at once, this is a great place to start enjoying this highly influential series. Even without season two's best episodes (Demon with a Glass Hand is the most notable), the first season is, for the most part, first rate. The series creator the late Leslie Stevens (who wrote and directed a lot of great and not-so-great television)and writer/producer Joseph Stefano (Psycho) managed to produce 32 high quality episodes with writers such as Stefano, Anthony Wilson (The Man Who Was Never Born)and Jerome Ross (The Man With THe Power). Amazingly, Stefano wrote or co-wrote 8 or 9 of the first season episodes (two of which areThe Bellero Shield and A Feasibility Study and among the best as well) Featuring Academy Award winning actors Martin Landau, Robert Duvall and talented performers such ; Donald Pleasance Barry Morse, Carrol O'Conner,Edward Asner, Sally Kellerman, Leonard Nimoy, Vera Miles and David McCallum, the acting was always top notch even if the script or direction wasn't quite all there. For a talented up and coming performer, The Outer Limits was the series to be seen on. The optical effects are pretty primiative but were pretty high tech for television in 1963-4. Every episode has a memorable "bear" (as Joe Stefano and Leslie Stevens referred to the aliens in the show)that would either turn out to be realy nasty, misunderstood or a combination of both. Among the 5 star programs that hold up well today are : The Galaxy Being (with Cliff Robertson); The Man With THe Power; The Man Who Was Never Born; The Borderland; The Mice; The Chameleon (written by Robert Towne the writer of Chinatown)and The Forms of Things Unknown. There are a number of others as well. While a couple have grown creaky with age (The 100 Days of the Dragon and the highly regarded The Zanti Misfits), they're still enjoyable and entertaining. All 32 episodes are packed on 4 discs (two sides 4 episodes each side)and the packaging comes with a booklet with a synposis of the plot, credits and airdate. MGM has done a high class job on this DVD set. My only complaints are the lack of commentaries. Martin Landau (who appears in two episodes), Robert Culp and Joseph Stefano could have provided interesting commentary or at the very least insights on the durability of the show. Even a documentary retrospective would have been interesting. Perhaps that will come with the second batch of shows.
Rating: Summary: There is nothing wrong in buying this DVD set... Review: Do not attempt to skip purchasing, we are controlling your choice. We will control your mouse, we will control your clicks. If we'd wish to ship the DVDs, we would do it now, If we'd wish to make it a shorter waiting for you we would ship it by DHL. In the next few minutes seat quietly and we will control all that you buy and enjoy. You are about to partecipate in a great bargain, You are about to experience the world of nostalgia that reaches from the old '60s to THE OUTER LIMITS. It was about time, finally on DVD! Great set (but no extras), looking forward to purchasing second (and final) season. Not to be missed. Period.
Rating: Summary: The Outer Limits the orginal series season 1 Review: Highly recommended!Classic episodes like the Zanti Misfits,The Man Who Was Never Born and The Architects of Fear make this worth the price alone.The only reason that I can't give it 5 stars is the lack of special features. I know material might be sparse but at least the orginal previews or network advertisements would have been nice. Here's hoping season two will have some special features. I will eagerly await that release will include the classic Harlan Ellison episodes Demon with a Glass Hand and Soldier.
Rating: Summary: The original Outer Limits - on DVD FINALLY! Review: At last, the long-awaited DVD boxed set of THE OUTER LIMITS is here! This box set is incredible. This is the way ALL tv series on DVD should be released: Season at a time, and in the original broadcast order. Why couldn't they have released The Twilight Zone in this manner instead of only putting 3 - 4 episodes on a disc, and at RANDOM order, for [price range]a pop? The only way this boxed set could have been better is if the audio had been remastered into some type of "stereo" or "simulated-stereo" sound. The set retains the original mono audio track. Other than that, it is superb. There are 4 DVDs in this set and each disc is double-sided with 4 episodes on each side. I've only made it through the first 4 episodes and already I am looking forward to the second season release on DVD! By the way, there are 32 episodes in this boxed set. You'd expect the set to be 32 hours long then, right? WRONG! Just to show you how much time is "wasted" with commercials, the entire set runs at 27 hrs and 22 minutes long! That's a little less than FIVE HOURS worth of commercial time - and this is an early 60's TV show! Just imagine how much the commercial time would be if the show was new! At any rate, I would highly recommend buying this. It's worth every dollar! It's so nice to watch a vintage show like this again with no station identifiers or logos in the corners of the screen like TV is now. I haven't seen The Outer Limits like this in 40 years!
Rating: Summary: Outstanding Mind-Provoking Stories Review: What does Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Sally Kellerman, Carroll O'Connor, Leonard Nimoy, David McCallum, Edware Mulhare, Martin Landau, Chita Rivera, Vera Miles, and Sir Cedric Hardwicke all have in common??? They all starred in an episode of "The Outer Limits". The "Outer Limits" was and still is an exceptional series of one-hour TV shows. Each one explored a mind-bending concept, teasing the views and predjudices of its viewers. I was afraid it wouldn't hold up to my fond memories of the show, instead it exceeded all past and present expectations with its originality, film techniques, set designs and story lines. Without a doubt, the best show ever produced.
Rating: Summary: Outer Limits 1st Year episodes Review: This DVD set contains all 32 episodes of the first year, 1963-64,of this series. The episodes are broadcast quality and in B&W. If you are considering dropping sixty bucks for this 4 disc set, you won't be dissatisfied. It would be nice if they included a simple printed episode guide with the DVD set. You can however download episode descriptions for sereral sites on the internet.
Rating: Summary: Great Outer Limits selections but very touchy DVD's Review: I have waited for a long time for the original Outer Limits series to be released on DVD and it's finally here ! The episodes are first rate both in story lines and in picture quality. The bad thing is that MGMUA choose to use dual layer (double sided) DVDs to put the episodes on. DVD players are very touchy about these types of DVD's. The smallest scratch or smudge on a side of any of these DVD's can cause your DVD player to not read that side of the disk at all. One of the disks had a small scratch in it and would not play correctly. Had to take back 2 different OL boxes before I got one that had all DVD's with no defects. All played great, but I have to be VERY careful with them. Very happy with it, but wish MGM would put them on single sided DVD's like the FRIENDS DVD sets. I have never had a problem with any of those. Looking forward to the Outer Limits 2nd season DVD release and hope they manufacture the DVD's better.
Rating: Summary: Do Not Attempt to Adjust Your DVD Player! Review: After having waited months for the arrival of the MGM DVD release of the Outer Limits, I am very pleased with the audio and video quality of the 4 double-sided discs included in the sufficient, but lackluster, silver resin keep case. A nice-looking pamphlet is included for your mutated eyes to peruse, summarizing each of the first season episodes, but there is no hint of when and if the 2nd season will be released. Adequate chapter indexes are programmed for each 55 minute show. The animated menu is mildly annoying, if not cheesy, with a new alien-sounding narrator doing the Control Voice..."We have control of your DVD player." There do not appear to be any "next week" trailers, reel recommendations, cast or crew notes or easter eggs on this set, but who knows! My only minor complaint is that the discs are not clearly marked for easy deciphering of which side is which. Since episodes are on both sides of a disc, one has to squint at the tiny writing for side "A" or "B". It is cool, though, that MGM crammed 32 vhs video tapes onto 4 DVD's. Now there is much more space on the shelf! My recommendation: If you are a Outer Limits fan, you will the enjoy the awe and mystery, again and again on DVD.
Rating: Summary: A triumph Review: Buy this set now.The episodes look great.This set has the best episodes from the series with the exception of demon with a glass hand.Hope they release the second season soon.The only weekness is there are no extras but this set is a definate must have.Trust me the set is well worth the money.
Rating: Summary: excellent quality...but no extras...??? Review: This is truely more than I would have asked for in a compilation(the whole first season). The quality is excellent and the episodes are in the original uncut network order. Something that CBS Video needs to realize...we want to see TV series in their original network order. But I was surprised that there was no extra footage... original network promos, the original pilot episode "Please Stand By", and the original version of "The forms of things unknown" that was the pilot for the TV series called "The Unknown". The first season is my favorite, especially due to the music of Dominic Frontiere. He later produced an album by Dan Fogelberg called "The Netherlands". If you like The Outer Limits, buy this... you won't get a better quality picture. Although the first season is my favorite, there are some really classic episodes in the second season as well, and look forward to it's release.
|