Science Fiction Theatre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Science Fiction Theatre | |
|---|---|
 Opening titles |
|
| Genre | Science fiction, Anthology |
| Starring | Truman Bradley (Host) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 78 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | syndicated |
| Original run | 9 April 1955 – 6 April 1957 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Science Fiction Theatre was a syndicated science fiction anthology series. It was produced in the United States by Ivan Tors and Maurice Ziv.
Hosted by Truman Bradley, a 1940s film actor and former war correspondent, each episode introduced stories which had an extrapolated scientific, or pseudo-scientific emphasis based on actual scientific data available in the 1950s. The program concentrated on such concepts as space flight, frozen dinosaurs, robots, telepathy, flying saucers and time travel.
It ran from 1955 to 1957, with a total of 78 half hour episodes. It was also known as 'Beyond The Limits' in second run syndication during the 1960s and alternatively as 'Science Fiction Theater'.
"Science Fiction Theatre" was a forerunner of similar shows, such as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
Contents |
[edit] Intro
Each episode was introduced by stirring music (uncredited, but probably composed by Ray Bloch)[1]) while the camera panned over a scientific laboratory. Then Truman Bradley showed a simple scientific experiment which was usually related to the topic of that week's show.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Season 1.
| No. | Episode | First airdate | Starring | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-1 | Beyond | 9 April 1955 | William Lundigan, Ellen Drew, Truman Bradley | Traveling at three times the speed of sound, a test pilot bails out. His report: another craft was about to collide with his. |
| 1-2 | Time Is Just a Place | 16 April 1955 | Don DeFore, Marie Windsor, Warren Stevens, Peggy O'Connor | A young couple discovers that their neighbors, who possess a sonic broom and many other technologically advanced household items, are fugitives from the future who have fled to the past to avoid an oppressive government. |
| 1-3 | Out of Nowhere | 23 April 1955 | Richard Arlen, Jess Barker. | When bats begin colliding with skyscrapers, the Continental Air Defense Command is alerted. They fear that the "radar" that protects bats from collision has somehow been cut off. |
| 1-4 | Y.O.R.D. | 30 April 1955 | Walter Kingsford, Rachel Ames, DeForest Kelley, Kenneth Tobey, Louis Jean Heydt | The Magnetic Pole Weather Station receives a strange distress message and launches one of the greatest rescue missions of all time. |
| 1-5 | Stranger in the Desert | 7 May 1955 | Two uranium prospectors meet a stranger from another land who is searching for oxygen-producing plants. | |
| 1-6 | No Food for Thought | 14 May 1955 | John Howard. Otto Krueger. | A biologist and his staff make test synthetic foods, that have proved fatal to animals, on themselves. |
| 1-7 | The Brain of John Emerson | 21 May 1955 | John Howard, Ellen Drew. | A police sergeant escapes death from a bullet in his brain but finds himself changed. |
| 1-8 | Spider Inc. | 28 May 1955 | Gene Barry, Audry Totter. | A young geologist discovers a giant spider enclosed in a piece of transparent rock. |
| 1-9 | Death at 2 A.M. | 4 June 1955 | A scientist uses an experimental strength serum to murder a man who is blackmailing him | |
| 1-10 | Conversation With an Ape | 11 June 1955 | Hugh Beaumont, Barbara Hale. | A telepathic chimp saves a scientist and his wife from a killer. |
| 1-11 | Marked Danger | 18 June 1955 | Nancy Gates, Otto Krueger | |
| 1-12 | Hour of Nightmare | 25 June 1955 | William Bishop, Lynn Barri, Charles Evans. | Two top freelance photographers go to Mexico to photograph mysterious flying objects and find a dead alien. |
| 1-13 | One Hundred Years Young | 2 July 1955 | Ruth Hussey, John Archer, John Abbott. | A retired man confides to a fellow research chemist that he is over two centuries old. |
| 1-14 | The Strange Dr. Lorenz | 9 July 1955 | Edmund Gwenn. Donald Curtis, Kristine Miller. | The story of a bookkeeper whose bees manufacture a wonder drug instead of honey. |
| 1-15 | The Frozen Sound | 30 July 1955 | Marshall Thompson, Marilyn Erskin, Ray Collins, Michael Fox. | A paperweight is found to reproduce sounds from 2000 years ago. |
| 1-16 | The Stones Began to Move | 6 August 1955 | Basil Rathbone | A murder and the secrets of the Pyramids combine. |
| 1-17 | The Lost Heartbeat | 13 August 1955 | Zachary Scott | A dying scientist needs time to finish his experiments. |
| 1-18 | The World Below | 27 August 1955 | Gene Barry, Marguerite Chapman. | The survivors of a submarine disaster claim that they saw a city on the sea floor, but are ridiculed by investigators. |
| 1-19 | Barrier of Silence | 3 September 1955 | Adolph Menjou, Warren Stevens, Phyllis Coates, Charles Maxwell, John Doucette. | |
| 1-20 | The Negative Man | 10 September 1955 | Dane Clark | |
| 1-21 | Dead Reckoning | 17 September 1955 | A pilot lost in a geomagnetic storm is forced to navigate by a thermometer, a coffee pot and the earth itself. | |
| 1-22 | A Visit from Dr. Pliny | 24 September 1955 | Edmund Gwen, William Schallert | |
| 1-23 | Strange People at Pecos | 1 October 1955 | Arther Franz, Doris Dowling. | A radar expert suspects his next-door neighbors are spies from another planet. |
| 1-24 | Dead Storage | 8 October 1955 | Virginia Bruce | A baby mammoth revives after being frozen in the Arctic for 500,000 years. |
| 1-25 | The Human Equation | 15 October 1955 | MacDonald Carey | |
| 1-26 | Target: Hurricane | 22 October 1955 | A meteorologist will stop at nothing to learn the secrets of a mysterious hurricane. | |
| 1-27 | Water Maker | 29 October 1955 | Craig Stevens | |
| 1-28 | The Unexplored | 5 November 1955 | Kent Smith, Osa Massen | |
| 1-29 | The Hastings Secret | 12 November 1955 | Bill Williams, Barbara Hale, Morris Ankrum. | A scientist discovers a species of termites that consume minerals instead of wood. |
| 1-30 | Postcard from Barcelona | 19 November 1955 | Keefe Brasselle, Walter Kingsford, Christine Larsen. | |
| 1-31 | Friend of a Raven | 26 November 1955 | Richard Eyer, Virginia Bruce. | The tale of a strange little boy who can communicate with animals. |
| 1-32 | Beyond Return | 3 December 1955 | Zachary Scott, Joan Vohs. | |
| 1-33 | Before the Beginning | 10 December 1955 | Dane Clark | |
| 1-34 | The Long Day | 17 December 1955 | George Brent, Sam Gilmore, Robert Barton. | A man's plans are thwarted when the sun refuses to set. |
| 1-35 | Project 44 | 24 December 1955 | Bill Williams | |
| 1-36 | Are We Invaded? | 31 December 1955 | Pat O'Brien, Anthony Eustral. Leslie Gaye. | |
| 1-37 | The Sound of Murder | 7 January 1956 | Howard Duff | |
| 1-38 | Operation Flypaper | 14 January 1956 | A scientist sets a trap for a thief who steals time. | |
| 1-39 | The Other Side of the Moon | 28 January 1956 | Skip Homeier, Beverly Garland, Philip Ober. | A picture of the dark side of the moon finds men from other worlds at work on its surface. |
[edit] Season 2.
| No. | Episode | First airdate | Starring | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-1 | Signals From the Heart | 7 April 1956 | Walter Kingsford, Peter Hanson, Joyce Holden. | Scientists work to save a man's life by remote control. |
| 2-2 | The Long Sleep | 14 April 1956 | ||
| 2-3 | Who Is This Man? | 21 April 1956 | Bruce Bennett, Harlow Wilcox, Charles Smith. | Hypnosis to help a shy college student reveals a frightening mystery. |
| 2-4 | The Green Bomb | 28 April 1956 | Whit Bissell, Kenneth Tobey, Robert Griffin | A breathtaking search for stolen atomic materials. |
| 2-5 | When a Camera Fails | 5 May 1956 | Gene Lockhart, Mack Williams, Than Wyenn. | A geophysicist discovers that rocks can take pictures. |
| 2-6 | Bullet Proof | 12 May 1956 | ||
| 2-7 | The Flicker | 19 May 1956 | Victor Jory, Michael Fox. | |
| 2-8 | The Unguided Missile | 26 May 1956 | Ruth Hussey, Peter Hansen, Francis McDonald. | |
| 2-9 | The Mind Machine | 9 June 1956 | ||
| 2-10 | The Missing Waveband | 16 June 1956 | ||
| 2-11 | The Human Experiment | 23 June 1956 | Marshall Thompson, Jean Richardson, Virginia Christine. | |
| 2-12 | The Man Who Didn't Know | 30 June 1956 | Arthur Franz, Susan Cummings, Peggy Kendler, Al Mitchell. | |
| 2-13 | End of Tomorrow | 7 July 1956 | ||
| 2-14 | The Phantom Car | 21 July 1956 | ||
| 2-15 | Beam of Fire | 28 July 1956 | ||
| 2-16 | The Legend of Crater Mountain | 18 August 1956 | Marilyn Erskine, Brad Jackson, Jo Ann Lilliquist. | A young rural schoolteacher finds that her three star pupils are more than human. |
| 2-17 | Living Lights | 25 August 1956 | ||
| 2-18 | Jupitron | 15 September 1956 | Bill Williams | A scientist and his wife vacation includes a terrifying visit to the planet Jupiter and an ominous warning to Earth. |
| 2-19 | The Throwback | 22 September 1956 | Ed Kemmer | |
| 2-20 | The Miracle of Dr. Dove | 29 September 1956 | Gene Lockhart, Robin Short. | |
| 2-21 | One Thousand Eyes | 6 October 1956 | Vincent Price, Jean Byron | |
| 2-22 | Brain Unlimited | 13 October 1956 | ||
| 2-23 | Death at My Fingertips | 20 October 1956 | Fingerprints "prove" a man murdered, even though he was in another city at the time of the killing. | |
| 2-24 | Survival in Box Canyon | 3 November 1956 | Bruce Bennett, Susan Cummings | |
| 2-25 | The Voice | 10 November 1956 | Donald Curtis, Kristine Miller, Anthony Eustrel | |
| 2-26 | Three Minute Mile | 17 November 1956 | Marshall Thompson, Martin Milner, Gloria Marshall. | |
| 2-27 | The Last Barrier | 24 November 1956 | Bill Ching, Bruce Wendell | A hoax to conceal a rocket launch reveals startling facts. |
| 2-28 | Signals from the Moon | 1 December 1956 | Bruce Bennett | A surgeon directs an operation to save the life of an important visiting diplomat by television. |
| 2-29 | Dr. Robot | 8 December 1956 | Peter Hanson, Whit Bissel, Doug Wilson. | |
| 2-30 | The Human Circuit | 15 December 1956 | Joyce Jameson, Marshall Thompson, Bill Ching. | |
| 2-31 | The Miracle Hour | 22 December 1956 | Dick Foran, Jean Byron, Charles Herbert. | |
| 2-32 | Sun Gold | 29 December 1956 | Julian Rivero), Paul Fierro, Ross Elliott, Marilyn Erskine | Government scientists, working in Peru, discover evidence of an extraterrestrial at work in the Inca Empire. |
| 2-33 | Facsimile | 5 January 1957 | Arthur Franz, Aline Towne, Donald Curtis. | |
| 2-34 | Killer Tree | 12 January 1957 | Bill Williams, Bonita Granville, Keith Richards. | A scientist investigates a tree with an ancient reputation of breathing death. |
| 2-35 | Gravity Zero | 19 January 1957 | Percy Helton, Lisa Gaye, Bill Hudson. | |
| 2-36 | The Magic Suitcase | 26 January 1957 | Charles Winninger | |
| 2-37 | Bolt of Lightning | 2 February 1957 | Bruce Bennett, Kristine Miller, Lyle Talbot. | |
| 2-38 | The Strange Lodger | 5 February 1957 | Peter Hansen, Jan Shepard, Charles Maxwell | |
| 2-39 | The Sound That Kills | 6 April 1957 | Ludwig Stossel, Ray Collins, Charles Victor. |
