Does anybody else remember the TV series Amazing Stories? It ran from 1985-1987. It was a Steven Spielberg creation. Each week featured an independent story and included guest stars like Harvey Keitel, Gregory Hines, Kevin Costner, Keifer Sutherland...Dom DeLuise, Gary Coleman...all the great actors of our time.
I remember the episodes brimming with drama and mystery. They were like television storytime crack. My family eagerly gathered around each Sunday evening to watch them. The theme music still excites me. Through the years, the series has come up in conversation. The one episode our family always remembers featured a WW2 plane damaged in battle such that the landing gear was broken and the gunner was trapped down below. The gunner was a likeable daydreamy lad, if maybe soft and wimpy. He ended up saving the day by frantically drawing huge puffy cartoon wheels on the plane; they appeared when it landed and everybody lived. Magical.
My parents gave my brother and me the first season on DVD for Christmas. Sadly the two episodes I've watched have been COMPLETELY LAME. In No Day at the Beach, a sweet but dim and unworldly WW2 soldier is witnessed by his squad heroically killing enemies after an amphibious assault on Italy, thereby saving their lives, only to realize afterward that he actually died before they got off the boat you guys, omg, it was his ghost! In the so-bad-it's-good Hell Toupee, a toupee crawls from one person's head to another compelling them to murder lawyers.
I am disappointed. I declare a moratorium on revisiting childhood loves. They will only be tainted by adult cynicism and sophistication.
This also applies to food. I ate some Cheese Whiz recently. Turns out it's gross.
Monday, February 25, 2008
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6 comments:
Another childhood show that doesn't live up...Duck Tales. Found that out last year with a box set of DVD's at a friends house. Major let down. I have faith that Small Wonder would still satisfy.
Air Wolf stands the test of time. Oh String Fellow, how I love thee. Those cartoon wheels were silly.
Hell Toupee! HELL TOUPEE! I just got a mean case of the giggles.
You know what does hold up? Saved by the Bell. But then again I still watch television programming geared for 16 year olds.
There was another episode: Go to Head of the Class where Christopher Lloyd plays a teacher and some students cut his head off or something and he goes on terrorizing the two kids that did it. It had a surprise ending and was overall pretty awesome
I haven't even removed the shrink wrap from my Amazing Stories yet. Removing the shrink wrap would probably be the most entertaining part of my Amazing Stories experience anyhow.
The world don't move, to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
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