User Reviews

I have been looking for this show for years. I could only remember bits and pieces of this show as my brother and I watched it with our dad when I was 8.

The two episodes that kept sticking in my mind were the one about the toy horse that grows when it's outside the mirrored box and the other was the story of the brother and sister who find the man living in the empty apartment upstairs who turns out to be an Ax Murderer! For the longest time I have searched for these shows and I kept remembering it as being a painting that the kids went into so I was associating it with "Night Gallery".

Well, I'm glad I stumbled across this post and I just ordered a copy of the show on DVD from Amazon! Can't wait to see these shows again with my brother. I only regret that my dad is no longer with us to watch as well.

I remember this episode very well, even though I was only seven years old when it aired, because of subsequent events (scarred for life!).

The reason for the horse growing and terrorizing the couple was fully explained in the story; in enough detail, at least, that a seven-year-old could understand it: The horse was originally one of a pair of toy horses. At some point, its mate was broken and thrown away, and the remaining horse got bigger and bigger, and terrorized people, because it was so upset that its mate was lost.

It wasn't that intelligent, however, so if you showed it its reflection in a mirror, it thought its mate had returned, and it calmed down and shrunk to its original size. The couple discovered this accidentally: the horse was chasing them through the house, and it stopped and began to shrink when they stepped in front of a large mirror. The horse had been kept in the mirrored box, so it would think that its mate was always with it and it would stay calm.

Wow, I'm actually tearing up a little as I'm writing this.

So, the subsequent event: Shortly after we had watched the program, my babysitter accidentally (I'm sure) knocked over and broke one of a set of two wooden horse sculptures that my parents kept on our coffee table. She pretended I(!) had broken it, and waved the other one around saying that it was coming after me because I broke its mate! I was completely terrified. I stayed awake until my parents got home and insisted that they repair the horse that night. They glued the head back on, and peace was restored.

I honestly thought I had lost my mind when it came to remembering this series! I have looked for so long for some kind of proof that this actually was a thing! I loved this show as a child and I remembered the name because of the red and black circles that were in the opening of the show. The episode I remember the most was the one where the man was seeing his wife and another man coming up out of their graves via the tv in the house. That scene made quite an impression and scared me to death! I would love to have the series on DVD or find out where I can watch it. It would be fun to go back and see the episodes with the popular actors of that time!

I was a child of ten when this came out, and if our family was home on Friday nights, we'd tune into it. We lost interest when it became "Circle of Fear," but I still remember this one fondly, and wish I could get it on video/DVD or whatever.

The basic setup of the show was that Winston Essex (Sebastian Cabot) would invite you into his hotel, and point out a guest that was about to have a very odd experience. The episode then featured that person dealing with whatever supernatural issues they faced for the week. About halfway through the season, Essex disappeared, and the episodes started without any preamble. Unfortunately, neither version of the series caught on, and it only lasted a season, but I still remember some of the more frightening episodes:

The New House: A young couple (David Birney, Barbara Parkins), expecting their first child move into their first home, which happens to be built on the site of a gallows where an innocent girl was hanged two centuries before. Her spirit, however, lives on, and takes a most unfortunate interest in the newborn baby...

At the Cradle Foot: Paul, a recently divorced man (James Franciscus) has a vision of his young daughter, Emily (Lorie Busk) being murdered as an adult (Lisa James). He decides to go to the town he sees in his vision to see if he can stop the murder from happening. During his stay there, he becomes involved with Julie (Meg Foster), the young woman who runs the boardinghouse where he's staying, who just happens to be engaged to Ed, the man (Karl Swenson) who killed Emily in Paul's vision. Tensions heat up between the two, and Paul ends up killing Ed. While on trial, his ex-wife Karen (Elizabeth Ashley) comes to help out. Paul gets off by claiming the killing was accidental. However, just as he is about to leave, Julie informs him that she is carrying Ed's child. Realizing that Julie's child will grow up to be the man who kills his daughter, Paul goes to his car, where Karen is waiting, and grabs a gun. Karen stops him from killing Julie, saying that she and Paul should be able to stay alive long enough to keep Emily from being murdered.

The Summer House: A woman (Carolyn Jones) goes to spend the summer at a vacation house that she and her husband (Steve Forrest) own. She hates the house, and it turns out to be with good cause, as there is a malevolent spirit that lives in the well in the basement. Unfortunately, the spirit causes a time loop, and she and her husband are trapped forever in that house during that summer. What was particularly cool about this episode was that you only got part of the information each time through the loop, and it wasn't until the very end that it became apparent what was happening.

Alter-Ego: Bobby (Michael-James Wixted) is a somewhat sickly boy who loves to play chess. He has just started the fifth grade, and loves his popular teacher (Helen Hayes), so he is especially disappointed when he becomes too sick to attend school early on in the year. A young boy who looks just like him tells him not to worry, that he will go to school in Bobby's stead and teach him everything when he comes back home. Bobby is too sick to do anything other than agree to this arrangement, but the alter-ego quickly takes over, terrorizing the teacher, causing her to retire in disgrace, and ultimately causing her death when she falls on a pair of pruning sheers. He brags about all of this to Bobby who seems to become weaker as the alter-ego becomes stronger. The alter-ego decides that the two should play a game of chess, and whoever wins gets to live out his life as Bobby. The game seems to be going in favor of the alter-ego when the teacher appears telling Bobby what moves to make. The alter-ego complains that this is unfair, but the teacher informs him that he can't finish the game anyway, as he is due to spend eternity in a little classroom with the teacher discussing what he did to her. The teacher and the alter-ego vanish, and Bobby is well again.

Half a Death: A young woman named Christina (Pamela Franklin) comes home to visit her parents. Christina has a twin named Lisa (Pamela Franklin, oddly enough) whom she has never met. She is expecting to meet Lisa once she gets home, but finds, to her disappointment that Lisa has recently died. However, Christina starts hearing Lisa calling for her at night. Pressing her mother (Eleanor Parker) for information about Lisa, she finds that Lisa had severe mental problems, and that when Lisa was sick with a high fever one night, her mother delayed calling the doctor until morning, and by morning Lisa had died. When Lisa calls for Christina again, their mother offers herself to Lisa, dying so that Christina may live.

The episodes were exceptionally well done. The writing was subtle so that often it wasn't until the end that the viewer figured out what was going on. The acting was good. The atmosphere created lent to the sense of unease in the story. All in all, it made for very enjoyable viewing.

It's a shame they no longer broadcast these. Hopefully, a channel will pick them up, or they will be released on video someday. They truly were well crafted, scary stories.