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From: pauer@puff.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.tv,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Amazing Stories (NBC, Sunday, 8PM Pacific)
Message-ID: <452@puff.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 4-Oct-85 11:23:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: puff.452
Posted: Fri Oct  4 11:23:31 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 04:25:16 EDT
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Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
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Xref: watmath net.tv:3320 net.sf-lovers:10417

> While watching this, all I could think of was "ET meets twilight zone" and
> I find that both lose. Spielberg said that they were going to emphasize
> fantasy because the cost of special effects in a SF anthology was
> exorbitant. I can't disagree with that, but they took a story with a lot of
> possibilities (a variant of "The Hell Bound Train" and gutted it.
> There was no attempt at character development, after five minutes
> you knew what the ending was going to be. They could have played it for
> laughs or tried to do a serious traditional "Twilight Zone" style episode.
> Instead they took a semi serious track and then tossed in a bunch of cheap
> reaction shots. The end result is a mess with no impact, no real direction,
> and a number of attempted one liners that fail because they seem out of
> place. I think the script was a little weak, but I don't think this is the
> fault of the writer (I didn't catch their name, unfortunately). As
> director, Spielberg could have taken this script in either direction and
> done it successfully. By his unwillingness to add a direction to the story
> and trying to do both, he fails.
> 
> I know see why copies of the show weren't made available in advance. There
> is a lot riding on Amazing and the return of the anthology, and if this is
> the episode they used to start off the seriese, I don't hold out a lot of
> hope for future episodes. Perhaps Spielberg just couldn't handle the 30
> minute format, or perhaps they haven't really figured out what they want to
> do with it. 
> 
> I hope it gets better. I don't think it can get much worse. Fortunately, a
> local PBS station has started playing "Outer Limits" at 11PM on Sundays, so
> the evening isn't a complete waste. I just wish Spielberg had done a better
> job of recreating the classic anthology format. All he did in the opening
> episode of "Amazing Stories" was mock it.
> -- 
> :From under the bar at Callahan's:   Chuq Von Rospach 
> nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA               {decwrl,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid}!nsc!chuqui
> 
> If you can't talk below a bellow, you can't talk...

   It seems Spielberg's own rep ruined the effect of this episode.
   His action-minded audience can take this as a mystical time-travel
   story. It was effective to me, though, because I interpreted the
   story as a view of death through a child's eyes. If you see it again,
   watch it with this view.
    
   Also, I believe they were saying Opah, (or something that sounds that way)
   which, according to my girlfriend, is German for grandfather.