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This 1980s revival of the classic sci-fi series features a similar style to the original anthology series. Each episode tells a tale (sometimes two or three) rooted in horror or suspense, often with a surprising twist at the end. Episodes usually feature elements of drama and comedy.
Streaming availability information not available
Robin Ward
Narrator (voice)
1986
An Elvis impersonator is transported to the 1950s where he meets the real Elvis who thinks that the impersonator is his long dead brother. A quiet waitress sees a glowing UFO, which gives her a message that everyone wants to know. She refuses to reveal exactly what the message is.
Alex Mattingly wonders whether his son Jeff's new friend Mike is real or imaginary. This episode is a cruel "fountain of youth" spin-off. A fortyish reporter is at risk of losing her anchor position on a network evening news broadcast to a younger reporter. She hears about a special type of bottled water from a friend of hers. She orders some at a relatively low cost. It works. Yet she finds she must drink it every day in order to retain her youth. When she orders another 5-gallon container. The price jumps up to $200. She talks to the water deliveryman. He refers he to her as "girlie". She remarks "girlie" is an old term and asks for his actual age. He says something along the lines of "I don't think you'd want to know". She is halfway done with the second bottle and is tearing apart her place looking for items to pawn when her husband shows up. They have no kids. She explains what has happened and decides to end her dilemma by balancing their situations.
In the early 20th century a young woman takes a job as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. One of her students, Mica, secretly takes extra books home to read. When the teacher confronts him, she finds that the boy is reading the books to his ailing grandfather - who claims to be more than a hundred and forty years old! A young DJ working the graveyard shift at a radio station rediscovers a record album by her boyfriend who disappeared five years ago. When he suddenly appears again, she is surprised and upset.
A Woman goes to a mall for a doll, but encounters strange things after the closing hours... A young college student has been losing personal items for some time. The mystery is resolved when she finds two time-travelers in her closet. A hen-pecked man with a boring life and a secret yearn to build inventions finds a secret door in his basement that leads to a parallel world. In that world, his counterpart is a rich famous inventor in a Victorian-style setting who is equally bored with his life. The two switch lives and are happy ever after.
An elderly husband and wife live in terror of their son, a boy who has the power to summon anything he can conceive. They are forced to limit what he sees and reads, since anything he summons has to come from...somewhere. When he becomes sick from eating too much summoned food, they take him to a hospital and attract the attention of a social worker, who doesn't know of the boy's power and is shocked at the parents' harsh treatment. The boy inadvertently kills his mother when he sees a picture of a heart in a magazine, and "summons" it out of her chest. Later, as the social worker comes calling, the boy demonstrates his power by summoning his missing mother...who has been two weeks in the grave. As the worker summons the police, the boy's father has him summon an explosion, killing them both rather than have his son fall into the hands of the government.
A man in prison who insists that he is innocent of a crime discovers a piano that transports him to the old days of gangsters.
A man who dodges the Vietnam draft is haunted by visions of his other life as a soldier during the war.
A compulsive spender accepts "The Card" to keep up her habit. Unfortunately stringent penalties kick in for late payments. A modern-day miner has an argument with his wife and then goes off to work in the local mine. A collapse traps him, but he finds another survivor - a miner who claims to be from 1912. The two men figure out that somehow they have become connected through time. The modern-day man helps the 1912 miner to survive, and the latter is rescued. The modern-day miner appears trapped...but the rescuers look in an unexpected spot and find him. It turns out the 1912 miner wrote a letter marked for delivery 74 years later directing them where to search.
Two teenage boys and their girlfriends steal a recently deceased man's classic car. While they are on a joyride, they accidentally kill a policeman. A survivalist traps himself in his bomb shelter when a nuclear blast finally comes. On board an airplane, a lightning storm transforms a boy's walkman into a telepathic tuning device that informs him that the man sitting next to him is carrying a bomb.
A Broadway composer, Bluestone, who has just died of a heart attack is visited by "Prince", who gives him one wish because of his contributions to entertainment. Bluestone wants to relive a youthful encounter with the girl of his dreams, Mary Ellen Kasgrove. When he returns to the high school party, nothing is as he remembers it but one girl, Teresa Golowitz, sits by herself. Prince, in a girl's body, reminds him that Teresa committed suicide that night. Bluestone gets her to sing and convinces her to meet him the next day. When he returns to the present, Bluestone finds out that Teresa went on to become a famous singer and that because of his interference he won't be going to the "higher place". He and "Prince" head off to lower fields to prepare some entertainment. In the far future an expedition returns to a desolate barren Earth where a scientist begins to see the ghosts of those who died years ago.
In 1916 a girl and a young man from a reformatory for wayward boys fall in love and try to get away from her father, the superintendent. He finds out and doesn't approve of their love, locking away his daughter and punishing the boy. With the help of a wandering vagrant the girl finds a way to use a book to transfer both her and the boy into a primordial world where they become wolves and can live free and together. An attorney and his wife have successful careers. They feel something is lacking in their marriage. Soon, they encounter younger versions of their mates.
1988
A woman tries to get her Uncle Edgar committed, believing that he is senile. The investigating doctor finds Edgar living in an apartment containing all kinds of junk. Edgar claims that a mysterious Voice tells him what junk to collect, and to assemble it into a device that constantly keeps the world in balance. The doctor has him committed, only to realize when a small Pacific island is destroyed as Edgar predicted that the "insane" man is anything but. The doctor has Edgar released, only to discover that he has been chosen to replace Edgar as the new "balancer" of the world.
Ex-baseball player Ed Hamner, lame from an injury and forced to retire early, is given a 1909 baseball card of a player that looks exactly like him, Monte Hanks. The card is magical in that he becomes drawn into it and lives out the life of the player in the past. Hamner must choose between being healthy and playing his favorite sport in the past, or live in the present with his despairing wife who fears he'll never grow up.
A stressed-out priest repeatedly encounters a station wagon containing a young girl. The car keeps crashing and bursting into flames.
A young boy falls into an undiscovered cave near a housing project. An archeologist studies strange paintings on its walls and then bizarre things begin to happen. Cave items move around and animals are killed and brought into the cave.
Roger, a curmudgeonly man in a retirement home, has nightmares of an unknown woman trying to hold back some strange creature behind a door in a room filled with candles. He is shocked when that woman, a cataleptic, becomes his next-door neighbor. Roger soon comes to realize that he is somehow tied to the woman, and that even in the dream he can be hurt and possibly killed. The next time he is drawn into the dream he tries to help her, only to realize that she is holding something in - the spirit of her dead husband, as she can't let go of his memory. Roger releases him to pass on to the other side, and slowly begins to reconcile with the woman as she comes back to life.
A hypnotist who specializes in helping people relive their past lives tries to find her own history. She hypnotizes herself and when she awakens, she learns that everyone can now remember their past lives. They also desperately want to forget them.
An alcoholic, Miley Judson, is approached by a doctor who offers to provide him with a unique cure. Desperate, Judson agrees and is secretly given a "hellgramite" insect. The insect in his stomach will keep him sober no matter how much he drinks, and will feed on any alcohol he does drink. The more Judson drinks, the larger it will get until it is fatal. Judson can stop drinking, but if he does the insect will force him through terrible withdrawal pains until it goes into hibernation. Judson manages to make it, and offers a card for the doctor to another alcoholic buddy.
A young woman, Diane, comes to live with her family, including the dying patriarch Sylena. Much to the doctor's astonishment, Sylena begins to make an astonishing recovery, while Diane begins to show all the signs of rapid aging. The doctor soon deduces the truth: the Brockman's have discovered a way to assure immortality, at the sacrifice of their younger members. When the doctor confronts Sylena, a fire breaks out burning down the house. Diane is restored to her normal youth, and Sylena is taken in as a Jane Doe, and begins to heal herself as a nurse nearby complains of inexplicable burn injuries.
A lonely man accidentally phones the wrong number and finds an intriguing female to whom he grows attached. When she refuses to meet him, he investigates and finds the phone in a museum next to the statue of a woman.
A scam artist purports to channel the spirit of Delos, a former inhabitant of Atlantis. Together with a partner, he makes a living off of it. The day of his big break, he channels another spirit, one who could cause him to lose everything. Is it punishment or a lesson from the twilight zone?
A woman terrorized by her abusive husband finds some small consolation in a statue of a dog given to her by her sympathetic sister. The woman soon discovers that she can summon the dog to life as a huge ferocious beast that will respond when her husband abuses her. He manages to break the statue but the dog is not sent away. Begging for his life, she decides to simply leave, accepting the dog into herself. He tries to stop her but the dog is still there when she needs it.
Newly promoted bank loan officer Warren Cribbens cracks his eyeglasses and discovers he can see the future through them. Faced with seeing the future of the farmers whose farms he must foreclose on, Warren can't bring himself to foreclose. Right away he's torn into doing his job or standing up for the people he helps. He manages to get his way by using his knowledge of the future to blackmail his conniving boss and convincing him to let things go.
A famous children's book writer visits a sick boy and reads him one of her stories. Later, at home, she is disturbed by children's voices throughout her house and learns from his parents that the boy has died.
A young man at a motel discovers an empty trunk that grants any wishes. He uses it for popularity, but at a party he discovers who his true friends are.
After finishing a heart transplant, a man finds his personality has changed. He also discovers that he has a strange attraction to a waitress at a road diner.
A shuttle pilot on the outer fringes of space finds a stowaway on board his ship. Because of the extra weight, he does not have enough fuel for his journey and faces a dilemma forcing him to consider jettisoning her into space.
A young boy playing in a field meets an old man who is really an alien collecting specimens to bring back to his planet.
Walking taking a walk in a wealthy neighborhood an unemployed man living in a shelter experiences an unusual transformation.
A doctor arrives at his new job in a sanitarium. He discovers the case of a woman who is terribly frightened of things that appear on her walls.
Young Jesse has spent his entire life mastering pool, and wants to beat the best: the deceased Fats Brown. Summoned, Fats Brown appears to challenge him to a game of pool. The stakes: Jesse's life. After a tense match, Jesse fails to make a critical shot. Fats tells him that he will indeed "die": he'll die as the second-rate player he always is. Fats departs as Jesse vows to keep playing until he's good enough to beat Brown.
Martin Decker is confined to a special room for acts and thoughts against the state. They want the formula for a weapon he does not want to reveal. Escape for Martin comes from the mind.
In an impoverished future, Simon Foster goes to a pawnshop to sell some personal items to raise money for rent. The shop owner offers to buy some of his memories. In Simon Foster's life, what could be possibly be valuable?
At a lab a dimensional portal appears. Major Alex McAndrews is sent through the portal to learn what is on the other side. He discovers a pastoral paradise. When he returns to Earth, he discovers that the military has plans for the portal.
Andrea, a plain, shy, secluded girl longs for love. One day, love comes to her in the form of a cat who transforms into the man of her dreams. The man was cursed to become a cat by a scorned woman centuries ago. Unfortunately, the cursed prince is a little more than Andrea can handle, particularly when he starts "catting around". Andrea gets revenge by drugging him and then taking him to the vet to be neutered.
An old woman with an obsession with death attends funerals for entertainment. One night when an injured thief breaks into her home, she lets him die and waits for Death to come and collect him.
An epidemic breaks out and many people are struck blind. Something more happens, however: People have become cold and heartless toward each other.
In a bar, a very mysterious blind man plays the piano, and gives some very special advice to a jealous boyfriend.
A man sells his soul to a demon for some racing tips. After being terrified by the demon he goes for help from the criminal boss he borrowed the track money from.
A normal, everyday guy discovers a camera in his closet. Puzzled, a repairman shows up to fix it, and secretly informs him that his life is being televised, and is a top-ratings grabber. The guy, John, doesn't want his life to be aired, and decides to quit. He soon finds that he misses the fame and popularity, albeit was kept secret from him. He has the repairman secretly reinstall the camera, begins to go back to his everyday "popular" televised life, and the ratings start pouring in again.
A 79-year-old man wants to keep on living so he transplants his brain into a younger body. His son, however, resents his father's continued life and tries to wrestle power from him.
1985
A man named Peter Jay Novins accidentally dials his home phone number, and it's answered by Peter Jay Novins. A harried housewife finds a medallion that gives her the power to freeze time.
Salesman Bill Lowery wakes up one morning and discovers, to his horror, that people around him are slowly degenerating their talk into gibberish that he cannot understand. His ability to communicate is needed more than ever when his son becomes sick. Lowery manages to get his son the treatment he needs and discovers he must relearn everything from scratch. On an idyllic outdoor picnic with her husband and their twins a nameless woman becomes confused and disoriented when events begin to repeat themselves. A space shuttle returns from a mission and NASA discovers that something unusual has been picked up. They discover that they have a shape-changing alien in their holding tank that poses a danger to all.
Cat burglar Jackie Thompson breaks into a museum to steal ancient artifacts and takes a rare gem that has strange healing powers - he is shot but the gem heals him. Taking on the name of Brother John, Jackie becomes a faith healer but soon becomes too greedy. Meanwhile an old Indian man, Duende, shows up and tells Jackie the relic must go back to where it belongs. Jackie starts to have second thoughts but his partner Harry leaves with the cash and his old bullet wound opens up and he begins dying again. A little girl's parents are always fighting and screaming at each other. She takes them to the Children's Zoo with a special invitation and she gets something very special, something her parents could not even imagine. Bob Spindler, a drunk driver, arrives at the "Kentucky Rye" bar where the customers are all victims of drunk drivers.
A photographer torn between taking a plum overseas assignment and getting married, meets a strangely familiar little boy. Janice finds a magic lamp at a garage sale. Restrictions and lots of paperwork apply for her three wishes. A deputy trooper stops by a diner during a rainstorm where a Vietnam veteran's nightmares come to life.
A year after his wife died a man is involved in a car accident that leaves his young daughter in a coma. On his way home the man has a vision. Cupid arrives in the modern world. A love spell for his target does not work as well as he hopes.
In the far future, twelve-year-old Dickie must pass the government intelligence test. He is very nervous about the outcome of the test but eager to show how smart he is. At the end his parents get the news - Dickie "passed" the test...but the government kills anyone who is too intelligent. In 1985, a fever-stricken Peter Wood finds himself in telepathic contact with Charity Paine, a sick girl his age living in Puritan New England. The two rejoice in sharing their thoughts, and Peter gives Charity the chance to see things that she'd never experienced in her limit time and place. However, their new-found contact turns to horror when Peter's knowledge of the future endangers Charity's life. She inadvertently speaks of the future, causing the villagers to believe she is a witch.
A teacher on a violent and gang infested high school has trouble controlling her students. The building is warded by some mysterious gargoyles, which give some special powers to the teacher. A Vietnam Vet named Billy saves an old man named Gasper from a mugging at a cemetery. He discovers that this old man holds the future of time in his watch.
A landlord hounds a playwright named Maury for his rent. When the playwright's partner dies of a heart attack, he wishes he could become the greatest playwright ever. Maury is transported back in time and meets Shakespeare. During a heat wave in the 1930's a mother and her son enjoy a drive in the country. They encounter a strange man who wants a ride. Four friends and a fifth's stand-in get together for a game of poker. The fifth man, Nick, has an uncanny knack for drawing three-of-a-kinds...in 6s. The men figure out that Nick is the Devil, come to claim one of them. The unlucky man offers to play the Devil a game of poker to get his soul free.
Shy Maddie finds a pair of shoes and after trying them on, is possessed by the vengeful spirit of a rich murdered woman. David Wong searches for something he lost. He seeks the Lost and Found Emporium where he finds others looking for their lost items.
The smartest boy in school is a target for bullies. At home in bed after an attack, the boy meets the "Shadow Man" under his bed who offers him a solution. The "Shadow Man" is a serial killer, but tells the boy that it never kills the one underneath whose bed he lurks. In defiance of all the curfews, the boy goes out and taunts the killer to show his courage. As the other kids run, the boy stands confident as the "Shadow Man" approaches, only to be told, "I'm not the Shadow Man under your bed." Parents don't realize that the video their child watches demonstrates magic tricks like turning parents into lizards and giving dogs four eyes. A beautiful woman and her boyfriend plan to kill her husband on the first day of duck hunting season.
When Dr. Dennis Barrows's car breaks down, he goes to an unusual town where visitors are disliked and townspeople are terrified of lighthouse and where it might shine. The house where Barrows stays the night is shined upon by the lighthouse. It holds a sick child, one which he helps with his medicine. Angry with his adult life, a man, Gus Rosenthal, returns to his childhood stomping ground in Ohio and while digging up an old toy soldier finds himself transported back to when he was a boy.
Two scientists named Kevin and Daniel are experimenting with a holographic device. One day they are confronted with a fetus in their machine. Growing, it becomes a woman whose life story fascinates and allures Kevin. A frazzled mathematics professor accidentally summons a demon who will let him riddle to get free of the contract he accidentally invoked. The professor, Sam, has three questions to find a task the demon can't accomplish, or a question he can't answer, then challenge him after the questions are answered. The demon appears omnipotent, but Sam gives the demon a simple command: "Get lost." The demon is banished and Sam goes back to work.
A drunken storefront Santa is terminally depressed by the many children who go gift less and starving during Christmas. He is fired from his job at a department store when he shows up late, and subsequently finds a bag that he can pull any present anyone wants from it. An overworked, underpaid, and under appreciated secretary uses a Xerox machine and wakes up in a parallel reality where no one has heard of her. In this reality, however, secretaries are a revered, rare commodity. Onboard a spaceship an astrophysicist and a priest learn they have discovered a planet long dead and a transmitter emitting a signal for eons. They discover that the planet holds the last remains of a civilization, which died when their star went supernova.
Finding an old trunk, a couple realizes that it has a false bottom containing a 70-year-old film from the Amazon. An old Irishman has often been called a fool for his stories about Leprechauns. He catches the leader of "The Little People" and gets greedy. A young man has had his heart broken recently. At a Chinese restaurant, he reads a fortune about finding new love and it comes true. His life seems perfect until he becomes greedy with his good luck. He only wants to read the fortune cookies. The old Chinese owner advises him of the bad luck of not finishing his meal before reading his fortune.
A young boy becomes fascinated with the new neighbor next door. The neighbor, Mr. Bendictson, warns him that he cannot stay long, as he is a vampire! The boy is still intrigued, but soon finds out the truth. An alien ship arrives at the UN and the alien representative declares his disappointment at Earth's progress. The UN ambassadors plead for 24 hours to resolve their differences. In 24 hours the ambassadors manage to arrange world peace and nuclear disarmament. When the alien returns the ambassadors realize they have misunderstood him entirely. A young married couple discovers that their home is being remodeled by blue-clad workers who are workers of time that build and move objects from one time period to another.
Two twenty-something brothers go to their father's laboratory to steal his fathers' growth serum research and sell for their own profit. They find a web-like material, which tastes great. They find large plants. Some plants have increased in size more than others. For the crime of emotional coldness, Mitchell Chaplin is condemned to social invisibility. For one year he will be branded with an irremovable brand that everyone knows means they must totally ignore him. At first, Chaplin is thrilled at the prospects. A depressed dentist, Myron Mandel, is visited by the Tooth Fairy, who grants him the wish to be incredibly popular and loved. The wish is granted in full force, and soon Mandel can't handle the endless stream of visitors singing his praises.
The grim reaper arrives at a hospital to take possession of a dying man. The man's wife rescues him and takes him to the western town of Winfield where residents have been living for hundreds of years. Apparently, the reaper has failed to collect those living there. A man is awakened after several hundred years of cryogenic sleep. He finds a world where psychic powers abound. The people there want him to complete a mission that only he can accomplish.
A young boy is left to care for his old, scary grandmother. He finally confronts his fears and steps up to her, finding that she has no pulse. Then Gramma reaches out and grabs him... A screenwriter is having writer's block when strange impish creatures start haunting him. Sadly, only he can see them. An actor arrives at a radio station to perform a radio play. An old voodoo stick is accidentally activated and the play becomes more real that anything anyone expected.
Vacationing in the United States, an Irish leprechaun is caught by three boys. To be freed, he must grant them three wishes. An out-of-work trucker takes on a bizarre job upon the recommendation of a friend: deliveryman of souls to Hell. He soon begins to realize that Hell is essentially out of control, running on momentum, and that the current regime is way too harsh. Resolved, he decides to begin choosing which among the supposed "damned" should try to make their way to Heaven.
A researcher from the future, a descendent of President John F. Kennedy goes back in time to witness his ancestor's death, and inadvertently changes history by saving the President. The researcher accidentally gives away the fact that he is from the future, as Kennedy is "pursued" by a series of hurricanes. A mysterious man offers a couple a bizarre deal: if they will push a button on a box that will kill one person they don't know, they will get a million dollars. After some contemplation, the couple goes ahead and pushes the button. The man tells them that they will indeed get the money. And somewhere, sometime, another couple will get the same box, and the same offer...
On a little town people started going crazy. Edward Sayers is sent by the senator to investigate. He makes the usual tests but doesn't find anything. He traces it to one person with a very special secret... A KGB investigator is sent to Siberia to investigate the deaths of communist party officials. Later, he discovers that Stalin's exiles are alive and well. He also discovers dead people drained of blood.
A mainstream comedian is killed by the one from whom he stole his work from. When he comes to, he is in one strange stage show, but there is something extremely wrong... A college group holds their "Devil's Alphabet" meeting every year. When one of them dies, all the rest expect foul play. Landing a new job at a private library a girl is warned never to look at the books. Taking a peek she learns that there's a book for everyone alive. When a neighbor pesters her, she rewrites his biography.
A condemned man, Adam Grant, insists that everything and everyone around him is a dream: one that he can't wake up from. He claims that every time he is executed, he fails to wake up and must relive the whole thing again. His attorney is originally skeptical, but Grant knows all of the "lines" and can predict things that will happen miles away. His attorney tries to get a stay of execution, but is just too late: Grant is "executed" and wakes up at his trial once more. The players have changed roles, but otherwise everything is the same as he must relive the same events over...and over...and over. An opera singer is having a hard time. Her sister is at the hospital dying. Her sick sister leaves a gift: a glimpse into the future when the singer is a world-famous star.
In the 1950s a flying saucer crashes on Earth. The crash is seen by a couple. They run into town, but no one believes them. "The Last Defender of Camelot" takes place in 1986 in London and, eventually, Cornwall. An extension of the story by Sir Thomas Mallory, a mid-50's man is drawn toward Cornwall with a sense of urgency. He is jumped by 3 young men, who are thrown aside like playthings. The old man forces one of the younger ones to take him to the boss. The boss is a late-30's woman, who reveals herself as Morgana. Lancelot is quested by her to see Merlin, who is asleep in a cave in Cornwall. Lancelot finds Merlin awakened. Merlin has different plans to resurrect a new king. What does the world's oldest magician have up his sleeve? Who can save mankind? Perhaps the Last Defender of Camelot?
