THE OCCULT/SUSPENSE SERIES

A - L / M - Z

MILTON THE MONSTER/ABC/1965-68

THE MONSTER SQUAD/NBC/1976-77
[Voice of Fred Grandy] "My name is Walt. I work as night watchman here at Fred's Wax museum to put myself through criminology college. I use to be lonely until I plugged in my crime computer. Suddenly oscillating vibrations brought to life three legendary monsters-Dracula, the Werewolf, and Frankenstein-creatures hated and feared for centuries now determined to make up for their past misbehavings by fighting crime wherever they find it. Together we're...THE MONSTER SQUAD."

THE NIGHT STALKER/ABC/2005
[Voice of Stuart Townsend as Carl Kolchak] "I drive at night; the police radio is my compass. Looking for answers for questions, I'm only learning how to ask about things adults dismiss. But children are right to fear shapes that lurk in the darkness, nightmares that intrude from another realm, forces that spring not from the imagination, but live amongst us in the city. Those forces have taken something from me, something you can never recover. So, I stalk the night, looking and knowing our fear of the dark never really goes away. We just learn to pretend it's not there."

THE NIGHTMARE CAFE/NBC/1992
[Voice of Robert Englund as Blackie] "Touch that remote and you die! Now that I've got your attention, here's the deal. See those two people? That's Frank, and that's Fay. Strangers when they met, turns out they've got a lot in common. Both died on the same night, both ended up in the same body of water, and both took refuge in the same all-night cafe. Me, I run the place. Name's Blackie. Been here from the beginning. Now, I know I said Frank and Fay were dead, but the cafe needed a new cook and waitress, so it gave them a second chance at life. They do their job, they get to stick around and help unsuspecting customers turn their lives around. 'Course, anything can happen to those who wander in - their worst nightmares, or their forbidden dreams. Yeah, it all happens here...in this little place we call the Nightmare Cafe."

THE 100 LIVES OF BLACK JACK SAVAGE/NBC/1991
[Narrator speaks with the traditional "Arr, Arr, me hearties" vocals of a sea-going pirate] "So you don't believe in ghosts, do you? Then meet Black Jack Savage. This Black Jack, he was a pirate. Killed a hundred men before they stretched his old neck. Heading straightway for Hell, he is, unless he saves the lives of 100 living men...There's a modern day pirate too, name of Barry Tarberry, the richest man in New York. And for his lifetime of evil doing he's Hellbound, himself. Unless he join up with old Black Jack, that is, saving all those lives...and they'll save every last one of them."

ONE STEP BEYOND (a.k.a. ALCOA PRESENTS)/ABC/1959-61 [Voice of John Newland]

[1960 opening] "Have you ever been certain the telephone would ring within the next ten seconds? Or have you ever walked down a strange street before and had the feeling you knew what laid beyond the unturned corner? Yes? Then you've had a brief encounter with the world of the unknown...a small step beyond. Now take a giant one."

[Alternate opening] "I hardly know what to tell you about the next half hour. Except it was reported as true by those to whom it happened. It has been investigated and no one as yet has been able to explain it or disprove it. Have your ever had the feeling that you knew what someone was going to say just before they said it or have you ever walked into a strange room and had the sensation that you've been there before? Well. if you have, you've taken a small step beyond. Now watch a giant step."

[1961 opening] "Come, you'll witness things strange, unexpected, mysterious, but not to be denied. Join me now and take ONE STEP BEYOND."

POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY/SYN/SCI/1996-99
[A narrative scrolls from bottom to top of screen] "Poltergeist: The Legacy - Since the beginning of time mankind has existed between the world of light and the world of darkness. This journal chronicles the work of our secret society known as the Legacy-created to protect the innocent from those creatures that inhabit the shadows and the night."

ROALD DAHL'S TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED/SYN/1979-81 [Narrator] "A wise man believes only in lies, trusts only in the absurd, and learns to expect the unexpected."

SUSPENSE/CBS/1949-54
[Narrator] "Well calculated tales to keep you in suspense."

TABITHA/ABC/1977-78
[Narrator] "Once upon a time there was little girl named Tabitha. She and her family lived in a typical American home. There was a mother, Samantha; a father, Darrin; little Tabitha; and her brother, Adam. As Tabitha grew older, her parents discovered that she was a gifted child ["Look!" (Tabitha levitates a book)]...quite gifted. but wisely they didn't pay a lot of attention to that and Tabitha grew up ju-u-u-u-st right with pigtails and freckles, just like any other typical American girl. Eeeh, almost."

[Lisa Hartman (Tabitha) begins singing the theme song]

Some people got it,
Some people don't
You never know until you try
You never know baby if you can fly
If you try. It could be magic the way i feel,
It could be magic but it feels so real.
It could be magic
Eew yeah,
Well, it could be magic.
It could be magic.

TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE/SYN/1984-88
[Voice of narrator Paul Sparer] "Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But there is unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit, a darkside."

[Closing statement]: "The darkside is always there, waiting for us to enter, waiting to enter us. Until next time...try to enjoy the daylight!"

THRILLER/NBC/1960-62
[Sample introduction narrated by Boris Karloff] "Do you believe in Witchcraft? Witches have plagued the human race since History first began. Although nowadays, in America at least, they have become nothing more than an illusion with which to tease the childish imagination at Halloween. But not so in the Old World. In Italy, for example, Witchcraft is still called "The Old Religion." And in England, even today, the legal definition of a witch stands of the statute books, "the person who has conference with the Devil." And in the place like Dark Woods, for example, deep in the mountains of the Welsh borders, where the village cowers in the shadows of the Druid stones, an ancient sacrificial circle put there who knows when. For these simple villagers, time has not moved very fast. The old habits and fears die hard. Our story tonight deals with attempts to exorcize a witch....Join us know won't you, as we try to beat the Devil at his own game."

TOPPER/CBS/ABC/NBC/1953-56
[Narrator] "This is Cosmo Topper. Bank Vice-President, loving husband, and, no he's not a magician. George and Marion Kerby are doing that. Ghosts. Yes, a handsome couple who were swallowed by an avalanche and came back to spread a little joy into a sedate business man's life. And that's their ghost-dog Neil. The St. Bernard who couldn't save them. That's what you get for drinking on the job old boy. Aren't they a wonderful bunch? And just think, Topper is the only person in the whole world who can see or hear them. Except for you and I of course. Well, it's off to the bank for Topper. What a way to start the day!"

[Narrator] "Camel, America's first choice among cigarettes presents TOPPER starring as Marianne Kerby, the liveliest ghost in town, Anne Jeffreys; as George Kerby, the liveliest ghost in town, Robert Sterling; and Leo G. Carroll as Topper. Oh yes, and the deadliest ghost, Neil. And there are only three people in the world who can see them. You and I and Cosmo Topper."

[Narrator] "Anne Jeffreys as Marion Kerby, the ghostess with the mostess. Robert Sterling, as George Kerby, that most sporting of spirits and Leo G. Carroll, host to said ghosts as TOPPER."

TURNABOUT/NBC/1979
[Narrator] "Once upon a time there lived a very nice man and a very nice woman. They were married to each other and they loved each other very much but they had a problem. They each thought the other had a more interesting life. They wished they could change places with each other and they said it in front of a statue that had a magic spell and Lo! and Behold! his spirit and personality went into her body and hers went into his-and that's the way they are today. Will they live happily ever after? Well, let's see."

THE TWILIGHT ZONE/CBS/1959-65
[Voice of Rod Serling] "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call THE TWILIGHT ZONE."

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Next stop...THE TWILIGHT ZONE."

"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead. Your next stop - THE TWILIGHT ZONE!"

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound. A dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into...THE TWILIGHT ZONE."

"This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality: you're on a through route to the land of different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Go as far as you like on this road. It limits are only those of mind itself. Ladies and Gentlemen, you're entering the wondrous dimension of imagination. Next stop...THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

THE VEIL/SYN/1958
[Voice of Boris Karloff] "How do you do? The story you are about to see actually happened and is completely documented. It's one of those strange events that seem to defy all explanations. They lie beyond the veil of human knowledge and yet they happen. Science has many terms for these strange occurrences, but no explanations, as yet. But then, not too long ago, they had no explanations for a bolt of lightning, or a falling star. They too seemed to come from beyond ...THE VEIL."

THE WATCHER/UPN/1995
[Voice of Sir Mix-A-Lot] "So check it out y'all, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret about me...your sky-high home boy called the Watcher. See my job is to watch folks here in Las Vegas, that pressure cooker of a town. I got the whole place wired, you see...every peep camera in the city. I can see y'all but y'all can't see me. I'm a student though, a student of humanity in all its form, but mostly the human being in time of war. Which war? Ain't nothing changed, the biblical thing. The war between dark and light, right and wrong, good and evil. Yeah, it all plays out big here in Vegas. And my job? Maybe it's to keep tab on all y'all, reporting who's naughty and who's nice. But a Watcher needs a watchtower and mine sits here high atop the riff raff in the Desert Flower Hotel Casino..."

[Revised opening]: "I gotta little secret about me, your sky high wired in homeboy called the Watcher. You see I wired into every camera in Vegas to watch y'all play. In a town where a war is raging. Which war? The same old one. The war between dark and light, right and wrong, good and evil. Yeah, I watch y'all, maybe keeping score for someone. So why don't you watch with me awhile."

WAY OUT/SYN/1961
[Voice of Roald Dahl] “Good Night...and sleep well.”

WEREWOLF/FOX/1987-88
[Narrator] "Eric Cord was just an ordinary college student until he was attacked by his roommate, a werewolf. Now he is running for his life, chased by a bounty hunter for the murder of his cursed friend, in pursuit himself of the evil werewolf, Skorzeny, the source of his blood line...a beast who must die to set Eric free...a race against time...and the bloodlust that threatens to overwhelm him. Now, the werewolf legend continues."

THE WHISTLER/SYN/1954
[Voice of Bill Forman] "I am the Whistler and I know many things for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak." [The Whistler's trademark was a distinctive melodic whistle performed by Dorothy Roberts].

WITCHBLADE/TNT/2001-2002
[Narrator] "Sara Pezzini a New York City detective, drawn into a chance encounter with a supernatural weapon. Each day, each mystery, each encounter will ultimately reveal her true destiny."

[Revised Opening] "There is an ancient weapon, mysterious and powerful. It is called the Witchblade. Only a chosen woman can wield it. At the dawn of the new Millennium Officer Sara Pezzini became the chosen wielder. Will she be destroyed by the power she now yields? Or will she be the first to master the mysterious shape-shifting talisman of power called THE WITCHBLADE?"

A - L / M - Z

Back to Top