Television & Movies That Influenced My Childhood

  • Rocky & Bullwinkle (Jay Ward)
  • Space Angel
  • Cheyenne, Maverick, Rawhide & The Rifleman
  • The Twilight Zone (Rod Serling)
  • The SAINT
  • Dark Shadows
  • The Outer Limits
  • The Prisoner
  • THEM
  • The THING from another world.
  • Forbidden Planet

There was only one episode of Space Angel that was an influence. Space Angel is forced to fight in a gladiator type match, riding in a vehicle/robot that had a laser gun from one arm, and a defensive shield from the other. At some point Space Angel intentionally allows his weaponed arm to be shot off. His opponent thinking he has the advantage, comes in for the kill, fires his weapon at Space Angel, and at just the right time Space Angel raises his shield which deflects the opponent’s killer ray directly back at the opponent’s cab, and viola… no more opponent to pilot the craft.

When mom and I moved to Hubert to live with my Aunt Sis, the length of my trip to and from school grew to about an hour. So, in the afternoon, I would be getting home a little after 4 pm. I would rush in, get something to eat that I could carry with me and get in front of the TV set to watch “Dark Shadows.” Barnabas Collins, his crew and story fascinated me. After all, what are vampires good for?

Vampires don’t age. Actors do.

Some of the important episodes of the Outer Limits (the original, black & white) included the Zanti Misfits, and the one (“the Invisibles”) with Don Gordon that had those hideous big bug like creatures that were placed on the backs of people to “make them their slaves.” And Gordon’s character injures his ankle and has to crawl “ever so slowly” in extreme pain trying to elude these bugs. I also like the one with David McCallum when his character was transformed into a human of the distant future, growing a sixth finger, and then back again.

The Evil Emperor Maross & His Statue

Or the Twilight Zone episode with Claude Akins and Joe Maross when their astronaut characters were marooned briefly on an asteroid populated by a Lilliputian society which Maross terrorizes for a short time.

Now as an adult, I still like the Twilight Zone episode where the prisoner, Jack Warden, is imprisoned on a deserted asteroid (a form of extreme solitary confinement) and builds a female robot which eventually must be destroyed (killed) before he can return to Earth. Or, another Twilight Zone episode, “Third from the Sun” where a couple of families on an Earth-like planet, are attempting to flee their world before it ends… and eventually we are let in on the secret. They are fleeing to earth (in a flying saucer). This episode also featured Joe Maross.

And, Agnes Morehead doesn’t ever say a word in the whole episode where she is an old woman, alone at night, in a small house in the desert, when she is attacked by small space creatures. She dispenses with these small astronauts and their flying saucer, and then we are let in on the “rub”. Their space ship is labelled as an Earth USA vehicle and we realize that she is a giant woman living on another planet, and we probably would not have understood her if we heard her speak.

Now there is another Twilight Zone episode that I keep recalling and then forgetting before I can write briefly about it… and it finally came to me again, perhaps the most haunting of episodes. Jack Klugman is commander, and Ross Martin one of his two subordinates travelling aboard an Earth spaceship, which looks like a flying saucer. And, flying above the surface of an alien world, Martin sees a glint from below. They take their craft down and find what appears to be “their craft,” but crashed on the planet, and going inside finding their lifeless bodies. Klugman refuses to accept his and their deaths and so the turmoil repeats itself, ad infinitum the events repeating themselves endlessly. *Ross Martin would also appear on “Mr. Lucky” as Lucky’s sidekick, Andamo. And again in the “Wild Wild West” as Aretmus Gordon to Robert Conrad’s Jim West. And when Martin actually becomes very ill, he is replaced temporarily by Charles Aidman, one of my favorite B actors.

Or, how about Warren Oates in the episode (“the Mutant”) of the Outer Limits where he has been transformed by the sun into a “bug eyed” human with super human mental powers which he uses to kill & destroy? This episode also featured Betsy Jones-Moreland who I always thought attractive, especially when she was in “The Last Woman on Earth.”

Selfish Sally Kellerman who is imprisoned in reality, or perhaps just by her mind, in an invisible, impregnable and infinitely long alien force field extending into space, because she has killed the benevolent alien who controlled it. Oh, oh, or Richard Kiel, the Kanamit, who’s purpose is “to Serve Man,” up for dinner.

I don’t recall when I first saw Vincent Price in “the Last Man on Earth,” but it is wonderfully haunting and bleak. But I also like Price in “the House on Haunted Hill” (1959) and as an adult still love watching this over and over again. And I still am captivated by the campy Dr. Phibes movies.

Here is an aside, but regarding Boris Karloff. Some time ago, I watched all the episodes, just one year’s worth, of Boris Karloff as “Inspector March of Scotland Yard.” I loved the witty playfulness of his character, and his banter with his colleague. I came to the conclusion that I wish there had been more of him NOT PLAYING some creepy villian in a horror movie. He was very entertaining as March.

Not sure when I first started watching Roger Moore, as the Saint, but I found most of those episodes very entertaining. I especially liked the Saint speaking directly into the camera, thereby making me (the audience) his personal confidant and friend. I also liked Patrick McGoohan as “Danger Man” which I may have originally seen as “Secret Agent” but have binge-watched most of the episodes as an adult.

“The Prisoner” was an instant hit with me but I don’t recall (or as an adult even like) those last few episodes when I was younger. However the iconic giant white balloon that can smother you to death was fantastic.

The Avengers (1964), John Steed and Emma Peel. The actors, Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg. Quintessential English gentleman and a strong female character, suitable for modern times. The song “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” says it all. As I watch the video on YouTube, I wonder how we ever could NOT have loved Diana Rigg as Emma? *But these two actors were only in two seasons, one black & white and one color. Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore in “Goldfinger”) preceded Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson afterwards.