When you have D.C. Fontana, Harlan Ellison and Richard Matheson working on a story, you know it’s going to be good. This episode of Circle of Fear has a community of six artists who discover six colorful glass containers within a storefront that has rent and location that’s too good to be true.

Ellen Parrish (Joan Blackman, Macon County Line, Shivers, Blue Hawaii, Pets), Sam Richards (Frank Converse), Jake Freeman (Tim McIntire,  the voice of Blood in A Boy and His Dog), Tyne Daly (Cagney and Lacey), Brooke Bundy (Elaine in two Elm Street movies) and Paul Cepeda (Scott Marlowe) are the artists who soon find that the containers are starting to take their souls and destroy them.

Director Alexander Singer had a career that stretched from making an episode of Dr. Kildare in 1961 all the way to Star Trek: Voyager in 1998.

This is a strange episode that I’ve noticed that plenty of folks disliked. I have no idea what episode they watched, because I loved it. It’s perfect for 1973 and the end of the era of artist collectives and free love. Watch it and let me know what you think.

You can watch this on YouTube.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first episode of Circle of Fear that I ever watched, as I was trying to find a movie with an evil horse for this year’s Scarecrow Challenge. I’m so glad that I found this as it led to me watching the entire series. This originally was posted on October 22, 2021.

This is an episode of the show Ghost Story, which changed its name to Circle of Fear midway through its one season. Executive produced by William Castle, the original idea for the show was to have Sebastian Cabot play Winston Essex, the owner of a mysterious hotel called Mansfield House, which was really San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado where Wicked Wicked was filmed.

By episode 14 of 22, the show was retitled and Cabot was out and the show still suffered poor ratings, despite featuring writers like Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, D.C. Fontana and Jimmy Sangster.

Episode 15 was Dark Vengeance, which was written by Peter Dixon (whose career was all over the place in TV, working on everything from the Superman 1950s TV series to the Masters of the Universe cartoon) and directed by Herschel Daugherty (The Victim).

While working at a construction site, Frank (an incredibly, near impossible young Martin Sheen) finds a box that can;t be opened. He becomes obsessed with it and finally is able to break into it, revealing only a broken mirror and a toy horse that upsets his wife Cindy (KIm Darby, queen of the TV movie supernatural heroines) to increasing mania.

Of course Cindy would have a past with the horse. But how do you get it back in the box or even destroy it when it can even survive being set ablaze?

There’s no way a goofy wooden horse should be so damned frightening, but everyone is beyond committed to making this happen. Man, after seeing this episode, now I have an entire series to devour. This show suffered comparisons to Night Gallery, but after all, shouldn’t every anthology show made ever after Serling’s masterwork suffer that fate?

You can watch this on YouTube.

Magnum P.I. was a constant in my life through a tumultuous time, starting when I was just 8 and ending when I was 16, seeing me through the most chaotic years of young life. Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV’s (Tom Selleck) adventures in Hawaii were a center, a Thursday night oasis — Wednesday from series 7 onward — that always knew would be there.

Magnum lives in the guest house of an opulent 200-acre beachfront estate known as Robin’s Nest. At some point, he provided services for its owner, world-famous novelist Robin Masters (voiced by Orson Welles for all but the final time when Red Crandell spoke for the character) and he’s been allowed full run of the estate and use of the author’s Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS in exchange for some nebulous security detail. In between, he takes on cases that rarely pay and often put his life in danger.

His archnemisis is Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman). Like Magnum, he’s also ex-army, but he’s by the book while our hero is laid back. He’s in charge of Robin’s estate, patrolling it with his twin Doberman, Zeus and Apollo. The relationship grows and changes as the series progresses, going from antagonistic to near friendship by the close, as well as the suspicion that Higgins is Robin Masters.

Magnum has a near-perfect storytelling engine as it has the perfect setting (all manner of people come to Hawaii for vacation or to escape), the perfect characters (Magnum can be just as much a film noir hero as he can be a military man or a romantic leading man; he’s a comedic figure without losing his coolness) and the perfect job (being a detective is a reliable TV profession for this reason). Add in his friends Theodore “T.C.” Calvin (Roger E. Mosley) — whose Island Hoppers helicopter can take Magnum anywhere — and Orville Wilbur Richard “Rick” Wright (Larry Manetti), whose King Kamehameha Club can be the origin for all manner of intrigue — and you can see why this series ran for so many years.

While T.C. and Rick are former Marines and Magnum is a former Navy SEAL — all served in Vietnam — none of them are shell-shocked zombies. They’re normal human beings who deal with their war experiences in their own way, which was a refreshing change for audiences — especially veterans — when the show started.

Magnum was such a big show that even other big shows crossed over with it, establishing a CBS detective show universe. In the episode “Ki’is Don’t Lie,” Magnum works with Simon & Simon to recover a cursed artifact, a mystery which had its conclusion in their show with the episode “Emeralds Are Not a Girl’s Best Friend.” Yet most famously, in “Novel Connection,” novelist Jessica Fletcher came to Hawaii — along with Jessica Walter and Dorothy Loudon — and then solved the case on her show, Murder, She Wrote, in the episode “Magnum on Ice.”

Speaking of guest stars, all manner of genre favorites appeared on this show, including Jenny Agutter, Talia Balsam, Ernest Borgnine, Candy Clark, Samantha Eggar, Robert Forster, Pat Hingle, Mako, Patrick Macness, Cameron Mitchell, Vic Morrow, John Saxon and many more.

Another reason why this show is so beloved is due to Selleck. He told producers, “I’m tired of playing what I look like.” His suggestion? He remembered having fun with James Garner on The Rockford Files and suggested making Magnum more of blue collar guy. This made him more identifiable with men, not just women.

One of the things that struck me as I caught up on the series was that the theme is different at the start! The original theme was written by Ian Freebairn-Smith and only lasted eleven episodes before being replaced with the iconic Mike Post and Pete Carpenter song that I hum all of the time.

At the end of the seventh season, Magnum died in a shoot out. I can’t even explain how upset everyone was. The letters page in TV Guide was aghast. Imagine if Twitter existed in the late 80s! Luckily, he came back for one shorter season.

Series creator Donald P. Bellisario — who created this show with Glen A. Larson — was born in North Charleroi, PA. I can probably see his house from mine. After fifteen years in advertising, he went to Hollywood, where he worked on the series Black Sheep Squadron and Battlestar Galactica before creating series like Tales of the Golden Monkey, Airwolf, Quantum Leap, JAG and NCIS. He was joined by writers like Richard Yalem (who made Delirium), Reuben A. Leder (A*P*E*, Badlands 2005), Jay Huguely (Jason Goes to Hell), Andrew Schneider (the “Stop Susan Williams” and “Ther Secret Empire” chapters of Cliffhangers!), Stephen A. Miller (My Bloody Valentine), J. Miyoko Hensley (who wrote the Remo Williams: The Prophecy pilot) and even notorious celebrity fixer and detective Anthony Pellicano, as well as directors like David Hemmings (yes, from Deep Red), John Llewellyn Moxey, Jackie Cooper and Robert Loggia, amongst so many others.

The Mill Creek blu ray box set of Magnum P.I. has all 158 episodes of the show, as well as new interviews with composer Mike Post, writer/producer Chris Abbott, author C. Courtney Joyner on the sixty year career of director Virgil Vogel and actress/writer Deborah Pratt (who was the voice of the narrator and Ziggy on Quantum Leap). Plus, you also get two Tom Selleck guest star roles on The Rockford Files, featurettes on The Great 80’s TV Flashback and Inside the Ultimate Crime Crossover (Magnum P.I. and Murder, She Wrote) and audio commentary on three season 8 episodes.

Much like how Magnum was a calming part of my young life, having this set on my shelf during these turbulent times is just as warm of a feeling. Get this set and let the 80s wash over you like the beaches of Waikiki.

You can get this set from Deep Discount.

The last episode under the Ghost Story title, as well as the last appearance of Sebastian Cabot hosting as Winston Essex, “Time of Terror” is one of the darkest episodes in the series, based on Elizabeth Walter’s short story “Traveling Companion” and written by Jimmy Sangster.

Patricia Neal, who was in another Ghost Story, is Ellen Alexander. She has finally convinced her husband to take time away from his work and take her on vacation, but nearly as soon as they check in to a casino hotel, his bags are packed and he’s moved to another room. She can no longer find him and is horrified to discover a lottery in the main room where couples are tearfully split up forever when their numbers are called.

Beyond Neal, who is perfect in this, Craig Stevens is hotel manager, full of calm in the face of telling people the inevitable. He’s usually remembered for playing Peter Gunn, but he’s quite good here in a different role. Alice Ghostley plays a domineering woman who is struck down by the game, wondering why they planned and dreamed so much when her husband’s number is called. It was also great to see Lynn Hamilton, who was so good as Fred Sanford’s love interest Donna.

Director Robert Day started his career in England before coming to America, where he mainly worked in television. That said, his directed work is more memorable than many of his contemporaries thanks to his solid guidance of movies like Ritual of Evil, The Initiation of Sarah and Scruples.

This episode has stayed with me longer than any of the others in the series. If you’re going to pick just one of these to watch — or want to know which episode to start with — this would be it.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Note: Thanks to Bruce Kimmel for his notes on this, which were adjusted in the copy above.

The first Ultraman was introduced to our world — as well as the universe of this movie in 1966. As children, Daigo Madoka, Shin Asuka and Gamu Takayama were inspired by the show and never forgot about their hero, even after they grew up. Nor did they forget the strange girl they met the first day they saw Ultraman, who asked them to make wishes for their futures, with Shin wanting to be a baseball player and Gamu thinking of his scientist future in which he builds the ship that Daigo will fly to M78, Ultraman’s planet.

Decades pass and one day, Daigo has a vision of a battle between Alien Nackle and Alien Guts versus four of the Ultraman Brothers. Strangely enough, Daigo knows that the Ultras that are losing the battle are his friends Hayata, Dan, Go and Hokuto. No one believes him, but soon, he finds his way into another world where he helps Ultraman Mebius defeat Monster Gesura. That’s when he realizes that he must rally his friends to bring back Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Tiga, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Mebius and Ultraman Ace.

After all, anyone who believes in Ultraman can achieve victory.

I loved this movie, which brings together so many Ultraman characters into one great film. It’s filled with so much joy and was the perfect antidote for the darkness I keep feeling creeping into the edges of life. It made me remember when I was a young kid, screaming every time Ultraman started losing power and wondering if he had enough to save the day.

You can get Superior 8 Ultra Brothers on blu ray from Mill Creek. The official page has all the information you need and you can order it directly from Deep Discount.