
Amazing Stories
1985 - 1987
- Season 1
- Season 2
Where to Watch
SERIES STILLS
- SERIES STILLS
- PRODUCTION STILLS

Brian (Lukas Haas, left) sits with his Opa (Roberts Blossom), who tells the young boy a tale of The Highball Express, a ghost train the old timer is convinced will return to carry him on to his destiny. From "Ghost Train," from a story by and directed by Steven Spielberg.

An actor (Tom Harrison, center) in a horror movie is mistaken as a real mummy by a superstitious lynch mob (two members, pictured, played by Tracey Walter (left) and Brion James (far right) in "Mummy, Daddy."

Captain (Kevin Costner, front, right) looks on with awe at his crew's gunner (Casey Siemaszko, front, left), a talented young cartoonist with an indescribably powerful imagination in "The Mission," directed by Steven Spielberg.

Gregory Hines (right) plays a nightclub mesmerist with a precognitive gift—or curse—in "The Amazing Falsworth."

Milton Berle contends with overzealous fans, tourists to Los Angeles from another galaxy in "Fine Tuning."

Television pioneer Sid Caesar returns to the small screen for "Amazing Stories" as Mr. Magic, aka Lou Bundles, a once legendary but now inept magician who wishes for just a bit more magic so he can take his proper final bow. From the episode "Mr. Magic."

Funnyman Dom DeLuise ("An American Tail") stars as Guilt, who meets and falls in love with Love (Loni Anderson) in the comical "Amazing Stories" episode "Guilt Trip," directed by Burt Reynolds.

Santa (Douglas Seale) does hard time in the hoosegow after inadvertently setting off a burglar alarm while delivering toys one Christmas Eve. It's up to a brave little boy named Bobby (Gabriel Damon) to spring the kindly Kringle from the clink so Christmas isn't canceled in "Santa '85."

Bad boys Dennis (Joshua Rudoy, left) and Lance (Seth Green) create chaos and square off with their mystical babysitter Jennifer Mowbray (Mabel King) and her power of imaginative and hilarious hoodoo in "The Sitter." Beware the Duppy!

Ben (Joe Senca, right) and parents (Kathleen Lloyd, center; Joe Regalbuto, left) watch over Dorothy (Natalie Gregory) as she lies locked in a coma. Ben, risen after a 40-year coma, provides a psychic conduit to Dorothy's mind for her grieving parents in "Dorothy and Ben".

Jordan Manmouth (Sam Waterston), a mega-successful writer of horror fiction, pauses to reflect on his own real-life terrors in "Mirror, Mirror," directed by Martin Scorsese.

John Lithgow plays lonely man John Walters, who finds a connection with another via a unique, hand-crafted doll in "The Doll, written by genre legend Richard Matheson. Lithgow earned an Emmy Award for his performance in this episode.

Leo Penn (right) plays Fred, a janitor at a college stricken with mental overload when his brain begins to rapidly intake and process knowledge at an unprecedented pace. Fred's wife Eva (Joyce Van Patten) and scientists are at a loss for Fred's condition in "One for the Books," from a teleplay by writer Richard Matheson.

Lois (Rhea Perlman) promises to love and cherish her husband Herbert (Danny DeVito) 'til death does them part—which could be sooner rather than later thanks to a cursed heirloom Herb slips onto Lois' finger in "The Wedding Ring." DeVito also directed the comedy-thriller episode.

Phil (Jon Cryer) is a randy college student who discovers a magical formula for meeting beautiful girls of all kinds—alive and dead—in "Miscalculation."

Marky (Taliesin Jaffe, right) is able to gift his grandpa "Stormin' Norman" (M. Emmet Walsh, left) the chance of leaving his old, ailing body for one last, magical Saturday as only a boy can enjoy that most glorious and free weekend day. From the episode "Magic Saturday," written by Richard Christian Matheson.

In "Welcome to My Nightmare," Harry (David Hollander, left) is a horror movie fan with an overactive imagination which unceremoniously drops him into Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." Sometimes movies are best enjoyed within the safe confines of the silver screen.

A horrific and all-too-real nightmare convinces Earl Sweet (Charles Durning) that he has seen a premonition—and not a mere dream—of a tragedy involving a downed 747 in "You Gotta Believe Me."

A strange, storybook creature attempts to eat a mother (Haley Mills) out of hearth, house, home and sanity when it suddenly intrudes on her quiet suburban life in "The Griebble." Directed by Joe Dante, from a teleplay by Mick Garris based on a story by Steven Spielberg. The impressive animatronic/puppet effects for the Greibble were created by Rob Bottin ("Twilight Zone The Movie.")

Patrick Swayze and Hector Elizondo square off in "Life on Death Row," director Mick Garris' tale of a murderer gifted with the power to heal others by touch... just as he himself is about to be executed for his crimes.

Professor Beanes (Christopher Lloyd, right) threatens Peter Brand (Scott Coffey, left) with a visit from "The Misters" for passing notes with the beautiful Cynthia (Mary Stuart Masterson, center, soft-focus) during his lecture in "Go to the Head of the Class," directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future").

David Carradine plays the cruel and greedy Calvin in "Thanksgiving," the story of a man who attempts to exchange goods for gold, but himself becomes a precious commodity.

Elma Dinnock (Polly Holliday, Mrs. Deagle from "Gremlins") cannot get a break when it comes to the annual pumpkin-growing contest in "The Pumpkin Competition." Here, she glowers at her longtime rival Mildred (June Lockhart) following her decades of growing the winning gourd. Directed by Norman Reynolds, the production designer of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

A dying scientist uploads the data of his mind into a computer system in "The Eternal Mind," a story that explores the incompatibilities of the nature of biological beings and artificial intelligence.

A struggling sitcom scribe (Robert Townsend) finds the perfect writing partner in the most improbable of places: a houseplant exposed to a constant stream of comedy from the life-giving light of the cathode ray.† (†That's old TV tech for you youngsters out there.)

Dog (at times a quivering, snarling, white-hot ball of canine terror), is only too unhappy to play dress-up with his girl, Buffy Binford (voiced by Brooke Ashley) in "Family Dog," writer-director Brad Bird's animated story of a put-upon pooch living in suburbia.

Jo-Jo Gillespie (Bob Balaban, center), a failing Broadway composer, calls on the help of the deceased George Gershwin through the conduit of a spiritualist to help his flagging career. Paul Bartel (right) costars as Detective Watts, who suspects Gillespie of foul play in the making of his musical.

The lives of the Lewis family are upturned when oddball occupants of mysterious origin move in next door in "Such Interesting Neighbors."

A missing daughter reappears in the lives of her parents 40 years on, only while they have aged, their child has not in "Without Diana," a tender tale of loss and closure directed by Lesli Linka Glatter from a teleplay by Mick Garris.

Cabbage Man (Weird Al Yankovic) threatens PR flack Joe Willoughby (Dick Shawn) about how the results of a suddenly intergalactic beauty competition should shake out in "Miss Stardust." Directed by Tobe Hooper ("Poltergeist") from a teleplay by Thomas Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson, from Matheson's father Richard's short story.































"Ghost Train" director Steven Spielberg talks with his young performer Lukas Haas, while director of photography Allen Daviau ("E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial") observes.

Lukas Haas (foreground), with his "Ghost Train" director Steven Spielberg on the boy's bedroom set of the premiere episode of "Amazing Stories." The episode features not only a full-size locomotive, but also a toy train set, a meaningful image in numerous Spielberg films.

Steven Spielberg preps his crew for filming "The Mission," his hour-long special episode of "Amazing Stories."

Director Steven Spielberg councils the clergy in the finer points of calling last rites for a dead-man coming in for a crash landing in "The Mission."

Director Steven Spielberg observes playback in an early "video village" on the stage of "The Mission," his special hour-long episode† of "Amazing Stories" from the first season. (†46 minutes without commercial breaks.)

Director Peter Hyams (left) consults with his actors Gregory Hines (center) and Richard Masur (right) between setups on "The Amazing Falsworth."

Director Peter Hyams, himself often camera operator on his own features and shows, frames a shot for "The Amazing Falsworth."

Milton Berle, who makes a special appearance as himself in "Fine Tuning," on location with his director Bob Balaban ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind").

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese, also a personal friend of "Amazing Stories" creator Steven Spielberg, sets up a shot in the cramped quarters of a bathroom set filled with mirrors in his episode "Mirror, Mirror."

Director Phil Joanou (right) was given the opportunity to direct two "Amazing Stories" fresh out of film school. Here, he and his Emmy Award-winning lead actor John Lithgow (left) listen to an off-camera associate between takes on "The Doll."

Danny DeVito takes his crew through the paces for what he needs to capture a particularly kinetic comedy sequence in "The Wedding Ring."

"Amazing Stories" series story editor-writer Mick Garris cuts his directing teeth on "Life on Death Row," the story of a prisoner with a miraculous gift.

Joan Darling directs "What If...?" the story of a lonely, neglected little boy written by Anne Spielberg. Another Spielberg connection: Darling appeared as an actress in Steven Spielberg's "Par for the Course" (1971), an episode of "The Psychiatrist" in which she gives an especially moving performance as a grieving widow.

An odd assemblage of extra-terrestrials and human beings backstage at the Miss Stardust beauty competition including Cabbage Man (Weird Al Yankovic, far left), and PR stiff Joe Willoughby (Dick Shawn, far right).

Director Tobe Hooper ("Poltergeist") sets up a shot for "Miss Stardust," the final amazing story of the series.














