Gilmore Girls/Outer Limits/TNT's Monstervision

It's a TV mash up entry! It didn't start this way, but it's the way it turned out.

I wanted to share some OUTER LIMITS clips I found. Then I thought, "Who remembers THE OUTER LIMITS?"

I remember a character in the TV show GILMORE GIRLS quoting an OUTER LIMITS episode and one of the other characters (one of those gawrsh darned cute Gilmore Girls) asking what that was. Thanks to the Internets, one can find ANYTHING -- so here's the dialogue:

Lorelai: This whole morning has been a little Twilight Zone-y.
Luke: Or Outer Limits-y
Lorelai: What?
Luke: Great show. Just as eerie, same era but no one ever references it.
Lorelai: Oh, I'm sorry, I don't speak geek.
Luke: Yep, stepped right in it.

(script found at the TV.com GG Web site.)

Like I said, this is all to introduce a discovery. I just found some OUTER LIMITS clips and behind the scenes comments by Leslie Stevens, Harlan Ellison and Robert Culp here. This is a compilation of videos, originally produced in the 1990s for the Monstervision series.

"Demon With a Glass Hand," a second season episode written by Harlan Ellison and directed by Byron Haskin hit me like a sack of wonderfulness when I was ten years old. It was weird and wasn't like anything I had ever seen before. It was (as Ellison says in the clip) a film noir piece, about a man with no memory, and a glass hand. All he knows is that he is being hunted. I remember being wowed by it, despite the fact that the aliens looked pretty lame. The black raccoon eyes and shower caps they wore betrayed how shoestring the OUTER LIMITS budget was. Regardless, it was fun to find some of the people involved with the production talking about that episode.

Some background on Monstervision (one of Stephanie's favorite shows):

Monstervision was a regular late night TV series of horror/SciFi movies with host Joe Bob Briggs wisecracking (and being more entertaining than the schlock you were watching). Some fan comments on IMDB here. He has a fan following because he's funny and he actually has a lot of knowledge about the movies that he skewers. This, of course, lets you in on his sincere affection for schlock -- which means, he's like you: if he wasn't hosting a show with dumb monsters, he's be home, eating popcorn, watching the dumb monsters and slashers and zombies, like you.

I used to watch every once in a while, and loved the description of the movies. Here's a bit from his intro to the movie of BUFFY, THE VAMPIRE SLAYER:

"We have: Twelve dead bodies. One dead fly. Multiple heart-staking. Neck-biting. Fingernail-chewing. Weenie-slicing. Eight zombies. Nose-punching. Arm-ripping. Cat-snacking. One vampire brawl. Flaming face. Flagpole through the gizzards. Two motor vehicle chases, with crash. Gratuitous cheerleader practice, with Funky Chicken. Kung Fu. Bimbo Fu. Electrocution Fu. Three stars. Check it out."

Joe Bob sings about Monstervision here.

Some commercials for Monstervision here.

End of TV talk ... for now!