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From: dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Amazing Stories 11/10/85
Message-ID: <478@cylixd.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Nov-85 10:35:23 EST
Article-I.D.: cylixd.478
Posted: Tue Nov 12 10:35:23 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Nov-85 05:13:13 EST
Reply-To: dave@cylixd.UUCP (Dave Kirby)
Organization: RCA Cylix Communications , Memphis, TN
Lines: 48


Okay, I know that Amazing Stories has been beaten to death recently,
but last Sunday's episode was SO BAD that I just can't hold myself
back. A new low has been reached in the Amazing Stories series. I
truly wonder how it can possibly get worse than this.

I refer, of course, to the insipid story of the little kid who was
able to receive outer space broadcasts on his TV set with an antenna 
made from a broken umbrella. The story was ruined for me at the first
when he has fiddling around with the TV and started picking up 
broadcasts from China. Since other countries use different broadcast
frequencies and different picture scan parameters, the reception he 
got would be impossible. All right, I know, this show is for kids. You 
have to be willing to suspend logic and knowledge to stomach anything
this series has shown. But what followed was so stupid I wondered how
many 8-year-olds felt their intelligence was insulted.

I kept on watching it, like a fool, hoping it would get better (for the
same reason some people hold on to stocks in a falling market, I guess).
The episode quickly went downhill from there, with the kids meeting the
aliens and touring Hollywood with them, and... well, if you saw the
show, you don't want to be reminded, so I'll stop with the synopsis.
(If you didn't see the show, believe me, you don't want to know.)

The whole thing reminded me of a modern Saturday morning cartoon. And
that is the single worst insult I could ever give a program.

So why don't I just stop watching the series? That is precisely what 
I intend to do. I was willing to give the show a few weeks to get 
better, since during sweep month most shows offer their most mindless
episodes in order to attract the average TV watcher. I have watched it 
up to now because I was afraid I would miss a really good episode when 
things got better. And I sure thought I had struck pay dirt with the 
WW II episode.  But its insipid ending made me realise that Spielberg 
does not intend to put out any quality at all in this series; even 
when he has a good episode going, he finds a way to ruin it.

But this last one took the cake. It was so insulting it made me
angry. I'll make a special effort to miss this show from now on, and
tune in to Hitchcock, which has proven to be the best of the three new
anthology series so far.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Kirby    ( ...!ihnp4!akgub!cylixd!dave)

(The views expressed herein are the exclusive property of Dave Kirby.
Any person, living or dead, found with the same or similar opinions
will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of law.)