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  • NBC
  • Sep 29, 1985
  • NBC
  • Sep 29, 1985
Amazing Stories

Summary Amazing Stories is an incredible collection of short tales from the creative mind of Steven Spielberg. Most episodes ran in a half-hour time slot, with only a few going longer than that. In spite of the brevity of the show, each episode packs in a well-developed story, along with some subtle commentaries on human nature and morality.

  • NBC
  • Sep 29, 1985
  • NBC
  • Sep 29, 1985
Amazing Stories
Season 1
Season Premiere: Sep 29, 1985
Metascore Mixed or Average Based on 5 Critic Reviews
56
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Where to Watch

Summary Amazing Stories is an incredible collection of short tales from the creative mind of Steven Spielberg. Most episodes ran in a half-hour time slot, with only a few going longer than that. In spite of the brevity of the show, each episode packs in a well-developed story, along with some subtle commentaries on human nature and morality.

Where to Watch

Season Episodes

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Episode 1 • Sep 29, 1985 • 25 m
Ghost Train
Opa Globe is convinced it is his destiny to board a train he inadvertently caused to crash 75 years ago, and tells his nine-year old grandson the old Highball Express will careen through their house.
Episode 2 • Oct 6, 1985 • 25 m
The Main Attraction
Athletic teenage hunk Brad Bender thinks he is too cool for nerdy classmate Shirley, who is crazy over him, until, to his horror, a meteor shower's power suddenly turns him into a human magnet.
Episode 3 • Oct 20, 1985 • 25 m
Alamo Jobe
During the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, 15-year-old messenger Jobe H. Farnum is about to be killed. He is transported forward in time to San Antonio in 1985. The 1980s prove to be too much for Jobe to handle.
Episode 4 • Oct 27, 1985 • 25 m
Mummy Daddy
A dedicated actor in a realistic mummy costume that he can't take off is shooting a movie in a swamp. When he hears his wife is in labor, he runs towards the town but the local rednecks think he's the real deal and form a posse.
Episode 5 • Nov 3, 1985 • 46 m
The Mission
A courageous young World War II gunner and aspiring cartoonist, trapped in the belly gun of a B-17 aircraft with the landing gear destroyed, has only his imagination as a force that might be able to save him.
Episode 6 • Nov 5, 1985 • 25 m
The Amazing Falsworth
Episode 7 • Nov 10, 1985 • 25 m
Fine Tuning
Three high-school kids build an antenna that can catch signals from outer space. They learn that the aliens are big fans of 1950s American television and are coming to Hollywood to meet some of their favorite Earth stars.
Episode 8 • Nov 17, 1985 • 25 m
Mr. Magic
Old-timer Lou Bundles, once a world-famous magician, is now fumbling every trick, and desperately purchases an amazing old deck of cards at a small magic shop in hopes of going out in a spectacular display of legerdemain.
Episode 9 • Dec 1, 1985 • 25 m
Guilt Trip
Overworked and exhausted, the emotion Guilt in human personification takes a fateful cruise and falls in love with Love.
Episode 10 • Dec 8, 1985 • 25 m
Remote Control Man
Episode 11 • Dec 15, 1985 • 25 m
Santa '85
Episode 12 • Dec 29, 1985 • 25 m
Vanessa in the Garden
Episode 13 • Jan 5, 1986 • 25 m
The Sitter
A Jamaican babysitter uses voodoo to tame a pair of mischievous, stir-crazy boys.
Episode 14 • Jan 12, 1986 • 24 m
No Day at the Beach
Episode 15 • Jan 19, 1986 • 25 m
One for the Road
In 1934, a couple of South Bronx barflies try to kill drunk Mike Malloy for his insurance money and find they're tangling with much more than they bargained for.
Episode 16 • Feb 2, 1986 • 25 m
Gather Ye Acorns
Jonathan Quick, the bane of his practical parents' existence, takes an ancient tree troll's advice to pack up his treasured comic-book collection and follow his heart. And so, fifty years later..
Episode 17 • Feb 16, 1986 • 25 m
Boo!
Sweet, old-fashioned ghosts Nelson and Evelyn Chumsky are aghast when a porn queen and her sleazy husband move into their home, and try to scare the raunchy new residents away.
Episode 18 • Mar 2, 1986 • 25 m
Dorothy and Ben
It is shocking enough when old Ben Dumfy emerges like Rip Van Winkle from a 40-year coma, but his special mental communication with Dorothy, a comatose 7-year-old, leads to an even greater miracle. But there's a price.
Episode 19 • Mar 9, 1986 • 24 m
Mirror, Mirror
While guesting on a talk show, horror novelist Jordan Manmouth claims he is immune to being frightened by the nightmarish creatures he creates - and comes to regret the taunt when he is terrorized by a black-caped phantom.
Episode 20 • Apr 6, 1986 • 25 m
Secret Cinema
Young everyday woman Jane becomes convinced that someone is recording and influencing her everyday life and that she's become the unwilling star of a secret cinema.
Episode 21 • Apr 13, 1986 • 25 m
Hell Toupee
Defense attorney Harry Ballentine is understandably nervous when his client is mild-mannered accountant Murray Bernstein - who after investing in a strange toupee had felt compelled to murder the first lawyer he saw. Harry goes after it.
Episode 22 • May 4, 1986 • 25 m
The Doll
The lonely, loveless life of a shy bachelor takes an astounding turn when he buys a special doll, exquisitely hand-crafted by a mysterious German toymaker. He tries to track down the woman who modeled for it.
Episode 23 • May 11, 1986 • 25 m
One for the Books
Episode 24 • May 25, 1986 • 24 m
Grandpa's Ghost
Edwin's grandpa died in his sleep last night. So why is the old man still hanging around the apartment, playing the piano and swapping stories with Edwin's grandma?

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 5 Critic Reviews
56
20% Positive
1 Review
80% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Mixed or Average Based on 5 Critic Reviews
56
20% Positive
1 Review
80% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
90
Jan 21, 2020
"Ghost Train" was an auspicious start...Spielberg has been working with movies of two or three hours length for a long time, but he can still tell a powerful story in the 25-or-less minutes allowed in a half-hour of commercial television. [30 Sept 1985, p.C-7]
By Robert P. Laurence
60
Jul 2, 2013
Too many episodes have strained for comic-book laughs revolving around TV in-jokes.... Yet even the worst shows have had moments of wit and a let's-try-anything charm.
By Richard Zoglin FULL REVIEW
50
Jan 21, 2020
Amazing Stories was a long foul ball. We're talking the gestation period of an elephant here, and the birth of a dormouse. [3 Oct 1985, p.C-11]
50
Jan 21, 2020
The great thing about anthologies is that this week's letdown may give way to next week's revelation. Spielberg has many stories yet to tell. We sit here hopeful and eager and rooting for Spielberg to make good on his promise. He has, to paraphrase Noel Coward, a talent to amaze; perhaps it will be more merrily exercised in weeks to come. [30 Sept 1985, p.C1]
By Tom Shales
40
Jan 21, 2020
Not so amazing...All that waiting and wondering about the premiere of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories" came to an end Sunday. Now there will be waiting and wondering anew -- to see if it will get better. [2 Oct 1985, p.6-1]
By Howard Rosenberg

User Reviews

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