Great Ghost Tales

This show was remarkably similar to Way Out which aired on CBS from 3/31/61 to 7/14/61. They both were televised live on video in New York City. They focused on the ghostly, the unexplainable, the supernatural. Just as Way Out was short lived with 14 episodes so was Great Ghost Tales with 12 episodes. Great Ghost Tales aired on NBC from 7/6/61 to 9/21/61.

Because both were short lived and have become obscure with the passing of time, I doubt if any video company will place them on market to the public. Maybe CBS and NBC could work out a deal with people like myself and others whose heart was big over the episodes of Way Out and Great Ghost Tales.

I think I only saw one or two episodes of this show, so long ago. But that episode was never forgotten: "The Wendigo", based on a story by Algernon Blackwood. The utter horror of this tale was something I had never encountered at that young age.

I found the story to read (it's easy to find) and it's even more horrific. A real nightmare.

Too bad, but the TV series was broadcast live, so few tapings of it are in existence. However, you never know when some archivist may turn up with unexpected copies that might be issued so we can all see this show again.

I was but a lad of 9 years when this series was broadcast. The individual episodes were uneven in quality, but the best (including "Number 13," "The Wendigo" and "Mr. Arcularis") gave me delightful nightmares. They were live broadcasts and at their best had a stark, riveting quality. The source materials included classic stories by Poe, Algernon Blackwood and other masters of horror. In fact, I was introduced to dark fantasy literature through TV shows like this and "Thriller." It would be great if someone could issue these on DVD or video, because their subtlety would be a revelation and an object lesson for those viewers used to the overly-explicit horror of recent decades.

Strange to think these live TV shows are now lost (I've read that taped copies of two unnamed episodes were discovered a few years ago). I must have been only ten or eleven when I saw "The Monkey's Paw" and "Room 13". One show, the name of which I don't remember, took place aboard the Titanic and was not particularly scary (although I can remember parts of it, so it must have impressed me in some way). I know the others scared the stuffing out of me. I can still vividly remember the scene in "The Monkey's Paw" when the moonlight shadow of the boy who was mangled by farm machinery ripples across the front of his father's old house, or the hellish fate that awaited the unlucky hotel guest who stumbled into the supposedly non-existent "Room 13." I would love to view those shows again just to see if they live up to my childhood memories. Alas, they likely only exist in the minds and imaginations of those who saw them in 1961.

I watched this show when I was 10 (I wasn't allowed to watch it, but my mom was at work so...). One episode concerned a mirror that held a lot more than one's reflection. For years afterwards I couldn't look in a mirror without real fear & a sense of dread. And The Monkey's Paw -- terrifying! I would love to watch them again & see if they were truly as scary as I remember. Maybe being "live" made them seem more real.