Remote Control Man

This episode of "Amazing Stories" has all the subtlety of a stripper appearing at a Baptist barbecue! It is yet another example of why "Amazing Stories" will never be considered a classic--which is amazing considering the show was produced by Steven Spielberg. Instead of being interesting and compelling, it just comes off as ridiculous and cartoonish.

The show is about a very henpecked man, Mr. Poindexter. Poindexter's wife and sons are caricatures of human beings and were just terribly written. The wife is violent and abusive as are the sons--and are so far over the top it ruins the show. It's sad because in stark contrast is Poindexter--a likable and interesting shmoe who is being abused by his horrid family. When the hellish wife gets rid of Poindexter's TV, he buys another one--and it has a magical remote control. The magical remote turns his family members into various TV characters--most of which end up being among the more annoying and talentless folks from television of the era.

In many ways, this is a crap version of a funny old "Twilight Zone" episode involving a camera that takes pictures of the future. But this old "Twilight Zone" was FUNNY and although the characters were silly, they were not like cartoon characters nor were they grating idiots.

Overall, a shabbily written story that was written, I assume, by a 6 year-old. The concept could have worked but the show simply was badly written, loud and annoying.

I know most if your like me you enjoy TV and look at it as an escape route to get away from the problems of life by watching the stars and characters on the screen, well a lot of us would like to even be on TV! I watched again this "Amazing Stories" episode called "Remote Control Man" and many of those mentioned themes rang true. This episode is well done and directed by Bob Clark(of "Porky's" and "A Christmas Story" fame). Anyway it's a tale of an underpaid and stressed out guy who works to hard at the job, and on the downside his home life is hell as he has a young punk son and an ugly overweight loud talking wife. This man's only relieve is to chill and relax out in front of the TV by watching his favorite shows and characters, only after the wife throws away his first TV he finds another special one. And with this TV it brings the stars and characters out of his set all to become real life. As with this remote he can cut off his family by tuning them out! It was nice seeing appearances from Gary Coleman, Ed McMahon, Richard Simmons, and the sexy Kiristin Alfonso. Only in the end to much TV is enough he must tune back to real life. This episode teaches the moral don't let TV overtake your life live in the real world and let TV and it's characters be only an imagination escape.

This episode is bizarre and makes no sense at all, but it's funny, so that doesn't matter. I'm not going to write a long summary of the episode like other "reviewers" did, because that's not what a review is. A review is what I THINK of it, not a list of every event of the episode. What I think is that the plot makes little sense, but that's okay since it's just bizarre funniness. When I was a kid I would've loved for television characters to come out of my television set! I might even still like that now. I don't think it necessarily has to result in chaos, like in this episode. Of course then that wouldn't be funny.

The outrageously-exaggerated characters in the Poindexter family in this episode are a real hoot to watch - extremely funny. Sydney Lassick was "Walter Poindexter" is a great character, someone whose face you'll instantly recognize but you don't know his name. He plays a brutally-henpecked guy, whose wife "Grendel" is like the woman in "Throw Momma Off The Train." His two kids are also characterizations: the spoiled, evil brat little fat kid and his older brother, the hare Krishna. Then there are all the viscous dogs Walter has to contend with every time he comes home. All of this is very funny material.

Walter's only escape from this Family From Hell is his television set and when his wife sells that to buy a hooker's outfit, he goes looking for a new set. What he gets is unbelievable - a modern "space age" set in which he remote turns his life in TV chaos. The story just goes insane with a ton of cameo appearances by television stars well-known when this program aired in 1984.

Lassick really gives it his all in this episode, which turns bizarre but fun for TV trivia fans. You see everybody from Barbara Billingsley of "Leave It To Beaver" to exercise guru Richard Simmons. A wild, insane episode.