User reviews

It's too bad they don't have shows like this anymore. I know there's a Ripley's show on today, but that seems to focus more on the strange human stunts like contortion-ism and pulling cinder blocks with your ear lobes. The original Ripley's talked more about History and traditions of other cultures. To me it seemed much more educational.

When this show first came on (I was about 10 years old), it kind of scared me because they showed scenes from "The Elephant Man" and "The Howling", which were brand new movies back then. I was a little squeamish with the effects from those movies, but now I love them and own those movies today. Wish I could own episodes of Ripley's, because after I got over my squeamishness, I really grew to love that show.

Jack Palance made the show. He put a real flare on his presentations that only he could pull off. I liked how he would end a sequence with "Believe it........... Or Not!". He would always put that breathless type of enthusiasm behind his narratives, so that you felt he really loved the subject matter. The female co-hosts did great jobs too. I liked his daughter Holly the best.

I can still see and hear the opening credits in my mind. This was just a quality show that you don't see too much of these days. Forget "reality TV" today, we should go back to these showcase shows like Ripley's, That's Incredible and Real People.

I wish they would bring this version of Ripley's to DVD. Not just a "Best of", but the entire series. Like I said, it was more educational and family oriented and I think we need to bring that back.

Believe it...... Or Not!

This program was never number 1 in the ratings which means either the ratings are more political than real, or a whole lot of folks missed an excellent program.

Jack Palance is tour DE force doing this show. A lot of his opening sequences were classic. The show had lots of material to draw from as Robert L Ripley never seems to run out of facts that are astonishing. What is even better is how they were assembled by Palance & Crew. The Mancini theme & storytelling has rarely been done better than it was here.

Holly Palance was excellent support on these shows too. The shows were never boring as a lot of major work in production of sequences show quality in every part. A fine program that was better than a lot of them when it aired. If you look at the syndicated attempt made since & compare it with this show, you will see the quality of production difference immediately.

Ripley's Believe It or Not with Jack Palance was a quality show. Jack Palance would travel all over the world for his on-site introductions to show segments. It is another of the missing TV shows that belong on DVD. The first season was the best. In season two, when Holly Palance came in as co-host, the writing and production staff was cut, from the credits I saw on the shows I taped from the series. Jimmy Sangster, of Hammer Film Studio fame, was one member of the writing team in season one and part of season two, before the apparent budget cutbacks. The closing credits show the effort that went into this show, credits crammed with the names of professionals who worked on this documentary series. I have read that the budget for this show was $1.5 million per episode, a lot of money in the early 80s. All that money bought a lot of photographers, negative cutters and support staff then. The segments on the shows varied from the serious (the WW2 man who wasn't there) to the goofy (supposedly Jack Palance, in an ape suit, riding around Las Vegas in an open air convertible prior to introducing the Marquis performing chimps). ABC should reissue season one of this show on DVD.

Shakespeare once said, "There are more things on Heaven and Earth." I've always believed that, from all the things that we discover, see, and have even accomplished you can't honestly classify any of this as normal because normal doesn't exist. Because all those things we see and do around us require a certain amount of peculiarity contained within to drive a person to create or do something, as well as some inspiration, or even just nor reason at all, which is why the world is a strange yet fascinating place.

This is another one of my favorite documentary/history programs because it deals in one of my favorite kinds of history which is on Strange History and Facts. It's also another one of my childhood gems, as a kid I was into the unexplained phenomena/strange mystery genre but I never have heard about "Ripley's Believe it or Not" until I actually saw episodes of the series and it blew me away, opened my eyes even wider realizing that there truly was more to this world than we would see in our modern day existence. And on a side note this is another one of the shows that came out on my birth year so you can see how special this show is to me.

Jack Palace is a great host (I also like him as an actor), he's really is a perfect fit for this show as he's always has that interesting dry slightly gravely tone almost like that for a villain which of course was the kind of role he played a lot. But what I like about his hosting is he's sort of like our history teacher but nice, a soothing mannerism and kind of funny as Jack always has this sharp dry charisma and dry humor. He really had a lot of enthusiasm and quiet energy in the subject matter he was hosting, unlike most other documentarians or history teachers that half ass in what their teaching that obviously don't care about the subject matter.

Really love the theme song which is one of my favorite themes of all time, as it's by one of my favorite composers Harry Mancini; even love that in the theme they had a lot of the actual animated sketch pictures which were always in Ripley's old books and is something sorely miss in the current books; whether you believed in what was being displayed or not all the same those sketch pictures were just so cool to look at, I'd love to put some of those pictures on my personal art gallery.

Like how the episodes are constructed as there is some variety, which keeps things getting stale in which each episode is anything but. We would see current documentary footage, reenactments for the historical segments, though sometimes some footage from old films depending on the historical subject, and sometimes in between they would have some short facts displayed with the sketch picture, that I thought was a cool touch, making it feel like you still reading one of the books. Each episode was always a mystery as there were always something different presented. Whenever I watch an episode, I always wonder what else are we going to learn about.

There are some historical stories and worldly facts I really like, that motivated me into studding some history as well as global culture, normally I'm not a buff on those things, it usually depends on the subject matter I'm interested in, this show got me plenty interested. Though also interested in traveling to some of those countries and having adventures of my one.

Some of the stories are El Cid whom was a king for his time that died, yet his subject propped his body to lead the final battle. One other story of on the death of a prince and the bride to be so overcome with grief and heartache just suddenly dies for causes unknown, I personally think it was what's considered in the medical field Heartbreak syndrome but since medical science was never advanced in the time of that story we'll never really know. A rhapsody while a piano song is playing a group of people are being slapped in sequence, I know they we're making music but ouch. Or in Spain people dressing up in some strange ghost like outfits and play some sort of music as part of a traditions they hold. The list goes on you just must see it to believe it, that is if you want to of course.

If you're into the subject of strange history and facts, or even familiar with the "Ripley's Believe it or Not" book series this show is for you. "Truth can be stranger than fiction."

Rating: 4 stars

This was one of the finest show's of the early 1980's. Jack Palance was always one of the scariest actors to grace the motion picture and television screens and this show only added to this mystique. Not only was it educational, but it was fun as well and it showed what a gift Palance had for storytelling. The one segment that really showed that talent was when he related the murder of Rasputin. Not only did he tell the story, but he almost seemed to act it out and made it come alive. Of course balancing things out were his female co-hosts and the best of them was his daughter Holly. She brought a sense of normalcy to the show and really made the show informative as well as bizarre. Too bad the new version couldn't take lessons from this version. While that one seems to delight in shocking people, this version was very enjoyable to watch.

I loved watching this show when I was in high school. Jack Palance and his daughter Holly did a wonderful job in putting together an amazing show. He had a ball hosting it and he took us along for the ride. I loved it when he acted out certain parts. Jack is a ham but he is always a joy to watch. I remember when he won his Oscar for City Slickers and did push ups on the stage! and that wonderful speech he gave! (Billy Crystal...I crap bigger then him!)I think that my favorite story that they did on this show was the one about Phineas Gage. He was a Vermont railway worker who suffered a horrifying accident in 1848. He was shot thru the skull and brain with a heavy iron bar and lived a normal life for another thirteen years!

I loved this show! I really did. It was on Sunday nights from 1982- 86 from 8-9 PM. I watched it all the time. For example, there was one episode about the B-19, which was the largest plane built, but it never made it to combat. That was in the first season. At the beginning of another episode, he talked about the death of Rasputin. Holly Palance, in one episode, talked about the tomato, and why people in the 19th century thought it was poisonous. It was an education. Over the four-year run of the show, there were three co-hosts, Holly Palance, Catherine Schirrif, and country singer Marie Osmond. Marie Osmond was on in the last season. My rating: *****.

I absolutely love this show! Jack Palance was excellent as the host! I loved it on ABC in the eighties. I last saw this show in 1997 on the SCI-FI Channel and I miss it terribly! I was able to tape many of the episodes off of TV, but I have watched them so much that they are getting worn out. Some tapes from 1984 and 1985 are literally on their last legs! I wish this 1982-1986 version of Ripley's Believe it or Not would get a release on DVD as Season Box Sets. So far, there is only the Dean Cain 2000-2004 version on DVD and it was only released in a BEST OF-style DVD. I did write to Columbia Pictures a while ago, but there has been no response. I urge Ripley's fans to write and beg for this excellent show to be released on DVD! That's my rant! Bodger1.

I enjoyed just about everything in this show. The stories were great, the music was fantastic, and who can beat Jack Palance. It was Must See TV for my entire family. I really like the balance of subjects and the little small factoids before commercial breaks. Hard to find this one now, although I think the Sci-Fi channel did some reruns for awhile. The new Believe it of Not shows don't hold a candle to this one. They only show gross and disgusting stuff. How long will it take tv execs to realize we don't want to watch someone shove red hot needles in their eyes or eat live rats while we're eating dinner. Gross! Why can't they be like the original. I miss you, Ripley!

Because I was so young, half the bits never made sense to me. I remember this one story on an artist who made very life-like sculptures of people. They showed him doing the lifecasts, and my young mind thought this was about people who voluntarily allowed themselves to be encased in plaster and die and become mannequins. I was scared of this show and of mannequins for quite awhile after that.

Believe it...or not!

This is one of the best, and most interesting shows I've ever seen. It's amazing what some people do. Their book, "Ripley's Believe It or Not! Encyclopedia of the Bizarre: Amazing, Strange, Inexplicable, Weird and All True!" is also incredibly interesting.

I just wish they'd get rid of Kelly Packard, I don't understand why they even added her. I guess to attract idiots who just watch the show because they like to look at the hosts. Because she is so incredibly annoying! Thankfully she's usually only shown once durring an episode.