Old time radio blog.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Dimension X Minus One

If you like The Twilight Zone, X-Files, and The Outer Limits, you'll
probably like Dimension X
and X Minus One

The first series ran from April 8, 1950 - '51 and featured
dramatizations of some of the best science fiction writing of the
day. Stories by Ray Bradbury (The Veldt), Robert Heinlein
(Universe), and Frederick Pohl (The Tunnel Under The World),
Fritz Leiber (A Pail of Air) -- which alternated with tales from the
series' in-house scribe -- came alive in often effective
distillations. The series was revived for a longer run as X Minus
One, although longer isn't necessarily better. The first season is
the best -- most of the episodes are remakes of Dimension X
shows -- but as the series moved along, the focus veered more
towards jokiness and an almost folksy quality that predates other
kid-friendly TV series like My Favorite Martian and Lost In Space.
Another drag about the second series is that it stars pretty much
the same troupe of actors each episode. Beware of duplicates
or rerun episodes if you plan on downloading the full runs from
archive.org

2 comments:

  1. Dimension X is one of my favorite OTR shows. I haven't listened to a lot of X-Minus One, yet.

    "Suspense" is another good series in the sci-fi/horror genre. My wife bought my son a set of Suspense CDs a couple of Christmases back and he has played the heck out of them, especially the Lovecraft episode (don't remember which story off the top of my head.)

    I look forward to your reviews. Most of the OTR I have is Sherlock Holmes and some sci-fi, but I am always in the mood for more good stuff.

    BTW, I am another LV reader, Boomcoach. That's how I found your blog.

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  2. Thanks, it's always good to hear that younger people are listening to these still good shows, just like the old books we revive on LV. If you use the Goldin guide online (link is in the LV Off Topic forum on OTR) you'll probably find the Suspense Lovecraft title

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