Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2019 14:10:25 GMT -4
Thriller (also known as Boris Karloff's Thriller) is an American anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC. The show featured host Boris Karloff introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers.
Thriller was created by Hubbell Robinson for MCA's Revue Studios. It was produced by Fletcher Markle, William Frye, and Maxwell Shane. Among the many writers for the series were Robert Hardy Andrews, and Robert Bloch, who adapted a number of his own stories, notably "The Weird Tailor."
In addition to serving as the host of the series, Karloff also starred in five episodes: "The Prediction," "The Premature Burial," "The Last of the Sommervilles," "Dialogues With Death," and "The Incredible Doctor Markesan."
Other actors included Leslie Nielsen in the show's first episode "The Twisted Image", William Shatner in two episodes, "The Hungry Glass" and "The Grim Reaper," Constance Ford in two episodes, Mary Tyler Moore in two episodes, Henry Daniell appeared in five episodes, and Edward Andrews in three episodes. Child actress Beverly Washburn appeared in "Parasite Mansion"; Joan Tompkins appeared in "The Cheaters" and "Mr. George." Elizabeth Montgomery, Tom Poston, and John Carradine in "Masquerade." Carradine also starred in "The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk," co-starring Bruce Dern and Jo Van Fleet; Ed Nelson starred in four episodes: "The Fatal Impulse," "The Cheaters," "A Good Imagination," and "Dialogues With Death."
Other performers included: Rip Torn, George Grizzard, Natalie Trundy, Bethel Leslie, Patricia Medina, Patricia Barry, Richard Anderson, Richard Chamberlain, Elisha Cook, Conrad Nagel, Larry Pennell, Russell Johnson, Diana Millay, Philip Carey, Kathleen Crowley, Susan Oliver, Rodolfo Hoyos, Jr., J. Pat O'Malley, Robert Vaughn, Marlo Thomas, John Ireland, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia Gregg, Hazel Scott, Lloyd Bochner, Scott Marlowe, Judson Pratt, Olive Sturgess, Mary Astor, Marion Ross, Hazel Court, MacDonald Carey, Donna Douglas, Natalie Schafer, Phyllis Thaxter, Estelle Winwood, Antoinette Bower, Jane Greer, Dick York, Jocelyn Brando, Richard Carlson, William Windom, George Kennedy, Cloris Leachman, Monte Markham, Nancy Kelly, Patricia Breslin and Edward Binns.
In Danse Macabre, Stephen King's 1981 history and critique of horror fiction, King suggests that Thriller was the best series of its kind up to that point.[2]
In a review of the anthology's 2010 DVD release, The Hollywood Reporter said "Not all the episodes work, and the transfers can be a bit grainy. But when they do — the strong shadows living in the black and white, the awesomely overwrought score by composers Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens (if only they had music like that again), the storytelling not using gore and cheap scares as crutches — the results are genuinely goosebump-inducing.
