Although this show was broadcast only for a very brief period in 1961, I still remember it. indeed, it is difficult to forget. Like "The Twilight Zone", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Thriller", "Way Out" was an anthology series. However, in this case the emphasis was on the weird and the sardonic. Although the manner in which prologues presented by Roald Dahl were clearly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling, Dahl bestowed upon them a bizarre and sardonic character all his own. Indeed, it sometimes seems as though he may not even be of this Earth. While the production values were not costly, that deficiency was more than offset by the excellent quality of the writing and acting. Some truly first-rate people contributed to the making of this program. I understand that this series was discontinued because it did not go over well in "the heartland". Viewing some of these stories, even today, one can easily perceive how that could well have been the case. Many of these stories, such as "The Croaker" (in which even the kid is dishonest) still leave the viewer feeling a little bit uneasy. "Leave It to Beaver", it isn't! Those who crave flashy sci-fi special effects will certainly be disappointed here. However, if you enjoy interesting and original writing, good acting and stories that are truly OUT THERE, give "Way Out" a try. Incidentally, for those who are interested, "Way Out" is still out there, on YouTube.

My summary quote is from Charlotte Rae's character Hazel Atterbury, wife of the guy (Don Keefer) in the 'Death Wish' episode, the one where he wants to kill her but the mortician turns the tables on him. As creepy and mysterious as the shows were, there was just the slightest enough hint of realism to make you think twice. For one season in 1961, 'Way Out' was the lead-in to that other imaginative show hosted by Rod Serling, everyone's favorite 'Twilight Zone'. Like many of the other posters on this board, I would have been about ten years old when this program first appeared, and the one I remember best even to this day was 'The Croaker'. I just finished watching it, along with the other four episodes that seem to be the only ones readily available. The surprise this time around was learning that the oddball guy turning victims into frogs was portrayed by venerable character actor John McGiver, and the neighborhood kid Jeremy was played by Richard Thomas. I recall sitting on the couch with my Dad fifty years ago when this episode first aired, and we both looked at each other with barely disguised glee when Jeremy concocted his own formula to one-up old Mr. Rana (McGiver). I won't reveal it, but that ending just blew me away. Very clever too, that name Rana, which is a genus of frogs used for McGiver's character.The shows opened with pairs of buried hands clawing out of their presumed burial places, consumed by smoke and fire. Host Roald Dahl greeted the viewer with a droll "How are you"?, and then did a bit of a somber monologue that was about as creepy as the show itself. Duplicate images of his talking head lent an even eerier quality to the rhythm of his voice, and he had this mesmerizing effect on the viewer making you hang on every word.Count me in as a fan who would love to see these shows remastered and brought out for a modern day audience. There's a reason why series like this, 'The Twilight Zone', 'The Outer Limits', and 'One Step Beyond' hold sway with such large numbers of fans today. They tap the imagination in a way that's not done any more with stories that both frighten and amuse, and as Roald Dahl would be inclined to say, "You can be quite sure, it is Way Out".

I had forgotten the wonderful Roald Dahl hosted this short-lived horror anthology series, and thinking about it today makes me realize how much creepier the show was for Dahl's droll narration. Each episode had a bit of a THRILLER feel to it, only darker. Too bad it didn't last. Everyone who saw it remembers the episode where a pompous actor eventually finds he cannot remove his scary makeup. I was 11 when the show aired, and it jolted me far more than anything Alfred Hitchcock or Boris Karloff or Rod Serling (all three had popular TV anthology shows in roughly the same time frame) could throw at me. Years later, Dahl would have a show exclusively devoted to his own writings, much like Ray Bradbury did.

In one of the few extant episodes of the long defunct, "Way Out" actress Constance Ford takes the audience on a roller coaster ride not soon to be forgotten.Though accomplished at all types of portrayals, Miss Ford's stock in trade was the vulpine proletariat tart--a woman who will stop at nothing to get where she's going, and doesn't make any bones about it! Consider her a more cerebral, subdued, and streamlined Shelley Winters type.In "I Heard You Calling Me" she holds the audience in the palm of her hand all the way--it's a real tour de force, inasmuch as she's doing it "live on tape." As the telephone calls from beyond exert their growing menace over her, we watch her go from casual indifference, to hard nosed annoyance, to trembling rage, to nauseated panic, and finally to whimpering, resigned, child like submission--pathetically assuming a fetal position as she drops the receiver to the floor in anticipation of her impending doom.At a recent screening, all attendees were impressed, most especially an astute 16 year old boy. "We don't have anything this good on now," he remarked as Mr. Dahl sardonically concluded the teleplay.No, we don't, and the loss is ours. Another forgotten jewel in Mr. Susskind's crown.