Then there are those episodes that are so dreadful that you feel you must warn others to keep a safe distance from them. While a certain level of criticism is expected, please try to keep your posts civil.

1. Diamond as Big as the Ritz (Escape)- I've never read anything by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but if this is a good example of what his stuff is like, I'll keep on not reading him. A dull plot, annoying characters, and a cliche-riddled ending make this one to be kept at arm's length. What I found particularly unfathomable is what the protagonist saw in that girl, as IMNSHO good looks only go so far, especially with someone with such an unpleasant personality.

2. Cat Wife (Lights Out)- This story makes absolutely no sense. What possessed Cronkite to pick this for his sixty greatest collection? There are plenty of decent Lights Out episodes. If he absolutely had to have one with Boris Karloff, why not the far superior Death Robbery?

"The Meteor Man" (Lights Out) - An incredibly lame story. I swear about ten uninterrupted minutes of this consists of the alien telling the guy he's hypnotizing to "come closer, closer, closer" over and over and over again. The worst OTR episode I've ever heard.

4. Buffalo Man (Gunsmoke)- The ending is okay, but the set-up is so pathetically flimsy that it causes the story to lose credibility.

Re: "The Meteor Man" - actually, this is kind of a "must-hear" episode . . . in the same way that "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is a must-see movie, just to demonstrate the absolute worst of the genre. The dialogue in this is incredibly laughable . . . "Come closer, closer, closer" . . . how far away from the meteor being was the couple in the story to begin with? Ten miles?
Arch Oboler's "Sub-Basement", included in Ray Bradbury's 60-all time sci-fi OTR anthology, is another stinker. Oboler's gotta be the worst OTR writer ever!

5. The Brass Ring (The Whistler)- What makes The Whistler so great is that the situations could happen and the murders are done in such a way that they seem perfect except for one tiny flaw that the killer didn't catch. But here, the situation is idiotically unbelievable and the method of murder is sloppy and incompetent. Interesting, this is an adapted story. I've noticed that, invariably, the weakest episodes of The Whistler are adapted stories. Which just goes to show that the writers should have stuck to their own material.

I liked "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz." It was corny, goofy, made no sense, and was probably not suited for Escape, but what the heck. It was fun. This was EXTREMELY atypical for Fitzgerald (aside from the richness corrupts angle)read "The Great Gatsby" for typical Fitzgerald, as well as that short story ("Winter Dreams" or something like that) about the caddy that falls in love with a woman.

Escape was a pretty hit-and-miss show. I liked it best when the show walked the thin line between fantastic and mundane. Some episodes are way too simple, something that should be reserved for "Suspense" (not a slam). Some are way too far-out and goofy, something that should be reserved for "Inner Sanctum" and "Lights Out." But at its peak (Leiningen vs. the Ants, Ring of Thoth, Evening Primrose), the show rocked!

6. The Isle of Fear (The Shadow)- No one has ever accused me of being politically correct, but the additude of this episode seemed borderline racist.

7. Escape's version of Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven". This is not only the worst of several treatments of Bradbury's classic sci-fi tale from The Martian Chronicles, but perhaps the worst treatment possible. The episode is unaccountably padded with two pointless sequences: the first is at the beginning when the rocket launch is not only prolonged but the journey to the red planet encounters some kind of silly crisis that has nothing to do with the rest of the story. The second is at the end of the story, when the Martians have sort of a "town meeting" to discuss their encounter with the Earthmen and reveal themselves to have the intelligence of country bumpkins. Unbelievably hammy acting and bad dialogue make this an MST3K worthy product and Bradbury's story is hopelessly trashed. This has to be compared with the Dimension X and X Minus One versions to see how bad it really is.

8. Ella West (Have Gun, Will Travel). I personally find that the episodes that were written by Gene Roddenberry invaribly stink (for more on why I think this, see my comments on the Have Gun, Will Travel board). I suppose I chose this one for this list because it was the first Roddenberry episode I heard, and did not sit well with me.

9. The ABC Murders (Suspense)- In its original form, it's one of Agatha Christie's best efforts. In this form, it's underdeveloped and predictable. Maybe it would have worked better if it had been done as one of the hour long episodes, but I kind of doubt it.

10. The Carnival Killings (Boston Blackie)- This episode is a good example of what a private eye show is like when it goes bad. The "deductions" consist entirely of half-arsed guesses with no backing. And while Faraday tends to be one of the dumber dumb cops, in this episode he's a borderline idiot. Does he really expect to conduct an investigation asking those sort of questions?

11. Back to the Indians (Arch Oboler's Plays)- Actually, this is three short plays, though I use the term loosely as only the second one resembles a story. They are entitled Back to the Indians, The Day the Sun Exploded, and The Laughing Man. It's announced at the beginning that they are "satorical plays", which immediately set off alarm bells in my head. And like most bad satire, it's highly unsubtle and chock full of the author's pretentiousness. The first and third ones are made even more unpleasant because they are incredibly dull narrations rather than stories. It's stuff like this that makes you wonder how Arch Oboler had managed to be regarded with anything other than contempt.