7.4 /10 1 Votes
6.6/10 TV Starring Various guest stars. Presented by Roald Dahl Number of seasons 1 Number of episodes 14 | 8.3/10 IMDb Genre Drama, Sci-fi Composer(s) Robert Cobert Network CBS Production location New York City Cast Roald Dahl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Written by Roald Dahl
Phil Reisman, Jr.
Irving Gaynor Neiman
Elliott Baker
Sumner Locke Elliott
Larry Cohen
Nicholas Pryor
Robert van Scoyk
Jerome Ross Directed by Paul Bogart
Marc Daniels
Mel Ferber
Daniel Petrie
Seymour Robbie
Boris Sagal
William Corrigan
Paul Bosner Theme music composer Otto Luening
Vladimir Ussachevsky
Tod Docksteader Similar Tales of the Unexpected, Quinn Martin's Tales of t, Roald Dahl's Esio Trot, You're in the Picture, Alfred Hitchcock Presents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Way Out (note that the on-screen title begins with an apostrophe) is a 1961 fantasy and science fiction television anthology series hosted by writer Roald Dahl. The macabre, black-and-white, 25-minute shows were introduced by Dahl, his face projected in a disconcerting hall of mirrors effect, dryly delivering a brief introductory monologue, expounding on such unusual subjects as undertakers or frogs or murdering a romantic rival with ground tiger's whiskers.
The taped series began because CBS needed a replacement for a Jackie Gleason talk show that network executives were about to cancel, and producer David Susskind contacted Dahl to help mount a show quickly. The series was paired by the network with the similar The Twilight Zone for Friday evening broadcasts, running from March through July 1961 at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time. The show's primary sponsor was Liggett & Myers (L&M cigarettes). Writers included Philip H. Reisman, Jr. and Sumner Locke Elliott.
The premiere episode, "William and Mary", adapted from a Roald Dahl short story, told of a wife getting revenge on her husband.
In "Dissolve to Black", an actress (Kathleen Widdoes) cast as a murder victim at a television studio goes through a rehearsal, but the drama merges with reality as she finds herself trapped on the show's near-deserted set. Other dramas offered startling imagery: a snake slithering up a carpeted staircase inside a suburban home, a disembodied brain in a jar ("William and Mary"), a headless woman strapped to an electric chair, with a light bulb in place of her head ("Side Show") and half of a man's face erased ("Soft Focus").
Actors on the series included Martin Balsam, Michael Conrad, Mildred Dunnock, Murray Hamilton, Martin Huston, Henry Jones, Mark Lenard, Kevin McCarthy, John McGiver, Barry Morse, Richard Thomas, Doris Roberts, and Fritz Weaver.
Critical notices at the time were extremely good, especially for Dahl's comedic commentaries. While the series garnered high ratings in urban areas, it fared poorly in the hinterlands and was canceled after 14 episodes.
The show was one of the last weekly dramatic television series produced in New York City. Only five episodes have ever turned up on [bootleg] videocassettes and none on DVD, however as of October 2016, ten episodes were posted on YouTube. The entire run is available for viewing at the Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles. The episodes are owned by Susskind's estate.
Dahl later hosted an anthology series called Tales of the Unexpected on British television beginning in 1979.