Tales From The Disembodied Head

 

 

 

Narrator Frank Gallop

 

 

Several times over the past 18 months I’ve featured radio shows from one of the best remembered of the Horror genre – Lights Out.   In The Horror Of It All (Oct 2008)  I wrote of the history of the show, from its inception with Wyllis Cooper, to the Arch Obler period, and provided links to more than a dozen episodes. 

 

Arch Oboler and Tommy Cook (ca.) 1936

 

Lights Out was still popular radio fare more than a decade after it was introduced, and so it quite naturally became one of the earliest TV shows as well.

 

In 1946, NBC produced 4 Lights Out TV specials, and while a critical success, NBC did not launch it as a regular series until 1949.   The show was modestly successful, and ran until 1952.

These tales of horror were live productions (like most early TV), and suffered from low budgets, non-existent special effects, and the limitations of `stage bound’ productions. 

 

Still, the writing was often pretty good, and we get intriguing looks at a great many young actors and actresses (and some old pros) as they plied their craft in this fledgling medium.

 

While radio’s `Theater of the Mind’ was probably a better venue for the horror genre,  Lights Out on TV still managed to chill spines for three seasons.  Here then are a half dozen episodes from The Internet Archive, of Lights Out.

 

Lights Out - I Spy
Lights Out - Season 4, Episode 8 - 15th October 1951

 

Lights Out - Strange Legacy
Lights Out - Season 3, Episode 26 - 19th February 1951

 

Lights Out - The Faceless Man
Lights Out - Season 3, Episode 50 - 6th August 1951

 

Lights Out - The Mad Dullaghen
Lights Out - Season 3, Episode 32 - 2nd April 1951

 

Lights Out - The Man with the Watch
Lights Out - Season 3, Episode 51 - 13th August 1951

 

Lights Out - The Passage Beyond
Lights Out - Season 3, Episode 44 - 25th June 1951