'Way Out (TV series)

Genre	Science fiction, horror
Written by	Roald Dahl Phil Reisman, Jr. Irving Gaynor Neiman Elliott Baker Sumner Locke Elliott Larry Cohen Nicholas Pryor Bob van Scoyk Jerome Ross
Directed by	Paul Bogart Marc Daniels Mel Ferber Daniel Petrie Seymour Robbie Boris Sagal William Corrigan Paul Bosner
Presented by	Roald Dahl
Starring	Various guest stars.
Theme music composer	Otto Luening Vladimir Ussachevsky Tod Docksteader
Composer(s)	Robert Cobert
Country of origin	USA
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	14
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Susskind
Producer(s)	Jacqueline Babbin
Production location(s)	New York City
Running time	25 minutes.
Production company(s)	Talent Associates
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	4:3 black and white.
Audio format	Mono
Original release	31 March – 14 July 1961

'Way Out (note that the on-screen title begins with an apostrophe) is a 1961 American horror, fantasy and science fiction television anthology series hosted by writer Roald Dahl.^[1] 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.^[2]

Origin

Barry Morse in Soft Focus on Way Out (July 7, 1961). Makeup by Dick Smith.

The taped series began as CBS replacement for a Jackie Gleason talk show that network executives were about to cancel. 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 Larry Cohen and Sumner Locke Elliott.^[3]

The only adaptation from one of Dahl's own short stories was the premiere episode, "William and Mary", a tale of a wife's posthumous revenge on her husband's disembodied brain kept alive in a bowl. 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 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 wry commentaries, suffused with gallows humor.^[4] While the series garnered high ratings in urban areas, it fared poorly in the hinterlands and was canceled after 14 episodes.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.

Episodes

Source: ^[7]

Sources

• Battaglio, Stephen (2010). David Susskind: A Televised Life, pp. 89–92. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-38286-5

References

External links

• Way Out at RoaldDahlFans.com
• Way Out on IMDb
• Way Out at TV.com
• Petri Liukkonen. "Roald Dahl". Books and Writers
• Way Out at CVTA with episode list