TV episodes that scared you?

[Raffine]

For me, nothing was as creepy or as disturbing as the episode of Diff'rent Strokes that was used to teach kids about the dangers of pedophiles. The creepy old man who owned the bicycle shop was so BELIEVABLE. That episode pushed it to the limit and I'm not sure that any show on TV today would be willing to go that far. The 80's were something else with all those "Very Special" episodes of sit-coms.

It was even more disturbing because the shop owner was played by WKRP's Gordon Jump.

[AndyC]

When I was little, I used to get scared overhearing adults discussing TV shows and movies I was still too young to watch. Trilogy of Terror, for example. A vague mental image of a doll that comes to life and attacks people was all I needed to freak me out.

One show that really got to me (surprising, considering I was in my early teens), was an episode of the new Twilight Zone. The one with the boy who's afraid of his grandmother, who really is scary and turns out to be a witch. Really frightening. I see now it was adapted from a Stephen King story by Harlan Ellison, which explains how it managed to be such a well-constructed little horror tale.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

When I was little, I used to get scared overhearing adults discussing TV shows and movies I was still too young to watch. Trilogy of Terror, for example. A vague mental image of a doll that comes to life and attacks people was all I needed to freak me out.

One show that really got to me (surprising, considering I was in my early teens), was an episode of the new Twilight Zone. The one with the boy who's afraid of his grandmother, who really is scary and turns out to be a witch. Really frightening. I see now it was adapted from a Stephen King story by Harlan Ellison, which explains how it managed to be such a well-constructed little horror tale.

Speaking of the Twilight Zone.....another one that creeped me out was the classic episode where a very young Billy Mumy had a toy telephone that allowed him to talk to his grandmother from beyond the grave.

That one, and the one where the lonely old spinster kept getting calls from her deceased boyfriend as a result of a downed power line that landed on his headstone in an old cemetery. 

It seemed that in the Twilight Zone, long distance was the next best thing to being there 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I'm gonna' throw another one in here...there was an episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller called "The Incredible Dr. Markesan."

In it,  Karloff played an undead doctor who had a group of zombies in his basement, kept alive by odds-and-ends paraphernalia. The zombies were a bit disturbing to look at.

In fact, it makes me wonder if episodes like this, as well as movies like The Unearthly w\John Carradine, weren't the influence for Fulci when he made House By The Cemetery..

[trekgeezer]

The first episode of the original Outer Limits.  The Galaxy Being.

Cliff Robertson accidentally beams down a radioactive alien. 

I was eight and hiding behind the couch

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

The first episode of the original Outer Limits.  The Galaxy Being.

Cliff Robertson accidentally beams down a radioactive alien. 

I was eight and hiding behind the couch

Yes, sir! Some extra karma for you for mentioning this one. 

My fave part starts at around 10:17 into the episode, where they first meet and try to talk to each other.  How brilliant and scary at the same time.  It's like you're right there with them!

As a matter of fact, let's watch some TV 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKP30gDiHX8

[Trevor]

Jack mentioned SPACE 1999 - that reminded me of another episode where there was this horrible creature that sucked people in and then spewed out their remains.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Jack mentioned SPACE 1999 - that reminded me of another episode where there was this horrible creature that sucked people in and then spewed out their remains.

I remember that one, Trevor.  The monster would shove their remains out underneath his tentacles and the people looked like a mummified skeleton. I forget the name of it though.

[Trevor]

I remember that one, Trevor.  The monster would shove their remains out underneath his tentacles and the people looked like a mummified skeleton. I forget the name of it though.

That's the one. 

Almost every episode of THE OMEGA FACTOR scared me spitless and I remember episodes of DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1981), THRILLER and HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR scaring  me too.

The biggie though was the QUIET AS A NUN miniseries from the ARMCHAIR THRILLER series with its creepy and faceless  Black Nun appearing everytime someone was about to die. 

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I remember that one, Trevor.  The monster would shove their remains out underneath his tentacles and the people looked like a mummified skeleton. I forget the name of it though.

That's the one. 

Almost every episode of THE OMEGA FACTOR scared me spitless and I remember episodes of DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1981), THRILLER and HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR scaring  me too.

The biggie though was the QUIET AS A NUN miniseries from the ARMCHAIR THRILLER series with its creepy and faceless  Black Nun appearing everytime someone was about to die. 

I remember seeing commercials for The Omega Factor on some of our publicly funded  UHF TV stations here in the U.S. but never got to see it.   

Hammer House Of Horrors I remember vaguely, but never really got to see any of it.  Be that as is, the fact that it was Hammer doing the horror automatically makes it a good bet for good scare 

[AndyC]

I could list a few Doctor Who adventures from Tom Baker's more gothic years. I was pretty young at the time.

Image of the Fendahl. That cliffhanger ending where they're in the big, creepy mansion, and suddenly the big, wormy-looking thing comes strolling around the corner. Doesn't help that those endings play up the shock and surprise, then leave you without an explanation.

The monsters were awfully gooey looking back then too. Which was one reason why the Zygons gave me the creeps. Those octopoid creatures with huge heads, hissy voices and that creepy organic technology, prowling around the Scottish countryside, grabbing people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StzN9Z9lBnQ
And, of course, The Brain of Morbius, like Doctor Who meets a Hammer Frankenstein picture, with lots of animated body parts and another very monstrous monster.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQp10ce_eFs

It should come as no surprise that those became three of my favourite episodes.

And on the subject of science fiction series, there was one episode of Lost in Space (well, more than one, since they reused the mask a couple of times), The Golden Man. When Mr. Keema shows Smith his true form, it scared the living snot out of me. The monster looks pretty cheesy in hindsight, but there is still something disturbing in the bulbous, wrinkled, red head, twisted features and misaligned eyes. The lack of symmetry is a big part of it. And once again, the gooey look of it.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

And on the subject of science fiction series, there was one episode of Lost in Space (well, more than one, since they reused the mask a couple of times), The Golden Man. When Mr. Keema shows Smith his true form, it scared the living snot out of me. The monster looks pretty cheesy in hindsight, but there is still something disturbing in the bulbous, wrinkled, red head, twisted features and misaligned eyes. The lack of symmetry is a big part of it. And once again, the gooey look of it.

Yep, I remember that one! Penny had to choose between The Golden Man and the giant Frog Man, who was actually a handsome prince underneath. Gee I wonder what storybook they got THAT one from? 

Also, do you remember the Season Two LIS episode, Wreck Of The Robot?

There were these three faceless aliens who wore derby's and long cloaks and had glittering skin. They swayed back and forth and spoke in menacing tones.  They wanted the Robot to build a machine that would control all other machines.

Anyway, they were called the Zaticons, and they creeped me out badly as a kid.  They would also return in Season Three's epsiode, The Galaxy Gift with John Carradine.

[WingedSerpent]

An episode of Tales from the Darkside called Ursa Minor.  It's a take on the old "childern's toy is actually some sort of evil spirit" story, in this case a little girl's teddy bear.

What makes the episode so scary to  me was the ending.  Granted many of these types of shows have dark endings.  Either bad guys getting their come upance or nice people suffering fates they didn't deserve.  But I can't think of many that had a sense of...brutality that this one seems to have.  The mother and little girl sreaming in terror at the end really rattled me the first time I saw it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC4Rdx_zkZo&playnext=1&list=PL5702195CBFDE9740&index=21

[InformationGeek]

There are only 3 shows to have actually scared me:

Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Twice in two different episodes and would you believe it, they both involve clowns (Circus must be smiling at that)?

Teen Titans: The episode is called Haunted.  Slade returns, after apparently falling into a volcano, and is constantly taunting and attacking Robin throughout the episode.  I won't say much, but towards the end my heart was racing and I seriously thought Robin was going to die.

Paranoia Agent: The final episode scared me, especially when Lil' Slugger decided to do something to all of Tokyo.

[retrorussell]

An episode of Tales from the Darkside called Ursa Minor.  It's a take on the old "childern's toy is actually some sort of evil spirit" story, in this case a little girl's teddy bear.

What makes the episode so scary to  me was the ending.  Granted many of these types of shows have dark endings.  Either bad guys getting their come upance or nice people suffering fates they didn't deserve.  But I can't think of many that had a sense of...brutality that this one seems to have.  The mother and little girl sreaming in terror at the end really rattled me the first time I saw it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC4Rdx_zkZo&playnext=1&list=PL5702195CBFDE9740&index=21

Good call.  A lot of Tales From The Darkside's episodes creeped me out.  There was one about a little kid and a Celtic demon called "The Cutty Black Sow".  That one and the episode "I Can't Help Saying Goodbye" about a girl that senses people's impending deaths and says "Goodbye" to them.  Creepy!