Wide World of Mystery, The

1 9 7 3 – 1 9 7 6 (USA)
131 x 90 minute episodes

Beginning on 8 January 1973, this 90-minute late-night mystery and suspense anthology series ran on ABC (American Broadcasting Company) – on a rather erratic schedule – until 10 January 1976.

The series was a hodgepodge of programming and ABC repurposed a handful of movie-length TV pilots (like Get Christie Love); some feature films, both US and foreign (for example, Canada’s The Heatwave Lasted Four Days from 1975); various TV movies (including some produced or directed by Dan Curtis, the creator of Dark Shadows, like his adaptation of “The Turn of the Screw,” in 1974); and all of ITV’s beloved British-made TV anthology Thriller, the work of writer Brian Clemens – most well-known for his work on The Avengers and The Professionals.

64 original works were also produced by ABC for the series.

Standout episodes included “Nightmare Step” (1973), “Murder and the Computer” (1973), “Nightmare at 43 Hillcrest” (1974), “The Cloning of Clifford Swimmer” (1974), “The Werewolf of Woodstock” (1975, pictured below), “The Norming of Jack 243” (1975), “Alien Lover” (1975), and “Terror in the Night” (1976).

A cavalcade of past, present and future American and British stars appeared in the stories, including Martin Sheen, Robert Shaw, Christopher Reeve, Moses Gunn, Juliet Mills, Margot Kidder, Susan Sarandon, Bradford Dillman, Patty Duke, Eileen Brennan, Pernell Roberts, Clu Gulager, Dinsdale Landen, Claude Akins, John Astin, Barbara Feldon, Ian Hendry, Tom Selleck, Julie Newmar, Paul Michael Glaser, Robert Powell and Leif Garrett.

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