Essentially, a second-rate rehash of Night Gallery, but even more confusing in that the very title of the program was changed halfway through its' only season! The first 13 episodes fall under the "Ghost Story" banner and feature lead-ins with refined Englishman Sebastian Cabot, which really didn't add much to the stories themselves, but in the very least, gave us a different take on the Rod Serling creep-a-zoid host format. The last nine are just called "Circle of Fear" and have no intros. The main problem, though, was the stories, which too often didn't hold up over the one-hour timeframe. The bulk of the better episodes were in the Ghost Story block; ironically, the last entry "Time of Terror" stands out as the best of the lot. Overall, this is passable, boredom-reliving stuff.

This late 70's anthology entry tried to recapture whatever fleeting glories which previous shows like Night Gallery and Ghost Story had flimsily established - even airing on the same network (NBC). William Conrad fulfilled the ubiquitous creepy host role by providing voiceovers. I've only seen three of the eight episodes and the one I remember most is the last one, "No Way Out", which starred Bill Bixby. The title sequence looked and sounded like a goofy disco-style take on "Charlie's Angels" attempting to shade the supernatural realm, and at the time, far more people watched the Angels than the Unexpected. But if you like this stuff (like I do), it's worth a few revisits.

Yet another entry in the long running anthology sweepstakes to become the next hit after the Twilight Zone, 1981's Darkroom lasted all of 7 measly episodes before getting the ax. It had one of the better title sequences, a loony host to match up (James Coburn doing his best Rod Serling imitation), and quite a few stories from the macabre side of the fence…which may have been the show's downfall. This sort of thing turned out to be great for syndication just a few years later for Tales Of The Darkside, but network TV in 1981 apparently wasn't ready for such grisly shtick. A shame, because despite some real gaffes reminiscent of the gaffes Jack Laird pulled in the Night Gallery days, there are a few really good entries worth catching in this series. Overall, a disturbing little trick bag of an obscurity which anthology fans can't hurt to cover at least a few times.

Dr. Michael Rhodes (Gary Collins) is a parapsycholo-something-or-other whose a spiritual superhero of sorts, solving psychic mysteries through ESP. That's right, ESP. Naturally, back in the early 70’s the networks thought this was a winning ratings formula, and the inspiration for this particular thread was established by a middling soap-opera schamltz fest Movie Of The Week by the name of "Sweet Sweet Rachel" featuring Stefanie Powers. Well, the networks were wrong, even though it lasted two seasons. Collins as a lead character too often took a backseat to the guest stars, to the point that in the second season he gets outright replaced by the guest stars in three entries - including Joan Crawford in her last role ("Dear Joan: We're Going to Scare You to Death"). But hey, this is something fun to burn through after you have watched all the known players in the genre. Just keep that in mind and you will enjoy the lot of this kooky mystery series.

There's been like nil series in the history of television to tackle the subject of the American Revolution. This was one of them, with the added angle of a diverse cast which reflected the counterculture vibe of the day. Yet, it amounted to a half-season failure that went by the boards, followed by a short syndicated run in the late 80's. I've seen all these episodes more times than I can count but it's hard for even the extreme Young Rebels apologist in me to deny the corny Bonanza vibe it gives off. Still, compared to say, the much-ballyhooed (and way overblown) TURN, this wizened chaw of nostalgia contains more than enough interesting stories and performances - TV vet Will Geer was in a number of episodes - to warrant revisiting. At least until someone really rectifies that Revolution on TV problem.