Science Fiction Theater – Spider, Inc, with Audrey Totter - S 1 E 8 -1955
Notes by Bill Russo
The highlight of this episode, in color, is seeing Film Noir Queen Audrey Totter, just a few years after her iconic performances in The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Unsuspected, Tension, The High Wall and many more.
Gene Barry plays a researcher who believes that he can use a 50 million year old chunk of amber with a spider encapsulated in it, to develop a synthetic oil. Audrey has some news for him that might (but probably not) take his mind off spiders.
Barry was featured in 1953's The War of the Worlds and later had a star turn on TV in “Bat Masterson” and “Burke's Law”.
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Far ahead of its time, SFT never really was able to grab a large audience for a few reasons, all of which were beyond the control of the producers. The series could not find a home on network TV, so it was sold to stations on a syndicated basis. It was generally shown on Saturday nights, which was a very good TV night back in the 50s. But it was hard to draw viewers because Saturday night belonged to Gunsmoke (ran for 20 years), The Lawrence Welk Show (still running after about 70 years!), Perry Mason, and Richard Boone’s series Have Gun Will Travel.
SFT disappeared after the 78th and final episode, but thanks to YouTube and other venues, it is slowly gaining cult status and recognition.
Before the Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, and the Outer Limits, there was Science Fiction Theater, which ran from 1955 to 1957. Hosted by Truman Bradley, a radio/TV announcer and 1940s film actor, each episode of Science Fiction Theater introduced stories based on scientific or pseudo-scientific Principles.
The tales usually related to the life or work of scientists, engineers, inventors, and explorers. The program concentrated on such concepts as space flight, robots, telepathy, flying saucers, time travel, and the intervention of extraterrestrials in human affairs. Broadcasting a total of 78 25–26 minute episodes, I t was also known as Beyond The Limits for repeat syndication during the 1960s, and alternatively as Science Fiction Theater.
The producers were an early adopter of ‘color’ TV. All of the season one episodes were produced in color, which was an expensive extra in the early days of TV. In season two, they apparently decided the extra expense was not warranted, so all of the second season episodes are in black and white.
Broadcasting a total of 78 episodes, I t was also known as Beyond The Limits for repeat syndication during the 1960s, and alternatively as Science Fiction Theater.
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