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X-Entertainment loves Amazing Stories.

Was going to wait till late Sunday to put this up, but it's already done, so yeah. I've had this review sitting on the bench waiting to be written for months, and it was starting to get mad at me. Here's a review of Go To The Head Of The Class, my most favorite-ever episode from the late, great Amazing Stories television series. Starring Christopher Lloyd as a psychotic school teacher who loses his head over two of his students, I was permanently affected after just one viewing on a 1986 Sunday night.

Posted by Matt on 05/13/2006. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 124 comments

Love this episode. I actually have the extremely expensive VHS of it that you spoke of. I bought it years ago. Now they friggin have it on DVD…

Chestnuts roasted by Jay @ 05/15/2006 4:16 PM

Wow! That brought back memories.

Man, if I wanted to get some answers, I should have been someone besides the 77th person to post. Still, here’s what I’ve got:

1) I remember the Episode with the cartoon tires that saved the guy’s airplane. It reminded me of that movie, "Always" with John Goodman.

2) I also remember one with this Jamaican babysitter who took care of these two rotten kids, and then she used voo-doo magic to scare the shit out of them to straighten them up.

3) Mirror Mirror scared me too! I thought of that well into my teenage years if I was ever home alone, or babysitting, and I saw a mirror. I could swear there was someone standing right behind me about to kill me. Not everytime, but sometimes!

Questions for All:

Was it this, or a tales from the Crypt that this guy dreamed he was still alive, but everyone thought he was dead, and then they used a bone-saw on his head and started to autopsy him? Then he woke up, suffered a horrible punishment of some kind, and the same thing happened all over again?

Does anyone remember a show where this girl was going to sneak out of prison with this old Janitor inside of a coffin, and they sneaked her out and burried her, and when she woke up in there, she lit a lighter, and it was the old Janitor who had died that she was in the coffin with! That was scary in my memory until I saw KILL BILL: 2. Anyway, does anyone remember where that episode was?

Finally, does anyone remember some episode of… ________________ where someone shoots the wall and the wall starts to bleed? I think everything in the house was alive??!! I think Justine Bateman was in it.

Ok. Thanks! I will be looking too, but thanks for your help in remembering those disturbing shows that skewered my psyche into what it is today.

Chestnuts roasted by Dixon Deeper @ 05/15/2006 5:01 PM

It might have been Monsters (oboy! Candied Critters!) with the bleeding wall. This dude moved into an apartment house that had some odd rules about what to include into your garbage. He sees some neighbors tossing things like whole cooked turkeys into the "Garbage Chute" and is criticized for not throwing away as much as he should. In the end, it turns out the building is a huge, living (Ren Hoek voice)Organism(/Ren Hoek voice) to which he is fed.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/15/2006 5:31 PM

I too am a huge fan of Amazing Stories. I remember watching one one night that left me and my Mom REALLY depressed, about this soldier in WW2 that was ragged on by all the others guys in his company. Just totally trashed on at every turn, but once they finally see combat he basically turns into Captain America and starts single handedly saving the day at every turn, gaining everyone’s respect.

But at the end, it’s revealed that he’d actually died as soon as they landed. BUM BUM BUM.

Chestnuts roasted by Wukong @ 05/15/2006 5:42 PM

(psst King if you click my name you can see a pretty cool pic of Ren I recently posted)
Carri, if you read up you’ll see that "anthology series" was the best I could come up with.
JLARC, thanks for the reminder about the Henry Rollins show! Wasn’t it a remake of Night Gallery?
For me, Christopher Lloyd will always most closely associated with Judge Doom/Uncle Fester. The Back to the Future thing pretty much skipped past me until later. I managed to block the abominable Stacked from my mind until someone mentioned it.
Fitting Sopranos ep to air on Mother’s Day, huh?

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 05/15/2006 6:17 PM

Whenever I see that comedian/actor who had a reoccurring role on AYAOTD? in anything else I can only think "It’s pronounced Sarr-DAY"

mags, I might be way off from what you’re thinking, but a million years ago Denis Leary had a stand-up bit about pronunciation that annoyed him. His example was the elevator music queen Sade. And he’d say:

"My name? Oh I know it’s spelled Sade, but it’s pronounced Sar-DAY"

"Really? Well my name’s Denis but I’m going to pronounce it Teh-FLEH!"

Ehh… the angry delivery is funnier than the line.

Chestnuts roasted by Welsh Rabbit @ 05/15/2006 6:38 PM

I’m glad to see someone else got the holy SHIT scared out of them by the Mirror Mirror episode. Man, that show fucked me up.

Chestnuts roasted by El Pollo de Diablo @ 05/15/2006 7:36 PM

Yeah, I’m sure that’s where the joke originally came from (the singer’s name and her pronunciation of it). But, in Are You Afraid of the Dark? there was this reocurring character within the stories the kids told, who ran a magic shop. I think the name on the door was Sardo, but whenever a kid came in and called him Sardo, he’d say "it’s pronounced Sarr-DAY!"

He’s the one who sold the glasses to the girl that allowed her to see another dimension of people who eventually came to kill her. I can’t remember his role in the other episodes.

I don’t know if I really like the series enough to buy the DVD. I probably will though.

That Amazing Stories marathon on Wednesday is going to include Hell Toupee, and the Weird Science one with Jon Cryer. I didn’t really recognize the others for sure, although one of them is that really crappy "What If?" about a little boy whose parents are the typical self-important upwardly mobile people featured so often in the late 80s, and the house starts taking care of him since his parents don’t, and eventually he fades away to where they don’t see him, and the kindly crossing guard (who isn’t really there) helps him to find a kind pregnant woman at a toy store who actually likes children, and the boy ends up being born to her instead. Yeah, it doesn’t make much more sense watching it. I didn’t remember it from my childhood, but I sure remember it from the last Amazing Stories marathon. It’s trying to be high art and social commentary, I think, but the kid is just annoying.

Chestnuts roasted by mags @ 05/15/2006 7:47 PM

Dixon, I believe the show with the autopsy you were talking about was in fact a third season Tales From the Crypt episode titled Abra Cadaver with Beau Bridges.

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 05/15/2006 8:10 PM

Dan, The epsiode you are talking about is one of my favorites. It wasn’t a genie at all. When he was a kid, he was told by this gnome/leprechaun guy to, no matter what, never part with his toys. He keeps them til he’s near death with age and poverty and makes a fortune off of them after being a shopping cart bum for years. Great episode.

Chestnuts roasted by TapeWurm @ 05/15/2006 8:28 PM

Whoa- Wish I had seen this. I remember only watching "Tales From the Crypt" a few time- with my older cousin, and I felt like a total bad ass for doing so. I remember one episode where a guy (Joe Pesci??) is in love with Siamese twins, and he either cuts them in half, or they cut HIM in half so everyone can share…it screwed me up for awhile. Nightmares and everything!

Was ‘Amazing Stories’ SCARY, or just campy?

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 05/15/2006 9:12 PM

It’s definitely more campy in retrospect, but generally, these shows succeeded more in being scary because they were on a network and couldn’t cop-out with cheap "scary" stuff like excess gore or hardcore violence. Creepy goes a longer way.

Amazing Stories wasn’t intended to be a "scary series," but as everyone’s been saying, eps like Mirror, Mirror really were frightening — especially if you watched it as a kid, or are able to watch it now with a kid’s perspective.

A consistent trait among these kinds of shows is the ending-after-the-ending, meaning that after shit gets wrapped up mostly happily, something happens at the last second that continues the EVIL. They’re often left open-ended, and I think this is why they stick with people so well.

Regarding Tales From The Crypt, everyone should rent the really old movie that predates the television series by a mile. The Monkey’s Paw "skit" creeped the fuck out of me.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 05/15/2006 9:32 PM

Two of the Amazing Stories episodes that I remember to this day after only having seen them once during their original air dates are the Mirror Mirror episode you mentioned, that still creeps me out to this day. looking in mirrors has never been the same since I saw that episode.

The other episode is one where this mentally challenged kid has the ability to make whatever he wants to happen become reality. He wishes his dead mother were still around, and suddenly there is a corpse in the living room.

Amazing Stories was so good.
There needs to be a dvd set.

The only other episode I remember involves a ghost train.

Chestnuts roasted by Kurt @ 05/15/2006 11:55 PM

So, does Goob get a trophy, too? For pointing out the wrong network gaff? That’s on par with Raph’s voice coming out of Donatello’s mouth.

Or did you do that on purpose, Matt? Subtle if you did.

Chestnuts roasted by darth muppet @ 05/16/2006 2:52 AM

Thanks Rob and King Klash for helping me find the answers!

Now if I could only look in a mirror again!

Chestnuts roasted by Dixon Deeper @ 05/16/2006 11:18 AM

Matt you are the gorram’ed best!!! I’ve thought about this episode many many times. And you actually DUG UP FOOTAGE TOO!!Only you would write a (ruling) article on an aged show. Man this article brought back some memories. Do you recall the episode, believe it was this show, where a meteor magnetizes a popular teen.. the ending is classic.

Also, (this might be Alfred Hitchcock presents) there was a killer ep. where two couples went on a double date and go into their parked car after the date ends. It’s in a parking lot. I wont spoil it, but there is something horrible under the car that has destroyed the engine. They don’t get to leave…

Chestnuts roasted by Coltyhuxx @ 05/16/2006 1:13 PM

Man, that was a kickas review. I remember this show like it was yesterday. I use to love watching it. I was 9/10 at the time of the 2 seasons. The intro was amzing to me at the time.

I do have a question, and I believe this was part of the Twilight Zone series of the 80′s. There was one episode where these guys in blue suits, with no faces setup time. Meaning, if you were to walk out a door that was not made of glass, it was just a white empty place, like a canvas, and these blue guys would actually setup time ahead for you to experience it. The blue time men messed up because they forgot to place this guys watch (the focus character of the story) on his dining room table or something like that and he discovers eventually how time really progresses.

I’ve met only one other person that recalls this episode so I know I’m not making it up, but I don’t know what the name is or what series it’s from.

Someone on here HAS to know the answer.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Galvatron @ 05/16/2006 1:57 PM

Darth Galvatron: I believe this is the episode you’re speaking of. Coincidentally, I was looking through an episode guide for Twilight Zone to find a certain episode I couldn’t remember and remembered reading that one.

Chestnuts roasted by Rebecca @ 05/16/2006 8:43 PM

Muppet Baby- This is just a wild guess.. http://www.jabootu.com/hhsd.htm

Chestnuts roasted by no springs @ 05/17/2006 12:41 PM

I just purchased the whole Monsters series on DVD from EBAY! It is pretty good quality, AND as a bonus WPGH TV53 pops up every now and then because it was recorded on Pittsburgh TV station, where I am from….thus it’s very nostalgic for me. Monsters rules, it’s got some real creepy episodes, like Holly’s House and one with a statue that I only vaguely recall and haven’t gotten to yet.

Chestnuts roasted by Funky Boo Berry the 70's Ghost @ 05/17/2006 10:54 AM

Hey all, I just want to let the world know that if anyone is home today, Sci-fi finally decided to put Amazing stories on at a decient hour. No good ones such as this one and the family dog, but still it’s good to see a good show on tv for once. It’s on until 4 when ripley’s believe it or not comes on. Enjoy.

Chestnuts roasted by Jarrett @ 05/17/2006 12:34 PM

"I told you so, Bobby Joe! Mummies ain’t got no necks!"

Chestnuts roasted by LemonWitch @ 05/18/2006 1:53 AM

Dude, that first clip where he has to swallow the old gum… that instantly brought be back 20 years!! I had vaguely recalled the episode at the start of the article… but that clip… wow… that episode scared the SHIT out of me concerning high school and my future academia. I think I shared just about every fear and or anxiety you had Matt growing up. Maybe it’s something in the water… or the dump. Wow, spooky.

Chestnuts roasted by Double G @ 05/18/2006 11:36 AM

I loved Amazing Stories back in the day, but the promo teasers for the show never mentioned the time or day.

It would say something like "a student get’s his just desert- TONIGHT!"

Sure they were interesting previews that left you wondering, but being zoned out in front of the tube and NEVER HEARING THE DAY AND TIME OF THE SCHEDULED SHOW couldn’t have helped the series. It seemed like everyone heard of the show, but nobody could remember when the thing was on.

The opening sequence seemed so high tech at the time with all the flying computer generated stuff, I’ll have to check out the Season 1 DVD when it comes out.

Chestnuts roasted by Mike D. @ 05/19/2006 5:52 PM

i thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy amazing stories. woo

Chestnuts roasted by ceridwens_descent @ 05/19/2006 9:13 PM

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 13th, 2006 at 11:12 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.