The Outer Limits is an American television series. Similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, though tending more to science fiction than to fantasy, The Outer Limits is an anthology of discrete story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist. The original incarnation ran two seasons, from 1963 to 1965, it was made in black-and-white, often artistically well-used.

Introduction

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat, there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits. — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s

Production information
The Outer Limits originally was broadcast from 1963 to 1965 on the U.S. television broadcasting network ABC; in total, 49 episodes. Leslie Stevens created it, and was one of many series influenced by The Twilight Zone and Science Fiction Theatre, though it ultimately proved influential in its own right. In the un-aired pilot, the series was titled Please Stand By, but ABC rejected it; Stevens retitled it The Outer Limits. With a few changes, the pilot aired as the premiere episode, "The Galaxy Being".

Writers for The Outer Limits included creator Stevens and Joseph Stefano (screenwriter of Psycho), who was the series' first-season producer and creative guiding force. Harlan Ellison wrote "Demon With a Glass Hand" and "Soldier" for the more cautious second season. After James Cameron revealed in an interview that the inspiration for Terminator had come from Ellison's stories, Ellison sued him and was awarded several hundred thousand dollars in damages, and an end-credits mention in The Terminator (1984), stating the creators' wish to acknowledge the works of Harlan Ellison. The courts also awarded Ellison the right to an acknowledgement of his works included to all future versions of the film.

Like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits had an opening and closing narration to almost every episode — the "Control Voice" (Vic Perrin) – and distinctive music, originally by Dominic Frontiere, listed as a "Production Executive"; the second season featured a new theme by Harry Lubin. The dramatic thrust of the two programs was different. The Twilight Zone used irony, the protagonist would achieve his goal, but not in the manner desired. The Outer Limits was straight action that deeply delved into philosophical problems within a science fiction context. Many of the stories dwelled upon the triumph of the human spirit, often in confrontation with dark existential forces within or without (hence, the "... mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits").

Cinematography
The program sometimes made use of techniques (lighting, camerawork, even makeup) associated with film noir or German Expressionism (see for example, Corpus Earthling), and a number of episodes were noteworthy for their sheer eeriness. Credit for this is often given to cinematographer Conrad Hall, who would go on to win three Academy Awards (and many more nominations) for his work in film. However, it should be noted that Hall worked only on alternate episodes of the show during the first two-thirds of the first season; the show's other cinematographers included John M. Nickolaus and Kenneth Peach.

Special effects
Each show was to have a monster or creature as a critical part of the story line. Stefano believed that this element was necessary to provide fear, suspense, or at least a center for plot development. Many times, the "bear," as it came to be called, was notably frightening to audiences. In some cases, it was nothing more than an unusual force directed by a person or other being. These creatures and props were developed by a loose-knit group organized under the name Project Unlimited. Members of the group included Wah Chang, Gene Warren and Jim Danforth. Makeup was executed by Fred B. Phillips along with John Chambers. (Several episodes did, however, have no discernible "bear," among them the two-part segment "The Inheritors," the aforementioned "Demon With A Glass Hand" and "Soldier," and the oddball comedy effort, "Controlled Experiment".)

Influence on Star Trek
A few of the monsters reappeared in Gene Roddenberry's 1960s Star Trek show. A feathered creature was modified to appear as a zoo animal in the background of the first pilot of Star Trek; a prop head from "Fun and Games" was used to make a Talosian appear as a vicious creature. The moving carpet beast in "The Probe" later was used as the "Horta", and operated by the same actor (Janos Prohaska). The process used to make pointed ears for David McCallum in "The Sixth Finger" was reused in Star Trek as well. Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) appeared in two episodes, "The Production And Decay Of Strange Particles" and "I Robot", William Shatner (James T. Kirk) appeared in the starring role in the episode "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" as an astronaut working on a project ironically called Project Vulcan, James Doohan (Montgomery Scott) appeared in a supporting role as a policeman in "Expanding Human", Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) appeared in the episode "Controlled Experiment" and other actors established in the genre by the first series appeared in Trek episodes.

In fact Gene Roddenberry paid a lot of attention to what The Outer Limits team was doing at the time, and he was often present in their studios. Later he hired several Outer Limits alumni, among them Robert Justman and Wah Chang for the production of Star Trek.[1]

Reception
The series was well received, with revered horror writer Stephen King calling it "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV."