Tales of the Unexpected - Different American Opening Version

At long last, here is the different version of the opening to Tales of the Unexpected, the creepy British anthology show, when it was syndicated to America in the late-seventies to early eighties. The show was exactly the same, except for the opening and closing titles (although the music sounds a little bit different than the British version, it's definitely not the same if you listen to them side by side) This American version featured the spooky horse carousel that I think actually works a bit better than the original opening.

Although there is no official confirmation of this, I suspect that the reason they changed the opening titles in America was because of the slightly risque' dancing-woman silhouette that was used in the British opening. (also posted by me here)

In Chicago, at least at one time, this show aired at around 12:30 or 1:00am on Saturday evenings (early Sunday morning) after Saturday Night Live and Entertainment Tonight on WMAQ Channel 5. TV Guide listings verified that it was on at this time at least in May of 1982.

This copy was recorded off of the USA Cable Network, and there is a VCR overlay of the date May 31st 1984, so that is when I am dating this airing, although there is no confirmation of this. And even though this airing is from 1984, it was likely created originally in 1979 when the show was first syndicated.

John Houseman can be heard to do the opening voiceover, "A wise man believes only in lies, trusts only in the absurd, and learns to expect the unexpected."

John Houseman also appeared on camera doing introductions to the stories, similar to how Roald Dahl did in the first season of the British version, but he is not seen in this particular episode. (Mr. Not-Appearing-In-This-Episode)

It's funny to note that on Amazon.com they list John Houseman as part of the "cast" for the DVD releases of this show (which only include the original British openings) - but he appears nowhere in any of the collections! Somehow they got some outdated information. I actually heard from someone who worked on the release of the DVD's, and although they were eventually aware of the different opening for the series and Houseman's intros, they couldn't find any footage of them to include on the DVD sets. It would be neat if they turned up one day - who knows where they are? Most unexpected.

There doesn't seem to be any information in the ending credits for who created this alternate opening - I will upload that clip too incase anyone can tell.

Visit - http://www.FuzzyMemories.TV
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television - for more fun!

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