Amazing Stories 1.07

Fine Tuning

starring Matthew Labyorteaux, Gary Riley, Jim Gatherum

written by Steven Spielberg, Earl Pomerantz

directed by Bob Balaban

Three teens from Los Angeles;  Andy (Matthew Labyorteaux), Jimmy (Gary Riley), and George (Jim Gatherum); meet three aliens from a distant solar system who are big fans of 1950s television shows. The teens take the aliens around Los Angeles and show them the sights. The aliens get to meet Milton Berle and try to talk him into coming back with them to their planet but he's not interested. Andy finds some elderly actors who are more than happy to put on a show for the aliens and then return with them to their planet.

Thoughts

One of the more farfetched aspects of this episode is how much Andy, Jimmy, and George knew about TV from the 1950s. I probably would have been about the same age as the teens were in 1985. I was aware of some of the shows that they knew but I don't think most of my contemporaries knew all that much about I Love Lucy, Burns & Allen, or Bonanza. Okay, maybe I Love Lucy but the other two seem like a real stretch of the imagination to me.

I thought this episode was kind of sad. It didn't really amount to much. It was very silly in ways. It was clearly aimed at a younger audience. This isn't the worst episode yet but it didn't do anything for me.

Notes

This is the only episode of this show in which the three lead appeared. Gary Riley had small roles in Back to the Future (1985) and Stand by Me (1986).

Milton Berle played a fictional version of himself in this episode. This is the only episode of this show in which he appeared.

Earl Pomerantz wrote the teleplay for this episode. This is the second of two episodes that he wrote. The first was 1.04 Mummy Daddy.

This is the only episode of this show that Bob Balaban directed. I know him best as an actor. He also appeared in one episode of this show. He has been in a few movies I have seen but none that I have watched recently.