"The Sixth Sense" (1972) TV series

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Creator:

Anthony Lawrence

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

15 January 1972 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Dr. Michael Rhodes is a college professor with an interest in the paranormal. He and his assistant Nancy...

Plot Keywords:

E.s.p. | Extrasensory Perception | ESP | Number In Title

Cast

Gary Collins

...

Dr. Michael Rhodes / ... (26 episodes, 1972)

Runtime:

60 min (25 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Universal TV

Trivia:

Joan Crawford was paid $2,500 for her appearance in the episode "Dear Joan, We're Going To Scare You To Death."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Operation Double 007 (#6.8)" (1993)

The Blind Belief of the Irrational

Created by writer Anthony Lawrence, after the 1971 TV movie "Sweet, Sweet Rachel", and supervised during the first season (the first thirteen episodes) as an executive story consultant, the framework of "The Sixth Sense" is detective story but with wild macabre elements throughout the ESP phantasmagoria: delirious visions, hallucinations, apparitions, delusions, nightmares, mind transfers, memories from strangers, premonitions. As in the tradition of the private eye helped by his secretary, Dr. Michael Rhodes is supported by assistant librarian Nancy Murphy who only stays during the first seven episodes. The show's first ambition is to introduce to the audience the paranormal by rational and scientifical means and therefore, Dr. Rhodes plays the edifying and idealistic College professor who encounters hostility and skepticism. Too rigid and anecdotal to turn into a success, "The Sixth Sense" displays good episodes as "The House That Cried Murder", "Lady, Lady, Take My Life" (featuring a psychic lynch mob), "Once Upon a Chilling". Actually, "The Sixth Sense" is the second attempt to spread the ESP genre, after the 1959 anthology "One Step Beyond"--hosted and directed by John Newland; Newland participated in three "Sixth Sense" episodes: "Dear, Joan, We're Going to Scare You to Death", "Through a Flame, Darkly" and "And Scream by the Light of the Moon, the Moon"--, but with a regular conventional character and an early 1970's psychedelic film-making style. Many directors from other Universal fantastic shows worked on "The Sixth Sense": John Badham, Jeff Corey, Daniel Haller and Barry Shear from "Night Gallery" and Allen Barron from "Kolchak, The Night Stalker".