History Series / AmazingStories1985

%%* AdventuresInComaland: "Dorothy and Ben".
* AfterlifeExpress: "Ghost Train" has an old steam engine arrive to take a boy's grandfather to the afterlife.
* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: The main character of "Vanessa in the Garden" burns his priceless paintings in a drunken rage, jeopardizing his art career.
%%* AliensStealCable: "Fine Tuning".
* AnalProbing: In "The Main Attraction" the jock protagonist is about to tell the scientists examining his room that he's been magnetized before dissuading himself with an ImagineSpot of being examined in a sterile environment where they try to get "internal readings" with a rather phallic magnetic field reading tool through an off-screen "entrance".
* AnimatedEpisode: The episode "Family Dog," which also stands out in that it has no fantasy or horror elements. It was later spun off into its own show, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyDog''.
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: "Guilt Trip", in which the personification of Guilt is forced to go on vacation for messing up on the job, and meets and falls in love with the personification of Love.
%%* AnimatedArmor: Both figuratively and quite literally in the intro, with a suit of armor swinging a sword before clashing with an offscreen opponent.
%%* AnimatedCreditsOpening: While the bookends are shot in live action, the bulk of the intro was rendered out in CGI, an impressive feat for the time with almost 50 objects and some AnimatedArmor.
%%* AssholeVictim: Calvin in "Thanksgiving".
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "The Mission" takes some extreme liberties, especially in the moments where the bomber is flying towards their target. The interior of the Boeing B-17 Bomber is a ''lot'' roomier than any B-17 has any right to be, and the crew members are seen idly milling about within the absurdly spacious plane, drinking coffee (from a tea set, no less!), playing harmonica, drawing, and pretty much loafing about like they're at a social event instead of a combat aircraft flying behind enemy lines. While finding some idle time wasn't uncommon, the general amount of movement and relaxed activities would be quite difficult to achieve in an actual B-17--breaches in discipline aside, even during the cruising stages bombers at the time were known to be noisy, windy, cold, and generally tossed about by air currents and turbulence; not the kind of place you would want to have your fragile glassware or unsecured papers being flung around by the first gust of wind to make it through the plane.
* BasedOnATrueStory: "One for the Road" was based on the actual murder of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy Michael Malloy]], who proved quite hard to kill (although in reality, unlike in the episode, the conspirators did finally manage to kill him).
* BeautyContest: In "Miss Stardust", one is crashed by an alien (Music/WeirdAlYankovic) who threatens to destroy Earth unless the contest lives up to its name -- Miss Galaxy -- and allows contestants from other planets to participate (and ideally win). To make matters trickier, the new entrants aren't HumanAliens...
* BittersweetEnding: The fate of Jonah Kelley and his [[spoiler:former]] parents in ''What If...?''. Jonah [[RetGone fades out of existence]] as his parents ignore him. [[spoiler: His guardian angel takes him away and tells him he is to be reborn as a baby to a family wanting a child; he also adds that some day, Jonah's former parents may want to have a child and he'd return to make sure that happened.]]

%%* ButtMonkey: Jane in "Secret Cinema".

* ChekhovsHobby: The characters habit of saving his old junk in "Gather Ye Acorns" ends up benefiting him gracefully by the end.
%%* ChekhovsSkill: Jonathan's cartooning in "The Mission".
* ChemistryCanDoAnything: "Miscalculation" is about a college boy desperate for a date discovering that two beakers of [[TechnicolorScience vivid]], viscous liquid in chemistry class can bring pictures to life when mixed on them. As indicated by the title, figuring about the particulars takes some trial and error; the first time he uses too much on a centerfold and makes a GiantWoman. The second time he uses too little and makes a woman that's normal sized, but borderline undead in appearance. In either case they're shown to be temporary and animations eventually melt into goo.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Jonathan survives "The Mission" this way. His cartooning and pure belief allow him to replace his plane's damaged landing gear with cartoon tires. So, long as he keeps concentrating, the tires exist, so once the plane lands, workers cut him out of the turret as peacefully as possible. When he's safe and snapped out of it, the tires disappear.
%%* ClothesMakeTheManiac: "The Wedding Ring".

* CoincidentalAccidentalDisguise: "Mummy Daddy". The actor protagonist is in a mummy costume, and there's also a real mummy lurching around.
* DeadManWalking: "The Mission". The gunner's bubble won't retract and the landing gear has been destroyed, meaning when the plane lands, it's going to be ''very'' messy.
%%* DeadPersonImpersonation: [[spoiler: "Grandpa's Ghost".]]
* DeepSouth: The movie the actor is making in "Mummy Daddy" is being shot in this reigon.

%%* DisposableVagrant: The main plot of "One for the Road".
%%* DodgyToupee: "Hell Toupee".
%%* DreamingOfThingsToCome: "You Gotta Believe Me"

%%* EvilHand: An evil wig in "Hell Toupee".

%%* FreakyFridayFlip: "Magic Saturday".
%%* GrowingUpSucks: "Gather Ye Acorns".
%%* GuardianEntity: In "Boo!"
%%* TheHermit: "Gather Ye Acorns".
%%* HeroicSacrifice: "Dorothy and Ben".
* HollywoodVoodoo: "The Sitter" uses this against her two trouble-making young charges.
* HumiliationConga: The JerkJock protagonist in "The Main Attraction" gets magnetized by a meteor strike and spends the day being "attacked" by every metal object in town, culminating in the belated announcement that there were ''two'' meteors, and a [[AbhorrentAdmirer second victim]]..
* ImAHumanitarian: [[spoiler: "Thanksgiving", assuming whatever down there is human.]]
* JerkassHasAPoint: B.O. Beanes from "Go to the Head of the Class" may be a SadistTeacher that delights in tormenting his students, but he's absolutely right about Peter Brand's motivation that propels the plot: sex. Or specifically his sexual attraction to fellow student Cynthia Stewart. Cynthia knows that he has a crush on her and exploits it to the hilt. He provides her with an essay that gives her a passing grade while he falsely confesses to plagiarism. Beanes himself ''knows'' what's going on. He also goes along with her plan to break into Beanes' ''family crypt'' and later ''his house'' to put a curse (and later a resurrection spell) on him. These are criminal acts that Brand otherwise would not perform [[HormoneAddledTeenager if his sexual attraction to her wasn't clouding his judgement]].

%%* LaserGuidedKarma: What happens to Calvin in "Thanksgiving" and Brad in "The Main Attraction."
%%* LaxativePrank: Happens in "The Sitter".
* LosingYourHead: "Go to the Head of the Class" has SadistTeacher B.O. Beanes, after accidentally being killed, coming back to life with his head separate from his body because the picture used in the resurrection spell got torn in two.
%%* LoveMakesYouCrazy: "The Wedding Ring"
%%* LovePotion: "The Wedding Ring"
%%* MadeOfIron: "One For The Road"
* MagicalNanny[=/=]MagicalNegro: "The Sitter"; see above under Hollywood Voodoo.
* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: In "Go to the Head of the Class", Beanes' personality never changes no matter ''what'' has happened to him. If anything, he delights in exploiting it!
* MercyKill: The crew in "The Mission" complete their task, but their plane's landing gear is damaged, and Jonathan is left trapped in the underside turret. He will be crushed to death when they land. As the fuel starts running out and all conventional options fail, one of the men prepares to shoot Jonathan to spare him an agonizing death. Luckily, the day is saved, thanks to ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve.

* MistakenForUndead: The plot of "Mummy Daddy" involves some angry and dumb rednecks believing some actor stuck in a mummy costume is an actual shambling mummy (ok, sure, there is an ''actual'' '''real''' undead mummy moving around but still) and they decide to lynch first and check if it was human later-to-maybe-never.
* MonsterIsAMommy: Inverted/parodied in "Mummy Daddy", where an actor trapped in a highly constricting mummy costume frantically attempts to reach the hospital where his wife is giving birth. His task is further complicated by two things: a hostile band of backwoodsmen and a real mummy.
* MoodWhiplash: As each episode is done very differently this happens often and can catch people off guard. One episode will be whimsical and comedic, then the next will be dark and serious.
* {{Mummy}}: "Mummy Daddy" has a man dressed as a mummy and later features a real mummy who has been kept in a sarcophagus.
* MySkullRunnethOver: "One for the Books" has a man unwillingly soak up all the knowledge in a university library, turning him into rambling distracted mess.
* NotSoPhonyPsychic: "The Amazing Falsworth" is a play on this, where people believe he's an act but he really can read minds.

** "The Amazing Falsworth" is one big episode of this. Falsworth does his mind-reading act and winds up picking up on the thoughts of a serial killer. Worse, he was blind-folded at the time, so he doesn't know who the killer is.
** Even through his bandages, the poor actor in "Mummy Daddy" flashes an hilariously epic one after the ShamingTheMob moment listed below.
** The magnetized protagonist of "The Main Attraction" pretty much suffers through a day-long string of these, but especially at the very end when he learns who got hit with the ''other'' meteor.
* OppositesAttract: "Guilt Trip" has Guilt and Love personified falling in love with each other.
%%* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Family Dog." [[ExecutiveMeddling Except not.]]

* RetGone: The ultimate fate of 5-year-old Jonah Kelley in "What If...?". Ignored by his self-absorbed parents, Jonah soon becomes literally invisible to them along with having his possessions slowly disappear. [[spoiler:In the end, a man (implied to be his guardian angel) reveals he no longer exists but will be reborn as a baby to a loving family that actually wants him.]]
%%* RoadSignReversal: "Mummy Daddy"
%%* RoyalBrat: The kids in "The Sitter".
* SadistTeacher: B.O. Beanes in "Go to the Head of the Class" has a truly psychotic obsession with student (and [[TheHero protagonist]]) Peter Brandt, seeking to give him extremely harsh punishments at the drop of a hat for any damn reason. The original idea of the voodoo spell was to brainwash Beanes into being nicer but since it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]] it only made him even ''more'' psychotic. [[spoiler:And he's got the rest of the school year -- if not the rest of his undead life -- to make Brandt's life [[FateWorseThanDeath an everlasting living hell]].]]
* SavingChristmas: "Santa 85" has Santa end up in jail and a boy has to help break him out so he can deliver presents.
* ScaryStitches: In "Go to the Head of the Class", [[spoiler:Beanes reveals that he had to sew his head back on his body -- and is eager to torment the protagonist even more.]]
* SelectiveMagnetism: In "The Main Attraction", what metal objects are and aren't attracted to the luckless magnetized protagonist is pretty much decided by RuleOfFunny.
* ShamingTheMob: Subverted in "Mummy Daddy", with a young child saying to the lynch mob that the costumed actor looks like a good mummy, but.. "..he could be a bad one! I say we hang 'im just in case!"

%%* StageMagician: The main subjects of "Mr. Magic" and "The Amazing Falsworth".
* SuddenIntelligence[=/=]SuddenlyBilingual: "One for the Books" has a man unwillingly get all the knowledge in a library crammed into his head, with this as a result.
* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: The large lizards in "The Sitter" that Jennifer uses to scare the two unruly boys are a green iguana and a savanna monitor, both completely harmless and usually docile animals often sold in pet shops (perhaps justified in-universe since the two boys probably don't know this).
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: Summoned by the babysitter in "The Sitter".
* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: "Life on Death Row". [[spoiler:Thankfully, the inmate [[BackFromTheDead gets better]] with help from the friends he has healed.]]
* TrappedInTVLand: A horror movie fan makes the mistake of wishing life were more like the movies in "Welcome to My Nightmare".
%%* TrumanShowPlot: "Secret Cinema"

%%* WealthyEverAfter: The end of "Gather Ye Acorns."
%%* WhatHaveIBecome: "Mirror, Mirror".
* WhyWontYouDie: The characters in "One for the Road" keep trying to kill the DisposableVagrant with lots of alcohol, kerosene, and walks in the freezing cold, but he just won't keel over. [[spoiler:He never does.]]
%%* YouHaveToBelieveMe: "You Gotta Believe Me" and "Mirror, Mirror".
%%* YourMindMakesItReal: "The Mission".

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "The Mission" takes some extreme liberties, especially in the moments where the bomber is flying towards their target. The interior of the Boeing B-17 Bomber is a ''lot'' roomier than any B-17 has any right to be, and the crew members are seen idly milling about within the absurdly spacious plane, drinking coffee (from a tea set, no less!), playing harmonica, drawing, and pretty much loafing about like they're at a social event instead of a combat aircraft flying behind enemy lines. While finding some idle time wasn't uncommon, the general amount of movement and relaxed activities would be quite difficult to achieve in an actual B-17--breaches in discipline aside, even during the cruising stages bombers at the time were known to be noisy, windy cold, and generally tossed about by air currents and turbulence; not the kind of place you would want to have your fragile glassware or unsecured papers being flung around by the first gust of wind to make it through the plane.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: "The Mission" takes some extreme liberties:
** The interior of a Boeing B-17 Bomber is ''nowhere near'' as roomy as depicted.
** A bomber crew ('''especially''' a veteran bomber crew) would be alert and not goofing off so as to have to scramble to battle stations when an enemy appears.

* PopCultureSymbology: The episode ''Go To The Head Of The Class'' features a necromantic spell hidden on lyrics of Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' - in order to hear it, you need to play an LP of the song backwards.

* RetGone: The ultimate fate of 5-year-old Jonah Kelley in ''What If...?''. Ignored by his self-absorbed parents, Jonah soon becomes literally invisible to them along with having his possessions slowly disappear. [[spoiler:In the end, a man (implied to be his guardian angel) reveals he no longer exists but will be reborn as a baby to a loving family that actually wants him.]]

* SadistTeacher: B.O. Beanes in ''Go To The Head Of The Class'' has a truly psychotic obsession with student (and [[TheHero protagonist]]) Peter Brandt, seeking to give him extremely harsh punishments at the drop of a hat for any damn reason. The original idea of the voodoo spell was to brainwash Beanes into being nicer but since it [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong]] it only made him even ''more'' psychotic. [[spoiler:And he's got the rest of the school year -- if not the rest of his undead life -- to make Brandt's life [[FateWorseThanDeath an everlasting living hell]].]]

* TerrifyingPetStoreRat: The large lizards in ''The Sitter'' that Jennifer uses to scare the two unruly boys are a green iguana and a savanna monitor, both completely harmless and usually docile animals often sold in pet shops (perhaps justified in-universe since the two boys probably don't know this).

Despite all this, the series didn't do that well in the ratings. It lasted from September 1985 to April 1987 for a total of [[ShortRunner 45 episodes in two seasons]]. Still, a {{revival}} [[http://deadline.com/2015/10/amazing-stories-remake-bryan-fuller-nbc-universal-tv-1201592586/ was announced in 2015]], and aired exclusively on UsefulNotes/{{Apple|Macintosh}}'s streaming service Creator/AppleTVPlus [[Series/AmazingStories2020 on March 2020]].

''Amazing Stories'' is a 1980s TV series produced by Creator/StevenSpielberg for Creator/{{NBC}}. This GenreAnthology series is similar to ''Franchise/TheTwilightZone'', although with a distinctly larger proportion of happy endings. The show had very impressive visual effects at the time. Of course, given Spielberg's involvement, ''that's'' not surprising. It also had episodes directed by people who hardly ever do television (Creator/RobertZemeckis, Creator/ClintEastwood, Creator/MartinScorsese, etc).

* BasedOnATrueStory: "One for the Road" was based on the actual murder of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Malloy Michael Malloy]], who proved quite hard to kill.