defined as a form of excessive and unnecessary violence. The show thus had to limit its emotional intensity while filling an hour-long format, leading to what critics described as sluggishly paced stories that lacked many frightening or eerie moments. The show also was criticized by American literary critic John Kenneth Muir for its lack of originality. Muir wrote that the show tended to reuse already-familiar horror story ideas, some of them considered old as long as several decades earlier. Two episodes, Muir said, were unacknowledged remakes; "The Force of Evil" copied the plot of the 1962 film Cape Fear almost exactly, while "The Nomads" reworked the plot of "Beachhead", the pilot for the 1967-1968 television series The Invaders. The episode "A Hand For Sonny Blue" drew harsh reviews not only for recycling a plot that had been used frequently before – a transplanted limb having an evil character of its own – but also for ending with the "twist" that the entire episode had been merely a dream. Broadcast history Tales of the Unexpected premiered on February 2, 1977, and aired on NBC on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. until March 9, competing in its time slot with ABC's Charlie's Angels and Baretta. Due to low ratings, the show went into hiatus for five months and returned on August 17, airing two more episodes in its original Wednesday time slot before its cancellation. On November 29, 1978, NBC aired a two-hour movie entitled Someone's Watching Me!, produced by John Carpenter and starring Lauren Hutton, David Birney, and Adrienne Barbeau. Although NBC promoted it as a "Tales of the Unexpected special," the movie was instead produced by Warner Bros. and was unrelated to the series, which at the time had been off the air for over a year. Episodes Proposed additional episodes Five additional episodes entitled "Something's Out There," "Remember Tomorrow," "A Place of Guilt," "Graves for the Living," and "A Safe Return" were proposed but never produced. References NBC original programming 1977 American television series debuts 1977 American television series endings 1970s American anthology television series 1970s American drama television series English-language television shows Television series by CBS Studios