MovieChat Forums > Ripley's Believe It or Not! (1982) Discussion > Please share your fond memories of this ...

Please share your fond memories of this series


I fondly remember Jack Palance as host of the television program " Ripley's Believe It Or Not" ? His daughter Holly co-hosted for a couple of seasons. He gave each segment his dramatic postscript: his eerily breathy reading of the line "believe it ....or not". He was an inviting host who gave dramatic life to each story. The very strange ones and on occasion, the human interest story as well.

One of the stories that really stayed with me was a profile of a man who had hideously deforming tumors on his face and head. Without seeming to be exploitive in the least, the report showed how he conducted his normal everyday affairs refusing to let his deformity prevent him from becoming fully socialized. A man much admired and beloved in his community, he was shown with his family, and attending church services, with insightful interviews as well. And at the end big scary Jack Palance nearly brought me to tears with his moving summary: "sometimes beauty isn't seen with the eye, but felt with the heart".

Does anyone else have memories of that series to share ?


Many are cold ; few are frozen

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I agree! I love that episode and I watched it a few days ago on videotape. The man with the tumors was Bob Melvin (1920-1995). I loved that quote by Palance at the end of that segment.

I met Jack Palance in January 1997. He was a great man and very friendly too. He will be missed!

Ripley's Believe it or not was great. I watched it every Sunday night on ABC. Why can't they have shows like this anymore? I liked every episode! They even had one where some tribes in New Guinea were bunjee jumping (more or less). This was in 1984! Ripley's was ahead of it's time!

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Does anyone recall the episode in which they cover Ninja in Japan?

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All I remember is the chair he sat in and a segment about how they put stripes on candy canes.

Ahhh, candy canes!

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I do have a story about this series. I remember seeing one episode where Jack traveled to my hometown in Portugal, as one of the episodes features my city. The place of interest in my city was not more than half a mile from my home, so I remember watching it on TV, and wondering if Jack was there at the time LIVE (I was a 6 year older back then), as well as asking my parents to go there with me to watch the show. This one marked me alot, and still does after all these years. :)

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