This episode gave me nightmares when I was 8 years old! Now I'm 69, and it still creeps me out. I never thought I'd see it again. In those days you only got one chance to see a TV show, unless there was a summer rerun!

One of the best tv episodes ever

This is fantastic! Saw this show some 54 years ago, and it has been in my mind off & on ever since. I was 5 years old and this kept my head under the covers at night for days (five years old). Great to finally see it again. THANKS BUNCHES!!!!

It is so interesting to see Doris Roberts in such an early television role. Of course, she later went on to win four Emmy awards as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond.

THANK YOU for providing the "'Way Out" series -- especially this episode! I watched it through misty eyes. I saw this episode when I was six years old -- 58 years ago! It terrified the hell out of me and I never forgot it! The inclusion of the commercials and promos for other CBS TV shows provoked so many cherished memories. Beholding them more than a half century later makes me achingly nostalgic and wistful for that happier time (happier because I was a carefree child) -- the halcyon "Camelot" years . . . before the tragic event of November 22, 1963 horribly changed America. Until the Internet, I had thought that "Side Show" was an episode of "The Twilight Zone." Being able to watch it again is an almost indescribable pleasure -- sheer ecstasy! Never did I imagine that I would ever see it again! Thank Heaven for the Internet -- the next best thing to H.G. Wells' Time Machine, as far as I am concerned! And BLESS YOU who have charitably made it available!

OMG Doris Roberts! Everybody Loves Raymond's mother! So glad to find this show!

The only episode I saw during the original 1961 run (when I was seven), and once again in the 1970s, was "Side Show." It has haunted me ever since.

I saw this when it was originally televised. I'm 62 and have searched for this episode for years. Thank you for posting it.

I've been hoping to see this since 1978, when a conversation with friends jogged my memory...a show with a lady in a chair with a light bulb in place of her head...which I DIMLY remembered from summer of '61. Odd that I clearly recalled all Twilight Zones, but not Way Out, which we always watched. Ahhh...the absolute pinnacle of old-time TV horror/fantasy: spring & summer of '61, when TZ, Thriller, Hitchcock, Way Out, then Great Ghost Tales were all running on network TV. "Side Show" is better than I could have hoped for: REALLY solid, especially considering it was thrown together in a very short time. 3 TOP talents of the New York stage: McCormick, Hamilton, and the distinguished Welsh theater actress Margaret Phillips, in a most unusual role. And a low-budget, cramped production in a TV studio is EXACTLY what makes this macabre, creepy fantasy work so beautifully...it's a chamber play set in the shadowy, surreal world of the traveling carnival, with direction, acting, script and musical soundtrack all brilliantly integrated. It aired 57 years ago tonight... June 30, 1961. It is, in my opinion, a mini-masterpiece of the genre. (BTW-- check out the guy in the background at 3:55-56; this dude really got his "3 seconds of fame", as he waves his hand in disgust at Myron M's spiel.).

I have been looking for this one forever! This is one of my all time favorites!

This episode is the only one of Way Out I remember. Made an impression on me. 💡 Careful, you may become a smoker by the end of the show. 😉

Excellent episode- this show should be more well known. Gave me a good creepy feeling, good pacing throughout, the actors were well balanced against each other, atmosphere was tops.

I always wanted to watch this show, but first, it was on too late for a 10 year old, ad two i would have freaked me out too much at that age.GREAT SHOW, I must say. How amazing it was to see Doris Roberts so young then. I only knew her from old TV shows, and Everybody Loves Raymond. I'm glad I saw these shows that many years later.

WOW WEE!!!! FROM THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF MY HEART.....THANK YOU, THANK YOU, AND THANK YOU!!!!....THIS IS ONE TREMENDOUS SHOW, I AM INDEED GRATEFUL FOR THESE T.V. GEMS!!!!

This is absolutely fantastic ! I love this 😀 .... how I wish that someday I can find "Great Ghost Tales" 1961 on utube as well

All the episodes are now one KZfaq except: The Down Car Button Button The Sisters Soft Focus But these recent additions have given rise to hope of the entire series. And real joy in seeing 5 episodes that many haven't seen since 1961. GREAT!!

This is scarier than any new horror crap movie from Hollywood

So cool,I was beginning to think I was the only one that had this dvd.

Thank you for this rare episode! This is the Way Out episode I really wanted to see! I can't believe it!

Myron McCormick introduced "There is nothing like a Dame" on Broadway in South Pacific as Luther Billis and didn't miss one of any of the 1900+ performances. He died a few month after this Way Out episode.

This series was fabulous. So pleased you shared~

Doris Roberts is a hoot and a half in this episode!

-I,m just a good old Sci Fi buff. And love All these WAY OUT episodes. Some just slightly better then others. This one(Side Show)is one of my very 5 on the top favorites. I never saw these as a kid because my parents made sure i was in bed at 10 due to school the next day. I think my age was about 7. But somehow i did manage to watch other shows close to these Like (Lights Out & Suspense)Very scary to me at times. And i too would cover up & put the pillow over my head. Even now at age 69 most of these Great episode of Way Out Get to me and make me think a long time on each one of the episodes. Like this one(Side Show)kept me up for hours as i thought about poor Harold. And about how he will be stared at by all those people & the mean treatment he will receive from his master. Even though his wife did not treat him well either at least he was not getting beat & he did have a little control with her But not much. Still better off with his wife. And this is just one good reason why i Love these episodes of WAY OUT ! ! !

Great tv show. I recall seeing this when I was a kid.

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much for posting this video! This is a dream come true! Cheers from Brazil!

I loved this TV show as a kid. I loved it even more than The Twilight Zone which it replaced during the summer as I thought it was even more imaginative and definitely more edgy than Serling's great show.

The Kingston Trio doing an L&M commercial.(16:35). This strange old TV show is new to me and I'm 68. What a find!

Side Show, Episode aired 30 June 1961. Roald Dahl as Host; Myron McCormick as The Barker; Murray Hamilton as Harold Potter; Margaret Phillips as Cassandra; Doris Roberts as Edna Potter; Carolyn Groves as Betty; Martin Huston as Ronnie.

IDK this actor's name, but he played an absolutely wonderful part in a Twilight Zone episode with Ed Wynn, who was a street salesman. He played the devil or angel, not quite sure which, who was sent to tell Ed Wynn that his time was up and he had died but that he had made it into heaven. My fav TZ episode.

Sweet! I remember this when I was a kid. There was one about a disfigured man and an actor that wanted to use his face in a play. I'll look for that one.

this is legit a creepy episode. And I remember Murray Hamilton in Jaws!!!! He was quite handsome in this one.

Thank you so much for uploading this and other episodes. I got to watch the excellent "Button, Button" at the Paley Center several years ago, but I have been hoping to see this episode for quite a while. I love the world 'Way Out creates -- how so much impact is accomplished with so little. Thanks for keeping this show alive!

Everybody loves Doris Roberts.

We're YOU one in the Summer of '61?

Thank you, thank you!!! Omg i love this

That L&M commercial is awesome!

I was 5 when I first saw this,,,,,scared the shit out of me!!

I saw this when I was 7 yrs old and must have freaked me out to still remember it. (Doris Roberts and the Mayor from Jaws...!)

Goodnight and sleep well .

Isn’t that the Mom from Everybody Loves Raymond playing Edna? 😂 She was great in this.

I would add "over me" after her last words😮

There's Murray Hamilton who was in THE TWILIGHT ZONE and the movie MRS. ROBINSON, ETC.

Fun to see an ad with The Limeliters (Glenn Yarborough, Lou Gottlieb, and Alex Hassilev) in it despite it being for cigarettes.

Love this show thanks

The barker was W.C. Fields "black sheep" younger brother! Really!

Murray Hamilton sounds like he remarried Alice Kramden of The Honeymooners, then went to the carnival looking for Mrs. Robinson.

Edna was played by Doris Roberts; who played Raymond's Mom, in "Everybody Loves Raymond "

Yesss! Can't wait to see this show.

OMG thank U for posting, this is fabulous!! And those ads, BRILLIANT!! (as the brits say,)

Unfortunately, the only thing I've ever gotten to see were the ads for the show with Roald Dahl's silly joke wearing a Vampire cape as he describes the series. He just says to the watching audience "You folks will have to excuse me. I have a compelling urge to SPREAD MY WINGS" as he does the same and jumps off the wall on which he was sitting.

so great to see the show..paired for awhile w twilight zone...creepy and intro w the mirrors adds to it:)

was HAROLD POTTER & ELECTRIC WOMAN the inspiration for Harry Potter with lightening bolt on head??

That particular episode, Side Show looked like it came from an issue of Eerie magazine.

A TRUE STORY !

It was videotaped rather than filmed. So it was even more shocking because it looked live.

an incandescent brain with compact flourescent ears. Those CFL's were waaaay ahead of their time.

27:15- Arthur Godfrey was the "host" of "CANDID CAMERA" during its first Sunday night season on CBS. But his ego often clashed with Allen Funt's, and he left the show at the end of the season. Durward Kirby "replaced" him as host (he functioned as more of a co-host with Funt over the next five years).

Mrs Dobson to Mr Dobson ''You stupid git, I'll probably never get a cobra now''.

That was really good! Question, how does a man end up with a shrew for a wife like that? She criticized EVERYTHING he did, including chewing his food!!!!

Me too!

That’s Murray Hamilton in the lead role ( the mayor in “Jaws”, Death himself but Ed Wynn delayed him from taking a small girl in a “Twilight Zone”, “1941”. Doris Roberts of course. She won an Emmy for playing a homeless lady with James Coco on “St. elsewhere” Myron McCormick played a shrink to Andy Griffith “in No Time for Sergeants”. That’s in intriguing variance on a ‘Zone’like type story.

If you'll notice, the carnival barker has a LONG dangling thread hanging from his coat sleeve. Surprise that it was overlooked 👀

The sideshow Barker could've been W.C. Fields brother. This is my first run through. Never heard of this anthology before.

How did the police know what kind of shampoo Murray Hamilton used? Because they found his Head & Shoulders at the carnival.

Don't forget to put the apostrophe before WAY before you light up.

Seems like the black lodge

Back then fifty cents was alot of money .

I thought no episodes remained.

Ray's Momma👍🏽

HOW DID YOU FIND THIS

Even the commercial were great back then . Now everything for 2022 is crap .

Doris Roberts recently passed away. She was 90.

If you thought this episode was good then you'll love the fresh taste of new L&M cigarettes. L&M are simply "Way Out" ahead of the rest in taste and flavour. Now available in cancer free packs.

Shalom

Is "Soft Focus" impossible to find? If so many episodes are on KZfaq why not that one?

This series seems to have a real problem with wives .... Doris Roberts act never changed over all these years

1. Everybody Loves Raymond's mother is in this 2. The husband's name is Harry Potter 3. The host looks like David Bowie

remember this was one of the creepiest !

7:35 That is so creepy! even more with that creepy music and the fact that's is black & white

Who would go back?

L&M didn’t exactly have a good looking spokesman! Lol. Roald Dahl must’ve been a woman hater. This is the second story where the wife is a shrew!

Smoking commercials!

I liked the episode where the photographer was touching up the photos of himself and his wife to make the wife look more ugly and himself look younger and more attractive.

The wives in these episodes are pretty horrible.

And the moral of this story is ...

I could understand it if she had a head... but...

My father wouldn't let me watch it

L&M cigarettes; to ensure that dried-out taste in your mouth as cancer eats away at your tongue.

ROOald Dahl

Husband and wife in separate beds. TV was so prudish back then. I never liked L&M's. I want to see a Kool's commercial.

Back when normal people smoked. Before the Socialists took over.