"The Dead Man" was the first installment of the series, following the airing of "The Night Gallery" pilot a year earlier. In this story, Carl Betz plays Max Redford, a doctor/researcher that has found the perfect subject in the guise of John Fearing (Michael Blodgett), a young man that through subconscious suggestion can mimic many fatal diseases, even death. To keep the strapping hunk in his care, Max allows the twenty-something to have an affair with Max's wife Velia (played by soap veteran Louise Sorell, in her younger days).
When Max's friend Miles Talmadge (played by acting legend Jeff Corey) comes for visit, things go awry. Max accidentally gives Michael the wrong revival cues and the young man does not return from his death state. Thus, the young man is buried.
Max is distraught and Velia is despondent. He asks his friend Miles to listen to the tapes to find out what went wrong during the session. Miles returns some time later to tell Max that he gave the cues wrong. Velia while just outside the laboratory, hearing all that has transpired, runs madly to the cemetery (conveniently located just over the hill) and gives the right signal at the crypt of Fielding.
There has never been a more terrifying "resurrection."
When Max's friend Miles Talmadge (played by acting legend Jeff Corey) comes for visit, things go awry. Max accidentally gives Michael the wrong revival cues and the young man does not return from his death state. Thus, the young man is buried.
Max is distraught and Velia is despondent. He asks his friend Miles to listen to the tapes to find out what went wrong during the session. Miles returns some time later to tell Max that he gave the cues wrong. Velia while just outside the laboratory, hearing all that has transpired, runs madly to the cemetery (conveniently located just over the hill) and gives the right signal at the crypt of Fielding.
There has never been a more terrifying "resurrection."