"Amazing Stories" Retro Recap: "Fine Tuning"

Written by Scotty

Trying to make something new is never an easy endeavor.  With so much failure that can occur, sometimes it is easier to just give up and let some other poor sap try to make it work.  But if you have the will and the drive, you might be able to make something amazing.  With so many great inventors in the past, who have made our way of life the way it is today, would you want something that you designed to be used by everyone on the planet, every day?  It could be for the fame, or better yet, it could be to better humanity and your name could be attached to it, as long as you do not give up.

Andy is working his is science project, alone as always.  He is trying to design a super small television antenna that can pick up stations from miles always from his home.  Living in Hollywood, Andy has his sights on Oakland, but when he powers up the antenna, he has reached much further than that.  With his first attempt being able to pick up signals from Idaho, Andy continues to adjust the settings to see how much further it can reach.  As the settings are adjusted, he reaches Hawaii next and with a little bit more fiddling, he is able to get as far as China.  Making sure he is not crazy, Andy calls his father up to double check, and he is getting a signal from China after all.

Telling his classmates that are supposed to be working on the project with him about his progress, they both laugh in his face.  Although he is one of the smartest kids in the class, there is no way that he is able to make the antenna work that well.  Coming over to Andy’s house to check and see what he is bragging about, the antenna fails to pick up a signal and everyone tries to adjust it in their own way.  Wrecking the current settings, the antenna searches for a new signal and finds one from outer space.  As the boys watch the television, they see aliens running around and reenacting their favorite shows from ten years ago. 

With no explanation for what they are watching, they sit back and enjoy.  But this distant planet does not seem to have any original shows as everything that they are watching is from the earth's past, just with different actors.  When the final show of the night ends, a news report comes on showing three alien astronauts suiting up and heading towards earth.  With the exact date being shown on the screen of when they are scheduled to arrive on the planet, the boys are fascinated to meet these beings from another planet.  Walking around Hollywood, the boys are lucky enough to find the small invaders, but do not truly understand what they are looking for until running into their favorite television star, Milton Berle.  The aliens are looking to get the shows that they have loved for all of these years back on the air.  Andy and his friends are not able to convince the aliens that this cannot happen, so they take a step in a different direction and come up with a plan to try and get some older stars of stage and screen to go back to the alien’s home world with them.

Not how you would expect an alien landing to go in Hollywood that is for sure. With the boys knowing what is happening, everything seems to be flying under the radar and no one cares in the city.  As the boys follow the aliens, they seem to form a bond over television, who would have thunk it.  It is a charming tale of how nice everyone can be and utilizing the one thing that we all have in common, our love for television.  I don’t know about you, but if aliens came down to the planet to look for movie stars, I might get a little bit upset if they took any of my favorites and I am sure we would start an intergalactic war to get at least a few of them back.  As the sun turns black, there is nothing to see except the reflecting aura of stars long deceased. 

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