Please Stand By

September 16, 1963

The science-fiction anthology series The Outer Limits premiered on ABC-TV on this date.

The original title for this series was Please Stand By, but because the Cuban Missile Crisis had happened less than a year earlier, executives thought it might make people fearful of an air raid. As a reference to this, when the 1995 revival of the series would cut to a commercial, the Control Voice said, “Please stand by.”

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