Ultra Q

With the sobering intro/outro narration of The Twilight Zone, the normal-day-turned-Lovecraftian-horror of The X-Files, and a practical effects team that dared greatly and generally succeeded, this ought to be better known.

The monster-of-the-week format and 30-minute episodes don't give much time for character development, of course. The likeable cast include a hard-charging lady reporter, a wise old scientist with government connections, and a pair of pilots-for-hire who transport them to the scene of the trouble and provide the muscle as needed.

The real stars, of course, are the monsters--a giant slug that shoots rays from its eyestalks, a creepy tentacled balloon monster that fills the skies over Tokyo, a prehistoric beast that is reawakened when a tunneling project disturbs its eggs (yes that was a Kolchak plot too!). They give you the monsters in all their rubbery glory, better in my opinion than Doctor Who or The Outer Limits. Only wish there were more episodes, but it must have been really expensive.