Genre: | Paranormal News |
Presenter: | Tim White |
Theme Music Composer: | Bill Bodine |
Composer: | Christopher L. Stone Michael Tavera Alan Ett |
Country: | United States |
Language: | English |
Num Seasons: | 5 |
Num Episodes: | 114 |
List Episodes: | List of Sightings episodes |
Runtime: | 30 minutes (seasons 1-2, 1996 behind the scenes special) 60 minutes (seasons 3-5, 1991–92 specials, 1996 home videos) 120 minutes (1998 In Depth and Beyond specials) |
Company: | Winkler/Daniel Productions The Berkeley Group Paramount Network Television Sather Gate Productions Wilshire Court Productions Ann Daniel Productions Fair Dinkum Productions Triage Entertainment |
Network: | Fox |
Network2: | First-run syndication |
Network3: | Sci-Fi Channel |
Network4: | Showtime |
Sightings is an American paranormal and news television show that first aired in the 1990s. The show began on October 17, 1991, as a special titled The UFO Report: Sightings. It was followed by the follow-up reports, Ghost Report and the Psychic Experience. The creator and supervising producer of the initial episode, produced by Paramount for Fox TV, was Linda Moulton Howe. One of her episodes was A Strange Harvest, about the worldwide animal-mutilation mystery linked to extraterrestrial beings.
After the special broadcast to high ratings, it went forward into weekly TV production as the program Sightings. The show featured everything from UFOs to ghosts to Bigfoot in an investigative news format and was hosted by reporter Tim White. The show was created by Ann Daniels Productions, Fair Dinkum Productions (Winkler-Daniel Productions from 1991 to 1993), and Paramount Domestic Television (Wilshire Court Productions from 1992 to 1993). Its executive producers were Henry Winkler and Ann Daniel.
The program began on Fox in 1992, in a 30-minute-long format that aired on Friday nights. When the show was put into syndication in 1994, it was extended to an hour-long format and was on at various times. In 1996, it was picked up by Sci Fi Channel. Sightings was cancelled in 1997, although five special episodes aired in 1998, and reruns continued on the Sci Fi Channel until April 2003.
In 1998, the producers made a new UFO special that aired on UPN, called Danger in Our Skies: The New UFO Threat hosted by Jim Forbes.[1] [2]
In 2003, a program called Unexplained Mysteries debuted in syndication. Although it did not have the same hosted news format like Sightings, it was produced by many of the same individuals involved with Sightings, and sometimes reused footage and graphics from the earlier program.
See main article: List of Sightings episodes.
There have been three home video releases of the Sightings television show: Sightings: The UFO Report, Sightings: The Ghost Report, and Sightings: The Psychic Experience. The videos were repackaged segments from season one and two of the television show. All three videos were originally released in 1996 on VHS tapes.
See main article: Sightings: Heartland Ghost. In 2002, one of the stories featured on Sightings became the subject of a television movie on the Showtime network, called Sightings: Heartland Ghost. The movie tells the story of a Sightings crew sent to investigate a poltergeist haunting, eventually becoming victimized by the ghost themselves. The movie was later released on DVD.[3]