Amazing Stories: Miss Stardust

"Miss Stardust" is the title to the twenty-first episode of season two of the sci-fi/fantasy anthology series Amazing Stories and is the forty-fifth episode of the series overall. It was directed by Tobe Hooper and written by Thomas E. Szollosi and Richard Christian Matheson based on a short story written by Richard Matheson. It first aired on NBC on April 10th, 1987. The episode stars Dick Shawn as promoter Joe Willoughby, "Weird Al" Yankovic as the alien Cabbage Man, Laraine Newman as Miss Shroedinger, Rick Overton as John Aubrey, Jack Carter as John Bluthener, James Karen as Richard Whelan, and Jim Siedow as Totzke.

Synopsis
A man named Joe Willoughby tries to promote a beauty pageant called Miss Stardust, but things turn difficult when a strange alien known as the "Cabbage Man" comes to Earth as a representative of an organization that he claims owns the rights to the title. Rather than resolve the matter through the legal system, the Cabbage Man instead threatens to destroy the planet.

Notes & Trivia

 * Final episode of the series.


 * This is the only episode of Amazing Stories directed by Tobe Hooper.


 * This is Tobe Hooper's first credited work as a director on episodic television. Hooper is best known for creating the 1970s slasher film franchise, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.


 * Actor Jim Siedow, who plays Totzke is this episode, is also known for playing The Cook (later identified as Drayton Sawyer) in Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.


 * Teleplay writer Richard Christian Matheson is the son of author Richard Matheson, who wrote the short story from which this episode was adapted.


 * Teleplay writer Thomas E. Szollosi is credited as Thomas Szollosi in this episode.


 * Actress Victoria Powells is credited as Victoria Ellen Powells in this episode.


 * Actress Libby Aubrey is credited as Lisabeth Aubrey in this episode.

Allusions

 * This episode is an adaptation of the short story, "Miss Stardust", written by Richard Matheson and first published in the Spring of 1955.

Bloopers

 * Actor Jim Siedow's last name is mis-spelled as Seidow in the opening credits of this episode.