When my daughter, Dolores, was two, we visited the old house in the old neighborhood on Milner Street. My mother had moved to Sausalito and the house stood there, empty, with it's windows covered by old splintered plywood. I held Dolores in my arms and we stood on the sidewalk in front of the weed-shrouded lawn. I thought of the many ghosts that roamed the place. So many memories, strong echoes of the past, that still haunt me.

What is CUPIC?

CUPIC (kyu-pik): CENTRAL UNIDENTIFIED PHENOMENON INVESTIGATION COMMITTEE.
 An organization formed by a group comprised mainly of prominent members
 of the scientific community. Their goal is to investigate legitimate cases of the unexplained and to reach a scientific conclusion.

Where do we begin?

The McAllister story started back in 1982 with a series of short stories about citizens of a Northern California town who have encountered some strange phenomenon. The earlier stories include, THE DRIVE, THE ASSIGNMENT, A LONG WALK HOME, A MESSAGE FROM THE ARCHER.

1986

Red Rider: Down was written during that summer and was set at the Army Air National Guard base just outside of McAllister. The story was about an Army Reserve pilot who is participating in a search and rescue mission. He is searching for an aircraft that went down between McAllister and Bedford. What he finds is incredible…

1989 

THE ASSIGNMENT short was produced during the spring and was shot in super 8mm film. This was the first official CUPIC story produced visually. It aired on FICTION THEATER during the summer of 1990…

The Contact (originally titled A Message from the Archer) was about a couple that lived in the fictional town of McAllister, just north of San Francisco. Accountant Tony Miller, and science teacher Mindy DiCaprio, were involved in an extraordinary event during that summer. An astronomer, Janet Raphael, was on special assignment as the acting head of the Saggamore Heights Observatory, in the mountains just north of town. Knowing her skepticism on the subject, she was asked by colleague, Cynthia Young, to investigate the incident. What the investigation uncovered changed Janet Raphael forever. Two version of this project was produced super 8mm and on S-VHS. The S-VHS version aired on FICTION THEATER in 1990 on the pilot episode.

1991-1993

The Series:

After the short video, The Contact, in 1990 and two more short videos, The Contact: A Second Message in winter 1991 and The Final Contact in fall 1991, the concept for a series was developed. In January 1992, Imminent Contact, a seventy-minute movie with Janet Raphael and other characters from The Contact Trilogy started principle photography. Shooting was completed in August of 1992.

In December 1992, Episode 1 of the series was completed and aired in January 1993 in the Southern California area on Continental Cablevision. The Series ran through June of 1993 with five episodes, including a flashback episode that involved footage from the Trilogy. Episodes One has been re-edited and re-mastered with new visual effects and new sound effects.

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