Ah, the fall of 1964. “Oh, Pretty Woman” and “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” were playing on the radio, Spider-Man tangled with Sandman in Marvel comics, and The Terminator was on Saturday-night TV. OK, the sci-fi action flick actually debuted in movie theaters 20 years later, but many have noted suspicious similarities between James Cameron’s film and two episodes of the LBJ-era series The Outer Limits. Both of the episodes in question were written by the prolific sci-fi author Harlan Ellison, and both involve a man who travels back in time, pursued by shadowy foes. (Sound familiar?)

In “Soldier,” which aired on September 19, 1964, a time traveler dies defending modern-day humans from another time traveler who’s a relentless and amoral killing machine. In the October 17 installment, “Demon With a Glass Hand,” a protagonist from the year 2964 learns that while he was sent back to become the savior of humanity, he’s actually just a robot encased in human skin. Scene details contain eerie parallels to Ahnuld’s breakout blockbuster—like the way a dude from the future suddenly materializes on a street in present-day America, or the spooky sight of a normal-looking guy with a robotic hand.

Not many people saw those episodes, because the boneheads at ABC scheduled Outer Limits opposite the enormously popular show Jackie Gleason’s American Scene Magazine. (NBC screwed the original Star Trek in a similar way—someone should travel back in time and force those network execs to provide better time slots for sci-fi.) But the famously combative Ellison believed that they were seen by someone on Cameron’s production team, and he brought suit over similarities between The Terminator and “Soldier.” The terms of the resulting settlement are sealed, but the movie credits now include the line, “Acknowledgment to the works of Harlan Ellison.”