How the ’80s Twilight Zone honored and extended Rod Serling’s legacy

[Omaha Steve]

Posted story below.

Marta and I have our own 80's TZ page here: http://www.steveandmarta.com/ntz1.htm

Out two TZCon trips are here: 2004: http://www.steveandmarta.com/tzcon2004.htm

2002: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/tzcon2002.htm

OS


http://www.avclub.com/article/how-80s-twilight-zone-honored-and-extended-rod-ser-203602

By Phil Dyess-Nugent Apr 23, 2014 12:00 AM

There’s an episode of Northern Exposure in which the impressionable, young Shelly Tambo (Cynthia Geary) becomes addicted to watching TV after her doting husband Holling (John Cullum) installs a satellite dish. In need of guidance, Shelly turns to Cicely, Alaska’s resident spiritual adviser and high priest of cool, the disc jockey and autodidact Chris (John Corbett). Chris is sympathetic to her plight, though he can’t relate to it; he says he himself has never gotten the appeal of TV, “’cept maybe for the Zones.” The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s classic sci-fi anthology series, which ran from 1959 to 1964, is the original underground cult show, and one of the earliest TV series to acquire a new, hip luster years after it was originally broadcast. Kids who grew up watching it in syndicated reruns were transfixed by the low-budget punchiness of the best episodes, and their perfectly preserved, claustrophobically intense atmosphere of Cold War paranoia.

So it makes sense that The Twilight Zone was one of the first TV series to get its own reboot. Still, the fact that it happened at all can largely be chalked up to the magical effect that the name “Steven Spielberg” has on Hollywood executives. Spielberg was one of the four big-name directors who worked on 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie, which represented a landmark moment in Boomer nostalgia and its effect on the shape of popular culture. There had been movies based on TV shows before, but spin-offs like Munster, Go Home!; House Of Dark Shadows; and the Get Smart movie, The Nude Bomb, were cheap fan bait for hardcore addicts. Along with the Star Trek movies, the Twilight Zone film—best remembered for George Miller’s high-adrenaline remake of “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet” and Joe Dante’s fun remake of “It’s A Good Life” (and, sadly, for the on-set helicopter crash that took the lives of actor Vic Morrow and two children)—served notice that the generation that grew up watching TV took its pop-culture nostalgia seriously.

For his next trick, Spielberg announced plans to launch his own TV series, Amazing Stories—basically, a high-concept, A-list-talent version of The Wonderful World Of Disney—and suddenly, anthology shows were the hot ticket of the fall 1985 TV season. Since CBS owned the rights to The Twilight Zone, the show gave the network a ready template with strong name recognition that it could produce in-house. (NBC, which already had Amazing Stories, also took a flier on a reboot of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, with new remakes of old episodes joined to “colorized” classic introductory sequences starring Hitch himself.)

The original Twilight Zone had served as a meal ticket for hungry young talent, which enhanced the interest value of those reruns whose unknown stars turned out to be stars of tomorrow (Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, and William Shatner). The new Twilight Zone attracted a number of big-name actors and directors who were charmed by the idea of being associated with Rod Serling’s venerable brand. Some of the directors who worked on the show—such as Wes Craven, who directed the first segment of the first episode and several other installments, and who was just coming off the original Nightmare On Elm Street movie—were as hot then as they would ever be; others, such as William Friedkin, had suffered some career setbacks, and may have seen this as a good chance to show what they could still do even when working fast and dirty, without the weight of a multimillion-dollar production on their backs.

FULL story at link.

[octoberlib]

1. I miss this show!

[Omaha Steve]

2. The Twilight Zone - 1985's 'New TZ' To Get a 13-DVD 'Complete Series' Set

I just got this. The third season sucks. But a good price to get the good stuff. Marta and I got credit on the original 80's TZ DVD release.


http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Twilight-Zone-The-Complete-80s-Series/19727

The Twilight Zone - 1985's 'New TZ' To Get a 13-DVD 'Complete Series' Set
Coming from RLJ Entertainment's Image brand this July
Posted by David Lambert
4/22/2014


INCLUDES ALL THREE SEASONS FROM THE CLASSIC '80s TV SERIES! Travel into the fifth dimension once again with THE TWILIGHT ZONE, testing the limits of reality and exploring the mysteries of the universe. Airing from 1985 to 1989, this critically acclaimed anthology series carried on the legacy of the original Rod Serling program and attracted a brand new audience of fans. The series features major stars - including Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Martin Landau and many more! - in compelling tales of intrigue by such noted writers as Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke and Theodore Sturgeon. This collection contains all 3 seasons (65 episodes) from the classic '80s TV series.

In 2004 and 2005, all three seasons of the highly successful 1985 revival series were released on DVD. Now RLJ Entertainment's Image brand is planning a July 1st release of The Twilight Zone - The Complete '80s Series, a 13-DVD set with all three seasons compiled together in one package. Cost is $59.98 SRP, and a Photo Gallery, an exclusive Wes Craven Video Interview, and over a dozen Audio Commentaries by the creative forces behind the show. Package art isn't available yet, but stay tuned! Oh, and don't miss the story today about a pair of releases from the original 1959 show that are coming out this summer as well.


Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Twilight-Zone-The-Complete-80s-Series/19727#ixzz2zkzLQZ7O