Article-I.D.: lzwi.325
Posted: Mon Sep 23 10:03:19 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Sep-85 03:35:42 EDT
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Organization: AT&T-IS Enhanced Network Services
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:10230 net.tv:3244


     On Friday, the 27th of September, 1985, CBS's "new" series THE
TWILIGHT ZONE premiers with two half-hour stories.  The first is
"Shatterday", which is presumably an adaptation of Harlan Ellison's
terrific short story.  Knowing HE's reputation, he probably wrote the
teleplay (he of the three Writer's Guide awards for best teleplay of
the year).

     Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was the one who told you to keep an eye out
for the PBS adaptation of "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank", and look
what a turkey that turned out to be.  But I have faith that Ellison
will fight the good fight for freedom, justice, the Mutant way, and
good Story on the glass teat.
-- 
       -Paul S. R. Chisholm       The above opinions are my own,
       {pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc  not necessarily those of any
       {mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc     telecommunications company.
       (*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!!  Use above paths.)
"Of *course* it's the murder weapon.  Who would frame someone with a fake?"

Article-I.D.: petrus.610
Posted: Sun Sep 29 02:33:10 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 09:03:42 EDT
References: <325@lzwi.UUCP>
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Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
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As a fan of the original Twilight Zone, I guess I expected to be vaguely
disappointed by the season premiere of the (new) Twilight Zone.

It did not take long in either episode to recognize the original episodes
from which the two new ones were drawn. The first half, "Shatterday",
plagarizes its theme from "Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room", a far better
show. The original character, Jackie Rhoades, is a small-time hoodlum holed
up in a cheap flophouse waiting for orders from his boss.  When his boss
does call, he is ordered to murder a tavern owner who has refused to pay
protection money. For most of the one-man show, Jackie goes through a
breakdown, arguing with his alter-ego in mirrors -- a reflection of himself
as he'd be if he had been able to take control of his own life. At the end,
Jackie and his mirror image are finally able to trade places.  Joe Mantell
did an excellent job playing Jackie, unlike the character of Peter Jay
Novins in "Shatterday". Bruce Willis plays the two halves of this character
so unsympathetically that instead of wishing for the "good half" to replace
the "bad half", you're almost hoping that they'll just kill each other and
get it over with.  The inevitable ending was obvious long before it happened
and was totally devoid of the ironic surprise twist that made the original
Twilight Zone episodes so satisfying.

The second story, about a housewife who unearths a sundial pendant which
enables her to freeze the world (and give her peace and quiet) whenever she
says "shut up!" is stolen even more directly from "A Kind of a Stopwatch".

The original Twilight Zone seldom had an unhappy ending unless the main
character strongly deserved some poetic justice. In the original story,
Patrick McNulty is locked into a frozen world because of his greed. He uses
his ability to stop time in order to rob a bank, and in doing so
accidentally breaks the stopwatch that he needs to start the world going
again. The housewife in "A Little Peace and Quiet" does little to deserve
her fate, trapped in world she freezes the moment before a Soviet ICBM lands
on her town. It seems a bit much to hold her responsible for Armageddon
because she declined to watch a debate on arms control. On the other hand,
perhaps she's now supposed to find a fighter airplane, learn to fly it, and
go up to destroy the missile that's frozen in midair over her town? We
aren't even given a hint. (Technical flaw: it seems unlikely that the
Russians have launching points so close to their US targets that their
missile boosters wouldn't even have a chance to finish burning, much less
stage and deploy their warheads before they land on their targets. But I
suppose it's all artistic license.)

I suppose the new Twilight Zone is better than 95% of the shows on TV
these days, but judging from the opening episode it will be no competition
for reruns of the Rod Serling originals.

Phil Karn

Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1830
Posted: Tue Oct  1 15:32:53 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 06:29:01 EDT
References: <325@lzwi.UUCP> <610@petrus.UUCP>
Reply-To: wmartin@brl-bmd.UUCP
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Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
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Xref: watmath net.sf-lovers:10402 net.tv:3306

Well, I guess I'll throw in a few comments on the first Twilight Zone,
also... One interesting point I noticed -- Harlan Ellison is listed in
the ending credits as a "technical advisor" or some such job title, yet
he did NOT do the teleplay for his story "Shatterday" (anybody know
why?).

(By the way, the character in "Shatterday" is certainly an idiot! I'd
be delighted to be duplicated -- I could go to work only half the time,
letting my alter ego go every other day; I could get a lot of stuff done
that requires an extra helper that my wife can't or won't do; I could be
in two places at once, practically! Also, I bet two *really identical*
persons would be able to communicate telepathically, so I could 
actually experience all this stuff my alter ego does... anyway...)

As for "A Little Peace and Quiet", the all the supporting characters
were such wretches that one welcomed the pending nuclear attack as a way
of exterminating them. The main technical failure here, though, was an
old one, for which there is no excuse after all the publicity, news
programs, etc., on nuclear war -- they showed the Soviet missle coming
down in full take-off configuration instead of just a warhead, the way
it would really be. That is, they showed a multi-stage missle, fins and
all, with exhaust flames coming out of the end, heading down toward the
target, when they should have showed an ablative warhead with a shock
wave around it. Very annoying, and such technical blunders spoil shows
for anyone who knows enough to be interested in the first place.

Will

Article-I.D.: leadsv.635
Posted: Wed Oct  2 16:15:58 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Oct-85 17:54:08 EDT
References: <325@lzwi.UUCP> <610@petrus.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: LMSC-LEADS, Sunnyvale, Ca.
Lines: 32
Xref: linus net.sf-lovers:9279 net.tv:3099

In article <610@petrus.UUCP>, karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn) writes:
> As a fan of the original Twilight Zone, I guess I expected to be vaguely
> disappointed by the season premiere of the (new) Twilight Zone.
> 
> It did not take long in either episode to recognize the original episodes
> from which the two new ones were drawn. The first half, "Shatterday",
> plagarizes its theme from "Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room", a far better
> show. ... 

I thought I read somewhere, perhaps in net.sf-lovers, that "Shatterday"
was based on a Harlan Ellison story, and that he wrote the screenplay.
To say that the epeisode was drawn from an original one is being a little
unfair to the author, unless he stole his idea straight from the earlier
episode. To me, the stories weren't really the same. In "Nervous Man in
a Four-Dollar Room", the main character in the end is redeamed and becomes
a better person. In "Shatterday", I don't really feel that the Peter Novins
that is left at the end is a great deal better than the original, just
different and possesing some good traits. He still seemed to be somewhat
unlikable.

I too recognized the the second episode immediatley. I did not expect
the ending though. Instead of having someone trapped themselves permantly
in suspended time by destroying the device, the person has to remain
by choice, even though the choice to get out of suspended time is not a
choice. She has to live her life in the agony of solitude while knkowing that
she can get out of solitude, but only briefly, before the world is destroyed.
Sure she doesn't deserve her fate, but then do any of us deserve our current
fate if the bombs to go off. I agree that there was no ironic twist, as in
Serling's stories, but at least they tried something new.

						Scott A. Stewart
						LMSC - Sunnyvale