I always thought that would make a good subtitl for Dilbert
Iread the Hasrlan Ellison story in the anthology of the same name at a very tender age. It impressed me deeply. I read the comic adaptation quite a while ago.
I never hought it inflenced Terminator at all. as Sir Rhosis notes, it probably owes more to the Outer Limits episode “Soldier” which Ellison penned (and the earlier short story of the same name). I also suspect it owes something to his other Outer Limits episode, “Demon with a Glass Hand”, which is also about folks from the future coming back to our time to duke it out over the Fate of the World. (DWAGH is, by the way, my al-time favorte TV science fiction episode).
Of course, there are those who claim that Terminator also owes a big debt to Philip K. Dick’s “Second Variety”. I think anyone who makes an SF movie is bound to be influenced by the preceding literature. Cameron, IIRC, mentioned Elison as a big influence, and that got him in trouble. See if anyone in film acknowledges his influences now.
Right; I see The Terminator as being influenced by “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” and two Outer Limits episodes: “Soldier” and “Demon With a Glass Hand”, and possibly the short story “Brillo”. I don’t know if it was worth a lawsuit, but I know once Ellison thinks somebody’s crossed him, he won’t drop it until he’s been dead twelve years. He’s still pissed off about “City on the Edge of Forever”.
Most of what passes for “dark” literature these days is horror genre potboilers and desperately “cool” vampire stuff. There are scarier things inside every one of us.
I heard that it didn’t sell that well, as such that Mr. Eillison sued the company becuase he felt he wasn’t getting his fair share of the profits…only to find out there were no profits.
> Cameron, IIRC, mentioned Elison as a big influence, and that
> got him in trouble.
I believe that what happened was that Cameron in interviews at the time The Terminator was released talked about the influence of certain unspecified episodes of Outer Limits. When Ellison heard about this and saw the possible influence of the episodes he wrote, he threaten a lawsuit and got a settlement from the owners of the film. I think that Cameron steals from a lot of sources. It’s hard to pin down what are the influences on The Terminator because there are so many of them.
I’m sorry if I may have given false information in the earlier post re: Terminator. I don’t own a copy of the original movie in the series but I’d swear on Cecil’s brain that Harlan is mentioned in the credits. At the beginning of the film there’s a “based on a story by” credit. I’m sure there is. Unless…maybe a terminator came back in time and changed the credits…hmmmm. Might be a story there…
There was no credit given to Ellison when the film first came out. Part of the settlement that Ellison demanded (beyond the money he got) was that he get a credit in the film. I believe that the credit appears at the beginning of the end credits and says, “With acknowledgement to the works of Harlan Ellison.”
Did you read his book-long rant at Gene Roddenberry (who sounds like he’d been going senile for years) when Ellison published the original script a few years ago? Geez, okay, we get it, Harlan. Roddenberry was clueless and you’re brilliant. Can we let it go at some point?
I remember the Twilight Zone episode, and that story was even more disturbing. Genunially Hellish, wrapped in a small-town atmopshere.
Everytime I read it, I wonder about the difficulties invovled at learning to swing an axe at a head-sized object while thinking of something totally different, or nothing at all, at the same time.
I’m a credit-reader. Sometimes you find gems in those credits (read the closing credits for Robocop carefully sometime. Or look up “Crazy Credits” on the IMDB entry, if you’re lazy.)
When erminator first came out, there was no credit for Ellison. I’m sure f that. When it firs came out on videotape, they had inserted a credit for Ellison – but it wasn’t at the beginning of the credits. I think it was very near the end. On the present videos and DVDs, the credit for Ellison is the first item in the closing credits.
Harlan’s credit on Terminator: Essentially, he was not given credit on the original film. After he sued, rereleases were supposed to list his name. However, Cameron has a history of “forgetting” to include it, so there are some video or DVD editions where it was left off. When that happens, Harlan’s lawyer called and the name is put back.
And I agree that the Bixby story of It’s a Good Life is a great one, and superior to the TZ version, mostly because in the story the boy is not really evil, just capricious and immature.