I read it in a school book with other short stories in it in grammar school. I was the only kid that had already seen the Twilight Zone episode.
I never read the Prentice Hall Literature Book.
I ‘recently’ (in the last couple of years or so) re-read Examination Day, by Harry Slesar. I can’t remember the first time I read it. I know I’ve seen it on TZ (the '80s series). Coincidentally, I recently bought the original TZ series and the '80s series. I feel there’s a Twilight Zone Marathon approaching…
By the way, I’ve quoted this ep several times in the last couple of years.
Looking forward to the new TZ with Jordan Peele.
Adam Scott will be appearing in a remake of Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. This news was met with the expected amount of “WHAAAA??? Who asked for that? Make something original!!”
I’ll remember that next time i see a movie adaptation of Shakespeare.
I hated that one from the beginning. People never think how long “forever” really is. Eventually, after 60 years they’ll realize something is up. They’ll eventually let him out. Or society will fall. Or something. He won’t be in prison for “life”. But after 100000 years or so, after everyone else has died, he’ll be begging for the comforts he used to have in prison.
He bailed far too early. What a lightweight!
it was the same problem of the end of Death Becomes Her, where the two protagonist’s bodies are breaking down, but they can’t die. It was played for laughs, with almost a Twilight Zonian comeuppance, but the same thing had to be happening to Jim Morrison and Greta Garbo and everyone else.
As others have said, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” was written by Rod Serling. He originally wrote it as a script for The Twilight Zone. He then rewrote it as a short story and included it in his anthology Stories from The Twilight Zone.
Sterling rewrote a lot of his scripts into short stories and published several collections:
Stories from The Twilight Zone
More Stories from The Twilight Zone
New Stories from The Twilight Zone
Night Gallery
Night Gallery 2
The Season To Be Wary
The good news is that these have all been recently republished.
Ray Bradbury wrote one script for the original The Twilight Zone. (He would later write two more for the series revival in the eighties.) It was the episode “I Sing the Body Electric” which was the 100th episode of the series. Bradbury would also rewrite his script into a short story.
I think the message here was that most of the immortals had a long-term mentality. They realized they needed to make their bodies last and took precautions. Madeline and Helen were portrayed as self-centered individuals who wouldn’t look past their immediate concerns. So even when they became immortal they remained locked in the short term, always seeking immediate gratification. But now they had to live with the long term consequences for their snap decisions.
Like Dale said, he gets bored quickly. He can’t take waiting 60 years. Rod Serling even mentions that it’s one of the factors that did him in. He also couldn’t figure out that if he’s going to try to rip off insurance companies, it would be a good idea for him to not let them know that he’s in no pain, so he’s not very bright.
That wasn’t an issue in the TW episode. Parts of the deal were that he couldn’t be harmed and aging would be imperceptible.
Nitpicks: He wrote several scripts for the original, but one was produced. He only wrote one script that was produced for a segment of the 80s series, and one segment of an episode was based on a Bradbury short story.