"Twilight Zone" from the 1980s

Cafe Society
1

I vaguely remember two episodes I particularly liked, but haven’t been able to find titles or plot summaries online:

  • John F. Kennedy is saved from assassination by a time-traveling historian, who somehow takes his place. JFK returns to the future, and is a teacher at Harvard.

  • In a desert community, someone (maybe through alien influence or suggestion?) learns a word or phrase that will drive anyone who hears it insane. Of course he heads for the nearest radio station.

Which episodes were these? Any good plot-summary sources you can suggest?

2

This is a great site I stumbled upon recently.

http://postcardsfromthezone.blogspot.com/2005/12/introductionof-sorts.html

The individual who operates the site hasn’t quite finished reviewing every episode – he’s still early in the third season – but both the episodes you are looking for are, fortunately, early selections. One is called “Profile in Silver” and the other is “Need to Know,” featuring a pre-CSI William Petersen.

3

The Internet Movie Data Base has added episode entries for TV shows, the 1980s incarnation of the Twilight Zone included. Here’s season 1:

4

I remember the last episode of the first season had an adaptation of Zelazny’s “Last Defender of Camelot” that was pretty good. George R. R. Martin did the screenplay, with Richard Kiley as Lancelot and Jenny Agutter as Morgan.

5

In this thread I mentioned the show and got some responses as to where I could find some additional information.

However, if you can wait a day or two (I’m at work), I could try to find out the titles to the shows you described.

6

I got about 400 visits today, most coming from this link, so I just had to register and drop y’all a line. And thank you for the plugs, at that !

Yes, the two episodes from above are indeed Profile in Silver and Need to Know. They are both reviewed on my blog, as well as the rest of seasons 1 and 2, and first 9 (out of 30) episodes of season 3. As of today, that is.

My plans are to finish all of the 80s, then move on to UPN zones. Those are also in dire need of comprehensive guide.

Thanks for reading, again. :slight_smile:

7

I really loved that show, even better than the original, for a variety of reasons.

  1. It was more optimistic; people didn’t have nasty things happen to them solely to be nasty.
  2. It adapted many first-class SF stories instead of depending on TV writers (though the original had good ones). There were episodes based on stories by Robert Silverbert, Harlan Ellison, Tom Godwin, Joe Haldeman, Henry Slesar, Greg Bear, Theodore Sturgeon, and others.
  3. Several of the stories were written by the king of televised SF: Rockne S. O’Bannon (creator of Alien Nation and Farscape).
  4. Top-notch directors: Wes Craven, Robert Downey, Peter Medak, William Friedkin.
  5. Multiple stories per hour, so they didn’t have to drag things out or cut them to fit. They ran plenty of 5-minute stories that were fine for that length, but would have been terrible if they had to do them in a half hour.

The best source is redirecting.....

8

reality Chuck, I think you have a slightly distorted view of the original series:

1.) There were quiote a few optimistic episodes. It wasn’t all about nasty things happening to people.

2.) A lot of the episodes of the TV show were adapterd from short stories by noted writers that originally appeared in magazines, like Damon Knight’s “To Serve Man”, and Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life”, and Ray Bradbury’s “The Electric Grandmother”

3.) Two of the three “TV writers” were Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, both of whom were often-published pulp writers before they started writing for TV (and both of whom wrote movie screenplays before TZ). The third big writer for the show was Serling himself, who was no slouch at TV teleplays – “Patterns”, “Requiem for a Heavyweight”, etc.

9

Friedkin directed only one episode, but a good one. John Milius also directed one ep, so did Joe Dante. Milius’s one is the one to avoid though.

Sadly, this held true only in first season. In second, they already got pressured to cut to 2x20 mins, then only to 1x20, before getting shelved. In third season, it was exclusively one 22-minute piece per airing. As a result, second season only had two shorts (and one was a semi-short at 15ish minutes), where third had none.

Heh. I’m friends with John who organizes that page - I remember I sent him corrections to his 80s TZ guide…he also has a very visible ad for my page right on the top of his index page. But, if you’re looking purely for reference and short capsules, you’re best off looking there.

Steve and Martha’s TZ page (google it, or click on the link either on John’s or my page) have some in-depth reviews (most notably Nightcrawlers), but sadly that page is unfinished.

PS. I have confirmed information Rockne S. O’Bannon reads my blog. :smiley: How’s that for nerd credentials…

10

Not all that many, really. And things like “A Stop in Willoughby,” and Burgess Meredith breaking his glasses are what people remember.

Also the characters in the original were less well-rounded.

[quote]
2.) A lot of the episodes of the TV show were adapterd from short stories by noted writers that originally appeared in magazines, like Damon Knight’s “To Serve Man”, and Jerome Bixby’s “It’s a Good Life”, and Ray Bradbury’s “The Electric Grandmother”[/quot]A few were, but the remake did this much more often.

True, too, but the second series writers included Rockne O’Bannon, Alan Brennert, George R. R. Martin, Harlan Ellison, Michael Cassut, Stephen Barnes, David Gerrold, in addition to Matheson and Beaumont. These are also people with histories of success as writers of stories, novels, screenplays, and teleplays. This led to more variety and a better show overall.

Basically, the original show was clearly from 50s TV, while the remake was much more modern in sensibility – and had more emotional depth.

11

Thanks for dropping by, Mairso. I went to the link to find the title for my favorite ep (I of Newton) and ended up getting sucked into revisiting a lot of the episodes I still very clearly remembering, thanks to your site.

Though the original series holds a special place in my heart, this was an excellent endeavor as well, more than doing justice to Serling’s legacy.

12

Whoops, that should’ve been Mairosu. :smack:

You can actually trace visits based on a single link? Didn’t know that. :cool:

13

Nicely done Blog Mairosu and Welcome to the SDMB. Look around and kick the tires, you might enjoy this place.

I would like to see this one, I loved that story and I had a crush back then on Jenny Agutter. She is the one from Logan’s Run I think.

Jim

14

Yep, thanks to Statcounter’s plugin, I can trace the link referrer. My usual day is 100ish visits - today I broke all records with 500 and counting. Enough of self-whoring though. :smiley:

15

Thanks. :slight_smile:

That’s her. She’s also in American Werewolf from London (where you can see her commando-style :D), and appears in another TZ episode (2.19, Voices in the Earth, along with Martin Balsam).

16

More than you recall, I’ll wager – “Night of the Meek”, “Mr. Bemis, the Strong”, The one with Jack Klugman as the trumpet player. There are quite a few others that were upbeat, and others that had “HAPPY ENDINGS” TO BLEAK CIRCUMSTANCES.

17

Here’s an index of familiar faces in the new TZ, with the episode number in brackets.

Bruce Willis (1.01), Melinda Dillon (1.02), Meg Foster (1.04), Terry O’Quinn & John Ashton (1.05), Eric Bogosian & Vincent Gardenia (1.06), Arliss Howard (1.08), Scott Paulin (1.11), Duncan McNeill (1.15), Adrienne Barbeau (1.16), Danny Kaye (1.17), Piper Laurie (1.19), Dan Hedaya, M. Emmet Walsh & Morgan Freeman (1.20), Helen Mirren (1.21), Martin Landau, Giovanni Ribisi & Charles Martin Smith (1.26), Peter Riegert (1.27), Jonathan Frakes (1.31), Fritz Weaver (1.32), John & Robert Carradine (1.33), Elliot Gould (1.35), Ralph Bellamy (1.36), Steven Geoffreys (1.39), Martin Balsam (1.45 & 2.19), Steve Railsback, John de Lancie & Brent Spiner (1.48), Andrew Robinson (1.49 & 2.17), Brad Davis (1.50), Will Petersen (1.51), George Dzundza (1.52), Tim Thomerson (1.53), Uta Hagen & Lori Petty (1.55), Peter Coyote (1.56), Jenny Agutter (1.59 & 2.19), Shelley Duvall (2.02), Fred Savage, Tom Skerritt & Lukas Haas (2.03), George Wendt (2.09), Joe Penny (2.11), Cliff DeYoung (2.12), Joe Mantegna, Jon Gries & Joan Allen (2.16), Gina Gershon (2.18), Harry Morgan (3.01), Marc Singer (3.02), Louise Fletcher (3.04), Eddie Albert (3.05), Timothy Bottoms (3.07), William Sanderson (3.09)

Offhand, I remember Michael Moriarty in one of the forthcoming episodes…don’t know about the rest.

As for directors, here are some notables :

Paul Lynch (9 eps), Wes Craven (1.01-1.03, 1.05, 1.20, 1.28, 2.12), Joe Dante (1.23), William Friedkin (1.11), Allan Arkush (1.35), John Milius (1.25), Peter Medak (about five-six), Jim McBride (2.01)

Of course I’m certain I missed someone…but yeah, fill away if you know. :slight_smile:

18

Sounds like you’re thinking more of the '90’s Outer Limits…

Why don’t they do that anymore? On one hand, I can see how it might be expensive, but on the other hand, it’d be perfect for the modern TV attention span…

19

In addition to *Logan’s Run * and *AWIL * he was also in the all together in *Equus * and in *Walkabout * (filmedwhen she was just 18).

20

But I digress…

One of my favorites not mentioned so far is “Her Pilgrim Soul”–which was later turned into an off-broadway musical, or so I’ve read.
IIRC from a review in *TW * magazine, Gahan Wilson hated their adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Star.”
King’s “Gramma”–adapted by Ellison–was freaking scary.
I also liked the one about the opera singer and her sister.