Night On Earth was 1991. Five stories in five cities across the globe on the same night, all set in taxicabs.
Check the very first response.
Chuck has it right. Everybody hates them and they don’t make money. You can’t build up enough characterization in the limited time for audiences to buy into the characters. They have to depend on plots, and that usually winds up being the equivalent of Clue, a movie in which there were three totally arbitrary endings. If the endings are arbitrary, then who cares about them? People stay away from short film festivals in droves, for the same reason.
In addition, you tend to get either major actors slumming - because they can afford limited pay for limited work - or bad actors willing to do anything. In neither case are you likely to get great work.
That sums up everything that’s wrong with anthology films and why they don’t get made very often.
Sure you can, if it’s done right. I mean The Twilight Zone (original series) built up complete stories with detailed characterization in 25 minutes. If you have good writers, its do-able. I’ve seen some very creepy tales in these movies to rival the best episodes of TZ.
I’d disagree that TZ offered any detailed characterization. Sterling was good at given you a series of memorable quirks but few complete characters. The shows were overwhelmingly about their plots, not their characterization.
And people will accept a different level of personality for television than for movies. We accept sitcoms and dramas in which the central characters rarely change. Even when they have a life-changing episode as likely as not they’ll be the same people the next week.
Besides, how many anthologies series were there ever on television at one time?
The audience for anthology programs is as large as the audience for single camera comedies like Arrested Development or 30 Rock. Small. Or the audience for Grindhouse’s double feature, half of what was expected.
Is it glib and overgeneralized to say “Everybody hates them and they don’t make money?” Sure. But it’s awfully darn close to the truth, even if you come up with a whole handful of exceptions.
Awldune
oops, remove the ‘s’, it was just Slacker.