New version of The Twilight Zone to be on CBS All Access
- Thread starter Shaka Zulu
- Start date
April 1st? Are they kidding? 
I am looking forward to this new TZ. But I am preparing myself that it won't be the same as the original. I don't think anything can recapture the same magic as the original. So I think it is best for this new TZ to do its own thing. This new TZ just needs to tell stories relevant to today with a good twist of irony or thought provoking ending.
No one is Rod Serling, but it's not impossible to tell some amazing stories. The 1980s version got really good at one point. In fact, I think the only really BAD incarnation of Twilight Zone was the movie.
I just hope they don't remake the original scripts--unless Serling had one or two lying around that were never made.
I just hope they don't remake the original scripts--unless Serling had one or two lying around that were never made.
The pickings have been really slim as far as quality storytelling on every iteration of TZ other than Serling's.
This is what CBS does, though - reboot and retread old shows whose titles mean something to Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. It's their own niche - and with a streaming service that skews toward the older end of the 18-49 graphic, it's working well enough for them.
This is what CBS does, though - reboot and retread old shows whose titles mean something to Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. It's their own niche - and with a streaming service that skews toward the older end of the 18-49 graphic, it's working well enough for them.
After Get Out and based on the trailers for Us, I trust Jordan Peele to be able to pull it off. I still haven't checked out any of the other CBSAA Originals other than Discovery, so this will be the second. I might check out One Dollar and Tell Me a Story, they sound like they could be interesting.
It’s going to be all about whether they get good writers.
The movie wasn't THAT bad...
The movie, unfortunately, was pretty bad-- and mostly remakes. The 80s revival was very good. The third version, whenever that was, just made my eyes gloss over. I've got my fingers crossed for this one. I saw Get Out and it did have a nice TZ vibe to it, so there is hope.
Very slim.
Every version of the Twilight Zone has been inconsistent in quality, be it the 1960s, 1980s or 2000s version. Much like Star Trek or any other TV show ever made for that matter. The Twilight Zone isn't even Science Fiction or Fantasy it belongs to a genre which I like to call Nonsense, i.e. the ending has to have an absurd twist in it. (Occasionally the ending will only be ironic but this is the inconsistency I mentioned.) I enjoy the Nonsense genre very much. Other TV shows I'd place in this genre and would recomend to others who enjoy it would be: John Newland's One Step Beyond, Rod Serling's The Night Gallery and Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected.
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The best Twilight Zone stories are morality plays in which the twist at the end is integral to the moral, usually imparting some karmic justice. Upon watching old TZ's all these years later you notice how many of the plots revolve around cold-war fears or reverberations from WWII or even the civil war. I find today's entertainment to be so preachy as it is, and up-front and obnoxious about it despite sometimes presuming to be a modern "fairy tale" (think Shape of Water), that I have my doubts a new TZ could turn polemic into poetry.
The 80s version had a lot of good stories. I liked it better than the original. I liked that it didn't have an on-screen host/narrator. IIRC, plenty of the stories were set in an idyllic suburban-like setting, which I thought was so fitting, because as we know in the TZ there is always something darker or fantastic lurking behind an idyllic facade.
I remember the 2000s version tended to have darker stories. I still remember the one with Katherine Heigl as a time traveler going back in time to try to kill baby Hitler. Of course, there was a great twist at the end. The sunrise episode, where a bunch of college students thought they were playing out an ancient Aztec doomsday prophecy, was excellent.
Since this is a Star Trek forum, I recall seeing Terry Farrell starring in the remake of "The After Hours" episode.
I am curious if the current version can live up to those past TZ series.
I remember the 2000s version tended to have darker stories. I still remember the one with Katherine Heigl as a time traveler going back in time to try to kill baby Hitler. Of course, there was a great twist at the end. The sunrise episode, where a bunch of college students thought they were playing out an ancient Aztec doomsday prophecy, was excellent.
Since this is a Star Trek forum, I recall seeing Terry Farrell starring in the remake of "The After Hours" episode.
I am curious if the current version can live up to those past TZ series.
Even Stephen Spielberg's story?
Wasn't the Twilight Zone movie the one where the helicopter crash killed a couple of the actors?
Have you seen Get Out? That has one of the greatest, TZ style twists ever IMO.
The John Landis segment. And the more you learn about the accident’s details, why it’s important to remember who was goddamn responsible.
The actors who died were Vic Morrow (the protagonist of the segment), 7-year old Myca Dinh Le, and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
I kinda like the movie (I’m a sucker for anthologies.) But my conscience has always made me hold off buying it. That segment’s behind the scenes issues being evident in the movie itself (thanks to being half-finished, it ends up having no story or theme) just puts a final nail into trying to play ‘love the final product, not the author.’ You can’t ignore it or ‘forget’ about it, because the problem is right there in your face.
The actors who died were Vic Morrow (the protagonist of the segment), 7-year old Myca Dinh Le, and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
I kinda like the movie (I’m a sucker for anthologies.) But my conscience has always made me hold off buying it. That segment’s behind the scenes issues being evident in the movie itself (thanks to being half-finished, it ends up having no story or theme) just puts a final nail into trying to play ‘love the final product, not the author.’ You can’t ignore it or ‘forget’ about it, because the problem is right there in your face.
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It's a real shame they didn't make "Miracle Mile" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097889/) the Twilight Zone movie like originally planned.
...and scripts were also inspired by the life experiences of writers who seemed to understand a far more serious or mature world (in addition to Serling's own experiences in WW2 and with discrimination in America) than screenwriters of later anthologies who just resorted to apeing TTZ (in a surface-y manner), sans any of the gravitas or purpose of the original.
Good points. Additionally, too many anthology series post original TTZ were stuck into the gimmicky twist ending often claimed to be in the tradition of TTZ as if the original was all about that (numerous episodes simply ended with no sort of "twist" or shock ending). In other words, they were simply trying to say "BOO! Didn't expect that, right?!?" instead of that mix of the eerie and thought provoking.