Anyone else watch the Twilight Zone revivals?

[TalkieToaster]

Over the last year I've watched all the Twilight Zone series all the way through, and while I'd say the original is still the best, I think the '80s and '00s revivals(I don't use the word "reboot" because you can't reboot something that has no ongoing story) were also pretty good.

One thing I liked about the '80s TZ was the intro, one of my favorite TV intros ever. Another thing I liked a lot was that in its first season and part of the second, they used a format of one-hour episodes with two or three stories of varying length. This allowed stories to be the length they needed and I think if there's another TZ revival they should use a format like it. It also had a lot of future Trek actors; one of my favorite episodes, "Dead Run", had Brent Spiner and John de Lancie. Other eps had Jonathan Frakes, Terry Farrell, Andrew Robinson, Louise Fletcher, Tim Russ, Ethan Phillips, and Robert Duncan McNeill(James Cromwell was in the same ep as well).

The '00s revival had Ira Steven Behr as an executive producer(ironically, not many Trek actors appeared). This one only lasted one season and isn't as well-remembered as the '80s TZ, but I still liked it. There were times it seemed like it was trying too hard to be hip, and it made some questionable choices of actors(Jessica Simpson, anyone?), but I still thought it had quite a few good stories. My favorite was probably "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?", a black comedy parody of reality TV.

 

[Christopher]

I think of the '80s revival as two distinct series. There was the hourlong CBS version that ran for two seasons and was produced by Philip DeGuere, which was often interesting but didn't really feel like The Twilight Zone to me; and there was the syndicated, half-hour third season which was story-edited by J. Michael Straczynski and, I felt, was a better stylistic and tonal fit to the original. Although I wasn't able to see it as regularly, because it was syndicated.

The UPN revival was one I wanted to like because of the people involved -- not just Behr, but former Andromeda staffers and future Marvel movie scripters Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller, whom I had corresponded with online on the Andromeda fan boards back in the day. But it didn't really work for me.

 

[Phantom]

I was more fond of the Outer Limits remake from the 90s and Tales From the Darkside, personally.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The 80's TZ (first two seasons) was always my favorite.

 

[Sindatur]

I I don't remember anything specific about the 80s Revival, but, there were a few from the '00s revival that I remember liking (I'm not sure if I saw any others).

Fir the '00s, I enjoyed the Jessica Simpson one, as well ass the Monsters on Maple Street remake and of course, the crown Jewel was the follow up from the Original Series, It's Still a Good Life

 

[RandyS]

I own both the original and 1980's versions on DVD, and am right now doing a re-watch of the original (I'm in season two). I haven't around to getting the DVD set for the 2002 series and frankly, I'm not sure I want to. I still remember attempting to watch it the night it premiered, but that first episode was so disturbing (I no longer remember WHY, only that it bothered me) that I couldn't finish it, and never tuned in again.

Plus, I want to save my DVD money for other stuff that I'm more interested in.

 

[Admiral2]

Nothing beats the original. I tend to think of the revivals as crap.

The problem with the revivals is that the writers suffered from the same misconception as average TZ fanfic writers: all you have to do is add a twist and you've written a Twilight Zone episode. A perfect example of this is "A Small Talent for War," where the writers must have told themselves "Ooh, it has a play on words and aliens, so it's like 'To Serve Man!' We're so cool!"

Rod Serling rules. Imitators drool.

 

[Christopher]

Fir the '00s, I enjoyed the Jessica Simpson one, as well ass the Monsters on Maple Street remake and of course, the crown Jewel was the follow up from the Original Series, It's Still a Good Life

I've been going back through my old episode reviews from another BBS that was my main one at the time, and I find I liked more of the episodes than I thought I did, though there were still plenty I didn't like. I apparently found the "Maple Street" remake too broad, the characters too caricatured in their bigotry for the message to be as effective as it was originally, since the original was about how the fears of ordinary, well-meaning people could be easily stirred up to destructive paranoia.

I also find that at the time I saw the Jessica Simpson episode, I barely knew who she was, though I thought she was really gorgeous.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

A perfect example of this is "A Small Talent for War,"

I actually liked that one becuase it turned the aliens think humans are warlike savages thing on its head.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And it has John Glover. Always a plus.

 

[Galileo7]

I did like the TZ (1985-1989) series initially produced by Philip DeGuere.

 

[Trekkin]

I liked them enough to hunt them all down on DVD (including importing the '00's revival.) I preferred the revival of The Outer Limits and Tales From The Crypt to both of them, but they're still fairly decent. They just weren't as consistent as the earlier seasons of the original.

I enjoy the movie as well, but knowing the behind the scenes stuff makes me feel weirdly guilty every time I watch it.

I might not be the most unbiased person to give an opinion. I liked Night Gallery as well, and I think that's considered by most to merely be a cheesy nostalgic pleasure. I have a weakness for anthology shows.

 

[TalkieToaster]

Nothing beats the original. I tend to think of the revivals as crap.

The problem with the revivals is that the writers suffered from the same misconception as average TZ fanfic writers: all you have to do is add a twist and you've written a Twilight Zone episode. A perfect example of this is "A Small Talent for War," where the writers must have told themselves "Ooh, it has a play on words and aliens, so it's like 'To Serve Man!' We're so cool!"

Rod Serling rules. Imitators drool.

I really liked that one for the same reason as Hartzilla2007(and I agree with Mr. Laser Beam that John Glover was great), that it subverted the usual "aliens judge us for being violent." cliché. Also, I think that was a great example of why I liked the show's format, since that story was only 8 minutes long and any more would've been padding.

Even though I liked "To Serve Man", I'd say the twist was actually more contrived than the one in "A Small Talent for War." To say nothing of how improbable it is that we'd be able to decipher an alien language at all, think of how unlikely it is that they'd have a word with the same double meaning as "to serve."

It should be noted that Serling himself once said about the original TZ: "I guess a third of the shows are pretty damned good. Another third are passable. Another third are dogs".

 

[Christopher]

Even though I liked "To Serve Man", I'd say the twist was actually more contrived than the one in "A Small Talent for War." To say nothing of how improbable it is that we'd be able to decipher an alien language at all, think of how unlikely it is that they'd have a word with the same double meaning as "to serve."

Not quite an exact double meaning, though -- more an imperfect translation. I mean, would any English-language cookbook be titled To Serve [Food Item], rather than "To Cook" or "Preparing" or something? To Serve Man is just the rough approximation made by the human translators trying to decipher the book title. "Serve" basically means to give or provide something (food, services, etc.), so the difference in meanings isn't so much in the word itself as in the context -- "to serve man" can mean either to give something to man or to give man to someone. Not really a double-meaning problem so much as a syntax problem.

Anyway, if the Kanamit(s) themselves were able to speak English, then it stands to reason that their linguistic and conceptual patterns would be similar enough to ours that we could find some common ground for translating their language. And the original Damon Knight story (pdf link here) actually had a character point out that some of their idioms were very similar to English, in order to set up the title wordplay.

 

[Trekkin]

I liked that one as well. And if a play on words and aliens is enough to make it a rip off of 'To Serve Man', then what does that make 'The Monsters are Due on Maple Street'?

I have a soft spot for 'To See the Invisible Man' and I thought 'I of Newton' was a good example of defying expectations. I can remember 'The Shadow Man' (and Tales from The Darkside's 'The Cutty Black Sow') scaring the ever-living shit out of me when I watched them as a kid.

The latest revival had 'Evergreen', which wasn't exactly an original concept, but still manages to be kind-of horrifying. Though it is hilarious to watch with an actual teenager.

 

[bryce]

I loved that original and the 80's revival. I tried to get into the 00's version, but it just didn't seem to have any heart. (And remade original episodes, like "Eye of the Beholder", seemed just...unnecessary.)

I have read online recently that yet *another* revival is planed for the series, I hope it doesn't suck.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Same here.

The original sets the bar unbeatably high, of course, but the 80s revival was really nice, and did a good job of capturing the TZ atmosphere. The 00s revival didn't. At this point, I don't remember a thing about it, except that it bored me-- I don't think I watched more than two or three episodes.

 

[Trekkin]

The 00's revival redid 'The Monsters are Due...' as well. The only difference was that they changed the twist a little.

 

[Admiral2]

A perfect example of this is "A Small Talent for War,"

I actually liked that one becuase it turned the aliens think humans are warlike savages thing on its head.

No it didn't. It just said we weren't warlike and savage enough, which is not the same thing as turning the notion on it's head.

It should be noted that Serling himself once said about the original TZ: "I guess a third of the shows are pretty damned good. Another third are passable. Another third are dogs".

And I've seen them all, and I'd rather watch even the dogs than subject myself to the crap in the 80's version and the 00's version.

 

[TalkieToaster]

A perfect example of this is "A Small Talent for War,"

I actually liked that one becuase it turned the aliens think humans are warlike savages thing on its head.

No it didn't. It just said we weren't warlike and savage enough, which is not the same thing as turning the notion on it's head.

If that's not turning the idea on its head, what would be?