The Twilight Zone at 60
- Thread starter DarthPipes
- Start date
It has, no question. Despite what some say, this is no "golden age" by any stretch of the immagination.Maybe it already has.
There will never be sense when whining is the priority over creating an effective story.
Yet the global violence per capita rate is at an all time low.
We certainly have a ton of problems, but whatever historical era you’re thinking is better was even worse.
You’ll never recreate the original Twilight Zone without top shelf science fiction writers. It wasn’t on the nose, and it was patient. Sometimes it was half an hour of talking before the amazing payoff.
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Actually, I was referring to the idea that this is a golden age of television, not current politics. I disagree with that. While every era of the last 60 years has had it's share of "good" and "bad" TV, I don't know if there ever really was a "golden age". Maybe it's my age, but I do think that TV was better 25-40 years ago than it is now.
Oh, sorry, based on the message you quoted about things degenerating it seemed to be a general comment on the state of civilization. 
Maybe it’s what shows I was watching at the time, but I associate TV from before 2000 as being corny, formulaic and risk averse. There’s exceptions of course like Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, etc. But in general, they were scared of being offensive or requiring viewers to be familiar with previous episodes. It was Sopranos that really broke the mold and said that you can tell complex serialized stories with no topics off limits. To me that drastically raised the quality of TV.
Maybe it’s what shows I was watching at the time, but I associate TV from before 2000 as being corny, formulaic and risk averse. There’s exceptions of course like Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, etc. But in general, they were scared of being offensive or requiring viewers to be familiar with previous episodes. It was Sopranos that really broke the mold and said that you can tell complex serialized stories with no topics off limits. To me that drastically raised the quality of TV.
Patience--not to be found in its spin-offs (and most fantasy anthology series that followed the original TZ ) that operate on a misguided idea of what the original was about--and it was not always about some twist / O. Henry-esque ending.
I agree. While there were some amazing shows back in the day, I think the overall quality of TV has increased quite a bit. I've watched quite a bit of old TV, and with majority of shows there just wasn't anywhere near the story and character depth as what we see today.Oh, sorry, based on the message you quoted about things degenerating it seemed to be a general comment on the state of civilization.
Maybe it’s what shows I was watching at the time, but I associate TV from before 2000 as being corny, formulaic and risk averse. There’s exceptions of course like Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Twin Peaks, etc. But in general, they were scared of being offensive or requiring viewers to be familiar with previous episodes. It was Sopranos that really broke the mold and said that you can tell complex serialized stories with no topics off limits. To me that drastically raised the quality of TV.
I feel bad confessing that I've only ever seen a small handfull of Twilight Zone episodes, the only ones I'm positive about are The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, and the one with Ron Howard. I think I've seen at least some of the plane one with William Shatner and To Serve Man, but as far as I can remember that's it.
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The two TZ episodes that Shatner starred in were both entertaining. I especially liked "Nick of Time". I didn't think Shatner was as hammy in that episode. It was a good morality tale about whether a couple would let fear and superstition run their lives, or not.
I recall that Terry Farrell starred in the 80s TZ remake of an original episode "The After Hours".
I don't know what that reputation is, but I do remember that the 1980s TZ had plenty of a good stories. I really liked the opening montage of the 80s TZ. The original TZ generally seemed primitive compared to the 80s version, imo.
I recall that Terry Farrell starred in the 80s TZ remake of an original episode "The After Hours".
Yes, in the Anne Francis role. I believe it was the first thing I saw her in.
In all fairness, I think public perception of TZ benefits a lot from most people only watching the best episodes. It’s the same with original cast SNL, the greatest hits collections are stellar. But when you go back and watch entire episodes sequentially, damn did a lot of it suck.
With TZ there was one very on the nose episode about gambling addiction where a guy is tormented by slot machines. One episode Sterling said “People say we can’t write women, wait till you see next week!” and the next episode is a bizarre episode about a woman emotionally breaking down as she is chased by some guy in a car who turns out to be Death. Then a few episodes where humans start acting like psychotic murderers for reasons that don’t make sense.
Great show, but they sure weren’t all good.
One area where older shows have an advantage over newer ones is attention span. And it’s the audience’s fault, if a show doesn’t have explosions or murders or naked people within the first 45 seconds they change the channel. So shows aren’t allowed to build up mystique for bigger payoffs.
With TZ there was one very on the nose episode about gambling addiction where a guy is tormented by slot machines. One episode Sterling said “People say we can’t write women, wait till you see next week!” and the next episode is a bizarre episode about a woman emotionally breaking down as she is chased by some guy in a car who turns out to be Death. Then a few episodes where humans start acting like psychotic murderers for reasons that don’t make sense.
Great show, but they sure weren’t all good.
One area where older shows have an advantage over newer ones is attention span. And it’s the audience’s fault, if a show doesn’t have explosions or murders or naked people within the first 45 seconds they change the channel. So shows aren’t allowed to build up mystique for bigger payoffs.
Pretty much any time Serling tried his hand at comedy was a disaster.
Both of which were written by Richard Matheson.
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