In
which we take a closer look at each issue of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine. For our capsule history of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine
go here.
Volume
1, number 1 (April, 1981)
Editor: T.E.D. Klein
Cover
illustration by Jim Warren
--T.E.D. Klein
is known to genre fans for two critically-acclaimed and commercially successful books from
the 1980s: a novel, The Ceremonies (1984), and a collection of novellas, Dark
Gods (1985). He left Rod Serling’s
The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1985 to
focus on writing fiction. Klein is also known among genre readers for his lack
of productivity following the aforementioned two books. A third novel, Nighttown,
was advertised and slated for
release in 1989 only to remain unpublished. That novel concerns a subway
murderer in New York City who hunts down the only witness to his crimes. Klein
recently retired from his day job and there are indications that Nighttown will soon be published.
--Klein
developed an early interest in weird fiction and his tastes in the genre would
shape the course of Rod Serling’s The
Twilight Zone Magazine. Klein became
active in the early 1970s with the appearance of his World Fantasy Award-nominated story, “The Events at Poroth Farm,” a tale which provided the framework
for his 1984 novel The Ceremonies. He
continued to produce short fiction throughout the 1980’s. Klein provided
critical essays to studies of H.P. Lovecraft and story notes for Kirby
McCauley’s 1976 horror anthology Beyond Midnight before devoting his time to magazine editing. He briefly edited Night
Cry magazine and the short-lived true crime magazine CrimeBeat.
Klein also produced a how-to book for aspiring
horror writers, Raising Goosebumps for Fun and Profit: a Brief Guide, for
Beginners, to the How’s and Why’s of Horror (1988).
TZ Publications, Inc.
-The
magazine was published and distributed by Montcalm Publishing. The TZ
Publications imprint was created for the magazine.
President
& Chairman: S. Edward Orenstein
Secretary
& Treasurer: Sidney Z. Gellman
Executive
Vice Presidents: Nils A. Shapiro
& Eric Protter
-Protter, who
also served as Editorial Director, was an occasional anthologist, most notably
with Monster Festival, illustrated by
Edward Gorey (Vanguard Press, 1965) and A Harvest of Horrors (Vanguard, 1980)
Executive
Publisher: S. Edward Orenstein
Publisher:
Nils A. Shapiro
Associate
Publisher and Consulting Editor: Carol
Serling
Editorial
Director: Eric Protter
Editor:
T.E.D. Klein
Managing
Editor: Diana Steinhorn
Contributing
Editors: Gahan Wilson and Theodore
Sturgeon
-The editorial department was comprised
of an impressive group of contributors throughout the course of the magazine,
but particularly in this early era, as Protter, Wilson, and Sturgeon, all
highly accomplished in their chosen fields, contributed to the editorship of
talented writer and critic T.E.D. Klein.
Design
Director: Derek Burton
Art
and Studio Production: Georg the
Design Group
Design
Consultant: Steve Phillips
Production
Director: Edward Ernest
Controller:
Thomas Schiff
Administrative
Asst: Eve Grammatas
Public
Relations Manager: Melissa
Blanck-Grammatas
Public
Relations Assistant: Jeffrey Nickora
Accounting
Manager: Chris Grossman
Circulation
Manager: Denise Kelly
Circulation
Assistant: Karen Wiss
Circulation
Marketing Manager: Jerry Alexander
Western Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer
Western Newsstand Consultant: Harry Sommer
V.P.
Advertising Director: Martin Lassman
N.Y.
Advertising Manager: Louis J. Scott
Advertising
Production Manager: Rachael Britapaja
Advertising
Assistant: Marina Despotakis
--Cover Matter: The magazine billed itself as including all-new tales of suspense,
horror and the supernatural in the tradition of the classic television series,
firmly aligning itself with horror and supernatural fiction rather than with science
fiction (commonly, though erroneously, believed to be the primary thoroughfare
of the television series), although the magazine would publish a good deal of
the latter. It also indicated that the original television series would play a
key role in the contents of the magazine. The magazine frequently utilized very
appealing painted or photographic artwork. From the October, 1983 issue,
however (an issue that was a Twilight Zone: The Movie special), the magazine covers were devoted to films and film coverage.
This remained the case, more or less, until February, 1985, when the magazine
reverted back to using painted covers.
Contents:
--“A Personal Message” by Carol Serling
--In the Twilight Zone by T.E.D. Klein
--“Rod Serling: First Citizen of the
Twilight Zone” by T.E.D. Klein and Marc Scott Zicree
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan Wilson
--Other Dimensions: Books by Theodore
Sturgeon
--TZ Interview: Stephen King by Charles L.
Grant
--“Grail” by Harlan Ellison
--“Remembering Melody” by George R.R.
Martin
--“Author’s Query” by Fred C. Shapiro
--“The Rose Wall” by Joyce Carol Oates
--Screen Preview: “Escape from New York”
--“The Death Runner” by Thomas Sullivan
--“The Next Sideshow” by Ramsey Campbell
--“Absolute Ebony” by Felice Picano
--3 Cautionary Tales: “The Helping Hand,”
“The Man Who Loved,” and “The Wish” by Robert Sheckley
--“Groucho” by Ron Goulart
--America Enters the Twilight Zone: Part 1
of TZ’s Show-by-Show Guide
by
Marc Scott Zicree
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Walking Distance”
by Rod Serling
--Looking Ahead: In the May TZ
--Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone
Magazine filled a void on the newsstands for
readers interested in intelligent dark fantasy fiction as well as current
coverage of fantasy books, films, music, and news from the
horror/fantasy/science fiction community. The magazine also, particularly under
Klein’s editorship, devoted a good amount of space to the classic writers of
weird fiction. The magazine successfully melded the best of a genre film
magazine with the best of a genre fiction magazine. A notable predecessor in
this format was Omni magazine, begun
in 1978, a magazine with a more science (and science-fictional) leaning and one
which clearly influenced the layout and content of Rod Serling’s The
Twilight Zone Magazine. Notable successors
include Science Fiction Age and Cemetery
Dance (exploring science fiction and
horror, respectively), two of the finest such magazine of the 1990’s.
--Once
established, the structure of the magazine generally remained the same
throughout its run. Features included an interview with a notable writer or
filmmaker, a book review column, a movie review column, a music review column,
a news column, a letters page, along with eight or so works of illustrated
fiction. Some features, such as show guides to anthology television series, teleplays
from the original series of The
Twilight Zone, full-color movie previews,
and features on Rod Serling and other Twilight Zone writers, appeared regularly as well. Editorial features began to
overcrowd the magazine, particularly once a feature film and the revival
television series bearing The Twilight Zone name were released. Editor Klein’s answer was, in 1984, to create a
sister magazine, Night Cry, which was
devoted solely to horror and dark fantasy fiction. The fiction, however,
remained the linchpin of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine.
--“A Personal Message: An invitation to
re-enter the Twilight Zone” by Carol Serling
-Rod
Serling’s widow, acting as Associate Publisher and Consulting Editor, provided
a welcome message, hereafter titled “A Note from the Publisher,” for several subsequent
issues. This first essay focused on ways in which the term “twilight zone”
became a regularly used part of the American idiom since the end of the original
television series. Serling also briefly dispels any notions that Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine would feature space opera or the baser
aspects of horror fiction, promising instead to deliver intelligent adult
fantasy fiction. Carol Serling took a marked interest in the preservation of
her late husband’s work, beginning in the early 1980’s with a series of fiction
anthologies, including Rod Serling’s Night Gallery Reader in 1987 (Dembner Books; with Charles G. Waugh
and Martin H. Greenberg) and several Twilight Zone themed anthologies leading up to the present day. Serling took an active
interest in the magazine as well, particularly during Klein’s editorship.
--In the Twilight Zone by T.E.D. Klein
-This
editorial continued for every issue and served as a preview of the
contents of the issue, with thumbnail photographs of and notes on each
contributor. This page also includes all editorial credits.
--TZ Profile: Rod Serling, First Citizen
of the Twilight Zone by T.E.D. Klein and Marc Zicree
-This
profile centers on Rod Serling’s life from childhood to the inception of The Twilight Zone. A
hugely informative essay, much of the material would appear again a year later
in Marc Scott Zicree’s The Twilight Zone Companion, and will therefore be familiar to readers of that volume. Interestingly, Zicree’s then-forthcoming
book is referred to as The Making of the Twilight Zone. The profile includes several photographs,
many of which have not appeared elsewhere.
--Other Dimensions: Screen by Gahan
Wilson
-Wilson,
best known as the creator of morbidly funny cartoons for Playboy and The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, is
also an accomplished writer of short macabre fiction, including the frequently
anthologized stories, “Mister Ice Cold” and “The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be.”
Here, Wilson dives right in with his first movie review column. He favorably
reviews two films from director David Lynch, The Elephant Man, then in general release, and Eraserhead, then making the arthouse circuit rounds.
Wilson less-favorably reviews the Charlton Heston film, The Awakening, an almost completely forgotten film loosely
based on Bram Stoker’s 1903 novel of Egyptian horror, The Jewel of Seven
Stars. Wilson finishes with a short
dismissal of the cult horror favorite, Motel Hell. Wilson
previously reviewed books for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1968-1976 and later provided the same
service to Realms of Fantasy magazine
from 1994-2000. Wilson continued to review fantasy films for Rod Serling’s
The Twilight Zone Magazine until the
publication folded in 1989.
--Other Dimensions: Books by Theodore
Sturgeon
-Sturgeon,
the celebrated science-fantasy writer (The
Dreaming Jewels, More Than Human, Some of Your Blood, and many short stories) was
also a frequent book reviewer for genre publications, notably for Galaxy
Science Fiction and Venture Science
Fiction. Sturgeon takes a measured
approach in his first review column, setting forth his philosophy toward
criticism and what readers can expect of the column. Notable among Sturgeon’s
parameters is the opportunity to review older, neglected works. Sturgeon leaves
himself little room for actual reviews and quickly recommends a list of books.
The
books listed by Sturgeon are:
The Sunset Warrior; Shallows of Night; and Dai-San by Eric Van Lustbader
Savage Heroes edited by Michel Parry
Firelord by Parke Godwin
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
The Grey Mane of Morning by Joy Chant
The Seekers of Shar-Nuhn by Ardath Mayhar
Satyrday by Steven Bauer
The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan (intro by Stephen
King)
The Dark by James Herbert
Edges edited by Virginia Kidd and Ursula K. Le Guin
Ray Bradbury; and Ursula K. Le Guin edited
by Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander
H.P. Lovecraft: Four Decades of
Criticism edited by S.T. Joshi
Magic Time by Kit Reed
The Paradise Plot by Ed Naha
King David’s Spaceship by Jerry Pournelle
The Claw of the Conciliator by Gene Wolfe
An Island Called Moreau by Brian W. Aldiss
Wizard by John Varley
The Magic Labyrinth by Philip Jose Farmer
The Arbor House Treasury of Modern
Science Fiction edited by Robert
Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg
-Sturgeon
continued to review books for Rod Serling’s
The Twilight Zone Magazine for an
additional year before giving way to other voices, notable among whom were
Thomas M. Disch and E.F. Bleiler. Two of Sturgeon’s short stories, “A Saucer of
Lonliness” and “Yesterday Was Monday” (as “A Matter of Minutes”) were adapted
for the first revival Twilight Zone television
series. Many of the writers for both the original television series and the
revival series consider Sturgeon a chief influence on their work.
--TZ Interview: Stephen King: “I Like to
Go for the Jugular,” conducted by Charles L. Grant
-This
is an excellent interview with Stephen King at a time when he was ascendant on
the publishing scene, having just released Firestarter the previous year. At
the time of the interview King was at work on Cujo and also discusses the general plot of what eventually appeared as IT
in 1986. The interview is conducted by
King’s friend and fellow horror writer Charles L. Grant. Grant was a leading
proponent of the “quiet horror” school of writing in which atmosphere and
character are given precedence over violence and gore. This school of horror
writing was in direct response to the more visceral style of horror beginning
to crop up in the industry, which better reflected horror films and which reached
its brief zenith in the Splatterpunk movement of the mid-to-late 1980’s,
exemplified in the works of Joe R. Lansdale, Clive Barker, David J. Schow, John Skipp and Craig Spector, all of whom would contribute to either Rod
Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine or Night
Cry.
-What
is particularly refreshing about the interview is that King is not yet as
self-conscious about being a horror writer as he would later become. When asked
about influences he lists Ray Bradbury (especially Bradbury’s collection of
weird tales, The October Country), Charles Beaumont, and, particularly, Richard
Matheson. King singles out Matheson’s novella, “Mute,” as a personal favorite.
“Mute” was adapted by Matheson as an hour-long episode of the fourth season of
the original television series. The
films adapted from King’s work are also discussed and the interview is
accompanied by many photographs, including a rarely seen candid photo of the
King family.
--“Grail” by Harlan Ellison
Illustration by A.G. Metcalf
“To crack the vault where true love lay
buried, he needed an expert from Hell with a gift for opening locks.”
-A
man searching for true love resorts to traveling the globe and conjuring demons
in an effort to discover the location of an ancient artifact.
-Ellison,
who should be familiar to readers of this blog, is likely the most awarded
writer of speculative fiction the field has yet produced, best known for scores
of classic short stories, too many to list here, as well as the Outer Limits episodes
“Soldier” and “Demon With a Glass Hand.” He was arguably at the height of his
abilities in the early 1980’s and “Grail” displays the fecundity of his style.
The story contains idiosyncratic characterizations, a frantic pace, splendid
grotesqueries, and a unique blending of the real and the imaginary. The story
does run a bit long and the frantic pacing can be exhausting in places but few
can challenge Ellison in this sort of street-wise horror story, which combines
humor, dark fantasy, and the lure of esoteric knowledge in an appealing manner.
-Ellison
was a frequent contributor to the magazine and served on a panel of judges for
the magazine’s first short story contest. Ellison also contributed to the first
revival television series of The
Twilight Zone, working as Creative Consultant
and providing teleplays until friction with the network over an adaptation of Donald
E. Westlake’s short story, “Nackles,” caused Ellison to walk away from the
series.
-“Grail”
was collected in Ellison’s 1982 volume Stalking
the Nightmare, a book which includes a
memorable introduction by Stephen King. The story also appeared in the only
annual issue of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine, Great Stories
from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982). “Grail” also appeared in the anthology Demons! edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann. The
story appeared in both the 35 and 50 year editions of Ellison’s career
retrospective, The Essential Ellison, edited
by Terry Dowling with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont.
--“Remembering
Melody” by George R.R. Martin
Illustration by Jose Reyes
“He had to end it once and for all. Get
rid of this curse on his life.”
-A
man’s life is altered by the sudden appearance of a troubled and troublesome
friend from the past.
-George R.R. Martin,
now known as the creator of the massively successful Game
of Thrones franchise, was a far more
versatile writer in his earlier years, producing outstanding, award-winning
science fiction, fantasy, and horror, particularly in the short form. This
subtly creepy story is a near-perfect updating of the Twilight Zone style of dark fantasy for the 1980’s. It
is a shame it was not adapted for the Twilight Zone revival television series, although it did see an adaptation on the similar HBO anthology series The Hitchhiker in 1984 from a teleplay by Alvin Sapinsley. Martin was a veteran of television production, working on the Beauty and
the Beast series as a writer and
producer, and was a natural to contribute to The Twilight Zone revival series. Martin acted as Story Editor
on a handful of episodes and contributed memorable teleplays, particularly for
the episodes “The Road Not Taken” and “The Once and Future King,” the latter of
which was based on a story by Bryce Maritano.
-“Remembering
Melody” was included in Great Stories
from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982) and collected in the definitive edition of Martin’s horror
stories, Songs the Dead Men Sing (Dark
Harvest) in 1983. The story is also included in Terry Carr’s Fantasy Annual
V (Pocket Books, 1982), Fears, edited by Charles L. Grant (Berkley,
1983), and A Century of Fantasy
1980-1989: The Greatest Stories of the Decade, edited by Robert Silverberg. The story was also included in the
definitive collection of Martin’s short fiction, GRRM: A Retrospective (Subterranean, 2003), later published in two
volumes by Bantam Books as Dreamsongs I and
Dreamsongs II.
--“Author’s Query” by Fred C. Shapiro
Illustration by Jose Reyes
“How come M.X. Davis knows more about my
life than I do?”
-A
writer finds his life being supplanted by an unseen personality who bears
remarkable similarities to himself.
-The
journalist Shapiro is more familiar to readers of The New Yorker than
of genre publications, and presents here what appears to be his only foray into
speculative fiction. The story is slight and slightly derivative, owing much to
an old concept most expertly explored in Harlan Ellison’s famous story,
“Shatterday,” a story which was memorably adapted as the premier episode of The
Twilight Zone revival series starring
Bruce Willis and directed by Wes Craven. The original series Twilight Zone tried its hand at this type of story as
well, most memorably with Charles Beaumont’s season four shocker “In His
Image.”
--“The Rose Wall” by Joyce Carol Oates
Illustration by Thomas Angell
“Your punishment will be to go without
supper . . . to spend the night alone, outside the wall.”
-A young girl ventures beyond the wall which boarders her estate with terrible
results.
-In
this unsettling piece, Oates presents a disorienting and unnerving
alternate reality which she wisely keeps ambiguous in terms of setting and time
period, heightening the paranoia and strangeness of the story. Oates is unique
among writers who frequent the material of horror and gothic fiction in that
she is widely respected among mainstream critics as a novelist of realist
fiction. The hugely prolific Oates has won multiple literary awards, including
a National Book Award and the O. Henry Award, and has always seemed intrigued
by the darker side of fiction. Oates presence alone strengthens the magazine.
She was a strong supporter of the magazine who also sat on a panel of judges
for the magazine’s first short story contest.
-“The
Rose Wall” was also included in Great
Stories from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine (1982), as well as the 2012 anthology Other Worlds Than These, edited by John Joseph Adams.
--TZ Screen Preview: Escape from New York
-A
full-color feature on director John Carpenter’s film which would be released a
few months later on July, 10, 1981. In features such as this, and in its
dedication to feature editorials, the magazine separated itself from the other
science fiction, fantasy, and horror periodicals as it straddled the line
between genre entertainment periodical and genre fiction periodical. It is interesting
to note that the audience for genre films/television and those for genre fiction
do not necessarily correlate and some magazines, such as the aforementioned Science Fiction Age, suffered when a conscious attempt was made to include more coverage of
the entertainment industry. Likewise, when some dedicated film magazines
attempted to include fiction, it was not favorably received. The article points
out the fact that two actors from Escape from New York, Donald Pleasance and Lee Van Cleef, also starred
in Twilight Zone episodes, “Changing
of the Guard” and “The Grave,” respectably.
--“The Death Runner” by Thomas Sullivan
Illustrated by Robert Neubecker
“But the real horror was that final
runner.”
-An
aging runner meets his past selves on the track with deadly results.
-Sullivan
is a fairly prolific writer of horror, fantasy, and mystery novels and short
stories. He began publishing in the mid-1970’s. “The Death Runner” is a bit too
slight in terms of plot and characterization to stick in the memory but does
possess an unusual supernatural device and a stark, albeit predictable, ending.
The story was reprinted in the second issue of Night Cry, Summer,
1985.
--“The Next Side Show” by Ramsey
Campbell
Illustration by Frances Jetter
“Was the proprietor sneaking mirrors
into new positions, for revenge?”
-A
man enters a mirror maze to escape the rain with unforeseen results.
-Campbell
is perhaps the most respected and awarded writer of modern horror to come out
of Great Britain in the modern era. He’s been actively producing quality work
since the late 1960’s and is refreshingly devoted to horror as an artform. He
deserves a much wider audience. Campbell’s work for most part eschews the
traditional aspects of the horror genre to create ambiguous and unsettling
fiction which aims to disturb rather than horrify. Although highly accomplished
as a novelist (The Face that Must
Die, Ancient Images), Campbell is at his
most powerful when working in the short form. His works have won numerous
British Fantasy, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards. Campbell’s career
retrospective, Alone With the Horrors, comes
highly recommended, and is a book dedicated to T.E.D. Klein. Campbell is also
an accomplished editor, anthologist, and essayist with an enviable knowledge of
horror fiction and films.
-“The
Next Side Show” is typical of Campbell’s work in that it involves an average
person drawn into a subtly horrifying situation. A man locks his keys in his
apartment and decides to walk down to the park where he finds a grimy caravan.
To escape the rain, he ducks into a mirror maze that changes him forever. Mood
and atmosphere are expertly evoked and Campbell’s fiction is underscored by a
sense of urban decay. He credits H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber as his chief
influences. Many of Campbell’s stories take place in marginalized places:
seaside towns, grimy carnivals, abandoned urban areas, and the like. A similar,
yet superior Campbell story is his classic 1976 story, “The Companion.”
--“Absolute Ebony” by Felice Picano
Illustrated by Arthur Somerfield
“Michaelis felt as though he were seeing
through a portal into an entirely new dimension.”
-A
painter who’s suffered a personal tragedy seeks the darkest of colors to paint
his masterpiece.
-This
chilling supernatural horror story is marred only by the unsatisfying ending. It concerns an American painter in Rome who suffers a personal tragedy which changes his life and his craft. Using an unnaturally dark pigment to fashion his masterpiece, a period self-portrait, the painter discovers that the ebony hue has a life of its own. The
story evokes the best of the classic weird tales of LeFanu, Machen, and the
like, which is certainly why it appealed to editor T.E.D. Klein. The Italian
setting is convincing and the pace of the story is perfectly measured. Picano
is a prolific writer of novels, stories, poetry, memoirs, and essays. He is
also an accomplished editor and anthologist. His work is frequently speculative
in nature and is closely aligned with gay literature. He has won several
literary awards.
--3 Cautionary Tales by Robert Sheckley
Illustrated
by Jose Reyes
“The Helping Hand”
-A
man contemplating suicide is given a nasty surprise by his wife.
“The Man Who Loved”
-A
woman escape the imprisoning affections of a rejected suitor.
“The Wish”
-A
man conjures a powerful demon but hesitates when considering his one wish to be
granted.
-Three
short-shorts from Robert Sheckley, a familiar name among science fiction
readers whose output of short stories displays a sardonic and grimly humorous
view of humanity far ahead of its time. The first and third stories contains
the biting irony typically necessary for the short-short form to be effective.
The second story is less successful with an interesting set-up but an
unsatisfactory payoff. A bit of trivia: in the third season episode, “The
Arrival,” Rod Serling chose the name Sheckley for his main character. Was this
a possible nod to the Robert Sheckley, who was a frequently seen name in the
science fiction magazines of the time? Sheckley died in 2005.
--“Groucho” by Ron Goulart
Illustration by Randy Jones
“Even in Hollywood you couldn’t get by
with letting a cat talk all over the place.”
-A
hack writer uses black magic to reincarnate his old writing partner, who
returns in the body of a house cat.
-This
humorous story by the prolific Goulart is written in the concise style of
hard-boiled crime fiction. It plays on the familiar tropes of fantasy fiction
and includes plenty of sly dialogue. Goulart is knowns as a prolific mystery
writer as well as a comic-book historian. Goulart was friends with several
members of the Southern California Group of writers.
--Show-by-Show Guide: American Enters the
Twilight Zone
Part
One of Marc Scott Zicree’s Show-by-Show Guide to the Entire Twilight Zone Television
Series, Complete with Rod Serling’s Opening and Closing Narrations.
-Zicree,
author of the definitive examination of the series, The Twilight Zone Companion, here offers an introductory essay examining the creation of the series
from where Rod Serling was in his career at the time. Zicree then begins his
examination of each episode. Zicree provides Rod Serling’s opening and closing
narrations and a detailed summary of each episode. He does not provide the
running commentary which would feature in his book, presumably to given a buyer
reason to purchase said volume. The episodes he covers in this issue are:
“Where is Everybody?,” “One for the Angels,” “Mr. Denton on Doomsday,” “The
Sixteen Millimeter Shrine,” “Walking Distance,” “Escape Clause,” ”The Lonely,”
“Time Enough at Last,” “Perchance to Dream,” “Judgment Night,” “And When the
Sky Was Opened,” “What You Need,” “The Four of Us Are Dying,” and “Third From
the Sun.” An interesting aspect of Zicree’s coverage for the magazine is that
he chooses to examine the episodes in order of original broadcast whereas in The
Twilight Zone Companion he chooses to
examine the episodes in order of production.
--TZ Classic Teleplay: “Walking Distance”
by Rod Serling
-This
is the shooting script of the episode, accompanied by stills from the filmed episode.
“Walking Distance” is a story that went through several drafts and alterations
before a final shooting script was produced. To read an earlier draft of the
teleplay, see volume 2 of As Timeless as Infinity: The Twilight Zone
Scripts of Rod Serling, edited by Tony
Albarella (Gauntlet Press, 2005). Read our review of “Walking Distance” here.
--Looking Ahead
A
back cover feature which previews the next month’s issue.
-JP
Wow! Are you going to review every issue in this much depth? You'll be at it for a long time. I still remember buying this issue at a drugstore in Bloomington, Indiana, when I was a freshman in college. I still have it, "wrapped in plastic" like Laura Palmer, along with every other issue except for the annual, which I did not buy. Thanks for the reminders of this great magazine--I haven't cracked it open in many years.
ReplyDeleteI intend to cover an issue each month with perhaps a break here and there if I need to devote more time to an episode post. The first issue requires a bit more depth than subsequent issues. I’ve been reading through the issues and finding them hugely informative and enjoyable. The fiction alone is very impressive. I feel that it’s an underrated publication and somewhat forgotten.
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