Twilight Inspiration NOT Vampires

June 8, 2010 9:43 PM

Gallery 1988's Twilight Zone Exhibit. The Twilight Zone was mostly well written, directed, and acted. It continues to inspire with a nice collection of art at Gallery 1988. It's also a record of whose who in television and cinema, with famously, William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, Carol Burnett, Buster Keaton, Dennis Hopper, Martin Landau, and many, many, more. Inspiration continues with repeats on television and a rumoured Blu-ray release in September 2010.
posted by juiceCake (14 comments total)

Nice! Just watched the Buster Keaton episode, which I'd never seen. It features Keaton in his underpants, Keaton talking, a few good old bits (notably the guy-walking-riiiight-behind-another-guy to avoid being seen by the cop, repeated from his old movies). Also features Jesse White as the repairman; White became famous later as the Maytag repairman.
posted by LobsterMitten at 10:33 PM on June 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't believe I went all those years of watching the KTLA Thanksgiving Day Twilight Zone Marathon and never (to my recollection) saw the Buster Keaton episode.

The others? Yeah, I can pretty much recite them word for word.
posted by yiftach at 12:26 AM on June 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

It never even occurred to me that Buster Keaton got old. Or had a voice.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:59 AM on June 9, 2010 [1 favorite]

I want to know more about the Blu-Ray release.
posted by hal_c_on at 1:04 AM on June 9, 2010

I don't want to know about the Blu-Ray release. I have the entire set on DVD already. :-/

Sometimes the episodes are as good as they ever were. Sometimes, they haven't aged so well. Occasionally they are as bad as they ever were. Even so, I remain amazed at the story telling achieved in so short a time.
posted by Goofyy at 4:27 AM on June 9, 2010

William Shatner was in two TZ eps. I saw the non-famous one a few years ago during one of those marathons. It was good, but then I'm a sucker for TZ.

Also, after clicking on Burgess Meredith and getting something I didn't expect, I know realize I've been confusing him with Meredith Wilson all these years.
posted by DU at 4:35 AM on June 9, 2010

There is a fantastic interview with Rod Serling by Mike Wallace (Rod Serling great, Mike Wallace awful) that is well worth viewing. Part One. Part Two. The integrity, passion, and intelligence of Rod Serling comes across loud and clear. A shame he died so young.
posted by SNACKeR at 4:56 AM on June 9, 2010 [2 favorites]

The Gallery 1988 art is interesting. Some of the works have some real fidelity to the ideas of the shows they're depicting. Others, not so much. It's pretty clear from its recurrence among the artworks that "To Serve Man" has to be up there with the all-time favorite episodes, though.
posted by blucevalo at 5:37 AM on June 9, 2010

(My own personal favorite is another episode with Burgess Meredith, "The Obsolete Man.")
posted by blucevalo at 5:38 AM on June 9, 2010

An homage to two franchises!

After all these years seeing the marathons on WPIX and then on SciFi, Night of the Meek still stands out as a favorite.

Blucevalo: Any episode with Burgess Meredith was a good one. It's some kind of law.
posted by dr_dank at 5:52 AM on June 9, 2010

Adorable Rod Serling intro blooper.
posted by griphus at 6:18 AM on June 9, 2010 [3 favorites]

The episode where Kojak gets kicked around and deaded by an evil doll always creeps me out.
posted by ducktape at 11:14 AM on June 9, 2010

Watched that Rod Serling - Mike Wallace interview. Very striking because he talks about his history in tv, being an old hand because tv has been around for about ten years at that point. (Remind you of another medium?) And he's about to start this new project, the Twilight Zone, and is moving away from the more socially serious work he had done in the past, and isn't he worried that people will think he's selling out for the money and for this flash in the pan Twilight Zone thing.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:35 PM on June 9, 2010

My favorite is the one where elizabeth from bewitched fires a lasergun at charles bronson and then they get married because they're the only people left fighting after a war.
posted by cowbellemoo at 9:45 PM on June 9, 2010