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From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-03-24 (Sunday)
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:08:13 -0700
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On 3/25/2024 1:50 PM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> The Twilight Zone S4E17 'Passage on the Lady Anne' - DVR
> A woman hopes a trans-Atlantic cruise and holiday in London will halp 
> save her marriage.  (Comcast)
> A young American couple, the Ransomes, who are trying to salvage their 
> troubled marriage, insist on booking passage on an old trans-Atlantic 
> cruise liner. But other passengers try to persuade them to disembark 
> immediately.
> 


How exactly does a ghost ship interact with a regular ticketing agency?!?


> Trivia:
> Because of the large number of well-known actors in this episode, the 
> closing theme featured a credit roll of cast names instead of the usual 
> still frames. The remaining non-cast credits were then done with 
> standard still frames. This was the only episode of the series to ever 
> use a credit roll.
> Joyce Van Patten is the sole member of the cast still alive, as of 
> August, 2021.
> This was the last Charles Beaumont Twilight Zone screenplay to be 
> actually fully written by Beaumont himself. Around the time this episode 
> was made, Beaumont (then only 34) began suffering from the rapid onset 
> of a degenerative neurological disorder (believed to be either 
> Alazheimer's and/or Pick's Disease) which affected his speech, memory 
> and concentration, as well as causing him to physically age very 
> rapidly. As the disease progressed, Beaumont was soon unable to meet his 
> writing commitments. A number of his writer friends, including Jerry 
> Sohl and William F. Nolan, supported Beaumont by ghostwriting stories 
> with or for him and submitting them in his name, although Beaumont 
> insisted on splitting the fees with his helpers. His last screen credit 
> (also probably ghostwritten) was in 1965, by which time he was too ill 
> to work at all, and he died on 21 February 1967, aged only 38, although 
> his son later recounted that his father "looked ninety-five" at the time 
> of his death.
> 
> 
> 
> The Twilight Zone S4E18 'The Bard' - DVR
> A would-be writer (Jack Weston) summons William Shakespeare to help him 
> write a teleplay.  With John McGiver, Burt Reynolds.  (Comcast)
> Julius Moomer, a talentless, but relentless, self-promoting hack who 
> dreams of becoming a successful television writer, uses a book of magic 
> to summon William Shakespeare to write dramatic teleplays that Moomer 
> will pass off as his own. Shakespeare becomes irritated by Moomer's lack 
> of appreciation and is even more appalled when he discovers the changes 
> wrought on his plays by cynical television executives.
> 

I definitely remember this one, sort of.  I don't remember Burt Reynolds 
being in it.  And every time I try to think of specifics my brain goes 
back to the episode with the guy who could create things with the tape 
recorder.  OK, so I don't remember it specifically.  But I know I 
watched it.

The 80s Twilight Zone did a version of this but in that one the person 
from the present was sent back in time and had to write the stories for 
Shakespeare.


> Trivia:
> William Shakespeare (John Williams) quotes lines from his plays nine 
> times with a trumpet flourish sounding each time, and most of the time, 
> him telling what play, act, and scene the quote came from. Three from 
> 'Romeo & Juliet,' two from 'Twelfth Night,' and one each from 'Troilus 
> and Cressida,' 'As You Like It,' and 'A Mid-Summer's Night Dream', plus 
> a partial one from 'Hamlet' (cut short when Shakespeare forgets the end 
> of the "To be or not to be" line.
> Jack Weston and Marge Redmond (Mr. Hugo's secretary) were married in 
> real life at this time.
> Burt Reynolds's character is clearly an amalgam of Marlon Brando and 
> Paul Newman.
> Burt Reynolds and Jack Weston would act together again in Fuzz (1972) 
> and Gator (1976).  (This one was just to irritate Ian. :) )
> Burt Reynolds appeared on this show only once on a Thursday, the 
> following Saturday he appeared in his regular serious Gunsmoke.
> 
>      William Shakespeare: To be or not to be Mr. Moomer, that...
>      [Trumpets begin to sound, but are cut short, as he appears to 
> forget his line. He shrugs his shoulders and exits through the door. 
>  From Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1 by Hamlet-not mentioned by Shakespeare]
> 
> Narrator: [Opening Narration] You've just witnessed opportunity, if not 
> knocking, at least scratching plaintively on a closed door. Mr. Julius 
> Moomer, a would-be writer who, if talent came twenty-five cents a pound, 
> would be worth less than car fare. But, in a moment, Mr. Moomer, through 
> the offices of some black magic, is about to embark on a brand-new 
> career. And although he may never get a writing credit on the Twilight 
> Zone, he's to become an integral character in it.
> 
> 
> The Twilight Zone S5E01 'In Praise of Pip' - DVR
> Bookmaker Max Phillips that his son is dying in Vietnam and tries to 
> save him.  With Jack Klugman.  (Comcast)

And if he doesn't save him he'll be wished into the cornfield.


> A wearied bookie, learning of his grown soldier son Pip dying in South 
> Vietnam, gets to spend one last delightful hour with a ten-year-old 
> version of him at an amusement park.  (IMDb)
> 
> In Pursuit of More Trivia!:
> The favorite Twilight Zone of Rod Serling's daughter Anne Serling. 
> Watching she noticed several conversations between son Pip and father 
> Pop were almost identical to banter she had with her father. Rod Serling 
> nicknamed his daughter Pop, not Pip, and the final image on screen which 
> fits the narrative was also a personal message to his daughter.
> The script originally had Pip stationed in Laos, but the network had Rod 
> Serling change it to Vietnam. Incredibly, CBS didn't want it set in 
> Laos, as that country was at the time the scene of intense fighting and 
> insisted the story be set in the more peaceful location of South 
> Vietnam. This episode was produced about two years before the massive 
> intervention of American forces in South Vietnam.
> Bill Mumy's father rarely joined his son on sets, but joined him on this 
> occasion because the two often visited the pier they filmed on. His 
> father recalled being impressed with Jack Klugman who introduced himself 
> to the family and explained that father and son would be extremely 
> affectionate. Mumy joined his own son Seth Mumy on set of Dear God 
> (1996) with Klugman 30 years later.
> eatures perhaps the first scene in American television set in the 
> Vietnam War, the opening scene where a wounded Pip is brought into the 
> field hospital. It's also one of the first American TV dramas to mention 
> the conflict in Vietnam and feature a Vietnam veteran, although Route 66 
> (1960) had added a Vietnam veteran character earlier in the year.
> One of only three TZ episodes to feature the line "Submitted for your 
> approval" during Rod Serling's opening narration, which is probably the 
> phrase most closely associated with the show that comes from those 
> monologues.
> Essentially a rewrite of Next of Kin (1953), also written by Rod 
> Serling. The main plot thread of "Next Of Kin" features the same 
> characters, virtually all of the same character names, and the same 
> situations and general plot line. The fantasy element introduced in the 
> final third of the story, however, is unique to The Twilight Zone version.
> 
> Quote:
> Max Phillips: My son is dying in a place called Vietnam. There isn't 
> even supposed to be a war going on, but my son is dying.
> 
> 
> The Twilight Zone S5E02 'Steel' - DVR
> Two small-time promoters find that their fighter can't meet his opponent 
> in the ring.  With Lee Marvin.  (Comcast)
> In 1974, boxing has been outlawed and is performed by mechanical robots. 
> With his next and possibly last fight approaching and his robot in need 
> of repair, he resorts to one last desperate gamble.  (IMDb)
> 
> Trivia:
> Of the sixteen episodes written by Richard Matheson, this was reportedly 
> his favorite.
> Adapted from Richard Matheson's own short story.
> This episode was in part inspiration for the film Real Steel (2011).

You beat me to it.  :-)

I keep meaning to do a proper Richard Matheson marathon, but his movies 
are so different, it never works.  Plus whenever I watch "Omega Man" 
that pairs better as it's own thing with either other Heston flicks 
and/or other adaptations of the story.