Oh, I have a scalding hot take: Most of the best Twilight Zone episodes weren't written by Rod Sterling (And the good ones that were credited to him were adapted from other people's stories) - ThreadSky

prankster36.bsky.social • 8 days ago

Oh, I have a scalding hot take:

Most of the best Twilight Zone episodes weren't written by Rod Sterling (And the good ones that were credited to him were adapted from other people's stories)

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lairdbarron.bsky.social•8 days ago

Matheson was the writing MVP. But Serling's vision and presence is everything. No Serling, no TZ.

minillajovovich.bsky.social•8 days ago

Omg Mr Barron I loved Xs for Eyes 🥺

prankster36.bsky.social•7 days ago

Sure! Like I say, his real talent was as an overseer

jessicamace.bsky.social•5 days ago

If by overseer you mean lifeblood, then yes. There's a reason why the reboots, despite the great talent, haven't been as successful as the original.

notintheface.bsky.social•8 days ago

This becomes more of a lukewarm take when you remember one of the other main writers for that show was Richard Matheson. That guy wrote so many of the best eps.

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

Precisely. Matheson was the real powerhouse of that show.

notintheface.bsky.social•8 days ago

Matheson was a goddamned genius.

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

I will add the caveat that I haven't seen the entire series

But there's a consistent strain of 60s pomposity to Sterling's scripts; in fact there's a whole general vibe of this in the 60s that Sterling practically invented. A combination of earnest corny preachiness and self-satisfied symbolism

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

"The Obsolete Man" is kind of the archetypal Sterling script to me. Fired up, utterly sincere and humorless, stagey and concerned with being seen as Deep in both its themes and it's studied abandonment of realism by the end

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

And at the risk of sounding contradictory, I sort of love this vibe. Star Trek TOS had it a lot too. Its fascinating and you can tell it's being made by people who Care Passionately, but it's not GOOD

untitleduser.bsky.social•8 days ago

See I love this vibe

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

Like I say, I do too! It's a similar vibe to watching the best 50s SF movies (and classic Dr. Who/Star Trek) which have well-written scripts and then the most laughable cardboard monsters and clumsily filmed fight/attack scenes, but for Important Messages

prankster36.bsky.social•8 days ago

It's interesting because there are levels in which I'd say they're sometimes better on a writing level than a lot of modern stuff, but other levels in which it's WAY worse

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