riter Rod Serling created The Twilight Zone in 1959 as an anthology show, which meant that each episode would be a complete and self-contained story. There would be no threads between episodes except for Serling himself, who served as its host/narrator.
Over the past five decades, many of those episodes have become recognized classics of the genre. Thanks to syndication, videos and DVDs, the stories are continuing to be seen and enjoyed by a multigenerational audience. Consequently, many of us have come to wonder: Whatever happened to that bookworm who shattered his reading glasses after discovering the library of his dreams in "Time Enough at Last"? What became of the terrified airplane passenger who claimed the presence of a monstrous gremlin on the airplane wing in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"? What happened to the lone scientist who discovered that aliens were preparing to devour humanity in "To Serve Man"?
In a special Twilight Zone presentation this Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET on the UPN network, writer and series executive producer Ira Steven Behr will explore the fate of another classic Twilight Zone character. In a 1961 episode titled "It's a Good Life," actor Bill Mumy played a 10-year-old farm boy with the deadly power of wish fulfillment. If you weren't nice to Anthony Fremont, he would do bad things to you, like "wishing" you into "the cornfield," where no one would ever see you again. Everyone, including his own family, was terrified of him.
In the first half of this week's episode, the very first sequel in Twilight Zone history, in an episode titled "It's Still a Good Life," we catch up to Fremont, now an adult with a 6-year-old child of his own. And Fremont is stunned to realize that his daughter, Audrey, is beginning to exhibit the same powers that he has. In this episode, Bill Mumy reprises his role as Fremont, and he's joined by actress Cloris Leachman, who also returns to her role as Marion, the mother. The daughter is played by Mumy's very own progeny: Liliana Mumy.
In the second half of this week's episode, the producers have created this series' first remake: "Monsters on Maple Street." In the original episode, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," first presented in 1959, we witnessed the paranoiac residents of a neighborhood disintegrate into chaos because of the belief that aliens had invaded Earth.
In this 2003 edition, written by Erin Maher and Kay Reindl and directed by Debbie Allen, instead of an alien invasion, the theme has been changed. Now, fear grips the residents of a neighborhood when communications with the outside world have been cut off. Is terrorism on their doorstep? The residents focus their anxieties upon a "foreign" family.
In this conversation with Science Fiction Weekly, Behr, who contributed extensively to Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in various capacities as writer and producer, discusses the writing of "It's a Good Life" and the creation of "Monsters on Maple Street."
What was the decision-making process that led the company to doing both a remake and a sequel to be packaged together as one evening of The Twilight Zone?
Behr: There had been some discussion, before I had joined the show, about doing remakes. I put in my two cents and said I was not interested in remakes, but I would be interested in doing a sequel. I thought a sequel, creatively, would be more interesting. It would feel that we would be taking the franchise forward rather than just remaking what was already there and what people had considered classics.
The one that came to mind was "It's a Good Life." I thought it deserved a sequel. There were a lot of classic episodes that didn't really call for sequels, but I wondered about that kid, Anthony Fremont, as he got older. What happened to that town, Peaksville, Ohio? It did not hurt that Bill Mumy is a neighbor of mine and a friend. I knew his daughter was a terrific actress and looked a lot like him. I thought having them both in the episode, and having Anthony grown up, just seemed like the building blocks of an episode. I was pushing, and it took a long time to get it going. We had to get the rights to the episode on which it was based. It took a long time for various reasons.
During that time, there was more pressure to do some kind of a salute to the original series. When it looked like we didn't know if we'd get a sequel off the ground, I agreed to do a remake. We talked it over and came to the conclusion that "Monsters" seemed to have resonance to what was going on today. It was suggested that we take that show and make it "relevant" for 2003. Once we got that one ready, almost immediately things fell into place for a sequel to "It's a Good Life." We wound up doing them pretty much back to back. Once we had them, it seemed that we had a monumental decision to put them on the same night. It seemed the obvious thing to do.
According to my research, although there has been several incarnations of the show, there's never been a Twilight Zone sequel. This is a first for the franchise!
Behr: In putting myself in the viewer's place, the fan's place, I just felt, "I want to see that!" That interested me. I can complain about it, or love it, or whatever the reaction will be, but at least I would have a reaction.
Doing a remake is really difficult. People love the show and they don't have to love it again. They don't want to have to say, "Do it again! And do it just as well! Or do it better!" They don't want that. When you really like something, you want to keep that special place in the pantheon of your favorites. So, to be faced with having to see it again, in a different way with different actors who have different vibes, different directors and camera angles, I understand why it's more of a challenge. I just thought a sequel would be helpful.
In terms of the challenges in creating "It's Still a Good Life" what did you need in place for us to return to the life of Anthony Fremont?
Behr: It was, as I say, a long process, for various reasons, because we didn't know if we could buy the rights. We had to get Bill [Mumy], Cloris Leachman. There were a lot of things I wanted to fall into place. It was a slow process. Yet we talked about this episode a number of times, and noodled with it. What's ironic is that once we got the green light to actually write the episode, it was written in, like, two days! Which is good! It was a four-month process of waiting at the starting gate. But then, "OK, let's sit down and do it!" Bang! It gets done!
I haven't spent as much time thinking about an episode of television for as long a period of time as I've done with "It's Still a Good Life." It just hung fire for so long! I had almost given up on the process for the pieces to come together. I was pushing, making phone calls, and thought, "It's never going to happen!" Just as I threw up my hands in the air and said, "Screw it! I give up!", that's when the phone started ringing and UPN said, "No, no! We really want you to do this! We're going to make it work!" All of a sudden, I thought, "Holy moly! It's all happening all of a sudden!"
I was up in Vancouver for the whole shoot, and it was a most excellent experience. Every now and then you do an episode of television where you can feel the mojo, you know? It's just "there"! You can't make it happen, and it just has to naturally occur. The crew, on this one, seemed really jazzed, because they felt they were doing something with television history attached to it. They were excited, or as excited as a crew can be. It had a grueling schedule.
Cloris was a doll. So much fun and interesting to be with and supportive. I can't speak enough about Cloris and Bill. I had done a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with Bill ("The Siege of AR-558"). Liliana, who is good friends with my kids, is a terrific little actress! It's a lot of fun seeing Bill and her together.
Has Bill ever acted with his daughter before?
Behr: I don't believe so. I don't know. But I'm pretty positive they haven't actually appeared onscreen together.
How would you characterize the actors' performances in this episode?
Behr: Bill is a terrific actor. He projects intelligence, focus and, let's face it, he's been wishing people into the cornfield for his whole life! He hasn't lost the touch! It's tough to be acting with an acute 8-year-old child with flaming red hair. He's got his daughter on one hand and Cloris on the other! He had to just hold his own, which was impressive. I think he did a great job. It's funny, because Cloris has a way of working. She explores her role via different takes and gets comfortable. For Liliana, repetition helps her to get started on her own. Bill is a total pro. He would usually nail a scene in one or two takes. It was really amazing. A lot of focus was paid attention to the women because of Cloris' way of working and a kid.
This week, all of us in the viewing public will finally get to see this episode. How do the results look to you?
Behr: Am I glad we did it? Yes! Am I proud of the episode? Yes! In 21 minutes, everything counts. It's a very solid piece of work. Allan Kroeker did a fabulous job of directing it. I'm not embarrassed to have my name on it.
For "Monsters on Maple Street," a remake of an original Twilight Zone episode which aired as part of its first season in 1959, what was needed for that show to be successful?
Behr: It's fairly simple, it's just making it grounded for today and making a sociopolitical statement that's still valid. You turn the fear into terrorism. You got a valid episode. I think this one was pretty easy and stands as an strong episode of its own. Remakes are really a personal taste. There are people who love remakes because they enjoy the show so much.
We're doing 44 stories—which becomes 22 episodes—each year, and that's an incredible load of work. To keep coming up with that many stories in one season is daunting. Doing a remake makes our lives, to an extent, easier.
And how are the performances that you got on this episode with Andrew McCarthy?
Behr: This is much more of an ensemble show. I do think that Andrew McCarthy gave a very strong performance and gave us exactly what we wanted—a voice of reason in a situation that is clearly disintegrating into unreason fairly quickly. He's that voice in the wilderness asking for sanity, asking for the better side of our nature, to guide us rather than give in to fear, hate and prejudice. I thought he did a wonderful job.
I thought all the actors of the original episode were pretty good. I liked Claude Akins, Jack Weston and all those guys. They were all great character faces. Titus Welliver played, essentially, the Jack Weston role. He's a lot of fun, too. He doesn't sweat as much as Jack, or suck on that cigar like Jack, who was that sweaty little man. But Titus is the 2003 version of that.
I think it's strong, because in the 2003 version you can feel the pressure, the paranoia and the mindlessness building. That's a slam dunk in terms of today's relevancy. I think [these two episodes] are a lovely little duo, and I hope many, many people watch. I hope people keep an open mind, you know? There's a portion of the audience, the real fan base, that you want to be successful with. You want them to enjoy the show. But I know they go in with a much more suspicious nature, and we have to break that down before they can watch with a totally open mind. If they do that, they can enjoy an hour of television and have a corking good time. And leave them with something to think about as well.
And now that you've created a sequel and remake, is there any discussion of creating more similar shows down the line?
Behr: I would not be surprised if we do one more remake before the end of the year. I don't want to talk about it now, but we have quite a "name" director who's going to do an episode for us. If he wants to do a remake episode for us, that will probably happen. I don't think there will be any more sequels this year. Our writing staff will have to sit down and figure out what show fits all the categories that would make it worthwhile to do a sequel. It would have to be an episode that people remember. It would have to be a story that has an ending that needs a sequel, and it has to have actors who are still alive! After 40 years, this is not an easy thing. But I'll tell you, if the only sequel we do is "It's Still a Good Life," I'm happy! We did it right. And if you only do it once, do it right.
How is Twilight Zone doing so far? Are there any indications at this time for second season?
Behr: At this stage of the game, there are certainly indications of a second season. We won't know until as late as April or May. I wish the ratings were higher. I wish the publicity and promotion was a little better than what we had. UPN seems to be happy, creatively, concerning the show. We're attracting a fine mix of talent and getting a lot of good people who want to work on it. It's a build. A lot of work has gone into it. I would like to think the show will come back. It has a good chance. But when you're in the midst of it, you just want to get through the season, and not worry about the next one.
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Also in this issue:
Bob Eggleton and John Grant
