The Twilight Zone 1980s - General Discussion

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Okay folks,so we've got the original Twilight Zone series and now we have a thread concerning the later 1980's series.

Although not quite in the same league as the original series,it certainly did have it's moments.

Some episodes were adapted from such acknowledged writers as Arthur C.Clarke,Stephen King,and Ray Bradbury.


Directors such as Wes Craven and William Friedkin threw their tuppenceworth in and stars such as Bruce Willis,Helen Mirren,Martin Landau and an early appearance from a certain Morgan Freeman graced various episodes.


Feel free to discuss your favourite episodes here....

[Gojirosan]

The Wes Craven episodes are some of his best work, IMO.

The one that has stuck with me since I first saw it is "Wordplay" in which the protagonist has trouble pronouncing the names of some new products he is expected to sell and then slowly the English language changes meaning around him. Everyone else is talking what seems to be gibberish, but it is him who has lost the power of language. Then his young son gets very ill...

Being unable to communicate terrifies me (I dislike travelling abroad for this reason) and this short really hit home with me. A masterpiece of succinct horror.

There is also a great comedy episode (not by Craven) called "I Of Newton" which has a brilliant pay-off.

And there was a decent adaptation of Stephen King's Cthulhu Mythos story "Gramma", which captured the tension of the story very well.

I have an E180 full of them somewhere - reckon I'll dig it out tonight!

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

E180-Now there's a term that vanished into the Twilight Zone!

[skyofcrack]

"But I am a Shadow Man from underneath a different person's bed."

[the_fallen_one]

I really do hope this series gets a good dvd/blu release,as cinema clubs release had horrid sound quality

[Gojirosan]

It's not likely to ever have a HD release of any note as the masters are on degraded video tape - they films were shot on film, but then transferred to video for editing and assembly. There are no film masters.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by the_fallen_one

I really do hope this series gets a good dvd/blu release,as cinema clubs release had horrid sound quality

It was mate.

It's funny,the old episodes stick in my mind much more than the newer series and the quality of the CC release probably didn't help that.

If anyone released these in the UK,surely the sound and picture would be improved upon?

Especially if released in Hi Def! Now that would be the dogs!

The old boxsets now sell for crazy money!

[skyofcrack]

I have the U.S. boxed sets but I didn't get a chance to look at them before I put them into storage. I also taped all the shows originally off the air. Plus, I recorded some of the shows from syndication that had extra, expanded footage. I have yet to transfer them to DVD-R's. I think I also have a couple of laserdiscs from the 80's show as well.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Good to see a dedicated fan!

Here's a small reminder of how good the eighties series could be....

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Check out the barnett on Brucie-boy!