Marc Scott Zicree, author of The Twilight Zone Companion, draws on that expertise for the newest “Mr. Sci-Fi” video, in which he repeats the things Ray Bradbury told him about helping Twilight Zone in the beginning and why, despite his and Rod Serling’s best intentions, he only wrote one completed episode for the series.
Phil Nichols’ insightful commentary on the video for Bradburymedia notes:
Bradbury also claimed a significant contribution to the very existence of the series: he reportedly introduced Serling to the writers Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, each of whom would write many episodes of the series.
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The UCLA Comm Studies Youtube Channel (which is where I wound up after following links from this podcast) is freakin’ amazing, just sayin’. An hour and a half of Ray Bradbury lecturing in 1968 was just the beginning of a fountain of talks by almost anybody interesting in the ’60s and ’70s. Go see.
https://www.youtube.com/user/UCLACommStudies
I wonder if its too strong to call Matheson, Beaumont and others Ray’s proteges. They certainly admired Ray, and they were all grouped together as part of the Southern Cakifornia school of writers. But Matheson was very much his own man. When someone gets into their much later years, even someone as lauded as Ray, the past can become a different place. Didn’t Matheson say that he found out about Twilight Zone via his agent, or a Writers Guild announcement, and then a screening of the pilot and/or episodes?
They have not been as celebrated as the Algonquin Round Table, but they have been guilty of much praise for one another. Not that they didn’t deserve it.
When did Bradbury makes such statements about Matheson and Beaumont? He was given over to “revising” his memories in his last years.
I have been inclined to think he only did the one episode for The Twilight Zone because he was fussy.
The Twilight Zone period is covered with some care and depth in Jonathan R. Eller’s Ray Bradbury Unbound, which goes into some depth about the betrayal Bradbury felt from Serling.
Marc Scott Zicree repeats his Bradbury-Beaumont- Matheson statement repetedly in his video. I don’t know aboht any direct Bradbury attributions.
Any mentions of how he felt about the Alfred Hitchcock adaptations?
There is an interview with Bradbury in a recent FILMFAX which outlined the problem. The program left out what Bradbury considered a crucial scene and he felt angry about it. He had invited people over to watch.
When did Bradbury get a TV?