A master of Sci-Fi hanging with Mr. Sci-Fi. Richard Matheson and
Forrest J Ackerman enjoy a few selections from the Ackermonster’s extensive library of fine literature (wearing only the finest in sophisticated headwear).
like that on the table, so naturally I decided to do a story about it.
FM. That’s a good point. Your stories seem to very much be journeys, whereas other TWILIGHT ZONE stories were more centered around a punchline. Especially when you look at something like the original story for “Disappearing Act”, where it feels like it could happen to anyone. RM. I remember when I wrote the last line of that story, I burst into laughter. “Having a cup of cof. . .” [Laughs]
FM. Are you a writer that schedules time out of your day to write, like Rod Serling did, or do you just start writing and not stop until you’ve finished? RM. No, my wife will be happy to confirm when I started writing, everything went by the board, everything went aside except for writing the story. I never thought about—when I first started writing, I wrote seven days a week, which my wife was not too crazy about. Then it went to six, now, who knows? [Laughs]
FM. One thing that was rare with THE TWILIGHT ZONE was that many of the writers used to help one another in developing their scripts. RM. Yes, Chuck Beaumont was my closest friend through all those years and his premature death was a shock to all of us. We all were close, there was a whole group of us. There was Chuck, there was William Nolan, and John Tomerlin, George Clayton Johnson. We would all get together and exchange ideas.
FM. That’s great. One would imagine writers would be possessive of ideas, but you guys would help each other. RM. Yes, we would help each other. If one of us hit a snag in the story, the rest of them would get them out of it.
FM. Why do you think the show has endured? RM. The story. There are stories in each one. And black and white is so much better than color for that type of story. We were just meeting with the man who is the head of Legendary. They’ve made a lot of very successful films. And he said the thing that mattered most to him was story, and I agreed with him entirely. I think that’s why people are still watching TWILIGHT ZONE, because they had interesting stories.
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