did so much that he said, “What would you like to do next?” And I’d come back with another idea. I’m old and I’ve done everything in television, but I think some of the best writing that I did was on THE TWILIGHT ZONE. It was a unique experience.
FM. Certainly different from a lot of your other work. EH. Well, it’s different, but it’s related, too, because if you look at some of the scripts, they have a folkish quality, and my work has always been kind of down- to-earth… dealing with country people, mainly. A folktale quality, and a Southern quality. If I brought anything to THE TWILIGHT ZONE, I think it was that folkish quality. One of the scripts that I did was called
was as if he’d lost his best friend. I think that was in the back of my mind when I wrote “The Hunt”, which is a story about a man who thinks he’s going into Heaven but is told that he can’t bring his dog. It turns out that he’s not at the gate of Heaven, but the gate of Hell. And he continues looking, eventually arriving at the real gate of Heaven… and of course they allow dogs!
FM. Of course. That’s why it’s Hell, if they don’t allow dogs! [Laughs] Do you have an episode that you wrote that you like the
“BLACK LEATHER JACKETS” “THE BEWTICHIN’ POOL”
“Jess-Belle”, an hour long show. It’s about a girl who sells her soul to a witch in order to gain a young man’s love. Very much, as you know, a theme in Southern folktales. The script for “The Hunt” is a tale you
might have heard your grandfather tell. That one came out of my father’s love for his dogs. We were poor, but my father had wonderful dogs because the hunting club people would have my father train their dogs, and in exchange would give him fine hunting dogs. I remember once by accident, while hunting, he shot one of his dogs, the dog ran off, and my father was bereft. He stayed out looking for the dog, couldn’t find it, then went out the next morning and found the dog dead. It
best? EH. Oh, I think it would be “The Hunt”. It has a sentimental value as the first thing I ever did for Rod. Also because it was a trademark, in that it
was a Southern, folkish piece about a dog, and some of my best friends are dogs! [Laughs] I’m very proud of it. I had fan mail from all over the world about that particular episode. One piece of mail I received said that I’d gotten the idea from an ancient Egyptian folktale, which I did not. It was my own invention.
FM. Folktales run together so much. EH. Exactly! But I’d never heard that before. I thought I had invented an original folktale.
I
use?” I said I didn’t, but I would write one. He said we only had four days. And I said, fine, I’d write one that day. I think it was a good piece of work. The director did a wonderful job. It’s about, as I said, a girl who sells her soul to a witch in order to gain a man’s love. But she has to pay a terrible price. And the price I devised was that at midnight, she turns into a mountain lion. They were in production, and Herb called and said listen, we’ve been auditioning mountain lions over here and they are vicious creatures, but the animal trainer says he’s got a nice black leopard. And I thought for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, it’d be perfect! It’s an animal alien to this area, and that would make it even more mysterious. So they used the black leopard, and it was very successful. Anne Francis was the star in the show. She did a beautiful job. It required a very special feel for the folkish material, and they furnished it. Everything I’ve ever done for television… the most successful pieces have been when direction, action, makeup, music…. everything has meshed to make it
right. When I did THE WALTONS, which was a challenging kind of a show with all those children, and the background with the blue ridge mountains of Virginia… nobody here in Hollywood knew anything about the blue ridge! But all of the elements meshed. And the same was true with THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Everyone put their best foot forward. I wish there were a show like it on today. I’ve tried to interest networks in another series in which fantasy is the main element, but nobody’s been interested. There was an attempt to do THE TWILIGHT ZONE a second time, but they didn’t have Rod’s formula.
also love the one called “Jess-Belle”. The producer at that time was Herb Hirschman, who called me one week and said, “I’ve just had
two scripts shot out from under me. I’ve got to have another one by Monday. Have you got anything around that we could
FM. Well, I think the reason THE TWILIGHT ZONE has endured so much is because there really hasn’t been anything on television like it since then. It’s still holds up fabulously. EH. I have people call me at midnight
saying, “Hey, there’s a TWILIGHT ZONE special on!” or something. [Laughs] I think one of the secrets of the show is commonplace people finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances, solved finally in a way that makes great sense once you reach the denouement. It all adds up.
FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND • JAN/FEB 2012 73
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