The Night Gallery

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Say the name Rod Serling and most folks will come back with “The Twilight Zone.” And rightly so. “The Twilight Zone” was a classic sci-fi series that still holds up fifty years later. Although not as well known, Rod Serling’s “The Night Gallery” was his follow-up series which premiered on NBC five years after the cancellation of “The Twilight Zone.”

The conceit of “The Night Gallery” was that Serling would come out and talk about a painting on display in the “Night Gallery” and the teleplay, either an original story [many by Serling himself] or an adaptation of HP Lovecraft, Richard Matheson or another sci-fi or horror writer would follow. The paintings always related to the story that followed. It was a cool idea and I loved the show when it originally aired. [Keep in mind this was the early 70’s and I would have been 11 or 12.]

I’ve been watching episodes on RTN lately and I hate to say it, but many don’t hold up near as well as older episodes of “The Twilight Zone.” Part of the problem could be that “The Night Gallery” episodes in syndication are often cut or expanded to meet the half hour time slot.

I recently discovered this site dedicated to “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.” It’s chock full of information about the series with everything from episode guides, to misconceptions about the series to a gallery of paintings used in each episode. If you have any interest in Rod Serling or “The Night Gallery” you should check out the site. It’s even more fun than some of the episodes it covers!

Couture vs Lesnar

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This Saturday at 10pm UFC 91 will air on pay-per-view with one of the most highly anticipated mixed martial arts fights of all time. Randy Couture puts his heavyweight title on the line against Brock Lesnar. Both men are accomplished athletes with extensive wrestling skills. Couture is the more experienced octagon fighter, but he will give away over a decade and about 50 pounds. Lesnar is younger, faster, bigger and stronger, but doesn’t have anywhere near the experience of Couture.This is a tough one to call. I’d love to see Couture pull out a win — it would be the capper to a great career. Although, if Couture beats Lesnar, he’d probably come back for at least another fight or two. Couture has a nearly perfect win streak every time he has gone into a fight as an underdog — and he is the dog in this fight. Most folks just don’t see how Couture can overcome Lesnar’s size, strength and punches from fists the size of cinder blocks. Of course if everyone could see how Couture was going to win, he wouldn’t be the underdog.

I look forward to reading Raf’s predictions for the fight. As for me, I’m going to pull for Couture.

Tales of the Starlight Drive-In

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It’s no secret that I love drive-in theaters… and comic books. So does Mike San Giacomo. Mike is a writer who took his passion for drive-ins and comics and created a pretty cool concept for a graphic novel. Mike wrote “26 illustrated stories and six text stories set in a drive-in theater.” The stories take place over a 53-year period. Each story had to accomplish three things:
  1. It had to be able to stand alone, make perfect sense even if nothing else was read.
  2. Each stand-alone story must still advance the overarching storyline of the graphic novel as a whole.
  3. Each story had to somehow relate to the movie that is playing at the drive-in at the time.
How cool an idea is that? Very cool, I say!

Here’s a link to the website for Tales of the Starlight Drive-In. Here are links to Newsarama’s three part series [Part One; Part Two; Part III] covering Mike’s trips to historic drive-ins to promote his graphic novel. And here’s a link in case you want to order a copy of Tales of the Starlight Drive-In for yourself!

Sly is Expendable

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Great news! Sly Stallone is set to write, direct and star along side Jason Statham in “The Expendables” for Nu Image/Millennium Films [the same company that released the latest Rambo movie].

Jet Li is in final negotiations to join the cast. “The Expendables” begins filming in February and follows a team of mercenaries hired to overthrow a South American dictator. You can read the full report here.

"…Of the Dead"

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DreadCentral.com scored the first look at the poster for George Romero’s latest zombie-fest titled “… of the Dead.” I kind of like the title considering that we’ve had “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead,” “Land of the Dead,” “Diary of the Dead” and even a return to some of the earlier titles. Yeah, “… Of the Dead” works just fine.

Remembering Michael Crichton

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Michael Crichton died yesterday at the age of 66 from cancer. I was totally shocked to read the news since I had no idea that Mr. Crichton had been ill.Most folks know Michael Crichton as the author of the best selling novel, Jurassic Park, which became the blockbuster movie of the same name. Many of Mr. Crichton’s novels were turned into movies: “The Andromeda Strain,” “The Great Train Robbery,” “Congo,” “The 13th Warrior,” and many others made the transition from the written page to the silver screen.Mr. Crichton wrote the screenplay and directed “Westworld” and was the creator of the long-running and award-winning TV series E.R.?

Michael Crichton was a man of many talents, but his greatest was his ability to create impossible stories and fuse in just enough science to make them seem possible. I’ve read almost all of the books written under his own name and have enjoyed every one. I still have a couple sitting in my “To Be Read” Bookcase. I think, perhaps, when it is time to start a new novel, I’ll pull one down.Our thoughts and prayers go out to Michael Crichton’s family, friends and fans.

Worth a Look

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Most ZONErs will want to check out the current issue [11.07.08] of Entertainment Weekly [which is on newstands now]. Not only does it cover 54 films that will be coming out this fall, but there is also extended coverage of Daniel Craig in “Quantum of Solace” as well as an eight page profile of Mickey Rourke. Any of these features is worth the price of admission, but all three together is a bargain.