Received the following e-mail from SPACE CASES co-creator Bill Mumy, and thought I'd share it:
It IS still a good life.
Who would ever have thought that 42 years after filming "It's a Good Life", a "classic" episode of the original "The Twilight Zone" television series, that I'd return to the role of "Anthony Fremont" the "monster" with almost limitless mental powers in a brand new episode of "The Twilight Zone", once again teamed with Cloris Leachman and adding to the mix, my 8 year old daughter Liliana Mumy?! WOW!
When this project, "It's Still A Good Life" was initially discussed by me and the executive producer of the series, Ira Behr, I was really excited about the possibility of playing Anthony again. Some characters have a way of "staying" with you and Anthony certainly has been one. Honestly, I loved kicking the concept around with Ira, but I didn't really think it would happen. Then, I got the call. "They want to do it."
I got nervous. It could be real. Making a sequel to something that is considered a classic, that was named by TV Guide as one of the best 100 television shows ever made is challenging. There are sequels... "Godfather 2" and there are sequels, "Exorcist 2"... I started to worry.
I wrote outlines and submitted them to Ira. He wrote an outline and gave it to me. I liked his direction a lot. I wrote notes tweaking his outline.
He and I agreed on one thing: We wouldn't do it unless we both felt the script was something we believed Rod Serling would have given the thumbs up to.
Ira generously invited me into the writer's room to "break" the story. We spent a morning and an afternoon fine tuning it together and then Ira wrote the teleplay. I thought it was great. The very first draft of it. It was all there. He'd captured the characters perfectly, they way Rod Serling had written their dialogue in the original. Their voices felt true.
And... amazingly, the wonderful part of Anthony's daughter, Audrey, (originally "Amy" but had to be changed for legal clearance reasons) was created and written for my own daughter Liliana! What an amazing opportunity! To return to one of my favorite all time characters and to be able to co-star opposite Liliana, who's almost the exact same age I was when I originally played Anthony... it felt great. Ira and I both strongly agreed we HAD to get Cloris Leachman to reprise her role as my mother. Not a problem. Cloris loved the idea and came on board.
The deals were made and off we went to Vancouver, Canada where the series is filmed. It's a great city. Liliana and my wife Eileen were there for over a month last year at this time filming "The Santa Clause 2", they knew the town well and had made good friends there. We stayed in a nice two bedroom suite at the same hotel they had been in.
Wardrobe fittings...finding the right look for this "monster" Anthony Fremont well quickly. We were all on the same page. The sets and locations looked perfect. The mood and tone was right. Table read of the script... wow... Liliana's so natural, so good! Cloris...searching for it... always finding it. It took me a few scenes to connect with the monster, but... there he was. Man... he's a scary guy. He was scary when I was seven years old, but he was also a cute little freckly faced boy then. He's not a cute kid anymore.
Imagine if you can the "tone" of Peaksville, Ohio as it was in the original episode. No electricity... Running out of supplies... the despair of knowing this monster could read your every thought and if he didn't like what he picked up on... you could be sent away, erased and vanished to a place known only as "the cornfield"... or worse. You could be transformed into something horrible and kept here. Now imagine it's 40 years later... things have not gotten any better.
It's a dark tale to say the least.
Normally they film an episode of the Twilight Zone in 4 days. We were alloted 5. Most days I worked 15 hours. Everyone on the crew knew they were working on a sequel to something the world called "classic" and the lighting and the coverage was special for this.
The entire experience was special. Everyone treated us all like royalty. I was allowed quite a bit of creative input on this project, and for that I'll always be grateful. I don't know how objective I can be at this point. We wrapped it day before yesterday. I haven't seen it edited together yet. But, I believe it's going to be a really strong show. A good television show. A real good television show.
I don't do a lot of on camera acting these days. I feel like I did some of my best work on this show. I hope you'll check it out.
"IT'S STILL A GOOD LIFE" WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH 2003. "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" UPN... 9 PM.
Thanks.
Stay out of the cornfield.
Peace,
Bill Mumy
Posted by Peter David at January 25, 2003 05:43 PM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingDamn, but I can't wait to see this. What UPN should do, if they could get the rights, is show the original episode before showing the new one, so those of us who haven't seen it for haven't seen it in years can experience it.
I normally don't watch UPN's Twilight Zone, but I'll make sure to check it out when this episode airs.
A pleasure to see Bill Mumy on TV again.
Loved him on Lost In Space, remember his appearance on The Munsters, and "It's A Good Life" is a favorite episode along with "In Praise of Pip," as well as the one where the youngster is in possession of a telephone which enables him to speak with his deceased grandmother.
Truly will UPN unlock the door with the key of imagination...
Steve Chung
"What UPN should do, if they could get the rights, is show the original episode before showing the new one, so those of us who haven't seen it for haven't seen it in years can experience it."
Good Idea, but Sci-Fi has had Twilight Zone on an exclusive deal for a few years now.
I have to say I can't really remember the original episode. It's been a long time since I saw it. What strikes me though is the similarity to a story line that ran in issues #1-5 of X-Statix.
I was wondering if it just me, and has time completely erased my memory, or are the stories uncannily alike ?
Is the writer of the original short story (Jerome Bixby, I think) still living? I was just wondering, if he is, what he thinks of the new episode. Course, if he's passed on, guess it's moot.
PAD,
I have not watched the new Twilight Zone series on UPN, but I'll make sure to check it out now. Let's hope it will make Rod Serling smile -- wherever he is! (The Twilight Zone, maybe?)
Peace.
Tom Pearce
Well, as much as I liked the original episode (heck, I even enjoyed the film version's remake/update--complete with Bill Mumy cameo), I fear I'm going to have to wait till a rerun (assuming UPN doesn't pull the plug before then). Since my cable is dependent on a converter box, that limits my options on taping shows--the VCR, when a converter box is used, only permits one program to be taped which means when the VCR is recording I can't tape one show while watching another. Ordinarily this would be no serious problem; however, if my calculations are correct, "Angel" will be wrapping up its current storyline--when it returned on the 15th, it was supposed to be the "first of six new episodes" which makes the Feb 19th episode the sixth. (Maybe I can get a friend or relative to tape the "TZ" for me. If not, though, "Angel" takes priority.)
Since my cable is dependent on a converter box, that limits my options on taping shows--the VCR, when a converter box is used, only permits one program to be taped which means when the VCR is recording I can't tape one show while watching another.
Joseph, can I assume you have digital cable, and that's the converter box of which you speak? If so, I had the same problem at first, but you can get around it for about $20 at Radio Shack. You just need a Y-splitter, some co-ax cable, and an A/B switch box. It's simple; if you e-mail me (and put something significant in the subject line, so I don't think it's junk mail), I can walk you through it...
Of course, if it's not a digital cable problem, you're on your own.
The Angel conflict for Bill's TZ episode may not be there after all. Now it will be a Birds of Prey conflict. Apparently, The WB has decided to air the last two episodes of "Birds of Prey" that night and scuttle the "six new episodes of Angel" they've been promoting.
Lee Whiteside
Webmaster sftv.org
(quote)Apparently, The WB has decided to air the last two episodes of "Birds of Prey" that night(close quote)
Do the last 2 episodes cited follow the 'last two' that aired back-to-back about 2 or 3 weeks ago? Those 2 new episodes of BoP aired in sequence at 3-5 p.m. on an odd Saturday.
Without a UPN affiliate here, what UPN shows are available are all over the map, depending on which stations carry them.
TZ (unless an infomercial is inserted beforehand) airs around midnight Sat. (into early Sun. morning) - oddly enough, up against Buffy, which is on a different channel at the same time. I suppose I'll have to try to catch this one episode - other than that, the new TZ is a trainwreck.
Just in case Mr. Mumy should read this, always wanted to voice praise for his job in "Bless the Beasts and the Children," a highly-underrated film from about 30 years ago.
So, Mr. Mumy doesn't act on-camera much. Is he doing voiceover work? Directing? Writing? He's a tremendous talent, and should be more visible.
By the way, up until his first long, extended speech as Lanier in "Babylon 5," I always thought of him as "Billy" Mumy. After that - I forget the episode, but it was early in the second season when he was functioning as the acting Minbari ambassador - it was clear that no cute diminuitive name could apply to him.
If I understand correctly, Bill Mumy has been doing mostly voicework, primarily narration for A&E Biography and the like, as well as some cartoons. He's also released several folk-rock albums (Look for them or try Amazon.com) and has done some writing.
He also has his own website; just type Bill Mumy into your Search thingie, it'll take you there. There's a message book where you can leave your thoughts about the show to him.