As promised, here’s the place to sound off for the return of Anthony Freemont and the introduction of daughter Audrey on tonight’s “Twilight Zone.”
As you guys know, I thought it was really nicely done. I still wish they’d done the whole show in black and white and not had color turn up until the very end. But that’s probably just me. And hey…who now wants a Peaksville bowling shirt with “Anthony” stitched on the front. I sure know I do.
“Buffy” discussion tomorrow.
PAD
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I tuned in tonight… found it suitably creepy and very enjoyable. Liliana was absolutely adorable, and looks so much like Bill, especially the eyes. And did a great job, creeped me out big time. 😉 I’ve never seen the original, but enjoyed this installment.
I’d really liked to have seen that cornfield…
The original scared the bejeezus out of me as a child, and it was great to revisit the story. I loved the performances and the general level of tension throughout. The way they cut from young Anthony Fremont to Audrey Fremont in that opening shot–wonderful touches like that had a powerful effect.
My only complaint would be that the ending seemed to trickle off a little, where I would have liked to see the story build to a nightmarish crescendo as in the original. But that’s my only nitpick.
I liked it, though I wish they had found a way to put the father into his mother’s shoes, since the daughter is much more powerful than him.
What about Audrey’s mom? Where’s she?
Wished away into the cornfield, years ago – they mentioned that early on, when his mother is talking to the neighbor in the tomato garden.
Frankly, I’m amazed ANYONE lasted forty years in that situation, unless Anthony imposed a ban on suicide.
Now I’m cueing up my VCR to record the original, which comes on in a half hour here…
I-It was a good episode y’done, Bill! ( gulp ) Y-yeah!! It was r-real good!!
(Okay, so I posted this before on yesterday’s page. Does that make me a Bad Man? Does that mean I’m a Real Bad Man?? C’mon, what’s the worst that’ll happen??)
Hooper-In-The-Box
I wish I culd have seen it, but my mother commandeered the television for the Bachlorette finale… GAH! Must… resist… urge to cry…
Very enjoyable. I liked the consistency of character from the initial episode, and the sheer creepiness of the eye bit – I don’t know if they CGI’ed it up a little or not, but there was no question when those Fremont eyes start getting big that SOMETHING is gonna happen.
I was hoping for more of a big bang ending also – but as I sat watching it, I couldn’t think of any. I mean, there only a few options – daughter vs. father, daughter with father, or father knew all along and was faking the daughter’s powers.
As for that cornfield… brrr! I know why no one eats vegetables from the Fremont garden!
Neat episode, and Lilana is a spitting image of her Daddy.
I agree with PAD about the color. That last shot would have worked better had it faded INTO color from B&W, but that is a small nit to pick.
I also liked the second “sequel” episode. Funny how essentially the same thing that worked in the early Cold War years works now, although the military add-on at the end wasn’t necessary. An open-ended ending would have worked better for me.
I liked it a whole lot. If the people at UPN were super-smart, they would spin it off into a weekly series. Anthony Freemont is a pop culture icon, and the idea of a nigh-omnipotent man and his even-more-powerful daughter exloring and rebuilding the world he wished away years ago is just about as high-concept and interesting as they come. It would certainly be smarter than doing yet another show about, say, twentysomething people living in an apartment in the city.
A very, very good episode. (Actually, it’s the first good episode of the latest TZ I’ve seen.) I kinda guessed that the daughter wouldn’t be the savior everyone expected; I’d thought she would have sent away her daddy, then taken on his role. But it worked very well — and I absolutely loved Bill Mumy as the adult in body who remained a completely spoiled child!
Understand: The Twilight Zone (the original) is what I consider ultimate television. Brilliance at its best. (I’m starting to collect the dvds… unfortunately, they are incomplete… missing quite a few that I really enjoyed.) And “It’s a good life” is one of the best of this series. I had nightmares as a kid from some of the scenes in it.
On this one: I enjoyed it… it was creepy… it was nice to see these characters later in life. It didn’t have the effect the original had on me, but hëll… I watched that when I was seven (I’m not that old… We had some really cool reruns in the seventies)
But good job Bill! I always loved this show.
Travis
Well, I taped it, and what I saw was great, but I screwed up the programming and missed the last 5 minutes of the first half, and missed the second half entirely! Here I am, on the edge of my seat, the story’s reaching it’s climax, and pffftt, the tape shuts off! So if someone could spoil me on the last scene of “Good Life”, I’d sure appreciate it.
What I did see was excellent, however. Kudos to Bill, Liliana, and all else involved!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but did Cloris Leachman play the Mom in the original episode as the photo (in last night’s episode) would suggest? My memory is a little foggy on that point. Thanks.
Overall I give it high marks, especially for assembling the original cast. Creepy. But it fell apart for me with Audrey’s abrupt personality change. She’s sweet and caring and full of empathy for 25 minutes, then suddenly turns, on a dime, to a monster as cold and heartless as Anthony. I didn’t buy it. I can see where they tried to set it up that it was her love of her father that caused this, that when she felt everyone’s hatred for him she rose to his defense… but it still didn’t work. She knew early on that everyone was scared of him and hated him. SHE was scared of him, horrified by him “sending people to the cornfield.”
If they’d shown Audrey as having a suppressed cruel streak earlier, or if she’d sent the townfolk to the “real world” to save them from her dad and stayed with him in Peaksville out of love, that’d be one thing. But I think the character disconnect at the end keeps this episode from being a classic.
Still, the acting is fantastic (gotta love Cloris Leachman’s turn) and it’s probably the best episode of the new Twilight Zone yet.
I remember watching the original episode some 25 years ago with my grandmother. As much as I fear the “corn field”, it was nice to revisit nonetheless.
Peace…
Dan
I’m a nitpicker, BUT since Anthony Fremont went through puberty with those powers, I’m amazed he didn’t have more kids (and older ones to boot). I mean, no woman in the town would dare say “no” to him.
Wonderful. Simply wonderful. I think Liliana has a future in acting (if that’s what Bill wants for her).
I don’t think it would work as a series, simply because Anthony is too spoiled, and therefore not someone we could “root for” each week. I don’t think this discounts another visit with the Fremonts at some point in the future though. 🙂
Jayme-
There is a turning point and you can see it on Audrey’s face. Remember her grandmother told her that her father would be VERY ANGRY if she showed him her powers. It was emphasized more than once. She does show her power to her father and rather than getting angry at her, as she has been told he would, he praises her and is happy with her. She knows she has been lied to by her grnadmother and you can see it run across her face. At that moment she becomes her father’s daughter.
Kathleen
I wanted very much to like it better than I did. The beginning really drew me in, the little girl did a very good job, and I was suitably touched when the character brought back the watch. (I would have waited until after that incident for the Cloris Leachman character to contemplate using the daughter against Anthony, but, then, I’m not the one writing for TZ, either.) There was nothing there, though, that creeped me out nearly as much as the transformation of the man into a jack-in-the-box, and I found the CG vanishing of the other captive citizens to be rather underwhelming. (Like Tom Keller I found myself wondering about the mother.) I’d say better than a lot of the new TZ segments, but I’m not going to be a regular viewer.
The Maple Street remake disappointed me a bit more. In the original, the alien forces set the street against one another, while, in the remake, everyone (the Andrew McCarthy being the sole exception) seemed to be united against the faceless “family” in the fenced house. While the idea that the block was being used as an experiment by our own government was a sinister one, I think the point of the original version was lost.
Yes, Cloris Leachman did play Mrs. Fremont in the original. Gawd, it was good to see her again.
Kathleen, I saw that, but it didn’t have the “everything you know is wrong” kick to it I was looking for. My impression was that Grandma was protecting Audrey from Anthony, that if she had powers, he’d see her as a threat. And Mumy does play Anthony as threatened by her – especially when he finds out she can “bring things back” that he sent away. The interpersonal relationships are much more complex in this one than the original, and that’s harder to convey. I think if they had 5-10 more minutes of screen time, they’d have nailed it to perfection. But the 30 minute TV format doesn’t allow for that.
Like I said before, I liked it. I’m not trying to trash it, and I thought the approach they took was very good. I just feel there was more story to tell than time to tell it in. 🙂
Black & white would have been nice, but my biggest problem was the use of CGI to show off Anthony’s powers. The original was so terrifying in part because everything Anthony did happened off-screen (or, in the case of the jack-in-the-box, in shadow). Rod Serling was working with more primitive special effects, but he also understood that what you don’t see is always more terrifying than what you do.
This was a really well done episode. Bill really showed that he both loves his daughter and, if you look at his face when she brings back the rest of the world, he’s also terrified of her at the end. Fantastic performances all around. And Ira’s writing was very good, also.
Bill, if you do read this, I’d like to let you know that I’ve been impressed with just about everything that I’ve seen you perform in. From the original “It’s A Good Life”, all the way to last nite’s episode, you consistantly give a fine performance. It’s always a pleasure to watch you work. And your daughter looks to be a chip off the old block.
BTW, if you’d be interested in coming to Philcon in Dec. with Peter, contact me and let me know! We’d love to have you!
Hugh Casey
Chairman, Philcon ’03
I didn’t like the ending at all. The color was to bring everything back into the modern age and I disliked that whole concept. Too bad they didn’t do more with the daughter’s ability to bring things back. If she brought back someone or something ( like the watch) more personal rather than bringing back ” The whole world ” it would’ve been more interesting. As it was it was too generic. Well whatever. I don’t think any of the modern episodes are as good as the old ones were.
No CGI was done on either Mumy’s eyes. Bill demonstrated that eye-pop thing when I saw him in LA (at my behest, I’ll admit), and it was so singularly creepy I insisted he never look at me that way again.
It should be noted that there was additional footage with Audrey and her dad in which he reinforced that he was happy about her powers (as opposed to her grandmother’s insistence he wouldn’t be) and they also discussed her vanished mother. I think that reiteration would have helped the believability of her transition; unfortunately, it was cut for time. I still think, however, that she concluded that her grandmother had been lying to her and responded in a believable fashion.
Let’s not forget the power of that scene where grandmom is talking about how much she hated her son, right before she tried to make Audrey send him away. From Audrey’s POV, grandmom was definitely the bad person…the very bad person. She’d “lied” about how Anthony would react, and she’d lied all these years saying she loved Anthony, and now she was aligning with those who wanted to hurt Anthony. Audrey’s turnaround seemed right on the money.
I think it also sort of “flipped a switch” as she started scanning everybody’s minds and saw how much they all hated her father. To her, it wasn’t about good and evil. It was about making the threats to her father–and, ultimately, to her–go away.
PAD
Well, I got a real kick out of that episode, and I have not really been a fan of this latest incarnation of ‘Zone’. It was FANTASTIC to see Bill Mumy in the role that made him famous (forget that ‘Lost In Space’ nonsense), and his daughter was wonderful as well … creepy how much she looked like her dad … but very kewl.
I would have preferred going with B&W, but hey, that seems like a small complaint. A much bleaker ending would have been good too, I wonder how much input Mr. Mumy had with that … Maybe Peter can find out for us. Too bad they didn’t spend the full hour on this one story, there seems to be alot they could have added (like the kid’s Mother).
But even with these minor nitpicks, I really enjoyed it and I’m gonna try and catch the show a little more regularly.
WARNING: Rough criticism ahead.
Honestly? I was disappointed. When the idea of this was first floated around here, I talked about how the original episode was a great horror story, yes, but it also had some thematic weight (i.e., our capacity to stomach tyranny in exchange for not having to stick our necks out to do the unpleasant). This episode appeared to make no thematic pretense. At all.
On a simple story level, the little girl’s abrupt attitude change seemed like surprise for the sake of surprise, and not particularly clever. Plus, the implications of Anthony’s long term use of his powers were never explored. This was a guy who could do ANYTHING. Why did he maintain the town at such a fairly unimaginative status quo? There could have been a clever explanation, but it was never explored.
They established the girl as a victim of her father’s oppression right along with everyone else, and I think a situation where her empathy would lead her to overcome her father, lighting HIM on fire, turning HIM into a Jack in the Box, and sending HIM into the cornfield would have been more satisfying. And then, in the epilogue, there could be an indication that after everything was said and done, and even with whatever empathetic feelings she may have had, the power was starting to corrupt her too, ominously warning Cloris Leachman not to think bad thoughts.
The message? Power corrupts, of course, wearing down even those who begin with good intentions (unlike Anthony, never had an opportunity to learn virtue).
Instead we were given a somewhat shallow suspense tale. And although it was nice to see Andrew McCarthy again for old time’s sake, the Monsters on Maple Street were less monsterous this time around, mostly because they were characterized so blatantly. The horror of The Monsters on Maple Street is that they were Just Like Us, not stereotypical, beer swilling idiots.
Dammit! I actually have a James Marsters story, and there’s no Buffy topic!
Curse my luck.
I have to agree with the Village Idiot (oh god) on this one. I was very excited to see this sequel episode. While I was pleased with both of the Mumy performances and, naturally, Leachman, the other performers felt flat and I felt the writers cheated me. The ending did not feel even close to satisfying, or, really, believable (within the character parameters set up by the first show and this sequel). It was great to see Mumy again, but I wish they could have given him, his daughter, and Leachman something better to chew on.
And Mr. David, you are completely correct regarding the color. It would have been infinitely better if the episode had started B&W and closed color. It would match the dead world Anthony had created and the opening to a wider world his little daughter created. And, it would have looked cooler, darn it.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents:
I agree with the comments on B/W versus Color. The original series retains its creepiness because of the mood set by light and shadow. The same is true of the original Outer Limits ( only the X-Files got it right in color, by using a monochromatic scheme and filming mostly in darkness).
The Performances: It was great to see Cloris Leachman reprise her role from the original, but I felt her fate was something of a disservice to her character, who after all suffered a great deal these 46 years.
Bill Mumy has grown into a very good actor, writer and song writer ( I really miss his late, lamented “Lost In Space” comic book : the true sequel to that series) But I thought his take on the adult Anthony wasn’t as chilling as the first time around. Yes he threatened people and he did something terrible (off camera) to a woman, but I never felt that these were the acts of a superpowered sociopath, just a midly peeved man wondering why everyone is afraid of him.
Lilliana(sp?) Mumy has the same expressive “bug eyes” as her father and it was great to see the two of them together in this episode. I saw the “Like Father Like Daughter” ending coming a mile away, so it made sense, even if it wasn’t really set up that effectively. One problem: the fact that she can bring anything “back” —including the whole world—sort of nullifies the horror of what she’s done. After all, couldn’t she also bring back grandma and the rest of the town if she wants?
BTX
I certainly don’t know anyone well enough to make judgements, but I wonder if those for whom Audrey’s change of heart rang false are non-parents. I remember an early BID where PAD discussed the power of words and mentioned that, when Ariel said “I hate you, Daddy” it was just words and would be forgotten in a moment’s time. When I read that, I thought Peter was either heartless or wrong, but after I heard my own children say those words, I felt them cut me, but watched my children forget them (as advertized) momentarily. Audrey seemed very similar. I saw her pique early on, but it was gone even during the photo book scene (though Grandma certainly expects a comrade in arms). I thought it played very well.
[Aside, I owe you thanks, Peter, for giving me some perspective when the hate scene came through my life. The kids forget in seconds, but I still remember.]
Certainly this was the strongest (current) TZ I have seen. I am not surprised they didn’t use b/w throughout. No matter how artistic or true, it would’ve cost viewers and Kraft would’ve asked for their cheese money back.
Maybe I’m a Pollyanna, but I had an entirely DIFFERENT view of Audrey’s “change of heart.” The way I saw it, Audrey knew that she could bring BACK whatever she “wished to the cornfield.” When Agnes told Audrey to send her father away, Audrey suddenly realized there was a way to teach her father a lesson AND protect the people she loved from him. So she sends them all away – but only temporarily.
When Anthony admits to being lonely (i.e., is starting to learn his lesson), Audrey does her thing and said she brought it “ALL back” (emphasis mine). I took this to mean that even the people Anthony wished to the cornfield were back.
And when she tells him that people better be nice to them “or you know what we’ll do,” I saw this as the ploy of a brilliant, powerful little girl who finally knew how to handle her difficult father. She knows she can correct anything her father does…
Alan, your comment of “Rod Serling was working with more primitive special effects, but he also understood that what you don’t see is always more terrifying than what you do.” is spot-on. I recall reading the short story and it was indeed terrifying. Much more so than the television sequel, good as that was.
This sequel did answer one key point of the puzzle. People pondered whether Anthony had made the world disappear, or just taken the town elsewhere and made the rest of the world forget about it. The latter seems to be the case. How else to explain that, when Audrey brings the world ‘back’, the people have contemporary automobiles and fashions? There was nothing in Audrey’s experience to allow her to recreate this unless it already existed and she just seamlessly rejoined that part of reality.
And, while Audrey might be able to bring the people of the town back, I doubt she did because they know about her and her father and she wouldn’t want this knowledge to spread.
As for those who missed the episode, I have it on [NTSC/VHS] tape if they’re interested.
P.S. Anthony and his daughter are of the Q. So there. 😉
To be honest, I’m glad they didn’t do the B&W to color so many suggest here. Showing my age, that would have felt way too Wizard of Oz-ish. I did like how it was handled – the B&W clip from the original to the very dark, washed out color of Peakesville, to the bright hues of the really real world bursting around the desperately in need of paint house.
I enjoyed the sequel to “It’s a Good Life”. While it did not do everything I would have liked (I pictured a scene in a dead, gnarled cornfield with, among other grotesques, a man-sized jack-in-the box with a skull at the top of the spring swaying back and forth in the wind), it was a worthy effort. This show has some limits as the original had. Having the daughter turn against the grandmother and the town was questionable, but it felt true while watching it. Some of the comments from the other readers helped to flesh this out.
As I watched the ending, it occured to me too that black and white with a gradual change into color at the end would have been nice (would Anthony recognize a plane, especially a modern plane, though). I was somewhat remined of the 1983 movie version in the end. Incidently, the 1980’s version of the Twilight Zone wanted to remake “It’s a Good Life”. The episode they made, starring Richard Mulligan, was so drastically different that the producers must have decided it to be original enough not to acknowledge the Jerome Bixby original. I do not recall that episode’s name.
Well, interesting thoughts everyone. As Rick Nelson sang, “You can’t please everyone, so you gotta please yourself..” There were a few tweaks I would have made if I were in total control of it, but overall, I was quite pleased with it. I can imagine a series carrying on with the characters that could be very cool and reinvent itself quite often.
Ira Behr pushed hard to have it air in black and white, I would have liked that too, until maybe the end when they exit the house after Audrey has “brought it all back”, but the powers that be decided against it. As it was, there was a slight sepia, washed out, creepy look to the lighting that worked for me. And by the way, as Peter correctly stated, there was no CGI done with our eyes.
In the bowling alley when the remaining population of Peaksville was gathered, I had asked to see many of them deformed and mutilated… people Anthony had “punished” and kept around… I also had suggested a creepy animated scarecrow as a pinboy in the scene… for several reasons, that didn’t happen. But I was allowed quite a lot of creative input in this show from the very beginning and I appreciate that a lot. They treated me and Liliana wonderfully. Who knows what the future holds? Maybe we’ll return to the characters again… in another 40 years! Thanks for watching!
Peace,
Bill
I came late into this discussion, as in, three whole days late! Oh well … it gave me a chance to read everyone else’s comments and think it over.
At first, (right after I watched the show) my initial reaction was that I felt “cheated” somehow. That is, Anthony’s daughter’s change of heart was too ‘forced’ IMHO. I attribute this to lack of time — I wish the producers of this show had let this episode run for the ENTIRE hour — and therefore, a lack of opportunity to see the development of the characters.
As for the acting: well done! Bill Mumy was suitably creepy and in character. His daughter has a lot of “presence” on the stage and stole every scene she was in! Cloris Leachman was definitely the best among the good and at the top of her craft.
So PAD, Bill, etc., that’s my honest opinion. This is Tom Pearce signing off (and hoping not to be wished into the cornfield for this … !).
Just jumping in to note Anthony DID
get his just desserts: His daughter’s infinitely more powerful than he is, reads his every thought (And he can’t read hers), and while she, at the moment at least, MEANS well…
Might as well add I never really saw Anthony as evil in the original. He presumably couldn’t undo things he had done in the heat of the moment. He, again, MEANT well. All he wanted was for everyone to be happy and everything to be like it was before. He knew everyone was terrified of them and, back then, was trying to make them like him.
Then when they displeased him, he’d lash out.
Adult Anthony was indeed a villain and like all villains, was basically a tragedy. He’s been trapped in this deserted town for forty years with people who fear and hate him. There’s nothing he can do about that and there’s nothing he can do to please them and there’s really nothing to DO.
How often can one go bowling, for Heaven’s sake? The situation was tailor-made to bring out one’s sadistic impulses. They hate him, he’ll hate them, and for fun, he’ll torment them when the mood strikes him.
Other stuff: Yeah, the question about other kids occured to me too.
Finally realized Anthony would probably just zap away any pregnant girlfriends or unwanted babies. Audrey and her mother stayed probably because he was ready to start a family.
Only real question is more about the Grandma. Lady, you’ve wanted to kill this creature for forty years. You cook his meals. Didn’t it ever occur to you to poison him?
It’s been a LONG time since I saw the original and I was not aware of the scope of Anthony’s powers. I thought he had simply cut Peaksville off from the rest of the world. I had no idea he had *elliminated* the rest of the world! I also didn’t know he was unable to bring things back. Overall, I really enjoyed the new episode although I agree with the opinion that they should have devoted the full hour to the show. Since this was a “sequel” of sorts to an original TZ episode, that made it sort of special. I wish they had filmed an “extended version” for a possible DVD version.
I also wish they had used Mr. Mumy’s suggestions. The scarecrow pinboy would have been especially creepy.
I’ve never seen the orginal, but I think that I would like it better than this episode. My biggest complaint is that the townspeople’s reactions didn’t stem from forty years of living in this predicament. Instead, everyone seemed to act like this situation had only just come to be within the last few weeks.
I wish bill mumy would get more substancial acting parts. He’s really good. As for the episode…it was okay. Not a classic, but it was entertaing.
Saw the show, found it really creepy, well worth missing the first half hour of West Wing. Near the end, I was saying “what goes around finally came back around for Anthony”. I was surprised the rest of the town survived that long, I figured Anthony would have sent them all to the corn field years before then.
And I wonder how willing his wife was to say “no” to him. Then again, she was in the corn field by the time the episode came on, she may have finally found her backbone right before she was sent away.
Wayne