Thanks, Rod

Hi. Settle in; this is a long one, but the subject deserves the attention.

Fifty years ago on this date, Rod Serling led TV viewers into the Twilight Zone for the very first time.

Unlocking the door to that realm wasn’t easy, even with his formidable key of imagination. The odds were against the show succeeding beyond its first season. (These days, it would be canned after two weeks much less 26.) Even with Serling’s Emmy Award-winning reputation for creating some of TV’s finest hours, CBS, the network, the public – they just didn’t quite get what he wanted to do. Then, Serling’s “The Time Element” was broadcast as part of Desilu Playhouse. It could been a TZ story. The audience response to it was highly positive, and that helped Serling open the door to five years of wonder (and, for him, brain-breaking work writing most of the show’s stories and overseeing the whole universe).

Anyway, there was a great interview between Serling and Mike Wallace from the night before TZ premiered. Bear in mind that, at this point, Serling had written some of the greatest teleplays in what would become The Golden Age of Television. He was considered an "artist". (Many TV writers were at the time; times change, huh?)

The full text is transcribed at RodSerling.com, and you can actually see it on the TZ DVD box sets, but I want to share these particular excerpts:

***

Mike Wallace: Herbert Brodkin, a TV producer associated with some of your earlier plays, has said this about you. He said, "Rod is either going to stay commercial or become a discerning artist, but not both." Now, has it ever occurred to you that you're selling yourself short by taking on a series which, by your own admission, is going to be a series primarily designed to entertain?

Rod Serling: ... I presume Herb means that inherently you cannot be commercial and artistic. You cannot be commercial and quality. You cannot be commercial concurrent with, have a preoccupation with the level of storytelling that you want to achieve. And this I have to reject. ... I don't think calling something commercial tags it with a kind of an odious suggestion that it stinks, that it's something raunchy to be ashamed of. ... The essence of my argument, Mike, is that as long as you are not ashamed of anything you write if you're a writer, as long as you're not ashamed of anything you perform if you're an actor, and I'm not ashamed of doing a television series. ...  I think innate in what Herb says is the suggestion made by many people that you can't have public acceptance and still be artistic. And, as I said, I have to reject that.

***

Did you get that? You can be an artist AND make a buck without "selling out." Serling proved it.

In doing so, he didn’t just raise the bar; he created an altogether different one that others would try – are STILL trying -- to reach. Very few have. Even Serling missed it a few times with some clunkers.  (“Cavendish is Coming”, anyone?) But he believed in what he was doing, he didn’t underestimate the intelligence of his audience, and he had their respect and affection right up to his sudden death in 1975. TZ earned him a decent five-year run and, although he didn’t know it at the time, one of the highest pedestals in pop culture history.

But most relevant to our discussion here: Rod Serling inspired boobs like me to create and share their own pocket universes with a mass audience on the Internet. Well, I know my audience doesn’t have much mass, but I still don’t underestimate your intelligence. (Especially if you actually listen to the show.)

I’ll close with a Serling closing from my all-time favorite TZ, “Walking Distance”. Whenever Martin Sloan goes back to the Homewood of his youth, I go back to the Wildwood, NJ, of mine -- and I still can't read this without choking up.

***

“Martin Sloan, age thirty-six, vice-president in charge of media. Successful in most things but not in the one effort that all men try at some time in their lives—trying to go home again. And also like all men perhaps there'll be an occasion, maybe a summer night sometime, when he'll look up from what he's doing and listen to the distant music of a calliope, and hear the voices and the laughter of the people and the places of his past. And perhaps across his mind there'll flit a little errant wish, that a man might not have to become old, never outgrow the parks and the merry-go-rounds of his youth. And he'll smile then too because he'll know it is just an errant wish, some wisp of memory not too important really, some laughing ghosts that cross a man's mind, that are a part of the Twilight Zone.”

***

This may be the first thing I ever heard on TV that made me say to myself, “I wish I’d written that.”

I still do.

Thanks, Rod. I won't even come close to "Walking Distance", but I’ll keep walking anyway. I'm enjoying the trip too much to stop now.

-- L.

OMG, We’re IN THE STUDIO!

Hi.

I’m pleased to announce that recording has begun on the latest run of SuperHuman Times scripts!

I feel as if I should follow this announcement  with something Dave Barry often wrote when relating unbelievable tales: “WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP!”

I got this happy news last night from show director/Prometheus Radio Theatre brain trust Steve Wilson. He’s going about the recording process in a very systematic way. See, in addition to the six Times scripts, he has a host of others (including the remaining chapters of his audiobook, Peace Lord of the Red Planet) that need to be recorded. So, rather than assembling the cast of each and recording each script whole-cloth , he’s calling in individual members of our company – and, where dramatically necessary, small groups – and recording only their parts. Kinda like the way animated cartoon voices are recorded, but without the benefits of Paul Frees, Mel Blanc, and June Foray.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but when you consider that all of us are doing this stuff in our spare time and have to be corralled into the studio according to our real-world schedules… well, it’s a minor Herculean feat. I bow to Mr. Wilson for pulling it off (even as the view count from my Wizard Universe “Pimp My Stuff” post about his interview continues to climb… I suspect shenanigans, but I’d like to think the interview is encouraging people to check out Times and Prometheus’ other offerings).

After recording all of us (yep, that means I’m on the mike for one story), he’ll edit everything together. Well, he and his brave producer/my dedicated wife. Since she won’t notice, I’m already making plans to be out of the house during her editing periods, depending upon how frustrated the tech demands of my scripts make her. I may take our son along, or at least our dog. We’ll try to return for the holidays.

With luck, SuperHuman Times will return by then, too.

Right now, I’m satisfied… and trying desperately not to start plotting the next round of scripts.

Thanks for reading, listening, and waiting.

-- L.

No Blog=More Clicks? WTF?!

Hi.

So, every week after posting the latest news and wit-drenched insights about SuperHuman Times here, I always hit the Pimp My Stuff message board at wizarduniverse.com to promote it. It's a well-traveled forum run by the good folks at Wizard Entertainment, the brains behind Wizard and ToyFare magazines, as well as the Wizard World Comic-Cons. It's a lively place, and since it's got the only comic fan-centric board with a forum where you can promote damn near anything, I figure it's perfect for promoting Times to an audience I'd really like to reach.

I don't know if the show's garnered any listeners from this, but the postings have been getting noticed. The first one, from May 2008 -- when "Dashing" began; can you remember back that far? -- has been viewed 155 times to date. But that's over a two-year period, so that's an average of, charitably, one per week, so it's not that impressive. But I'm gratified by the fact that 155 people have taken the time to check it out.

Now, a more recent one, from September 4 of this year, has been viewed 40 times in two weeks. Okay, that's nice. About three views per day. Again, gratifying that my latest ravings have attracted some attention.

But now I'm just baffled...

Last week's posting -- which promoted the fact that I would not be posting so that I could hawk Prometheus poobah/Times director Steve Wilson's interview on The Blowhard Experiment -- has generated more than 60 views in one week.

Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful to everyone who's been checking out the plugs. I just hope they've clicked through to the blog and, more importantly, to the podcasts. And I'm not jealous of what may be implied as Steve's appeal versus my own... on my own blog, MY OWN BLOG.

No, really, I'm fine.

It just reminds me of a time when Steve and I entered separately into a national screenwriting competition without realizing it. I made it to the quarterfinals before I was eliminated. I mentioned this to Steve months later... and he told me he'd made it one step farther to the semifinals before he, too was eliminated. And it's been that way between us ever since. He always ends up one step ahead of me. I'm used to it.

But come on, when a plug for a blog entry where I write very little (and Steve talks a lot) gets, on average, one of the highest responses to date, ya gotta wonder if I should just knock this off.

Then I remember that first 155. And the 40 from last week. And all the others from the Steve-less weeks inbetween. And you're mine, all mine! (Cue villainous laugh, because these entries should always have something to do with SuperHuman Times, which has, you know, villains as well as heroes. I'll stop reaching now.)

Someone's reading. Hopefully, someone's listening.


If it's you, on either count or both, thanks a lot.  

-- L.

Birthdays, Blowhards, and Steve Wilson

Hi.

With your permission, I'm going to forego my usual weekly post this go-round for a few reasons:

1) I don't have a lot to write about this week because we still have no new shows;

2) Today is my birthday, so I feel like relaxing a little; and

3) I'd rather let Prometheus Radio Theatre's own big cheese, Steve Wilson, do the talking in this online interview recorded last week on The Blowhard Experiment. (I kid you not.)

To be frank, Steve doesn't plug SuperHuman Times in the interview (that's why I do this stuff instead of him, and I AM available for interviews... uh-huh, I figured you'd say that), but if you want a better idea of what Prometheus is about, check it out if you have an hour to waste.

Uh, that is, kill.

Uh, I mean become informed. And enlightened.

Then go relive some old Times. I would consider it a wonderful birthday gift if you did.

Thanks for listening.

-- L.

Defining Times

Hi.

I thought about taking the holiday weekend off from blogging, mainly because I still have nothing to report on the Times front. But my discipline (or arrogance) deludes me into thinking that someone would notice if I didn’t show up this week, so here I am.

At this writing, Prometheus is taking a month off from ‘casting to get some new stuff in the can, presumably including the six new Times scripts. In the meantime, I’m still tweaking the website, which is still a modest web page.

For the Extras on what will be the Podcasts Plus page, I’m considering adding a Times glossary of characters, locations, and key events thus far as a downloadable PDF. I figure it’ll generate one of two responses from anyone who happens across it:

One, “Wow, this guy’s really created a neat little universe here. I should listen to the stories and check it out.”

Or, more likely, “This f*****’s delusional.”

If nothing else, a glossary would act as an ongoing series bible that I could refer to from time to time when I need to figure out when a story should occur in the overall history of the series. Yes, there’s a beginning and an ending to all of this. (I revealed how it all ends in the ’06 interview I had about the show with Steve Wilson before “True North” aired. Feel free to listen to it here if you can’t bear the suspense.)  The podcasts make up the juicy center. At least, I hope you find it juicy. Well, entertaining.

Back to the glossary idea. One reason I hesitate to put it together is because it’d be just words. True, this is a medium where you are supposed to supply the images to this audio comic-book of ours, but for a faux-print publication it would be fun to see how folks with artistic talent would interpret characters and scenes. If I had the money, I’d try to commission some comics pros to listen to an episode or two and render some key players. I'd love to pay someone like Phil Noto to draw a Dash Tarragon-style movie poster for "Dashing", or Thomas Boatwright to depict Knuckles Macnee from "Servant Problem", and I know of several artists I'd love to see draw Nataliya Tzone. That might grab the attention  of comic readers, an audience I'd love to expand.

Alas, home ownership, child-rearing, and the reality that they'd be too busy to do it make that kind of thing impossible. Maybe Greg will study art in college and draw stuff for me in exchange for his tuition. By that time, the new stories should hit the web. If you’re still alive, let me know if you think they were worth the wait.

Have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. And if you like the idea of a glossary, let me know here or via email.

-- L.

Here’s How We “Role”, Yo

Hi.

I’m pleased to report that, shortly after last week’s entry here, Prometheus' grand poobah, Steve Wilson, emailed me his casting picks for the next season of SuperHuman Times. Nobody’s been officially asked if they'll do it yet, but no one’s turned him down, so that’s a good sign. Right?

“Excited” doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when I read his choices. Over the years, I have considered my scripts to be a foundation upon which the directors and casts put up the walls and décor with their suggestions and performances. (One cast completely reworked the ending of one of my plays and it was much better as a result.) I’ve found this to be much healthier than getting all artsy and possessive about the damn stories. Anyway, assuming everyone wants to play this season, it should be a lot of fun. Some folks who usually assay supporting roles in shows like The Arbiter Chronicles will get a shot at leads, and we’ll have some Prometheus actors who have never done Times before. I hope they’ll have fun recording it, and I hope you’ll find their work fun to hear.

This season should be especially challenging for the actors because I went out of my way to write scripts that don’t necessarily take place in America or have American characters. One script, “No Good Deed”, is set in England and has all English and German characters. Another, “Flight Risk”, has a central character in Arizona who’s a transplanted Iranian. How come? The Times Universe (Microverse?) was just getting kind of homogenous (Nataliya Tzone’s Roma heritage aside) and I wanted to tell stories of people with different backgrounds. I’m sure the actors will just love me for that when they try to deliver the required accents to Steve’s satisfaction. (He’s directing again, thank God.)

And I have been drafted for a supporting role in one of the stories, “Print the Legend” -- the two-parter based on “The Hot Property”, the graphic novel script that started me down this lonely road. I won’t say anymore about my part right now, but if you recall Paul Frees’s voice for The Thing in the old Fantastic Four cartoons, that’s the kind of voice I’ll be going for. (You’ll guess who I’m playing if you read the GN script, I guarantee it.)

And while all that’s going on, I’m renovating the Times website. Again. I’ll probably wait until next week to relaunch it so I have something to write about here. Til then, thanks for listening, and reading.

-- L.

PS: While you’re waiting for Times, be sure to stop by the Prometheus site and listen to Steve Wilson’s readings of his fiction. His latest one, Peace Lord of the Red Planet, is underway now. To me, it has the flavor of the John Carter of Mars stories and a Twilight Zone episode called “Execution”, in that both have men getting plucked out of their time, as does this. But despite that similarity, this is clearly in Steve’s voice (written and audible) and, like his other works, is filled with fascinating characters and plenty of (sometimes political) ideas you may or may not agree with (to paraphrase from Frasier, “He’s a Libertarian; we’ve decided to find it charming”), but he expresses them in an entertaining way that even a bleeding heart liberal like me can enjoy the story.

Okay, Steve, there’s your unsolicited plug, now where’s my show?

The "New Fall Season" is Coming, and (I Think) We're in It!

Hi.

What can I say? Still no word on when the next run of SuperHuman Times episodes will begin. I guess this is a good thing in that, rather than being a “summer replacement”, we’re being moved up to the regular “fall premiere” line-up. At least, that's what I'm assuming... we'll stay hopeful for the purpose of our discussion.

Remember before cable and FiOS – I can see 2/3 of the people reading this already heading for the door with a click and a groan – when the fall was a big deal for TV watchers? When the then-big three would roll out their new shows with lots of fanfare all summer long, and TV Guide would be as big as a digest-sized phone book? And the big fall preview specials with the stars touting the new shows? And the jingles?

Some from the '60s and '70s are still running through my head – “This fall, NBC has it all.” “This is the place to be, on ABC.” Strange that I can’t think of any from CBS, and we watched it a lot, too.

As an aside, to the surprise of everyone who’s ever known me, of all the fall season hype I watched as a kid, I NEVER saw THIS one until today, and I can't think of a more appropriate place to show it, seeing as it influenced me to write stuff like Times:



If the DVDs of this series ever come out in my lifetime, this BETTER be included. Now back to my show…

Most of the shows the networks debuted in September were gone the next year (not after two episodes, as is the case these days), but after three months of reruns, you were ready for ANY new stuff. We don’t have that kind of desperation now, thanks to the proliferation of cable channels and on-demand technology. There just isn't that much electricity in the fall generated between TV networks and their audiences. I miss that, but only a little.

Just because I’m a little nostalgic, I'm not complaining. TV overall is much better now in terms of variety and programming (scripted, not reality). I love being able to watch Penn & Teller: Bullshit during the summer and Dexter at my leisure. Still, the fall was, for kids in my era, a special time, when the drudgery of going back to school was offset by the new season.

So forgive me if I’m not terribly disappointed that Prometheus didn’t get around to putting Times on over the summer. As far as my deluded little mind goes, it's part of the new fall season now, and that’s exciting. For me, anyway. Hope you’ll think so, too.

(If not, I’ll talk Steve Wilson into dressing up as Robin while I dress as Batman and we’ll make a video introducing the year’s podcast line-up. That’ll get you excited. If you’re a shut-in.)

-- L.

A Multimedia Cavalcade (with Guest Stars, Kind of)

Hi.

Still no news to report vis a vis when we'll be hearing new SuperHuman Times episodes. Believe me, if anyone were reading this blog, I'd be just as eager to hear the new stuff as you are. It's no secret that one of my semi-flexible laws is to never be in the Prometheus studio when Steve Wilson records an episode (unless I'm in it), so I usually don't hear the final product until just before it's posted. I'm especially curious to hear how the two Dunbar episodes turn out -- and who ends up playing him -- seeing as he was the first Times character. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

In the meantime, I'm mulling over attending a unique fan show in the Baltimore area, specifically Aberdeen. The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention will be held there in two weeks, and they have a pretty good line-up of older actors whose TV shows and movies I grew up on. We're talking actors like Lee Meriwether (Time Tunnel, the '66 Batman movie, Barnaby Jones), Celeste Holm (All About Eve and countless other classics), and Johnny Whitaker (Family Affair, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters).

But my main reason for going would be to meet one of my favorite character actors, Bob Hastings. If you're elderly (in your 40s) like me, you remember him from TV shows like McHale's Navy (where he played Lt. Carpenter opposite Joe Flynn's Capt. Binghamton), movies like The Poseidon Adventure (where he played the New Year's emcee -- I can hear you now, "Oh, yeah, THAT guy!"), soaps like General Hospital (I never watched it but I understand he was on there for a long time), and animated shows like the '90s Batman (where he voiced Commissioner Gordon). He also did quite a bit of radio during his career, including Archie Andrews (yep, based on the comic), X Minus One, and many others. That, plus the opportunity to see groups performing old radio scripts live, make this show a real temptation. If I go, I'll take photos and slap 'em up here.

I love character actors. Utility infielders like Hastings can always get work playing anything, yet when audiences see them, it's like seeing an old friend on stage or on the screen, one you know will turn in a good performance, even if the rest of the cast/production stinks. We have our share of those in Prometheus, actors who voice everything from superheroes to aliens. Their voices may always carry familiar elements in any incarnation, but you're glad to hear them. Listen to enough of The Arbiter Chronicles and you'll hear exactly what I mean. We have our share of Bob Hastingses, and I'm sure glad many of them are working on Times.

In closing, we move from radio to video, but it's comics-related, so the transition works: If you're into comics, you probably have a favorite comic shop staffed by a bunch of good folks who you think would make a great cast in a sitcom. Well, the folks at Zeus Comics in Dallas TX took that idea and ran with it. The result is their new web series, The Variants, and if you like comics, comic shops -- heck, if you just like a well-written, well-performed, and truly funny video series -- this is for you. They're clearly having a blast making it, which means you'll have a blast watching it. Can't wait to see the next episode!

Wonder if it'll get posted before the next Times does...

-- L.

Beginnings & Endings

Hi.

Well, preproduction on the next series of Times episodes continues. I think it’s a foregone conclusion that there will be no “summer” run, as I’d hoped. I never intended to lead you astray, and I hope you’ll forgive me and stay tuned when the episodes hit this fall.

Until then, I offer something that I hope will engage you: the very first SuperHuman Times script – for the SuperHuman Times graphic novel, "The Hot Property.". I’ve posted it on the Times web page, so you can download it as a PDF right here, right now.

There are three reasons behind my making this script available:
1) I want to have something legitimately Times-related “out here” while the shows are in production (branding, you see; it's a marketing thing);
2) all of the characters in the “The Hot Property” will appear in various episodes of the podcast in this run, and you may find it entertaining to compare the characters from the 2005 script to the way they’re portrayed in the new shows;
3) someday, if you get a kick out of this and let me know, I may post the Times radio scripts, too.

I think I mentioned this before, but if you're wondering why SuperHuman Times became a series of radio dramas instead of a series of graphic novels, the answer is easy: I can't draw. Used to, but can't anymore, even with a computer. Want proof?

The image at right would have been the cover to the "True North" online comic. It took me about a month to do in Adobe Illustrator and, as you can see, it's not a tough composition -- for an artist. If it took that long to do this, it would have taken me a few years to render Malvolio Nacht's attack. Thankfully, Steve Wilson offered me a spot in the Prometheus line-up, so this is all you'll see from my poison(ed) pen in terms of images. I'll leave those to your imagination. It draws faster and better than I ever will.

Enjoy reading "The Hot Property" – and, eventually, hearing the voices that came from it.

-- L.

Keep up with the Times here!

***
In Memoriam: The ‘80s were a special time for me. They were my 20s. In your 20s, all things are possible. You’re young enough to start pursuing your dreams (in my case, scriptwriting, which brought me here; so much for my 20s) and, even though you’re an adult, you haven’t been out of your teens that long, so you can sit through movies about teenagers and still empathize with the characters. That’s why I enjoyed John Hughes’s movies with young actors so much when they came out. I knew kids who acted and talked like they did. (We were a TV generation. Parents taught us how to talk; sitcoms taught us how to talk back.) Hughes’s kids were all believable on some level (even Ferris). That’s what made his movies so much fun to watch, and that’s why I wanted to mark his passing this week. Thanks for making my 20s a little more fun, John. Can’t wait to see if your movies do the same for my son 11 years from now.

If I Write It, Will They Read (or Listen)?

Hi.

While we all wait for the return of SuperHuman Times, I thought I might do something unusual.

Write. For the hell of it. Here.

If you've read past entries, you may already think I've been doing that -- talking about podcasts one minute and pets the next, that kind of thing. All over the map. But I think for the most part I've used this to push the show the way I wanted to.

The problem -- for me, anyway -- is the amount of time between entries. Makes me crazy when I visit someone's website or blog and discover that they haven't updated it after a couple of weeks/months/eons.

So I've made a late-year resolution: I'm going to try and post something here at least once a week. And to try and make it at least vaguely relevant to the show. Both will make me feel like I'm not wasting my time and yours.

Part of that will include maintaining the delusion that someone's out there reading all this stuff (and, more importantly, listening to the show). I know one or two friends have kept up with it, but it would be nice to get an audience of some kind for the series. I'm kicking around different promotional ideas to get the word out, ranging from program book ads at comic conventions ($$) to YouTube audio ads (free, but a tech challenge for me). But demands of the real world keep getting in the way.

Still, I look at some of my former work colleagues who have gone on to better things writing-wise -- despite their real-world obligations -- and wonder if it's too late, if I'll ever write anything good enough for anyone else to deem it worth reading/listening to...

Then I remember meeting the Apollo astronauts, and that a long time ago, we went to the Moon. And that anything is possible.

But since I stink at the science and math required to send people to the Moon (in addition to most sci/math), I'd better stick to writing.

Here.

For the hell of it.

Later. Promise.

-- L.