VISION ON SOUND EPISODE 144 - TX JULY 9 2023 - TWILIGHT ZONE

07/09/23 • 59 min

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 9th 2023

I’ve wanted to cover the iconic TV series THE TWILIGHT ZONE on the show since almost the very first episode of VISION ON SOUND, but for some reason, things seemed to keep getting in the way of me getting around to it, so I was very pleased when ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON joined me for a bit of a chat about the series in all of its many manifestations.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE, created by the legendary television writer ROD SERLING was first transmitted on American TV on the CBS network in October 1959.

Despite being often thought of as a Science-Fiction series, THE TWILIGHT ZONE was something far more insightful, and far stranger than that. Because whilst the overall notion of slipping into THE TWILIGHT ZONE is a fundamentally S-F concept, the stories that it featured were often more about life, and fate, and the whims of chance, or choice, than being about starships and aliens.

Of course, such tales did feature, some so memorable that they have inspired some of the finest moments on THE SIMPSONS decades later, as well as presenting half hour versions of stories that later went on to inspire the minds behind several blockbuster movies.

Taking as its source stories featuring people from all walks of life, themes as diverse as jazz music, boxing, military life, and aircraft pilots would feature alongside the astronauts exploring the final frontier at the start of the space race, as well as the melancholic angst of life in post-war atomic-age America.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE aired for five seasons, but sadly was not as much loved in its day as it would later become, and had only moderate ratings meaning that it was twice cancelled and revived, ultimately running for five years and 156 Episodes, 92 of which were written by ROD SERLING himself.

It has since been revived several times, with varying degrees of both success, and, in the case of the feature film version, tragedy, but these versions have rarely proved to be as lasting, or as iconic as that original series born in the 1950s.

Of course, with a topic as huge as THE TWILIGHT ZONE, we may feel the need to return to it at some point, so do feel free to share your own thoughts on the series with us.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 9th 2023

THE TWILIGHT ZONE, created by the legendary television writer ROD SERLING was first transmitted on American TV on the CBS network in October 1959.

Of course, with a topic as huge as THE TWILIGHT ZONE, we may feel the need to return to it at some point, so do feel free to share your own thoughts on the series with us.

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VISION ON SOUND EPISODE 143 - TX JULY 2 2023 - TV CHEESE

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 2nd 2023

This week I really wanted to talk about some TV CHEESE, by which I mean the sort of television that can become anybody’s guilty pleasure, even if they might never want to fess up to watching it, or the sort of television that’s so bad it’s actually quite good, or, at the very least, enjoyable.

Old curmudgeons like myself, of course, might like to bang on about how that’s pretty much everything that comes on our screens now, especially in the name of light entertainment, but I don’t think that’s quite what I meant either.

There are some shows which have reputations that precede them, shows the mere mention of which can cause people to roll their eyes in mock (or genuine) horror, and wonder why on earth anyone would want to watch them, and yet, when you do watch them, still prove to be satisfying half or full hours of viewing when you take the time to.

Unsurprisingly, several American series from the 1970s and eighties do tend to fall into this category. Shows like THE WALTONS, CHARLIE’S ANGELS, TJ HOOKER, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, and HAPPY DAYS can be mercilessly mocked and shunned by the classic TV watching community, alongside such bonkers BRITISH TV series like BONEKICKERS, BUGS or CATS EYES, and SF shows like BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and its sequel GALACTICA 1980, and plain afternoon romantic nonsense like THE LOVE BOAT.

So, in order to put us on the launch pad for covering some of the lesser-loved classic TV shows from time-to-time on VISION ON SOUND, WARREN CUMMINGS joined me for a wild hour just musing over some of the very worst contenders for qualifying as genuine TV cheese.

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VISION ON SOUND EPISODE 145 - TX JULY 16 2023 - RICK'S TV MEMORIES

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on July 16th 2023

It’s been rather too long since we last heard from our Canadian Correspondent RICK LAWLOR on the show, so when I did finally manage to remind myself of this and get in touch, it was a joy to find out that he was still keen to contribute to the show, despite those pesky time differences that can sometimes make finding suitable moments to record slightly difficult to organize.

But RICK was still keen, even if it meant rearranging our dates and wondering about whether any time lag in the question and answer process might mean adding those NASA style BLEEPS to the end of every sentence and calling each other Roger all of the time.

Neither was necessary, of course, but that moment of nostalgia did remind me that we’d never done one of our EARLIEST TV MEMORIES shows with RICK, and so that’s what we decided to talk about, and I think that if your own TV memories feature POGLES’ WOOD, NORMAN WISDOM, BASIL BRUSH, JACKANORY, VISION ON, THINK OF A NUMBER, ITC series like RANDALL & HOPKIRK (DECEASED) and PLANET OF THE APES, or if you’re someone who just likes to cosy up and watch TV with your own nearest and dearest, I think you’ll find the following hour a rather charming one to spend in his company.