Just saw something odd on TV. An episode of Night Gallery-story by Rod Serling-called, "The Different Ones." The opening scene was instantly familiar: the monorail from Fahrenheit 451. It got weirder. Several scenes from Fahrenheit were inserted into the episode, along with scenes from other sf movies, and, incredibly, some sf sketches in lieu of action shots. Turns out this series was butchered for syndication, with short segments padded with stock footage and long segments cut in half. What a weird, hallucinatory mess they made out of this one!
Given Ray Bradbury's antipathy towards Rod Serling, I just hope he never saw that episode!
(And before any one says, yes I know that Serling had nothing whatsoever to do with the syndication-mutilation of NIGHT GALLERY - and, indeed, had very little control or influence over the original series.)
Yes, a half-hearted effort from Serling, to be sure. Now the 30 minute version I saw was something to behold. A totally inept mash-up. They even shoe-horned 451's "flying police" into it.("Makes no sense, but... ah, what the hell.") Methinks they might have been passing something around in that cutting room.
My favorite episode of the Rod Serling TV series NIGHT GALLERY was "Big Surprise", which aired back in 1971. The script for the episode was written by the late Richard Matheson, a very fine writer and long-time friend of Ray Bradbury, and was based on his own short story. The episode was directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who directed the film SOMEWHERE IN TIME (also scripted by Mr. Matheson, based on his novel); and featured the great John Carradine. Below is a link to that episode. The show may seem somewhat tame to today's viewers who are used to explicit gore and violence. However, I still remember how wonderfully creepy I found this show when I first saw it almost 50 years ago. If you don't want to watch this entire episode of NIGHT GALLERY, "Big Surprise" begins at about the 28:51 point in the show.
