TZ Radio Dramas

Another station, WWKO

www.wwko1480.com

Airs at 6:06 PM EDT Sat and Sun.

Woody

Volume 15 is now available online. From now on the episodes will be available in downloadable form only.

Volume 15 includes:

The Prime Mover (David Eigenberg)
A Piano In The House (Michael York)
The Four Of Us Are Dying (Eric Bogosian)
The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine (Kathy Garver and Charles Shaugnessy)
The Shelter (Ernie Hudson)
Young Man's Fancy (Tony Plana)
Probe 7- Over and Out (Louis Gosset Jr.)
Two (Don Johnson)
Execution (Don Johnson)
The Bewitchin' Pool (Karen Black)

According to the reply to the E-mail I was sent, the rest of the episodes will become available as soon as they're finished.

"Nothing In The Dark" stars Marshall Allman as Officer Beldon and is the next episode scheduled to air

Two's got to be a tough one to pull off...

I've already heard it, and it was handled ingeniously. We hear the woman's thoughts spoken in English with a Russian accent, but the man (Don Johnson) doesn't.

Two other episodes which recently premiered were "The Bewitchin' Pool" and "The Hunt." Both of them featured Karen Black without identifying her roles. From what I remembered of her I was convinced she played Gloria in the former, but after hearing "The Hunt" I realized she was Aunt T, using more or less the same elderly countrified voice in both. Shelley Berman was Hyder, and again it's a very unexpected role considering how we remember him in "The Mind and the Matter," but not after hearing his rendition of Somerset Frisby.

This past weekend was a rerun of "The Trade-Ins," starring H. M. Wynant and Peggy Webber. Having spoken with him in 2006 and 2007, I know Wynant still has an elegant voice, and he made effective use of it here. John Holt was properly feeble, but after the transformation he was still played by Wynant, only now speaking in his normal voice.

Earlier in August there was the premiere of "Passage on the Lady Anne." The stars were announced as Martin Jarvis and Rosalind Ayres. I admit never having heard of them, but IMDb revealed that they're a British married couple in their sixties who frequently play married couples, hence I assume they were the McKenzies.

After "Nothing in the Dark," these will be the only episodes I've never heard:

"Eye of the Beholder"
"The Invaders"
"Once Upon a Time"
"I Sing the Body Electric"
"Steel"
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
"Come Wander with Me"

The first two may be impossible to adapt properly. The only way I can imagine OUAT is by returning to the original script that made no indication the 1890 scenes were silent. "Owl Creek" would work using the Hitchcock treatment, and I don't see any big challenges with the others.

Maybe for next weekend, but last night I heard the premiere of "Who Am I?" That's an unproduced script from the original series by Jerry Sohl. As Jerry Seinfeld would put it, it's that Twilight Zone where the guy wakes up, and he's different, and everybody else is the same. Specifically, when he wakes up and looks in the mirror, he has a new face which he doesn't recognize, but his wife and everyone else swears that he has always looked like that. It's a reversal of "Person or Persons Unknown." As a test, he locks himself in the washroom at work and yells out to a co-worker who hasn't seen the new face to describe him, and the description perfectly matches his new look. Eventually he goes into therapy to convince himself that this is his real face.

I'll stop here to avoid revealing the ending, but it's one that I'd have never guessed. It's a real treat to experience a "new" TZ episode in such a manner.

"Who Am I?" is mentioned on Page 388 of TZ Companion. You should be able to listen to it tonight at 9 ET on KARN in Little Rock.

That sounds really good! Do you think you could p.m. me the ending?

Just FYI, the original script (along with "Pattern for Doomsday") can be read in the book FILET OF SOHL: THE CLASSIC SCRIPTS AND STORIES OF JERRY SOHL, published by Bear Manor Media.

Thanks, Chris. I had a hunch it was in there. You saved me the trouble of asking you.

Belated greetings to you on joining the Cafe. Having published writers like you, Tony Albarella, Arlen Schumer, and others as members make it all the more evident that we're the real deal here.

Better than that, I'll post it right here in yellow font. To read it, just highlight it or try to "Quote" it. If you don't want to find out, then ignore this post except for something I forgot to mention earlier: Glen Holbrook, the lead character, is played by Sean Astin, son of an alumnus of the original series.

After seeing the psychiatrist, Glen is convinced to accept himself as he is. Whether or not his face has changed no longer matters to him. For that matter, he becomes satisfied with the way he looks, and he tells this to Claire, his wife.

Claire has a touch of Janie Williams in her, wanting her husband to advance in his profession at any cost. She feels his current job is a dead end, one in which only men who look like youthful models have a real chance. Glen is content to stay put, though.

Before they go to bed, Claire excuses herself to take care of something she doesn't specify to Glen. Alone, she chants an incantation to some dark forces to give Glen a new face. We may infer that she did likewise before the episode began.

Comes the morning, and the cycle begins anew. Glen looks in the mirror and again doesn't recognize what looks back at him, despite Claire's insistence that he has always looked like that.

Thanks for posting it, Dan - I just read it in your message.

My favorite source for Twilight Zone Radio, the BBC, has once again started to broadcast these programs. Air time is 18:00 local (5 to 8 hours earlier this side of the pond). Programs are available for listening live and for one week after broadcast. Please note that this is a very high quality stereo source.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/

Woody

So I'm able to download the free episodes from http://www.twilightzoneradio.com/download.html , but they don't run on a Mac. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I don't have a Mac for testing, but the files are MP3. You should be able to play them using Quicktime.

Woody

"Who Am I " is now available on the website along with these episodes:


volume 16 -

“The Hunt” - Starring: Shelley Berman & Karen Black
“Passage on the Lady Anne” - Starring: Martin Jarvis & Rosalind Ayres
“Execution” - Starring: Don Johnson
“Steel” - Starring: Lou Gossett, Jr.
“The Amazing Dr. Kyle Powers” - Starring: Sean Astin
“Nothing In The Dark” - Starring: Marshall Allman
“There goes the neighborhood" - Starring: Tim Kazurisnky
“The walk-abouts” - Starring: Mike Starr



The last two are coming soon.

Ooooh, I've been waiting for "Who Am I?" Downloading now....

THREE original stories in volume 16? Wow, the well is clearly running dry.

I LOVED Who Am I? That still levaes 6 original epsidoes.

BREAKING NEWS:
The star of "The Invaders" has been announced as: Kathy Garver!
Can't wait

I saw that on the blog. I don't think the actual story is impossible to adapt to radio, as long as there's a virtually continuous monologue. The problem is that this would be contrary to the concept of the original, and it would negate Matheson's brilliant solution to the usual absurdity of English spoken by aliens. So we'll see. I still think EOTB is the only TZ story that can't be done honestly without video.

I heard it this weekend. I believe this is the first time the series veered from either original episodes or scripts related to the original series.

Here's the story: Powers is a young (?) physician who must have sold his compassion to Sal Ross. He gives straightforward diagnoses that he thinks are appropriate but often unnecessarily address worst-case scenarios, and he displays no desire to offer encouragement or sympathy.

One of his patients talks to him in mysterious, all-knowing terms. The patient touches him, causing a mild shock, and leaves. From then on Powers has the amazing talent to diagnose anyone else perfectly simply by touching him. News of his proficiency spreads, and he becomes a celebrity. The highlight of his limelight is his revelation that the TV talk-show host who is interviewing him had plastic surgery, an embarrassing public relevation, and is now experiencing after-effects.

Eventually all of this overcomes Powers. His supervisor soon determines that Powers is now suffering the ailment of everyone he has ever diagnosed with his newfound talent.

Highlight the following to read how the episode ends:

The mysterious patient who gave Powers the talent returns and explains that Powers violated a condition that he not use that talent for personal gain. He touches Powers one last time. Cut to sometime later, as the conversation of some nurses leads us to believe that Powers has died, talking about the great loss his patients are feeling. That fakes us out. In reality, the only loss is that Powers no longer has his special talent. It's for the best, though, as he has now become compassionate, having literally felt the pain of others, and he is a far better doctor for it.

More episode news:

"An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge" will star Christian Stolte, and is set to be aired on Decmeber 14th. He can be heard on several Radio Dramas, including Mr. Carsville in TEAL, and The Chancellor in The Obsolete Man.

"Once Upon A Time" will star John Rhys-Davies and is set to air next year.

Kathy Garver is going to do 'The Invaders'?

Well, that's a surprise. Garver totally rejected acting after appearing on 'Family Affair' all those years ago. She actually went into denial about the whole concept of being an actor.

Glad to see she's decided to jump back on the horse, even for a radio drama.

Kathy Garver has already appeared in the Radio Drama adaptations of "The 16mm Shrine," "The Fever," and "The Long Morrow." Her decision to participate might be a result of the fewer demands made of a voice artist. H. M. Wynant told me that he never even met his fellow cast members except for Peggy Webber in "The Trade-Ins." He just recorded his own lines and let the production team take it from there.

Garver can also be believable in a wider range of ages when only her voice is heard. That's a skill June Foray has taken to the extreme.