Today I spent most of my day down at Cerny American Creative sitting in on the final mix and helping tweak “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You” starring Bonnie Somerville & Charles Shaughnessy. I’m happy to say it’s finally finished and just in time as it airs the week of June 2nd and we have to send it out to Westwood One at least two weeks prior to airdate. I think it came out great and I’m hoping listeners will enjoy it. Bonnie and Charles do amazing jobs in roles that have tremendous range so “bravo!” And you’ll hear some other familiar voices in it too like Mike Starr, Linda Reiter and David Darlow. Next up to be mixed is “On Thursday We Leave For Home” starring Barry Bostwick. This one is about a group of settlers on another planet who have been waiting for 30 years to be rescued and taken back to Earth. Their leader, Benteen, originally played on television by James Whitmore, is reluctant to give up his position as the center of their lives and so actually resists the rescue when it finally does happen. The character of Benteen is very complex and James Whitmore did an astonishing job with it on television. The actor taking on the role in the radio version needs to be sympathetic and project quiet decency and kindness yet at the same time have the rigidity of a seasoned military leader. I chose Barry Bostwick to star as Benteen and I’m very happy to say he knocked it out of the park just as he did in the lead role of “And When the Sky Is Opened” a show we produced last year. On the original TV show “On Thursday We Leave For Home” was one of the hour-long episodes so with the radio versions being about 40 minutes, Dennis Etchison had to carefully reduce the show’s length. He does this by shortening some of the lengthy speeches and editing or omitting dialog that will not take away from the show’s meaning. If you’re a regular listener of TZ radio you may notice that in our radio shows that are adapted from the 30-minute television scripts (the majority of them) Dennis has to carefully “pad” the shows to make them 40 minutes. This is usually accomplished by an added lead-up scene to the main storyline or an additional scene in the story and also by adding pertinent dialog to the current scenes. I think that often times Dennis’s added dialog and new scenes help the listener understand the story better because, after all, this is radio and we don’t have the advent of any visuals. I think “On Thursday We Leave For Home” is going to be a great show from what I’ve heard so far.
Well, that’s all for now … catch you next time IN THE ZONE!
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NEWS FROM THE ZONE
- Carl Amari
- Producer of The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas.
2 comments:
Hi Mr. Amari, Im very much looking forward to hearing the newest dramas. I just wanted to say that I greatly enjoy the shows. Ive heard most of them now and I must say its a different kind of listening experience. I did notice that in some of the shows, there are scenes added that werent on the original program and in some instances that makes me enjoy the dramas more than the original episode. It really does help to understand the tv episode better sometimes. How did you get so many big stars to do programs? Thats another thing that impresses me. A question also. Did Mike Starr join the cast permantly? I noticed that he's in a lot of the dramas. Everytime I hear his voice, I get this big delighted smile on my face. He is terrific as is all the rest of the cast. Keep up the good work and thanks to everyone for making the show available.
I've always liked this episode, "On Thursday We Leave For Home", because like "V for Vendetta", "The Island" and the original star trek series episodes "The Apple", and "The Cage", it's a parable for Genesis 3's Garden of Eden story, and how the only moral outcome is for humanity to be free and outgrow our "keeper". Fascism is often for "humanitarian" reasons, but we will to be free and to make our own mistakes.
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