The Twilight Zone Scripts of Earl Hamner

by Tony Albarella and Earl Hamner Jr.

Book Overview

This volume contains reprints of the eight episodes written by Hamner, along with Albarella's commentary on each story. Also included is a ""lost"" Twilight Zone short story by Mr. Hamner and an interview that covers the background details of how Hamner became involved in the series.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581823304
• ISBN13: 9781581823301
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Book

The book was a really great buy. The scripts come with stage directions and notes about how they were staged for the tv series. There is also some really cool insights on each script. Great buy!

twilight light zone scripts

I enjoyed this book very much. It had been a long time since I have seen twilight zone and this book brought back all the stories I had seen on TV. So much that I wish I could seen them acted out again, in the old way. I enjoy Earl Hamner's writing and his story telling abilities. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the kirky side of life.

Bizarre series ... Great book!

I never really watched The Twilight Zone all that much. However, I stumbled on an episode called "Black leather Jackets" on YouTube. I enjoyed the episode so much I wanted to learn everything I could about it. And this book definitely helped me do that! I would definitely recommend this book to everyone from Rod Serling neophytes to seasoned experts on that "other dimension!"

Spectacular

Earl Hamner Jr wrote some of the finest Twilight Zone scripts aired on TV. This book is simply a sample of his greatest work in script form. It is a book meant for those who want to see how the original script read. I am one of those people. I personally believe the TWILIGHT ZONE is one of the most imaginitive shows ever developed for Television, and any time I can get the scripts in written form will be a treasure.If you are a fan of the Twilight Zone, you will enjoy this treasure this book has to offer. Since I am an avid fan, this book comes as a wonderful asset to my collection. I would like to see EVERY TZ story written for fans to read. As for now, we have these treasures to enjoy along with some written by Rod Serling himself and others. I hope to see more books like this one that are written for avid viewers of the original Twilight Zone like myself.

One of the best TV script books

Having read and/or casually perused more than thirty so-called 'TV script books', I can easily say that this new book is one of the best. As has been mentioned, Earl Hamner was among the forgotten writers of "The Twilight Zone" (Montgomery Pittman, Hamner, Jerry Sohl, plus a handful of others who wrote only one or two segments). His contribution to the series numbers only eight episodes, but two of these are surely among the most memorable in the entire series ("Jess-Belle", "Stopover in a Quiet Town").At this juncture, three other volumes of "Twilight Zone"scripts are available to us, including those of RichardMatheson and George Clayton Johnson. Rod Serling's scriptshave not as yet been published, nor have those of Charles Beaumont. The two "Twilight Zone Scripts" volumes containing the scripts of Matheson, released in 2001 and 2002, as well as the "Twilight Zone Scripts and Stories" of Johnson were somewhat of a disappointment. Not the scripts themselves, but the way in which they were presented.Those of Matheson were edited (if you can call it that) by Stanley Wiater. But really, Wiater did little more than re-state what has already been said elsewhere about Matheson'sepisodes. Here and there, a new tidbit from Matheson himself is added into the commentary, nothing too special. No interviews with actors from Matheson's episodes were done,nor is there any special insight into the material. Johnson'svolume (now out of print) is welcome, but slim and altogether lacking commentary.So, it is with "The Twilight Zone Scripts of Hamner" that we get what we were after. The scripts are preceded by thoughtful, thorough, and occasionally critical commentary by Albarella that matches or surpasses the level of Marc Zicree's in "The Twilight Zone Companion". Albarella obviously went to great lengths to get anecdotes from stars of Hamner episodes including such luminaries whose voices we don't hear often: Anne Francis, James Best, Barry Morse, plus lesser-known actors Nancy Malone, Kevin Hagen, and Michael Forest. Of course, background as to the genesis of each story is detailed with comments from Hamner himself. The commentaries are welcome in more ways than one; after all, haven't fans been reading and taking to heart the critiques of "The Companion" for the last 21 years? Time for some new blood in the pool.Also included is a section of production and publicity photos from each episode, as well as recent shots taken in 2002 at the "Stars of the Zone" Convention (the first conventionfor "Twilight Zone") of several actors appearing in Hamner's episodes. Unfortunately the quality of many of these shots is only marginal.As the ardent fan of the original series knows, Hamner occupied an oddly interesting place amongst the core of writers from the series. Serling focused on bespectacled bank clerks and high-paid businessmen suffering from ulcers who craved serenity in another time period. Matheson usually focused on realism and the writing is often extremely de