Season 6, Episode 06—Richard Matheson and The ABC Movie of the Week
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We continue our all-TV season, and recognize Harlan Ellison, who wrote a series of essays on TV, referring to TV as a ‘glass teat’.
Two Old Farts Talk Sci Fi looks at Richard Matheson, and since this season is the TV season, we look at the stories he wrote that became part of the ABC Movie of the Week.
We do a deep dive on the history of TV movies, the ABC Movie of the Week, and specifically the movies that Richard Matheson wrote, which were: “Duel” and “The Trilogy of Terror” and also “The Night Stalker (1972 film)”.
The movies, the theatrical ones, back in the day, that played on TV, cost a lot for the TV stations to play, the rights owner, representative or distributor charged a premium on recent films, for them to appear on TV, and in some cases the networks would bid against each other for the rights to have a movie played on their station, so most films that appeared on TV were older films. There were, occasionally, made for TV movies, but by the late 1960s, TV studios decided to produce, on a regular basis, original TV movies, more as a cost-saving measure. They controlled production costs, and did not have to bid against other networks. Often these movies were shot in 14 days or fewer.
DUEL
Troy and David first look at DUEL. a 1971 movie, written by Richard Matheson, and directed by Steven Spielberg. They look at the sound, Dennis Weaver’s acting, the diner, the reptiles. The decision by Spielberg not to have a big explosion at the end. The great first line (and following lines) in the story that appeared in Playboy:
At 11:32 am Mann passed the truck.
Here are the first two camera shots of the shooting script from DUEL:
THE NIGHT STALKER
The second ABC Movie of the Week that Troy and David look at is The Night Stalker. This is the first of two TV movies that preceded the TV Series, the other is The Night Strangler.
The Night Stalker influenced a generation, included Chris Carter, who created The X-Files.
There was something about the shouting matches between Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) and Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). The heartbreaking ending, where Gail Foster (Carol Lynley) and Kolchak are separated.
David, in a senior moment, says “Jason” instead of Janos Skorzeny.
(ya-noss score-zen-knee).
Troy mentions the unusual choice of free-form jazz music that is used in the fight scenes.
THE TRILOGY OF TERROR
The third ABC Movie of the Week that Troy and David look at is The Trilogy of Terror. This is a movie that has three separate horror stories, the third of which is the one that we all know and love. Richard Matheson wrote all three stories, but other writers wrote the screenplays for the first two stories, and Matheson insisted on writing the screenplay for the third segment.
Karen Black played the lead role(s) in all three segments.