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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

REMEMBERING MATHESON

This past weekend, at the Texas Comicon, I had a conversation with Steve Niles about the work of the great writer, Richard Matheson.  We talked about the man’s incredible range and the Matheson stories that meant the most to us.  (Steve, a passionate Matheson fan, adapted his classic novel I Am Legend into comic book form.)  On the flight home from San Antonio, I found myself at a window seat, looking out on the wing of the plane and wondering if, perhaps, there was something...strange out there.  This was, of course, a reference to one of Matheson’s most memorable stories—and one of the all-time great episodes of The Twilight Zone—”Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.”  If you were born on Mars and have never seen it, “Nightmare” features William Shatner, in a career-defining performance, as a passenger fighting for both his life and his sanity on an airplane:  an unforgettable tale of personal horror and personal triumph.    

When I got home, I turned on my computer and saw the news that Richard Matheson passed away.  I’d say that reading this after referencing Matheson not once but twice in the preceding days was an eerie coincidence right out of the Zone—but there was nothing eerie about it.  Matheson’s work is part of the fabric of not just my consciousness, but the collective consciousness.  I’m sure I reference his stories regularly without even thinking about it.  There’s a good chance you do, too.  Maybe it’s the image of The Incredible Shrinking Man fighting for his life against a towering spider...or the transcendent afterlife adventures of What Dreams May Come? (my favorite Matheson novel).  Maybe you’ve been forever touched by the time-travel romance, Bid Time Return (adapted for film as Somewhere In Time) or forever scarred by the naked horror of Karen Black being hunted by a Zuni fetish doll in the TV movie Trilogy of Terror.  And who can forget the cynical newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak, in the TV movie The Night Stalker, face wide with amazement as he says, “This nut thinks he’s a vampire!”  (And, of course, he is.) 

These are just a few of the dreams, both dark and light, that Richard Matheson has shared with us over the decades (when you have a moment, head over to his Wikipedia page and be astonished by the man's incredible body of work).  Matheson’s worlds—peopled by recognizable human beings who’ve stepped inadvertently into magic, miracle and nightmare—spread across television, film and the printed page; but I’d argue that no work of his has had a wider impact than his contributions to The Twilight Zone.

Just a few weeks ago my daughter and I decided to have a Zone mini-marathon and the first episode I wanted to see was a Matheson gem, “A World of Difference”:  one of the very best of the Zones that question both personal identity and the nature of reality.  Howard Duff is perfectly cast as a man trying desperately to escape an existence he believes is a lie and return to a life that everyone else claims is a madman’s delusion.  The moment when Duff is sitting in his office at work and an offscreen voice yells, "Cut!"—revealing the world we've been watching to be a movie set—is one of the most thrilling and disturbing in the series.


In all, Matheson contributed fourteen episodes to the show, including “Little Girl Lost” (when I was a kid, I’d often feel the wall beside my bed to make sure it was solid.  I had no intention of ending up like the girl in the story and rolling into another dimension)...the hour-long ”Death Ship”:  a science fiction/horror mashup that sends a chill down your spine and pierces your heart at the same time...”The Invaders,” in which Agnes Moorehead gives a brilliant, wordless performance as an old woman battling small-but-deadly aliens...“A World of His Own,” where Keenan Wynn plays a writer whose imagination literally brings his characters to life...and Matheson's first collaboration with William Shatner, “Nick of Time”:  a tale that delicately, and brilliantly, walks a fine line between the supernatural and the psychological.  (And who could forget that bobbing devil-head?)  

I bow to no one in my respect for Rod Serling—he’s a god in my writers’ firmament, a force of nature who influenced, astounded and inspired me as a child and continues to do the same today—but it takes nothing away from Serling’s achievement to say that Matheson was an essential part of The Twilight Zone’s success.  If Serling was the captain of the ship, Richard Matheson was the first officer.  Together they sailed through uncharted waters of the imagination and changed our lives in the process.   

We've lost a wonderful writer, one of the greats in his field—but that astonishing body of work echoes on and will, I suspect, continue to echo long after we’re gone. 

My heartfelt sympathies to Richard Matheson’s family and friends.


©copyright 2013 J.M. DeMatteis

26 comments:

  1. Very sound tribute. Thank you! RIP to a true writing hero.

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    1. Thank you, Bryan. "A true writing hero" indeed.

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  2. Matheson is dead?

    God, it finally happened. All the great names of Sci-fi's most classic era (50-70)have passed. Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Matheson, Van Vogt to some. Can we make a science fiction mount Rushmore now? Can we mourn the loss of an era? Is it even possible?


    Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
    Jack

    P.S. best Matheson or MAtheson based TZ... Third From the Sun.

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    1. A Mount Rushmore of science fiction sounds like a great idea, Jack. But we'll have to build it on Mars. In Bradbury Valley.

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    2. I forgot Heinlein though.

      The Shame!

      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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    3. The thing I always associate with Matheson is atmosphere. I remember him being able to build atmosphere well.

      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

      P.S. Larfreeze/Superman: Good.

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    4. Good timing, Jack. I'm actually watching Matheson's classic, THE NIGHT STALKER, at this very moment:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAy8v0FMoAM

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    5. I have it on DVD. Talk about good atmosphere. I didn't even know Matheson wrote the teleplay. I only knew about Jeff Rice.

      It is very interesting though. IN a way Matheson lives on even bigger then himself. Arguably, the most popular writer living today is Stephen King, who sites Matheson as his biggest influence. So people who never eead a Matheson story, or saw a teleplay performed may still have experienced his style in some form. It isn't perfect, but its still a monument of sorts.

      Larfleeze- The New 52 to me seems to be trying to recapture the post crisis era. Which understandable, there were a lot of great ideas there. Great works. And to me they had largely failed. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of good stories, but there just doesn't seem to be as much variety... even the non-Superhero stuff seems a bit superheroey, while post crisis, much of the superhero stuff didn't seem all that superheroey. This is a step ion the right direction, not only does it provide variety, but it also does what JlI did, because like post-crisis, everything is so serious, this is a fun (and funny) break. You show those young whipper-snappers what fore!

      Superman- I am not a Superman fan, except for the golden age stories and few others. This is one of those few others... Even if I thought a page or two more would be great. It sort of reminded me of JLI Realworlds. So yes this is one of the few post 40s stories a non-fan of the Man of Steel liked. I don't know if that is good or bad, but here we are. So congrats, or sorry. Any more on the horizon.]

      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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    6. And he wrote the sequel, THE NIGHT STRANGLER. (I don't think he had anything to do with the KOLCHAK TV series, though.) "Bigger than himself"? That's a great way to put it, Jack.

      Very glad you enjoyed LARFLEEZE. We're having a ball and the reception has been terrific. It's nice to have a place to go and be silly. Jack Kirby meets Monty Python.

      I loved working on that Superman story. Nothing else coming up in ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, but I've got Supes slated for an appearance in PHANTOM STRANGER #14. Really looking forward to it.

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    7. I'm not thrilled by only two Dematteis comics, but I suppose I'll allow it... for now.


      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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    8. There are more irons in the fire, Jack. Watch this space!

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    9. I'll take your word on that. But be wary, ice has a habit of thinning when you least expect it.


      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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    10. My vision of the universe is a little more positive than that, Jack. So I'm going to keep on skating.

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    11. I meant thin ice with me, so really wouldn't that make my vision of the world at least as important. And that can be pretty grim, so I think it balances out to a possibility of thinning ice.

      Besides why are you ice skating, I don't know about New York, but its Summer ion the Motor City. So I would imagine any ice would be insanely thin.


      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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    12. Sorry I misinterpreted, Jack!

      As for why I'm ice skating in June—didn't you hear about the strange summer blizzard we're having? Why, it's right out of...THE TWILIGHT ZONE (cue music).

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    13. Well, okay. Since you have such strange weather, I'll thicken up your ace. A little. But if I were you I would crack out the pencil and paper. This cold black heart of mine only has so much slack to give.

      Wishing you nothing, but goodwill and hipness from here to the stars,
      Jack

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  3. Holy wow! I didn't know Matheson did all that. Those are some great stories. "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" will haunt me to my dying day. Both versions are terrifying and well done.
    Many of these episodes you mention await me, like a time capsule filled with treasure. Thanks for the tribute, now my life is a little richer for it.

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    1. I think there are many people, Eruch, who don't realize just how broad and deep Matheson's career ran. Enjoy the "time capsule filled with treasure." (Great phrase, by the way.)

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  4. "Nick of Time"--is that the one where Shatner can't escape the town because he's obsessed with his fortune? Great episode! And yes, the bobble-head devil is quite the image!

    And "The Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is indeed awesome. It's not just terrifying because of what Shatner sees but because of what the others DON'T.

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    1. Yes, that's the one, David. The devil-head sacred the hell out of me when I was a kid.

      And what you say about "Nightmare"is, in many way, true for all the best TWILIGHT ZONES. It's not so much about the outer monster but the inner struggle. Shatner sees the gremlin, the others don't. Does he believe them and surrender to their definition of insanity or trust himself, face the monster and get his life back?

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    2. That is a good summation of the series, isn't it?

      Have you ever seen the movie FREQUENCY? Great film that's been described as Rod Serling meets Frank Capra. Jim Caviezel plays a son who contacts his long dead father through a ham radio. Caviezel's acting idol was Jimmy Stewart, so it really seems like a perfect storm of your favorite elements!

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    3. As I recall, David, I totally loved the first half of FREQUENCY and then it went off the rails for me. Especially at the end when Dad showed up to shoot the bad guy. But it's been a long time since I saw it: maybe it's time for a reassessment.

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    4. I enjoyed the climax where the father-son duo were fighting the killer from both ends of time quite a bit, but I can definitely see why it might not work for everyone!

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    5. As I recall—and I saw it in the theater when it came out—my experience went from a kind of Twilight Zone bliss to crushing disappointment. There was a point...maybe after the first hour...where, if they would have ended the story right there, it would have gone on my all-time favorites lists. But discussing it is making me want to see it again.

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    6. I think that's one of the advantages of the anthology format. Sometimes movies stretch a concept too thin. I don't necessarily think that's the case with FREQUENCY, but I've certainly watched films where a great premise fell apart in the third act. Happens to action movies all the time, where the explosions just get bigger. I think FREQUENCY works well because it marries the Serling and Capra tones. The idea of Dad coming to the rescue with the rifle has a down home American feel to it, much like the baseball backdrop. But I'm open to the idea that the movie could have gone a different way and had more of a TZ twist.

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    7. Absolutely agree about anthologies. There have been so many movies I've seen that left me thinking, "Man, that would have made a great 30 minute 'Twilight Zone'!"

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