Forwarded from Paul Buhle (Rod Serling)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

the next volume (HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT) talks about Rod's work in some
detail. He cowrote PLANET OF THE APES with Mike Wilson, the film that set
off the biggest boxoffice bonanzas of the late 20th century (most of which
would, for the original writers, look like slop), STAR WARS and so on. But
few if any of the great writers of 1950s dramatic television were able to
make the transition to films when TV drama dried up (by 1960, even earlier
in a large sense). The writing talent that went into NAKED CITY and others
had new life in the middle 1960s, with shows like EAST SIDE/WEST SIDE (and
THE DEFENDERS, a little earlier) and then nowhere to go save TV movies of
the 1970s (including ROOTS for the best and luckiest of the writers).
There's more, but I leave it here for now. Learned this stuff--and
remembered it--just about a year ago. Some of the insights had been buried
in my childhood memory.


Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org



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