As anyone who's read this column for any length of time knows, I'm a rabid fan of the 1960s-era TV series Twilight Zone, a show created by the late Rod Serling. It used spooky, creepy, sometimes heartwarming, always thought-provoking scenarios to make points about societal and political issues. The Syfy and MeTV networks are good at scratching the itch of us TZ fans by working episodes into their schedules here and there. Syfy even broadcasts marathons of the show a couple of times a year.
DVD boxed sets help keep alive the legacy of episodes such as "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," in which aliens set residents of a once-idyllic small town against each other by manipulating electrical power and machinery to induce suspicion and paranoia, and "The Masks," where a dying rich man maneuvers greedy family members into baring oh-so-obvious physical evidence of their nasty ways.
That was then. What if the names of some of the most iconic episodes were applied to current events -- with a bit of embellishment -- here and there? Here's how Twilight Zone: Based on Actual Headlines might look:
"Shadow Play" -- A professional basketball player develops debilitating cramps during Game 1 of the National Basketball Association finals and takes himself out of the game, much to the disgust of fans, who mock and denigrate him for not dismissing the cramps and executing the play they're sure would have won the game. The wealthy player turns to yoga for help with the cramps, but dreams of the would-be play, over and over. He eventually starts a yoga studio and creates the "shadow play" pose.
"Where Is Everybody?"-- A bunch of filmmakers decide that surely they're going to make a pile of dough from Hercules remakes, a retelling of the Old Testament story of Noah, yet another Adam Sandler movie and other flicks that they excitedly roll into theaters. The movies are doomed to be watched only by the empty seats.
"I Sing the Body Electric," aka "No. 12 Looks Just Like You" -- A Hollywood celebrity, who's had 999 cosmetic-surgery procedures and already looks like a bad rendition of a Cabbage Patch doll, decides to have her 1,000th. Her body parts decide they've had enough and take control of her, making her move to Little Rock to stand on a curb by a busy street and hawk for a "we buy gold" store.
"Time Enough at Last" -- Two celebrities known individually for nonstop goofiness -- which inexplicably feeds their fame and
Style on 06/15/2014