My Deli Guy, My T-Shirt and Rod Serling..

[BlackLagoon]

Ok, so I go to my local supermarket and see the guy who slices my cold cuts as usual. I have developed a sort of relationship with him in the past few weeks. I lift weights and play sports..and he knows this now. Im constantly asking how many grams of protein in a slice of this or that, he is pleasant about it, understands how Im eating and darn knowledgable.

A few hrs ago I walk in, and take my number and I see he's there. Im wearing a t-shirt that says "HOPE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW" and has an illustration of George Taylor, Snake Pliskin and Mad Max..all next to each other-cool shirt!! Anyway, he's weighing my turkey and squints his eyes and says...."ah, well young man I hope we dont get the tomorrow that George Taylor found!"...He knew all 3 charecters on my shirt and goes on to say.."that was a good one, but I like Heston best in Omega Man" and I said "how did you feel about the remake?" for which he waved his hand and gave me a sour face. He told me "as far as remakes go, King Kong stunk and I Am Legend stunk too! Hollywood is currently run by a bunch of morons with no creativity and theyve run out of good ideas so they steal em from back when!" Wow...before I could get a word in .."and I'll tell ya what, Mighty Joe Young was more entertaining to me then any of the Kong movies!"

Ok..so I keep trying to shamelessly plug the UMA here and why he would probably have a ball with it buuuuut He wasnt done. "If you really want something to sink your teeth into, go and get the book Omega Man..you'll read it in 2 days and get a great thrill out of it." Again I tried to say something but was actually really taken by the fact that he was so passionate about these films...I would never have guessed! anyway he kicked in again...

"Kid it was all Richard Matheson, he wrote the book. Twilight Zone, Richard Matheson too..Rod Serling was a promoter, he had some writing skills but they were nothing in comparison to to Matheson, Serling stole some of his work too!"

Ok now I had to interject..Serling is my man but I really had no idea about this Matheson guy and didnt want to make myself sound stupid so I just said "Sir Im a member of an online place called Universal Monster Army..I think you would appreciate what the subject matter is"..."I like monsters too, nothing beats the classics...but I cant hold these people up, we'll pick up next week"

So I left, nice guy and there was more to our chat then just this, in 10 minutes we talked about all the different Kong films, The Lost World, Mad Max..both agreed Thunderdome was the weak link there...it was a fun little chat. I will definately write down the web address next time Im there..which will be in a few days after I inhale this turkey. I gotta ask the pros though, is their any validity to this mans Matheson story???

Just a story I thought I would share with you guys...its amazing, you never know that friendly guy at the supermarket may be a passionate monster movie fan too!!

[monsterphile]

matheson is one of the most prolific writers in our genre.  Take a gander at his IMDB listing to see how much we owe the man.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0558577/

Rob

[Wich2]

Cool story, BL. And Matheson IS one of the greats.

But you need to introduce this guy to PATTERNS, THE COMEDIAN, and REQUIEM FOR  A HEAVYWEIGHT. Not everything Rod Serling wrote was gold; but he was MUCH more than just a promoter.

Best,
-Craig

[Mike Scott]

Matheson wrote several TZ episodes, but I don't know what he meant about Serling stealing from him.

[typhooforme]

Matheson's stuff was gold, but Serling did some darn good work on his own.  Ditto what Mike said--I know nothing of Serling cadging any of Matheson's stuff. 

Definitely pick up some Matheson (and for that matter, read some of his son, Richard Christian Matheson, too--it runs in the family!) and sink your imagination into the fine word-stringing. 

[Wich2]

Matheson has been lucky to be filmed pretty well; but like Robert said - read it in the original!

I AM LEGEND, THE SHRINKING MAN, etc.; richer and grittier on paper.

[BlackLagoon]

Matheson has been lucky to be filmed pretty well; but like Robert said - read it in the original!

I AM LEGEND, THE SHRINKING MAN, etc.; richer and grittier on paper.

Thanks Robert and Craig. I plan on making a run to the bookstore in the next few days, I'd like to have some of it read before my next cold cut run!!

Jess

[Wich2]

'Welcome, Jess - report back. Bet you don't regret it.

[thelatewinslowleach]

     Presented for your approval...1/2 pound of choice swiss, 2 rib eye steaks, some thinly sliced sandwich ham and fresh sourdough, and some  excellent literary advice. You may be the next customer, at a meat counter in a corner grocer, at an intersection found only...in the Twilight Zone.

[hammerfan]

I have never heard anything about Serling stealing from Matheson. Why would matheson write for TZ if that was the case?

[BlackLagoon]

Will do Craig!

Hammerfan, I have never heard of such a thing, and it looks like most of the veterans here have'nt either. I think the point the guy was trying to make..or seemed to me atleast is that Serling actually took credit for what was Matheson's work...how he came to that conclusion seems to be beyond many of us here.

On a side note I've been searching sites for any kind of information like that...and so far it just does'nt add up!

[Fester]

Ask him where he heard about it.

I don't recall ever hearing anything of the kind. Serling did write many of the episodes, and some were adaptations of short stories by others.  But Matheson would surely have objected if he did not get credit where it was due.  BTW, TZ also featured scripts by Earl Hamner Jr, creator of the Waltons.