I know this is the FOL board, but since Cloris was on FOL, I thought I would post this.

Zone Goes Back To Future

Producers of UPN's The Twilight Zone told SCI FI Wire that the show next week will begin shooting a sequel to the classic 1959 episode "It's a Good Life," in which a 6-year-old Billy Mumy sent people to the cornfield—with a now-middle-aged Mumy reprising the role of Anthony Fremont and Cloris Leachman again playing his mother. In another twist, Mumy's real-life daughter, Liliana, will play Fremont's daughter, who also has paranormal abilities, in the new episode, called "It's Still a Good Life," the producers said.

"We just signed Cloris Leachman [to reprise the role] as his mother," executive producer Ira Steven Behr said in an interview. "We have Bill playing Anthony Fremont, [the] same character. He's going to be wishing people into the cornfields. And we meet his daughter in real life, Liliana Mumy, who's an actress who was in The Santa Clause 2. She's going to be playing his daughter on the show, who is also going to have those Fremont powers. So that's going to be a really exciting show, and I know the network is really excited about it." The episode is slated to air in February.

Behr added that the show will soon update another classic episode, Rod Serling's "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," this time starring Andrew McCarthy. The original episode, in which residents of a suburban neighborhood turn on each other, reflected the 1960s paranoia about communism. "In this case, it's the fear of terrorism," Behr said. "The big change in the show is ... that what was cutting-edge at the time was to suspect each other. ... Is your neighbor a communist? And in this one, ... instead of the whole neighborhood falling apart, it's everyone banding together to blame this one family. So it's kind of different. ... This is a show about the scapegoat. And I think that's what we do nowadays. We have a lot of problems that can't be solved, and we look for convenient scapegoats."

Added executive producer Pen Densham, "It doesn't go away, although I think in our world there's a whole new set of politics that are going on that makes the story relevant again. What Rod Serling did was to speak about issues through allegory or parable, and I think this is a parable that's just sort of come back again to be reviewed." The Twilight Zone airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.


http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-01/16/12.00.tv


*If you haven't caught the original TZ episode with Cloris, you oughta check it out. It's an awesome episode.*

Edit: I'm changing my subject line.

Okay, both the episodes in my previous post will air on Feb. 19th.

SHOW TITLE: The Twilight Zone
EPISODE: It's Still a Good Life; The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
CATEGORY: SciFi
SYNOPSIS: A man (Bill Mumy) learns his 6-year-old daughter possesses a fearsome power; a man (Andrew McCarthy) watches his neighborhood descend into chaos.
CHANNEL: 7 [WUPA]
DATE / TIME: February 19: 9:00PM
NOTES: English

Edit: I got the times and stuff from zap2it.com and this is basically the time and station from my zip code. WUPA is my UPN station, but you'll find TZ on your UPN station. Just wanted to clear that up.

Hey!,not only did Cloris Leachman appear on ''Twilight Zone.''
But did you know that she played the role of Granny on the 1993
movie ''The Beverly Hillbillies''based on that 69"s sitcom.
Just thought you'd like to know.:wave:

Originally posted by JoCool
Hey!,not only did Cloris Leachman appear on ''Twilight Zone.''
But did you know that she played the role of Granny on the 1993
movie ''The Beverly Hillbillies''based on that 69"s sitcom.
Just thought you'd like to know.:wave:

You know, when I saw that movie, I thought she looked very similar to the FOL episode where all the girls aged. Kind of an eery (sp) premonition of things to come...

Originally posted by JoCool
Hey!,not only did Cloris Leachman appear on ''Twilight Zone.''
But did you know that she played the role of Granny on the 1993
movie ''The Beverly Hillbillies''based on that 69"s sitcom.
Just thought you'd like to know.:wave:
I love that movie I saw it again a few weeks ago.

that was my fav movie as a kid!

Here's another article. It talks about Cloris, so thought I would post it.

Mumy Back In Zone Cornfield

Bill Mumy, who reprises the role of Anthony Fremont in an upcoming sequel episode of UPN's The Twilight Zone, told SCI FI Wire that it was a challenge getting back into the mindset of a character he first played when he was only 7 years old. Mumy first played Fremont in the classic 1961 Zone episode "It's a Good Life," about a small boy with omnipotent powers who sends people to the cornfield.

In the sequel, "It's Still a Good Life," Mumy, now 49, plays Fremont as a grown man with a daughter of his own, played by Mumy's real-life daughter, Liliana. "I think the hardest thing for me was to really reconnect with the monster that is Anthony Fremont, because that's how he was described in the original, and that's really what he is," Mumy said in an interview.

Mumy added that he had to find a balance in the character, given his affection for his daughter. "She's obviously his emotional touchstone, and his love for his daughter is obvious," Mumy said. "And Anthony always thought he was doing the right thing, if you think about it. He didn't take away electricity and take away cars and things like that to punish people. He took it away because he didn't like it, so he figured they were bad."

Cloris Leachman, who played Anthony's mother in the original 1961 episode, also returns in the same role, Mumy said. "It was really easy [to get her]," he said. "She read it and said, 'Oh God, I don't want anyone else to do this.' And the work on-camera between me and Cloris and Liliana felt really strong, I have to say. I've been doing this since 1959. I've worked with a lot of talented people, and I've done a lot of good stuff, and this feels like way up on the list right now." "It's Still a Good Life," written by executive producer Ira Steven Behr and directed by Allan Kroeker, airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Feb. 19.


http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2003-02/12/13.00.tv

Here's another article involving the new TZ ep.

UPN Says 'It's Still a Good Life' on 'The Twilight Zone'
Mon, Feb 17, 2003 12:23 PM PDT

by Kate O'Hare
Zap2it



LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - In a darkened editing room at the offices of UPN's "The Twilight Zone" in Hollywood, executive producers Pen Densham and Ira Steven Behr sit on a couch, puzzling over the best way to segue between two shows separated by decades but linked by story and by blood.

First, the screen shows the black-and-white face of freckled, 7-year-old Anthony Fremont, leaning on a gate, looking all innocent, like he's going to go play a game of catch or run after a puppy or something. Then that face morphs slowly into a girl of about the same age, but now in color, with the same freckles and red hair. She's sitting in a tree.

It's all just so warm and fuzzy -- except it's not.

Those who saw "It's a Good Life," based on a short story by Jerome Bixby, which premiered in Nov. 1961, know that the cherubic face of Anthony, played by Bill (then Billy) Mumy, conceals a monster within. Anthony can read the thoughts of anyone around him and, if those thoughts displease him, can use the power of his mind to maim, torture or kill (otherwise known as sending someone "to the cornfield" ) as he chooses.

In fact, he has already used that power to banish his entire Ohio hometown somewhere into "The Twilight Zone."

On Wednesday, Feb. 19, UPN's revival of "The Twilight Zone," with host Forest Whitaker, premieres two episodes inspired by stories from the show's past, which were both written by original show host and creator Rod Serling.

The hour closes with an updating of the classic "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," written by Erin Maher and Kay Reindl and directed by Debbie Allen. The episode stars Andrew McCarthy as a middle-class man driven into fear and paranoia when communication with the outside world is cut off. The original aired in 1960.

First up, though, is "It's Still a Good Life," which doesn't remake the original. "It's a sequel," says Behr. "With 'Maple Street,' there's a reason to do it as a remake, because that paranoia, that fear, it's like 40 years have not come and gone. That fear has moved from the fear of communism and bug-eyed aliens, and now it's terrorism. But that fear and what it does to people remain the same. That's why it's a valid story to do."

With "Good Life," however, Behr says he had a sequel in mind from the outset -- "partly because I knew Bill, and I know his daughter. I know his daughter is a very wonderful little actress, and I thought, 'Boy, what are the chances of that same red hair, same face? There's a sequel right there in front of my eyes.' "

In "It's Still a Good Life," Anthony is now a grown man with a daughter, 6-year-old Audrey (Liliana Mumy), who is starting to develop the same powers as he had. This brings hope to Anthony's mother, Marion (Cloris Leachman, reprising her role), who sees Audrey as a tool to finally destroy her father.

"She definitely has those powers," says Mumy, now 49. "Let's say there's a plot in place to usurp the throne, but that isn't necessarily what happens. That's enough for me to say."

Behr, who wrote the episode, and Mumy knew that they had to get Leachman. "Ira and I both were passionately aggressive about getting her to do this," Mumy says. "We were very lucky. She is proprietorial about it and quickly came on board. Cloris Leachman is a national treasure. What a gift for me, as an actor, to be working opposite her again."

Not only that, but it's Mumy's first chance to work with his daughter, whose credits include "My Wife and Kids," "Scrubs," "That '70s Show" and "The Santa Clause 2." "It was a joy for us to work together," he says.

"I am serious when I tell you this, but I think the Fremonts would be a great television series. This show ends on a note that I would love to pick up and do every week. It's a concept that can reinvent itself, because of the nature of the characters, any time it wants to."

Although he was a child actor -- or perhaps because of it -- Mumy has no reservations about Liliana pursuing a career. "If she wasn't happy doing it, or if her ego started to get way out of control, we would just yank the plug."

But one does wonder just why anyone would have a relationship with Anthony Fremont. Mumy laughs. "That's a visual you won't see on television. What do you mean, who would date him? Like he's going to give you a choice? 'Uh, you! I'm going to marry you, and then I'm going to send you to the cornfield when I feel like it.' The girl's mother was sent to the cornfield."

The original "It's a Good Life" episode of "The Twilight Zone" airs at 11:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, Feb. 19 on Sci Fi Channel.

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?30191

http://tv.zap2it.com/images/shows/t/twilightzone/twilightzone_mumy_leachman_002.jpg