Free Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree Page B

teeth. And I got to the point where I felt that I was beginning to make him nervous because I was trying to change him. So finally, I said, Rod, youve got to do it the way you feel comfortable. So all I did then was try to put him in a comfortable setting and maybe have him walk from one thing to another if the timing looked right or felt right. And he went ahead and he talked the way he talked and did it, and he always did it the same way and it became a trademark, really.
    Serling said of being chosen to host The Twilight Zone, [They] looked at me and said, Hell, at least hes articulate and he speaks English, so lets use him. Only my laundress knows how frightened I am!

RICHARD MATHESON
    Appearing on camera wasnt the only new consideration Serling had to deal with on The Twilight Zone. Contractually, he was bound to write eighty percent of the scripts; but since it was his show he had to make certain that the other twenty percent were of the same high quality. For the first time, he had the responsibility of hiring other writers.
    Initially, he decided to try something new. Before we started out on this show of mine, Id been screaming loudly on behalf of new talent. For years, Id been bellowing about how new talent wasnt getting a chance.
    So I opened up the show for unsolicited manuscripts. Come on, fellers, I yelled. Send em in. If you think you have a talent for writing and you know the special demands of this show, lets hear from you.
    I got fourteen thousand manuscripts in the first five days. Of those fourteen thousand, I and members of my staff read about five hundred. And four hundred and ninety-eight of those five hundred were absolute trash; hand-scrawled, laboriously written, therapeutic pieces of writing from sick people. Of the two remaining scripts, both of professional quality, neither fitted the show.
    Obviously, more traditional methods would have to be used to obtain the needed scripts. A screening of the pilot was held, to which established writers were invited. Out of that screening, two writers were selected who, with Serling, provided all but one of the first seasons scripts.
    Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont were men whose work was amazingly similar but who couldnt have been more different as people. Matheson, to this day, is a very private man, soft-spoken, disciplined, very family-oriented. Beaumont, on the other hand, was tremendously outgoigg, energetic, and disorganized. Writer William F. Nolan, co-author of the novel Logans Run and a friend to both, compares the two: Dick was Mr. Dependable, Mr. Resolute, Mr. Solid, Mr. Take-care-of-the-family-on- Sunday, and hes still like that. Chuck was Mr. Will-o-the-wisp. You never even knew if he was in the city or not. He was supposed to be going to dinner with his wife and he was in Chicago or something.
    Yet the two, for all their differences, were very close. Chuck Beaumont was my best friend for many years, says Matheson. We wrote together for a period of time when we first went into television (until we decided that we would do better each going solo) and acted as spurs to each other creatively. I had sold my first collection of short stories before Chuck, which spurred him on to get his first collection. We both went into TV at the same time. We both wrote films in the same period of time. There was competition but only of the friendliest sort. We were not jealous of each other but happy for each others success.
    Richard Burton Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, on February 20, 1926, the son of Norwegian immigrants. Of his early upbringing, Matheson notes that there was little to turn him toward writing. I believe that environment is less a factor than most in the formation of a writer. I dont think I became a writer because my environment made me introspective. I believe I was born to be introspective for various reasons (among them astrological) and therefore reacted to my environment accordingly. I do not feel it is environmental