Posted on 11/02/2017 3:01:50 PM PDT by EdnaMode
CBS boss Leslie Moonves said during the company’s earnings call with investors today that it is rebooting the iconic TV series The Twilight Zone to stream on CBS All Access, its SVOD service that features the new Star Trek: Discovery.
The streaming service has been ramping up its original series auspices, already airing Season 1 of The Good Wife spinoff The Good Fight starring Christine Baranksi. Moonves said CBS was aiming for the same kind of leveraging of classic TV as Star Trek: Discovery, which spurred strong signups when it premiered and has already been renewed for a second season.
He delivered the brief news flash as part of a discussion of the strides made by CBS All Access. He gave no details on the creative team for a new Twilight Zone, or when new episodes would be delivered.
CBS All Access already offers the original anthology series created by Rod Serling, which aired from 1959-64 on CBS. It won a pair of Emmys for Serling’s writing, spawned a feature film and a pair of short-lived TV revivals. In 2013, the WGA ranked The Twilight Zone No.3 on its list of 101 Best Written TV Shows of All Time.
The streaming service dominated both the company’s introductory remarks and the questions from analysts. Moonves positioned the Twilight Zone reboot as the latest example of the company’s strategy to produce its own shows and feed an increasing number of them to the streaming service.
“The good news is, the bet is paying off,” he said. Asked about how the company determines the right content for All Access, Moonves said: “The programming kind of needs to be more premium than it would be on CBS. … It needs to be more specialized, needs to stand out.” All Access has drawn an audience that is 20 years younger than the average viewer of CBS, he added.
Netflix’s entry as international distribution partner on Star Trek: Discovery funded a “large part” of that series, Moonves said, admitting it was “expensive.” The notion of an international partner on the show was not addressed on the call.
For CBS, it’s a long game, Moonves said. “There will continue to be a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and clearly we are on the right side of that divide,” he said.
This will be a reboot of a reboot.
So, it will be a reality show.
Modern Sci-Fi writers seemingly have no imagination.
I remember the reboot they did in 1985, complete with Grateful Dead version of the theme, lol. That was on Friday nights in the Dukes’ old slot at 8:00 and then “Amazing Stories” was on NBC on Sunday nights.
As you point out they’ve tried this before. Even the original Twilight Zone flopped after it’s first few seasons (Rod Serling lost creative control and the show went to 1 hour). You can’t bottle lightning. Besides, the focus won’t be on the story. It will be on “diversity” first, story second.
We already lived 8 years in the Twilight Zone.
Pathetic.
When will the media pick up something new and worthwhile instead of trying to ‘reboot’ stuff?
Ask nicely and shove enough money at the International Lord of Hate, Larry Corriea, and he might even let the studios create a Monster Hunters International series.
Isn’t it amazing they can’t come with anything new? They are talking about a magnum reboot too.
Do it in black and white.
Hollywood is incapable of doing anything close to the level of the original. The intellect is gone. They’ll just turn it into political scolding, or into third rate ghost stories.
I imagine that the twists will align predictably.
Technically you can’t reboot an anthology series. And with anthologies being big right now no reason not to go for it. No reason to let Black Mirror go unchallenged in the world of Twilight Zone knockoffs.
Whoa. For a moment there I was worried that Hollywood might have an original idea.
That was close.
This will be another disaster - instead of good science fiction written by real writers, we’ll get more politicized, ham-fisted allegories about whatever liberals are currently hyper-ventilating about.
CBS All Access is the worst streaming service I ever used. Commercials ever 7 minutes and they lasted for 2 minutes at a pop. Had to call 3 times to cancel the service as it didn’t work online.
Star Trek Discovery (STD) is terrible. I’m talking really really bad.
That 1985 Twilight Zone reboot was really good. They were mostly, if not completely, original stories. My two favorites are A Matter of Minutes and especially Her Pilgrim Soul.
Who else could have made a similar contribution to such a show? Maybe Orson Welles. I'm hard-pressed to think of somebody else who could do so many things for a film, and make good results. Who could do that today?
And they probably will not be willing to shell out the money to get good writers so it will be another flop.
There are a bunch of writers out there who are good at O'Henry endings which is what a series like that needs.
Instead they will spend all their time preaching at people in the most ham handed way possible.
Like the U-boat commander, maybe Hillary will wake up everyday and lose the election.
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