Heres one of my favourite episodes of the mid-eighties Twilight Zone series entitled A Day At Beaumont, a fun tribute to fifties sci-fi movies by David Gerrold. The name of the town is an homage to Charles Beaumont, writer of many of the original Twilight Zone episodes. There are also other references scattered throughout the episode, such as saying the meteor was near Willoughby, which is a reference to an original Twilight Zone episode. Theres another reference to a town named Matheson, for Richard Matheson, a noted science fiction author and frequent contributor to the original Twilight Zone. The term Bradbury rays honors sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, and a line about giant ants and tarantulas brings to mind the movies Them! and Tarantula or Earth vs. The Spider. Them! is referenced again in the name of the general store: Johnsons; in Them!, Gramps Johnson was an early victim of the giants ants. Other classic alien-invasion movie tropes abound: as they depart their saucer, the aliens are carrying large seed pods, an obvious reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. When in human form, their inability to bend their pinky finger is reminiscent of the 1960s television series The Invaders. Even the character of the astronomer Dr. Carlson could be taken to refer to the astronomer played by Richard Carlson in It Came From Outer Space (who also witnessed a UFO crash-landing in the desert). The car the couple drive is very similar (if not the same) to the wood-paneled station wagon seen in This Island Earth and the episode features several actors from fifties films, including Jeff Morrow, Warren Stevens and others. Oh, and the two lead characters, Kevin and Faith, is a reference to the two lead actors in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (Kevin McCarthy & Faith Domergue).
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 05:24:28 +0000
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