the greatest sci-fi writer of all time?
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david-good-1 — 13 years ago(November 17, 2012 11:44 AM)
I agree also, Rod Serling was the best writer that ever worked in television,in my opinion - and in 'Planet of the Apes' (the 1968 film) co-wrote (along with Michael Wilson) one the best scripts for a sci-film . Although perhaps not quite as good a writer as Serling (Who is ?!) I also rate Richard Matheson highly, if you like Serling's work? Then a good chance that you will enjoy Matheson's too methinks?
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rockmail — 12 years ago(July 15, 2013 12:26 AM)
Although I enjoy his shows. No, just no.
First of all, he didn't WRITE Planet of the Apes, he just adapted the novel for a screenplay. Nice work, but not the creator of the story concept or main execution.
Next, Twilight Zone and Night Gallery were also mainly anthology shows with teleplays based on other author's short stories or Rod repeating themes over and over. I give Rod loads of credit for cranking out the scripts, but not for creating all the stories.
Now regarding his ORIGINAL stories, yes he had a few great ones, and those are his achievements - great job.
However the more I watch his episodes, the more I easily see what a hack he was when it came to producing weekly TV. He repeated the "waiting room/I don't know I'm dead" story dozens of times as well as many other themes. Painfully, obviously repeated.
Nowhere near the level of the efforts on X-files, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, Sopranos, etc. Those all had teams of writers of course, but so did Rod. The difference being that those shows had regular teams that wrote together and stayed together, whereas Rod had a talent stable, but dipped in and out of it more randomly. When Rod had to fill in the gaps, he often failed miserably.
Still good, but FAR from anything "of all time". -
domester82 — 11 years ago(October 19, 2014 05:47 PM)
He certainly is right up there with the best TV writers of all time . Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, also of the Twilight Zone, deserve a mention too.
As much as we have to credit Gene Roddenberry for coming up with Star Trek, he actually didn't write that many episodes. Many of the best ones were by other writers. Roddenberry surrounded himself with talented people. Serling surrounded himself with talent, too, but the difference is, Serling wrote the majority of TZ eps himself
