"Gramma" | |
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The Twilight Zone segment | |
Episode no. | Season 1 Episode 18a |
Directed by | Bradford May |
Written by | Harlan Ellison |
Based on | "Gramma" by Stephen King |
Original air date | 14 February 1986 |
Guest appearances | |
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"Gramma" is the first segment of the eighteenth episode of the first season of the television series The Twilight Zone . This segment, about a boy who is afraid of his grandmother, is based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King, published in the collection Skeleton Crew (1985).
Eleven-year-old George is left alone with his infirm grandmother, while his mother leaves to visit George's brother in the hospital. George's mother is concerned since George is frightened of "Gramma", but George insists he has grown out of his fear.
Gramma asks George for tea. As George brings tea, he recalls how his mother and her siblings discussed how dangerous Gramma is now that she is senile. Her hand reaches out from the bedclothes. This startles George, and he drops the tea tray and flees the room.
Regaining his composure, George returns to clean up the mess. He opens a panel in the floor. He takes two books from the concealed hole and runs out with them. One of the books is the Necronomicon , while the other is a diary which discusses witchcraft and summoning the dead. He realizes Gramma is a witch.
George returns to Gramma's room and tries without success to rouse her. He finds she has no pulse. Thinking she is dead, he runs to the phone to call the hospital, but the line is tied up. He returns to her room to cover up her face. Gramma reaches out and grabs him, and they seem to merge into one being.
George's mother returns and finds George sitting at the kitchen table with his grandmother's books. He explains that Gramma died and he was scared. She comforts him, saying that Gramma will still always be with them. George now has glowing red eyes like Gramma.
The Twilight Zone's staff writers were unhappy when they were told that CBS had acquired the television rights for Stephen King's "Gramma", feeling that it would be almost impossible to adapt, since it consists mostly of internal monologues. Faced with the choice of producing a segment from it or swallowing the considerable cost of licensing a Stephen King property, they turned the unenviable task of writing the teleplay over to story consultant Harlan Ellison. [1]
William Friedkin, who had previously directed the segment "Nightcrawlers", was originally slated to direct "Gramma", and in fact had cast all the characters and fully prepped the set when a familial obligation forced him to drop the job. [2] Bradford May, The Twilight Zone's director of photography, had long held aspirations of being a director and stepped in as Friedkin's last-minute replacement. The segment was shot on sets at the CBS Radford. [2]
When George opens up the floor panel in Gramma's bedroom, the sounds which emerge are a collage of bacon frying, cicadas singing, and Harlan Ellison making raspy vocalizations. [1] Ellison also provided one of the voices of George's family, while Piper Laurie voiced Gramma. [2]
Gilbert Cruz ranked "Gramma" at number 9 out of 27 in a list of Stephen King television adaptations on Vulture . Cruz remarked that Harlan Ellison's script does an astoundingly good job of making the uneventful story work for television and bringing out its emotional and metaphorical heart. [3]
Harlan Jay Ellison was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published works include more than 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays, and a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media. Some of his best-known works include the 1967 Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", considered by some to be the single greatest episode of the Star Trek franchise, his A Boy and His Dog cycle, and his short stories "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman". He was also editor and anthologist for Dangerous Visions (1967) and Again, Dangerous Visions (1972). Ellison won numerous awards, including multiple Hugos, Nebulas, and Edgars.
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"Jeffty Is Five" is a fantasy short story by American author Harlan Ellison. It was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1977, then was included in DAW's The 1978 Annual World's Best SF in 1978 and Ellison's short story collection Shatterday two years later. According to Ellison, it was partially inspired by a fragment of conversation that he misheard at a party at the home of actor Walter Koenig: "How is Jeff?" "Jeff is fine. He's always fine," which he perceived as "Jeff is five, he's always five." Ellison based the character of Jeffty on Joshua Andrew Koenig, Walter's son. He declared:
... I had been awed and delighted by Josh Koenig, and I instantly thought of just such a child who was arrested in time at the age of five. Jeffty, in no small measure, is Josh: the sweetness of Josh, the intelligence of Josh, the questioning nature of Josh.
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