Five Classic Crossovers Between The Literary World And TV

What I mean by this guys is that over the years it has been well established that authors that have made their careers writing novels, have also some times made the crossover to both Movies and TV shows... A great example of this is, 'Stephen King'... Now Stephen King... A large portion, if not everything he has ever written that has been published has been turned in to a movie (and some of them have been remade a couple of times now!)

But where as the movies have been covered pretty nicely, the work that they have done for actual TV shows (not TV movies) has not been as heavily explored, and so I thought that you guys might find these Five examples to be pretty awesome!

At number 5: R.L. Stine (The Nightmare Room).

R.L. Stine helped create horror novels that kids can enjoy as well!

For more information on R.L. Stine , please check out this scene from the TV show!

At number 4: Richard Matheson (The Twilight Zone).

Richard Matheson... A legend in the field of written horror! 

For more information on Richard Matheson, please enjoy this clip from the episode: Profile In Silver/Button Button, from the 1980s remake series of: The Twilight Zone:

At number 3: Ray Bradbury (The Ray Bradbury Theatre).

Ray Bradbury... One of the most prolific Science Fiction writers of all time! 

This guy wrote for a lot of the Horror/Science Fiction TV series in the 50s/60s, but the one that I thought that you guys would be interested in is this clip from: the Ray Bradbury Theatre!

At number 2: Dean R. Koontz (CHiPs).

Dean R. Koontz... A master of written horror!

Believe it or not, this author who is famous for the horror novels has only written one episode of A TV show, and that is: CHiPs... Unfortunately there does not appear to be a clip available that he wrote, but for your pleasure, the TV intro to: CHiPs!

At number 1: Stephen King (The X-Files).

Stephen King has written for a lot of mediums including books, movies, and TV series as well!

Stephen King had written a lot in a lot of different mediums, but the one that I wanted to mention here is when he wrote the episode, 'Chinga' from: The X-Files:

Star Trek: Season 1 - Episode 5: 'The Enemy Within' (1966) - TV Episode Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"] Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

One of the things that Star Trek really brought to the world of Science Fiction is the fact that Star Trek brought to the world, the, 'Mirror Universe'! For those of you who don't know what the mirror universe is, it is a universe that is the polar opposite of our dimension, in that some one in our universe who is a happy go lucky type, may end up being a depressed homicidal lunatic, and an Adolph Hitler type in the mirror universe, might be some one who exclusively loves life!

The reason that I mention this, is that before the first, 'Mirror Universe' episode, we got a sneak peak of it with, 'The Enemy Within' (1966)!

Written by: Richard Matheson (The Twilight Zone: The Movie) & Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek: Voyager) & Directed by: Leo Penn (Judgement In Berlin). Starring: William Shatner (Kingdom Of The Spiders), Leonard Nimoy (Invasion Of The Snatchers), DeForest Kelley (Night Of The Lepus), Grace Lee Whitney (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), George Takei (Archer), James Doohan (Birth Of A Timeless Legacy) & Nichelle Nichols (The Cabonauts).

This episode tells the story of how during the investigation of a planet, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), transports back up to the ship....

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="427"] Kirk and Sulu before Kirk transports back to the ship![/caption]

After he transports up, there is an incident that occurs in which, Captain Kirk is split in to 2 different personalities, the first one being everything that is good and right in the world, and the second one being everything that is the absolute definition of pure evil!

And as Kirk is becoming more and more different, the crew of  the Enterprise is going to have to figure out how to fix Kirk before the crew that they had to leave on a planet that is getting colder and colder as the minutes go by, freezes to death!

In the end, this episode is pretty freaking awesome, it will keep you on the edge of your seat, and if you get a chance to see it, then I do recommend it!

http://youtu.be/_AYsdW1RbWw

I Am Legend (1954) - Richard Matheson - Book Review

[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="350"] Official Score = 4 Devils[/caption]

You know there is a novel that I would say is probably in the top 5 of the most valuable horror novels ever written... Not just because it revolutionized it's subgenre, but also because it helped set the stage (and in some ways could be said to be one of the bars), that filmmakers aspire to try to emulate when they are making their movies... that of course being the book that author Bram Stoker (1847 - 1912) wrote in 1897... 'Dracula'!

Another one that I would say that did that as well... But to a slightly lesser extent is, 'Richard Matheson's seminal 1954 horror novel, 'I Am Legend'!

Now if you could say that each generation there is some one who creates a work of art that helps to revolutionize the whole genre until the next generation... Well then I would say that the work that Richard Matheson did in, 'I Am Legend' is to the most recently previous generation, what Bram Stoker did for his generation!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="150"] A true masterpiece![/caption]

What I mean by this is that I think people like, 'George A. Romero', and other filmmakers emulated this novel when they created their masterpieces... (In the same way as Bram Stoker's work used to be emulated)..

But in the end, what I really liked about this novel is that it changed the concept of the (Zombie/Vampire) novel, and took the super natural element out of it, and replaced it with a more down home ailment, that nearly destroys the world!

As a side note, besides the fact that this novel has been emulated before, it has also been made in to movies that have stared the likes of Vincent Price (The Pit And The Pendulum) & Charlton Heston (Planet Of The Apes)!

In the end, this novel is an awful lot of fun, and if you get a chance to check it out, you might find that you like it!