The Writers' Room

Can you believe it's been a year already? Kyle and Erik finish up their 12 months of discussing the first season of The Outer Limits with a countdown of their top 10 and bottom 5 episodes! Next year we begin season 2, with the two episodes written by the great Harlan Ellison!

If you have a suggestion for a classic genre show to discuss after The Outer Limits, email us at erikandkyle@gmail.com!

Direct download: The_Outer_Limits_-_Episode_12_-_Season_1_Wrap-Up.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

This month, Erik and Kyle only have two episodes left in season one of The Outer Limits. Fittingly, they're both would-be spin-offs from each of the show's two driving creative forces. First up is "Controlled Experiment," a comedy take on sci-fi from series creator Leslie Stevens. Second is the bat-poop crazy "The Forms of Things Unknown" from head writer Joseph Stefano.

Direct download: TOL_-_End_of_the_Line.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 8:03pm EDT

In this month's penultimate look at the first season of The Outer Limits, Kyle and Erik discuss four stories by four different writers, to varying degrees of interest. Those episodes are:

"Specimen: Unknown"
"The Guests"
"Fun and Games"
"The Special One"

Two of them are really quite good!

Direct download: The_Outer_Limits_-_Episode_10_-_One-Offs.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

This month, as we head to the end of The Outer Limits season one, we have a quartet of very odd stories, all featuring input from story editor and Joseph Stefano's right-hand man, Lou Morheim. These include "The Mice," "Second Chance," "Moonstone," and "The Chameleon." Robert Towne wrote that last one.

Direct download: The_Outer_Limits_-_Episode_9_-_Lou_Morheim.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

This month, Erik and Kyle keep digging deeper into the troubled psyche of The Outer Limits season 1's showrunner, Joseph Stefano. These three episodes--"The Invisibles," "The Bellero Shield," and "A Feasibility Study"--each represent the writer's best (and most upsetting) traits.

Direct download: TOL_-_Stefano_3.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

This month, Erik and Kyle are joined by writer, podcast, smart person extraordinaire, Paul Cornell to discuss the Outer Limits episode "Nightmare."

"Nightmare" is a very somber episode about humans facing interrogation from a superior alien aggressor. Can their fragile Earth psyches take it?! This discussion goes deep on rules of engagement, interior storytelling, Southern Gothic Sci-fi, and writer Joseph Stefano's id and ego.

Find Paul on Twitter, and check out his podcast, Hammer House of Podcast.

Direct download: TOL_-_Nightmare_w_Paul_Cornell.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 7:34pm EDT

This month we begin our look at The Outer Limits' most important writer, producer, and story-shaper, Joseph Stefano. We go in-depth on "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork," "The Zanti Misfits," and "Don't Open Till Doomsday," and figure out what Gothic Sci-Fi really means.

Direct download: TWR_-_Joseph_Stefano_pt_1.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 5:15pm EDT

This month, your faithful hosts have three stories from three different writers of The Outer Limits. First up is "The Human Factor" by David Duncan, an episode that seems like The Thing but is more like Face/Off. Next is "Corpus Earthling," a creepy little story about alien rocks by Orin Borsten. And finally, "Tourist Attraction" by Dean Riesner, a former child actor who went on to work with Clint Eastwood. Fun!

Direct download: TWR_-_Duncan_Borsten_Riesner.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 2:19am EDT

This month, Kyle and Erik look at two more writers of The Outer Limits. It's Jerome Ross, who wrote "The Man with the Power," and Anthony Lawrence, who wrote "The Man Who Was Never Born" and "The Children of Spider County." Enjoy!

Direct download: TWR_-_Ross_Lawrence.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:46am EDT

An early contender for MVP writer of The Outer Limits season one, veteran TV writer Meyer Dolinsky wrote three fascinating and troubling episodes, two considered legitimate classics.

First is "The Architects of Fear" which inspired Alan Moore's Watchmen; the paranoid Cold War thriller "O.B.I.T."; and a legitimately weird one, "ZZZZZ" about a super attractive bee woman.

Direct download: TWR_-_Meyer_Dolinsky.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

This month, Erik and Kyle delve further into The Outer Limits by talking about two episodes written by the writing team of Allan Balter and Robert Mintz ("The Hundred Days of the Dragon," "The Mutant"), and the one episode written by Ellis St. Joseph ("The Sixth Finger").

They get well into themes of bettering humanity, evolution, mutation, giant brains, giant eyeballs, goopy faces, and telepathy. And, you know, other things too.

Direct download: TWR_-_Balter_Mintz_St_Joseph.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

Here we go! A new year and a new season. Erik and Kyle are embarking on their journey into the 1960s sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits, which ran for 49 episodes on ABC TV in the United States and has since been reappraised time and again. We know a thing or two about series that began in 1963 that have gone on to longevity.

To begin, we look no further than the series' creator, Leslie Stevens, who wrote and directed four episodes during the first season. We're only talking about three of them in this episode, and they are "The Galaxy Being," "The Borderland," and "Production and Decay of Strange Particles."

Direct download: TWR_-_Leslie_Stevens.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

Hello everyone! Happy New Year! First and foremost, welcome to 2019 and The Writers Room's new direction. It's still Erik and Kyle discussing old TV sci-fi, but for the next year or so, we'll be talking about the original 1963-1965 series The Outer Limits.

To start with, we're doing a bit of a primer about the series, how it came to be, who were the key creative types in charge of its 49 episodes, and what kinds of stories you can expect on the journey. First full episode about series creator Leslie Stevens will arrive January 15.

Sorry for the sound issues in this episode, it will not be indicative of the whole run, we assure you. We just didn't have time to re-record.

And finally, please consider supporting our new Patreon! Patreon.com/TheWritersRoom

Direct download: The_Outer_Limits_Primer.mp3
Category:television -- posted at: 12:00am EDT

1