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R.L. Stine reveals his favorite Twilight Zone episode
The Master of Horror tells us which story influenced Goosebumps the most!
Have you ever wondered where your favorite author gets their ideas? Well, according to Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, that line of inquiry is the most common question most authors face. To hear him put it, any answer given in response is usually a load of bupkis. Who knows where anyone ever gets ideas?
Pablo Picasso allegedly said, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” Whether he actually said those words or not, the sentiment has stood the test of time. Any artist with the goal to produce art regularly must constantly absorb. Those influences are then filtered through the sensibilities of each creator before becoming new art.
Recently, R.L. Stine made a public appearance at Chicago's Music Box Theater, where he answered audience questions after a screening of the new Goosebumps adaptation. The talk, presented by Chicago Humanities, touched on a wide range of subjects, but frequently orbited around that which goes bump in the night. The prolific author spoke on all things spooky and scary, and even revealed a few of his biggest influences.
Of those earlier works that impacted his writing, Stine mentioned, specifically, The Twilight Zone. One intrepid fan bested the onstage interviewer by asking the question on everyone's mind. What is R.L. Stine's favorite episode of Rod Serling's seminal anthology horror series?
"The one with Willoughby. 'A Stop at Willoughby,'" said Stine, referring to the series' thirtieth episode. "A Stop at Willoughby" aired as part of The Twilight Zone's first season in 1959.
"Where he [James Daly as Gart Williams] gets off the train and he's back in the 1900s. He's an ad executive, and he's actually dead but he doesn't know it. And the conductor says 'Willoughby, anyone out for Willoughby?' that's my favorite."
Stine is in good company. "A Stop at Willoughby" was also the episode Rod Serling chose as his favorite among the first season's 36 stories.
Tellingly, Stine also included a winking reference to another episode that influenced the most memorable character of his career, Slappy the Dummy from the Goosebumps book Night of the Living Dummy.
"There's one, you know— There's a Twilight Zone where a dummy comes to life. Yeah, there's one with that." He then made a very knowing gesture to his audience, as if to ask "Yup, doesn't that remind you of something in my oeuvre?"
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No, he didn't. "The Twilight Zone" did several episodes in this vein: "A Stop at Willoughby," "No Time Like the Past," "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" and "Walking Distance."
"Walking Distance" (S1, E5) was actually the first of them, and by far closest to him emotionally. He came up with the idea for the script during a stroll across the 19th century small town streets on one of MGM's back lots, as the sets reminded him very much of the graceful Victorian homes found in his hometown of Binghamton, NY. "Willoughby" (S1, E30) was, by contrast, merely a variation on what he'd already done with the earlier episode.
