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Post by dem bones on Apr 13, 2008 9:47:21 GMT
There must be quite a few of these, though I'm struggling to think of any more beyond 'Richard Bachman's The Running Man.
Roger Malisson - Welcombe Manor: With the ratings in decline, it's time for some tough decisions to be made by the producer of long running television soap Welcombe Manor which details the lives of a community of tower block dwellers. It's decided that popular character will be bumped off in a hit-and-run by joy-riders as he leaves The Welcombe Inn. The actor who plays him, old Joe Kendal, takes it badly: he goes on a three week bender and winds up critically in hospital. When the episode is aired, the switchboard is jammed with complaints from viewers upset by the macabre scream that accompanies Joey's death, although no such scream was ever recorded. From that day forth, Welcombe Manor is cursed. Joey's ghost walks abroad and, as the show runs over-budget and more actors and technicians are seriously injured on and around set, it's finally axed.
Brian Hodge - Dead Giveaway: "The first television program conceived entirely for zombies. I want my ZTV." A fairly extravagant claim perhaps, but The X Factor & Co were still some years away. Following the zombie apocalypse, Monty Olsen, former Game Show host, heads for the studio where he made so many of his hits, intent on blowing his brains out. But his one-time producer - himself a walking dead - has realised that the zombies still spend much of their time slumped before the TV screen and persuades Olsen to host Dead Giveaway, a variant on Wheel Of Fortune with truly to-die-for prizes!
Robert Bloch - Die - Nasty: "North and South Dakota, long ignored as lesser states, captured the public fancy by bringing back the guillotine. Its success prompted Alabama to go them one better in presenting a masked headsman with a quaint and picturesque ax."
From 1991 public executions wow TV audiences all over America and the crime-rate drops to nothing. The answer to the crisis? Do away with the right to a defence and promote relatively minor indiscretions to capital offences.
Howard Kaylan - The Energy Pals: The author's children disappear into the TV while watching a Ninja Turtles/ Power Rangers type show and never come back, save as superheroes on the screen.
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Post by jkdunham on Apr 13, 2008 11:34:28 GMT
Howard Kaylan - The Energy Pals I've probably asked this before but is that Howard "Eddie" Kaylan? |
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Post by dem bones on Apr 13, 2008 12:01:22 GMT
Yeah, the very same, Steve. His second ever sale, and I'd be interested to read more. It appears in Nancy Collins & Ed. Kramer's erotic horror collection, Forbidden Acts, although I don't recall it being particularly sensual.
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