Cult-TV Theme Watch: Filmmaking

Hooray for Hollywood! The world of filmmaking has frequently been seen in cult-television programming of all stripes. 

In The Twilight Zone (1959 – 1964) episode “A World of Difference,” for example, a business-man named Arthur Curtis (Howard Duff) suddenly discovers that his life is not real at all, but a movie.  In particular, he’s an actor working on a film titled “The Private Life of Arthur Curtis,” and his real name is Gerry Raigan.

An episode of Gerry Anderson’s UFO (1969 – 1970) called “Mindbender” finds Commander Straker (Ed Bishop) fall under the influence of an alien device that alters his sense of reality. In the middle of an argument with General Henderson (Grant Taylor), Straker hears a director call “cut” and finds himself not in SHADO Headquarters, but on a set of headquarters.  He looks out to see the crew of a production…filming him. Summoning all his faculties, Straker must will himself back into the real world, and out of the world of filmmaking.

One episode of Ghost Story/Circle of Fear (1973) late during its run, “Graveyard Shift” involved a night watchman (John Astin) who discovers that the Fillmore Studio Lot is haunted by the ghosts of a movie that was never shown.  This episode features a cameo by real life producer William Castle, as the head of Fillmore Studios.

In V: The Series (1984 – 1985), the L.A. Resistance, following the death of Nathan Bates (Lane Smith) briefly hid out in an abandoned movie studio, in the episode “The Rescue.”

In 1985, one episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology Amazing Stories (1985 – 1987) was called “Mummy, Daddy” and involved a horror movie that was shooting on location when the man playing the Mummy was called away -- while still in costume -- for the delivery of his child.  Unfortunately, the local town people thought he was a real Mummy, and began to pursue him…

On The X-Files (1993 – 2002), one episode -- directed by David Duchovny – saw Mulder and Scully (Gillian Anderson) visit Hollywood for a film version of one of the investigations.  In “Hollywood A.D.,” Garry Shandling played the movie version of Mulder, and Tea Leoni was Scully.

In the third season episode of Millennium (1996 – 1999), titled “Thirteen Years Later,” Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and his partner Emma Hollis (Klea Scott) investigate a murder on the set of a low-budget horror film.

Recently, Smallville (2001 – 2011) featured an episode titled “Action” about a “Warrior Angel” film being shot on Clark’s farm.