Oh, son of a bitch
Mark brings us the sad news that TV writer-director-producer Phil De Guere passed away. De Guere was the executive producer of the 1985 Twilight Zone revival, the DVD release of which I wrote about here earlier this month.
Mark’s item notes that he also worked on the Max Headroom series, which I either didn’t know or had forgotten, but I remember really enjoying that series. It made much more out of what could have been a limited premise than you had any right to expect, as I recall.
My various readings about the making of the Twilight Zone series tend to support Mark’s statement that De Guere was a well-liked and respected man. You want proof? Well, he kept Harlan Ellison happily employed in television for over a year. If that’s not a job for a master of the Twilight Zone, I don’t know what is.
(When Ellison departed that series, it was because of conflicts with CBS, not De Guere, by all reports)
I’m glad he lived to see the release of the first season of his TZ on DVD, and hope he died with the knowledge that his work now had a little more permanence. I also hope there are already pre-existing commentary tracks by him for the next season’s release.
