Title

From the Brooklyn Bridge to Pennsylvania Highway 11: Bernard Herrmann’s score for “the Hitch-Hiker” from radio drama to The Twilight Zone

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Publication Title

Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

Volume

41

Issue

2

First Page

394

Last Page

426

DOI

10.1080/01439685.2021.1901964

Abstract

The reuse of storylines from radio dramas on early television was not uncommon; indeed, much of the television programming of this period consisted of repurposed radio scripts. The scores for these radio dramas were often reused, as well. Music from radio dramas was recycled into new television contexts, or the radio dramas and their music were adapted into television shows. The literature often does not discuss these radio-to-television adaptations, let alone their music. This article discusses the appropriation of radio music in The Twilight Zone in the context of Lucille Fletcher’s radio drama ‘The Hitch-Hiker,’ her reworking of the drama into a staged play, and Rod Serling’s version for The Twilight Zone (1960). Bernard Herrmann’s score for the radio drama was repurposed for the television version, and its function in both versions, depending on the author/adaptor’s agenda, created a profound change in the story trajectory. The addition of several gendered musical cues in the television version, for example, helped to shape the musical portrayal of an independent career woman of the 1950s.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS