2003 UPDATES
 

UPDATE JANUARY 2003
It IS still a good life.
Who would ever have thought that 42 years after filming "It's a Good Life", a "classic" episode of the original "The Twilight Zone" television series, that I'd return to the role of "Anthony Fremont" the "monster" with almost limitless mental powers in a brand new episode of "The Twilight Zone", once again teamed with Cloris Leachman and adding to the mix, my 8 year old daughter Liliana Mumy?!  WOW!

When this project, "It's Still A Good Life" was initially discussed by me and the executive producer of the series, Ira Behr, I was really excited about the possibility of playing Anthony again.  Some characters have a way of "staying" with you and Anthony certainly has been one.  Honestly, I loved kicking the concept around with Ira, but I didn't really think it would happen.  Then, I got the call. "They want to do it."

I got nervous. It could be real. Making a sequel to something that is considered a classic, that was named by TV Guide as one of the best 100 television shows ever made is challenging.  There are sequels... "Godfather 2" and there are sequels, "Exorcist 2"... I started to worry.

I wrote outlines and submitted them to Ira. He wrote an outline and gave it to me. I liked his direction a lot. I wrote notes tweaking his outline.

He and I agreed on one thing: We wouldn't do it unless we both felt the script was something we believed Rod Serling would have given the thumbs up to. 

Ira generously invited me into the writer's room to "break" the story.  We spent a morning and an afternoon fine tuning it together and then Ira wrote the teleplay. I thought it was great. The very first draft of it, it was all there.  He'd captured the characters perfectly, they way Rod Serling had written their dialogue in the original. Their voices felt true.

And... amazingly, the wonderful part of Anthony's daughter, Audrey, (originally "Amy" but had to be changed for legal clearance reasons) was created and written for my own daughter Liliana!  What an amazing opportunity!  To return to one of my favorite all time characters and to be able to co-star opposite Liliana, who's almost the exact same age I was when I originally played Anthony... it felt great.  Ira and I both strongly agreed we HAD to get Cloris Leachman to reprise her role as my mother.   Not a problem. Cloris loved the idea and came on board.

The deals were made and off we went to Vancouver, Canada where the series is filmed.  It's a great city.  Liliana and my wife Eileen were there for over a month last year at this time filming "The Santa Clause 2", they knew the town well and had made good friends there.  We stayed in a nice two bedroom suite at the same hotel they had been in. 

Wardrobe fittings...finding the right look for this "monster" Anthony Fremont went quickly.  We were all on the same page.  The sets and locations looked perfect. The mood and tone was right.  The table read of the script... wow... Liliana's so natural, so good!  Cloris...searching for it... always finding it.  It took me a few scenes to connect with the monster, but... there he was.  Man... he's a scary guy.  He was scary when I was seven years old, but he was also a cute little freckly faced boy then. He's not a cute kid anymore. 

Imagine if you can.. the "tone" of Peaksville, Ohio as it was in the original episode. No electricity... Running out of supplies... the despair of knowing this monster could read your every thought and if he didn't like what he picked up on... you could be sent away, erased and vanished to a place known only as "the cornfield"... or worse. You could be transformed into something horrible and kept here.  Now imagine it's 40 years later... things have not gotten any better. 

It's a dark tale to say the least.

Normally they film an episode of the Twilight Zone in 4 days. We were allotted 5.  Most days I worked 15 hours.  Everyone on the crew knew they were working on a sequel to something the world called "classic".

The entire experience was special.  Everyone treated us all like royalty.  I was allowed quite a bit of creative input on this project, and for that I'll always be grateful. I don't know how objective I can be at this point, I haven't seen it edited together yet, but, I believe it's going to be a really strong show. A good television show. A real good television show.

I don't do a lot of on camera acting these days.  I feel like I did some of my best work on this show.  I hope you'll check it out.  Thanks.

Stay out of the cornfield.  
Peace,
Bill Mumy

"You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with....Anthony Fremont"

"You Don't Mess Around With Jim" (adjusted)

Jim Croce

UPDATE MAY 2003
Hello,
It has been brought to my attention that I'm overdue for one of these updates, so... here we go.  First off, I would like to remind any of you that are interested that I have been "managing" the guest book here personally lately and I've been posting "mini updates" (sounds like a breakfast cereal) and responses to questions in the guest book quite often.  The Mumy guest book is a very quirky place full of nonsense and weirdness, so if you're into that or if you simply want to post a question or a thought... check it out.

I've been quite busy lately working on the multitude of things that I do.  I've been narrating lots of Biographies for A&E, voicing Farmer's Insurance commercials, gigging with the Jenerators, gigging solo, plotting and writing many different things, recording and producing.

Let's see... I just got back from New York and New Jersey where I appeared at the Chiller Con alongside my wonderful "family" from Lost in Space, Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen and Angela Cartwright.  It's always great to spend time with them catching up on personal things and meeting the fans of our old show.  I managed to venture into Manhattan with the always ambitious Ange for a nice lunch and a bit of shopping...(well, it was more her shopping and me watching impatiently...) it was a beautiful day so it was nice to walk a bit before sitting down to the "work" at the con.  I performed there Saturday night playing with "The Dead Elvi" band.  Besides "Fish Heads", (which is always fun live, although it's totally different of course from the record) I sang and played some old rockers from the 60's... the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be A Rock n Roll Star", "Mr. Spaceman", the Beatles' "You Can't Do That" & "One After 909" and Mark Goddard joined me on vocals for Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" which I dedicated to Jonathan Harris. It was fun.  Thanks to Kevin Clement for bringing me out there and for letting me play his Les Paul. I met legendary horror tv personality "Zach" and shared the musical stage with ex-Rolling Stones lead guitarist Mick Taylor.  The Jenerators had gigged with him about 6 years ago here in L.A. at the Palamino Club. Anyway, it was an enthusiastic crowd and rock happened...
      
My brand new 5th solo CD, "Ghosts: the best of Bill Mumy" has just been released on Renaissance Records and is available at their website, (renaissancecd's.com), amazon.com, and here at the Mumy Mall.  Don't expect to find it at your local record store though.  There are five brand new recordings and fifteen compiled from my first four solo albums.  As usual, the multi talented Angela Cartwright took the photographs and designed the package.  I hope you'll check it out in the MUMY MALL along with some Twilight Zone pics now available. If you'd like to hear some tracks from the new CD just click here:  GHOSTS

The Jenerators are going into the studio to record a new album very soon and we're also compiling the "best" of our first two cd's as they are both now out of print.  More on that as it happens.

Barnes and Barnes are also busy.  We're releasing our often rumored never heard 1982-83 unreleased album "Code of Honor (Kodovoner)" soon on Oglio Records. It will include all the completed and uncompleted tracks we were working on for that project. Nothing has been "sweetened" or changed. It's all exactly as we left it twenty years ago.  For B&B fans, this is exciting news.  For the rest of humanity... go back about your business.  B&B are going to re-release (with bonus tracks) the rest of our catalogue "Amazing Adult Fantasy" (1984), "Sicks", (1986), "Loozantean" (1991) and then make a NEW album.  More on that as it happens. yeah.

I recently collaborated with Kevin Burns on picking unseen images from the first five episodes of Lost in Space for a new trading card set coming out from Rittenhouse. We went through ALL the original proof sheets from 1965 and pulled some really cool stuff. LIS fans will surely dig that.  Also, the first season of LIS will be released on DVD in January from Fox. I believe you can pre-order it now at amazon.com.  Sadly, although it was discussed, they are not going to include any bonus or new material, but the good news is it's coming out!

The first two seasons of Babylon 5 are now available on DVD from Warner Bros. No home should be without... (my family and I had a lovely dinner at Mira Furlan's a month ago. You B5 Minbari fans will be pleased to know "Delenn" and "Lennier" are getting along just fine.)

My daughter Liliana is currently working with Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt and Hilary Duff in "Cheaper by the Dozen". She films that through June.  She's having a great time.  The episode of the Twilight Zone we starred in together, "It's Still A Good Life", (see the last update for details and photos) was the highest rated and critically acclaimed episode of the series.  We sure had a great time doing that.

My son Seth recently had a lead role in a school production of "A Funny Thing Happened To Me On The Way To The Forum". He played "Hero".  "3 Wishes" the film he starred in with Patrick Swayzee ran on TV this week. He was so little and good in that!  He's also playing little league and just being a teenager nowadays.

There are LOTS of other Mumy projects in various stages of "happening", but I'll hold off talking about those things until they actually happen. I've learned that lesson the hard way.

That's it for now.  Take care of yourselves and take care of Mother Earth and all the living things on her.
Peace,
Bill
Laurel Canyon, CA 

"Look out kid, you're gonna get hit by users, cheaters, six-time losers, hang around the theaters, the girl by the whirpool's lookin' for a new fool, don't follow leaders, watch the parkin' meters."
Bob Dylan: "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2003
So, yesterday I was doing a radio interview with www.SCIFIOVERDRIVE.COM (it was taped and it hasn't aired yet. check it out.) and the host mentioned a very odd fact to me that I'll now share with you...  I'm still in my 40's yet I have worked professionaly as an actor in SIX DECADES!  the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's.  THAT'S WEIRD!! Kinda cool. Kinda disturbing...

  This month started off with me in Atlanta at DragonCon.  It was really crowded and humid and nice. I gave a one hour solo acoustic concert there that was well attended that I enjoyed very much. Other than that, there were Lost in Space panels with me and Angela Cartwright, and Babylon 5 panels with Stephen Furst, Julie Caitlin Brown, Stephen Austin and myself. Mira Furlin and Claudia Christian from B5 were also there but they left early. Anyway, it was great to see friends like Peter David, Julie Schwartz, Forey Ackerman, Bob Burden, Walter Koenig, Lou Ferigno... the list goes on and on. Although the plane flight there was a bit tense, the trip was good.

  As usual, I've been working hard on my current series, narrating "Biography" for A&E. I do enjoy this gig.  I hope some of you will tune in and hear me. The shows are always interesting and well done. I've just now finished demo'ing a batch of new songs that I'm pretty sure will eventually become my next solo album. When I get around to actually recording them properly, I can't say. I'm happy to report that my good pal Mark Hamill has finished editing his new film, "COMIC BOOK: THE MOVIE" that he's directed and stars in and yours truly is featured in it. I've also got a song in the end credits. Look for that in the near future.

  The Jenerators will be back onstage soon and I can't wait to plug in and rock. If you're in Southern California, look us up. Gigs are always posted in advance here at the website homepage.