Today, see how an episode of The Twilight Zone tackled Marlon Brando with…Burt Reynolds?!
This is “My Name It is Nothin’,” a look at when movies and TV shows feature celebrities, characters and/or famous people without featuring the actual celebrity/famous people. You know, changing the names so that you can tell the story without legal issues.
May is a Month of My Name it is Nothin’ (or perhaps May Name it is Nothin’)!
Rod Serling, being one of the greatest writers in the early days of the initial “Golden Age” of television in the late 1950s into the early 1960s, obviously had plenty of experience with how much sponsors can essentially ruin a television show, and so in Season 4 of The Twilight Zone, he decided to put it all out there in 1963’s “The Bard,” a brilliant parody of the television industry. A TV writer (Jack Weston) uses a book of black magic to conjure up William Shakespeare himself to help him write a movie. However, the sponsors basically ruin the film, driving Shakespeare (John Williams) mad with anger.
The star of the film, Rocky Rhodes, played by Burt Reynolds, is obviously meant to be Marlon Brando, parodying Brando’s method acting (and mumbled way of speaking)….
https://youtu.be/CoSRBnyamDo?t=333
What a good job by a young Burt Reynolds, right?
If anyone else has a suggestion for a future My Name It Ain’t Nuthin’, drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com!
