Too Tacky?

I wanna do an anthology style TV series. I'd like to use the narration in the style of the Twilight Zone, intro, episode intro and episode ending.

"beyond this door lies another world. The people are very much like you and I, they have similar flaws and vices. However, there is something else about them, some other force driving them forward. Is it fate? Or something else? Now is your chance to find out, by walking through the door"

Is this too tacky for opening narration?
 
As a horror fan, I think that sounds great- I'd actually go as far as to say I'd welcome the idea of an old skool introduction like that. Is it a horror anthology you have in mind?

My main concern would be the reception it would get across the board- the mainstream reception.

My case and point would be exemplified by M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening". I seemed to be one of the few people on the face of the earth who enjoyed it- I liked its thorough 60's borderline "B movie" feel, fused with the high budget effects (in places). The point I'm getting at here is the overall theme and the conclusive twist of the film is steeped in the 60's style both thematically and visually (towards the end), and as you probably know the reception the film got was poor, with the critics slating it. The approach with the intro narration is a dated idea, but a touch which television has lost through time- this is for the exact reason you have mentioned, it can be seen as really tacky. My point here is that audiences are "past" this style, and it seems if "The Happening" is anything to go by, they are uninterested.

I know a director who wrote and shot his own 50's/60's B movie horror style films in the 1970's, I interviewed him recently for a documentary I was working on and one of my questions was whether he thought there was a market for these touch backs to the first classic age of horror- he told me there was no market for it and people have moved on too much. That is simply one person's opinion, one I have to say I agree with, but at the same time there is material and an idea there which is waiting to have life blown into it for the 21st Century. Either way, if you choose to go the "classic" route, you will please enthusiasts and audience cliques in the genre if its done well- big gamble though if the rest of the audience isn't going to take your show seriously though!

You sit at a crossroads, you can breathe new life into the idea or you could stick to the roots of the classics and tastefully recreate the style. Either way it is certainly a challenge, but doable!!
 
I'm glad you like it. I just felt like it would seem a bit.. Tacky.
I mean, the series won't strictly be horror, if I had to compare it to a Serling thing (my main influence for this stuff) I want it to be more Twilight Zone than Night Gallery, touching on several genres, mainly science fiction and horror.
I don't have a budget really so effects aren't an option.
I'm not aiming particularly to appeal to a particular audience, not too marketing minded really. Obviously, from narration etc it'll be possible to see the Twilight Zone influence so that's kind of what I'm trying to create. A series like that.
If that rambling makes sense :)
 
You should beware that this is so similar to the Twilight Zone that your audience might confuse it for parody or claim it is a blatant Twilight Zone ripoff, especially if you have a host on-camera delivering the narration. Challenge yourself to transcend the inspiration and create something new.
 
Well, yeah that's true.
That opening narration just came to me when I had the idea, I might run with it in the script of the pilot, when I get a plot idea for one that is. I seem to be struggling to come up with anything =\

EDIT: I have an idea, I suppose it's a bit predictable as science fiction goes but hey, I think it might be able to work well.
It's set in a totalitarian future and is about a man put on trial for the crime of nonconforming, which is seen as an act of undermining the state. I just need a way to get a good script and perhaps something of a twist ending.
 
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