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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Norriback with

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Speaker 2: Mark Zacree. He has written and produced hundreds of hours

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Speaker 2: of series of TVs, pilots, and future films for most

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Speaker 2: of the major studios and networks. Mark has just founded

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Speaker 2: Space Command Studios, a production company based in Los Angeles

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Speaker 2: and London dedicated to making TV series and films that

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Speaker 2: are socially relevant and inspiring. Among the many projects currently

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Speaker 2: in preparation and pre prep or post, he and his

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Speaker 2: wife Elaine are writing, directing, producing Space Command, that epic

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Speaker 2: science fiction series, and their showrunners Network, a slate of

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Speaker 2: six TV series co created with some of the top

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Speaker 2: creative showrunners working in television today. His latest book is

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Speaker 2: called green Lighting Yourself. He's also written the Twilight Zone

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Speaker 2: companion Mark Welcome back, my friend. How are you?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 3: I'm great, George, And it's great to be on the show.

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Speaker 3: It's great to hear your wonderful voice.

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Speaker 2: Five of a writer's strike is over.

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Speaker 3: Yes, pallelujah, Yes, yes, absolutely absolutely.

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Speaker 2: Are the writers happy with the deal?

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes they are, And but I mean, what if

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Speaker 3: science fiction world we live in, where one of the

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Speaker 3: issues was AI writing movie and TV scripts. I mean,

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Speaker 3: you know that if Rod Serling were here, he would

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Speaker 3: certainly be writing about that, no doubt. Actually he did

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Speaker 3: write about its back on The Twilight Zone, about computers

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Speaker 3: taking over and robots taking over, so he would be

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Speaker 3: no stranger to this idea.

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Speaker 2: How come this thing lasted so long?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, there's these big companies that own the

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Speaker 3: studios and the networks. There's only a few of them,

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Speaker 3: and they're big monoliths, and so I think they wanted

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Speaker 3: to wear the writers down a little, kind of have

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Speaker 3: them exhaust their savings a bit. Fortunately, you know, Elaine

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Speaker 3: and I were just fine and it wasn't you know.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I've been through many strikes before, but I'm

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Speaker 3: really glad it came to a resolution that would what

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Speaker 3: they needed. So it's really the right solution.

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Speaker 2: Well that's good. Did your Space Command show continue to

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Speaker 2: produce or did you have to put that on hold?

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Speaker 1: No?

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Speaker 3: No, we're interestingly enough, we are Settler. As well as

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Speaker 3: being in the Writers' Guild, we're also SAG signatory because

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Speaker 3: we hire actors who are in the Union of course,

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Speaker 3: and SAG gave us a waiver where we could continue

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Speaker 3: shooting because we were a small independent company that had

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Speaker 3: a long term relationship with them. They they're mainly just

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Speaker 3: striking the big networks and studios, those sort of the

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Speaker 3: guys with all the big bags of money.

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Speaker 2: Are you bullesh on Hollywood? Mark? Do you think things

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Speaker 2: are going the right way now?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think at the moment, an artificial

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Speaker 3: intelligence rights to hit movie that's going to be very problematic,

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Speaker 3: you know. But basically, I mean, you know, I'm living

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Speaker 3: the dream, George. I'm I'm writing and directing and producing

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Speaker 3: this wonderful spacegoing show. It was my dream since I

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Speaker 3: was ten years old, and when I'm star Trek set

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Speaker 3: when I was a kid, and so as you know,

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Speaker 3: so for me, I'm able to create what I want

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Speaker 3: to create and work with people I want to work with.

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Speaker 3: So I'm certainly happy. And I can reach a vast

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Speaker 3: audience millions of people via my YouTube channel, so it's

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Speaker 3: you know, it's pretty wonderful.

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Speaker 2: Great. We'll talk about the YouTube channel on a second

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Speaker 2: in Space Command, But tell us about green lighting yourself

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Speaker 2: the book you wrote last year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, when I started in the industry

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Speaker 3: when I sold my first Shortstor when I was nineteen

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Speaker 3: and was writing the TV by the time I was

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Speaker 3: twenty two or twenty see writing the twilights and books

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Speaker 3: start when I was twenty one. And back then, the

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Speaker 3: only way you could reach a mass audience was through

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Speaker 3: the studios and the networks if you wanted to work

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Speaker 3: in TV or film. Well, now that's completely different. Now

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Speaker 3: if you just have a you know, a YouTube channel

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Speaker 3: and cloud fund on Kickstarter, and you know, you have

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Speaker 3: the Internet and all of that, it's a totally different world.

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Speaker 3: And I run a round table where I mentor a

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Speaker 3: lot of young people in the industry and they were

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Speaker 3: so stated, said, well, well, the studios in the networks

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Speaker 3: won't let me have my dreams. And I said, you know,

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Speaker 3: science fiction never predicted that everyone would have a video

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Speaker 3: camera in their pocket, and so I wanted to share

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Speaker 3: with them what I've learned, which is the new way

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Speaker 3: of doing TV. And my fans have given me over

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Speaker 3: four million dollars to shoot Space Command A from my

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Speaker 3: own studio, and I wanted to share that with everyone

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Speaker 3: who wanted a career in film, with TV or even

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Speaker 3: books and and say it's it's not in mystery. It's

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Speaker 3: like a cookbook, like like like they say in the

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Speaker 3: you know, in the Served Man, it's a cookbook. So

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Speaker 3: it's really wonderful to be able to and it's not

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Speaker 3: just my story of how to break in and have

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Speaker 3: a thriving career. I also talked to a lot of

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Speaker 3: my friends who run a lot of the different TV

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Speaker 3: shows and found their their stories as well that were

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Speaker 3: very like dear Modelsorrow and Ray Bradbery. Some of the stains.

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Speaker 3: Rape told me he was a dear friend, and we

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Speaker 3: were both each fans of his you and I and

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Speaker 3: and so there were stories that Ray told me about

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Speaker 3: how he broke in and built his career, and I

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Speaker 3: thought that would be of use to the aspiring writers

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Speaker 3: and directors and actors.

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Speaker 2: I've still got his letter that he sent me on

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Speaker 2: my bulletin board back in Los Angeles when we wrote

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Speaker 2: that editorial about his I sing the Body Electric, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: one of the classic Twilight zones.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. A wonderful guy, A wonderful guy.

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Speaker 2: Are science fiction minds the same as they were years ago?

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Speaker 2: Are they different?

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Speaker 3: They're different? And you know, it's interesting. One of the

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Speaker 3: reasons I did Space Command was because I wanted to

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Speaker 3: write something that would inspire me, like the original Star

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Speaker 3: Trek in Twilight Zone and now the Limits inspired me

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Speaker 3: when I was a kid, you know, I wanted someone

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Speaker 3: that would inspire the audience and say we have a

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Speaker 3: future with living in I think a lot of the

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Speaker 3: writers now the tending to look inward rather than towards

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Speaker 3: the stars. You know, Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein, Neurocescy

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Speaker 3: Clark and Isaac Asmov. They were visionaries and the when

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Speaker 3: I was growing up, the Space Program was hand in

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Speaker 3: glove with the science fiction writers, and so it really

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Speaker 3: felt like they were limitless possibilities. And I still believe

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Speaker 3: in that. But a lot of my friends who write

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Speaker 3: plants pictures so much have much darker visions, and I

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Speaker 3: don't think that's necessarily helpful. When you're sending a message

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Speaker 3: to the audience, you don't want to say, well, there's

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Speaker 3: no hope, because then there's nothing they can do with

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Speaker 3: that other than curl on a ball and moans softly.

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Speaker 3: Whereas if you say yes, we can reach across boundaries

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Speaker 3: and barriers, if we come with a good heart and compassion,

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Speaker 3: we can create a future worth living. In and that's

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Speaker 3: always been the message of what I've been up to.

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Speaker 2: What got you to fall in love with the Twilight Zone?

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Speaker 3: Mark? Oh my god, what's not to love? You know,

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Speaker 3: I mean, George, it's such an it's such an amazing show.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 3: I produced the twilight Zone Blu ray sets, and I

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Speaker 3: was able to do fifty two audio commentaries on the

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Speaker 3: episodes and to sit down with those directors and those

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Speaker 3: actors and those writers and the producers and just study

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Speaker 3: these episodes. They're so they're just jewels, you know, and

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Speaker 3: you can watch them over and over and over again

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Speaker 3: because they're deeply human and deeply I mean Rod Shirley

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Speaker 3: had such insight into the human heart and you and

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Speaker 3: he and the other writers told such great story. You'll

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Speaker 3: Kick the Cams by George Clayton Johnson is such a

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Speaker 3: wonderful episode. So many of them are, and you just

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Speaker 3: you know, they're gorgeously acted and written and directed and

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Speaker 3: shot and music by people like Bernard Herman and Jerry

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Speaker 3: Goldsmith who became, you know, who are the great movie composers.

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Speaker 3: They're composing for twilight Zone because the scripts were so good.

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Speaker 3: That's what That's what got the everyone else's quality to

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Speaker 3: come aboards because Rod was such an amazing writing Now.

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Speaker 2: Rod over saw everything. What percent of the shows did

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Speaker 2: he write?

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Speaker 3: There were one hundred and fifty six episodes total over

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Speaker 3: a five year period, and he wrote ninety two of

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Speaker 3: them himself. Wow, huge, a huge number. And he was

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Speaker 3: also writing things like seven Days and May of the

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Speaker 3: movie in this period, so it's just an amazing output

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Speaker 3: he was. But he would dictated scripts. He would lie

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Speaker 3: by the swimming pool back of his house and speak

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Speaker 3: into a recorder and then the secretary would type up

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Speaker 3: the scripts. They make books and corrections, and so he

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Speaker 3: could write very very fast and just amazing, amazing range

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Speaker 3: and depth. I mean, week after weeks pouring out these

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Speaker 3: phenomenal scripts. Just no one, no one has ever equaled that,

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Speaker 3: you know output.

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Speaker 1: Ever.

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Speaker 2: Did it take him a while to sell The Twilight Zone?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it did. Interestingly enough, he never really wanted

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Speaker 3: to be a science fiction writer, that wasn't his ambition.

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Speaker 3: But when he was a big dramatist of television in

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Speaker 3: the fifties, but every time he tried to write about

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Speaker 3: race or you know, social issues or politics, the censors

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Speaker 3: wouldn't let him. They would the notes would render the

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Speaker 3: script meaningless, at least to him, And so, even though

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Speaker 3: he's the highest paid writer in television, he wanted something

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Speaker 3: where he could slip these messages about humanity and the

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Speaker 3: censors wouldn't notice it. For me and realize that he

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Speaker 3: wrote science fiction that he could get past the censors,

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Speaker 3: which worked perfectly, But he wrote four pilots for twilight

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Speaker 3: Zone before the final once got the series green lift,

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Speaker 3: and he was just not going to say. You know,

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Speaker 3: he wasn't going to stop. He wasn't going to take

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Speaker 3: no for an answer. And thank God for all of us,

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Speaker 3: because twilight Zone is such a masterpiece of his creation.

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Speaker 3: I mean, all these things he wrote in the fifties

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Speaker 3: were very good, you know, reckon for a heavyweight and

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Speaker 3: so forth, but they wouldn't established him the way twilight

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Speaker 3: Zone did. So it was a blessing for both Rod

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Speaker 3: and Center in public course.

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Speaker 2: Whose idea was it to do it as an anthology

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Speaker 2: with him as the host?

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Speaker 3: Well, the funny thing was he always envisioned it as

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Speaker 3: an anthology. During the fifties, when he sort of grew

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Speaker 3: up in television as a writer, there were a lot

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Speaker 3: of anthology shows and so he's very comfortable with a

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Speaker 3: half hour form and he liked that sort of television

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Speaker 3: short story. But he wasn't intended to be the host

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Speaker 3: at all. Originally, the original pilot was a guy that

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Speaker 3: was narrated by a guy named Westbrook one breast with

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Speaker 3: had done the March of Time and it had a

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Speaker 3: big booming voice, and when they looked at the pilot,

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Speaker 3: it was really not appropriate to Twilight Zones. In fact,

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Speaker 3: on the box set of the Twilight Zone box set

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Speaker 3: I produced, they have that alternate version of the pilot

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Speaker 3: where is everybody with that narration? But then they wanted

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Speaker 3: Orson Wells, and he was too expensive, and they just

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Speaker 3: didn't know who to hire. And finally Rod said, well

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Speaker 3: how about me? And everyone just laughed at him, you know,

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Speaker 3: and they fell out of their chairs. But they had

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Speaker 3: no other choice really, so they tried it, and of

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Speaker 3: course he was the perfect choice. It became a second

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Speaker 3: career for him as a narrator and host.

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Speaker 2: Is Hollywood coming up with these great theme songs that

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Speaker 2: we had for all the shows in those days. I mean,

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Speaker 2: we remember the Twilight Zone theme, we remember Bonanza. All

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Speaker 2: these great shows had a theme tied to it, I

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Speaker 2: don't hear that anymore.

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Speaker 3: No, No, there was this great period from like the

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Speaker 3: late fifties through the sixties where you have these kind

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Speaker 3: of real jazzy scores, really interesting scores and on all

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Speaker 3: sorts of shows, the future if you name it, I mean,

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Speaker 3: and and Outer Limits had amazing music too. There was

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Speaker 3: just a talent pool, and they were willing to do

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Speaker 3: things very experimentally. I mean, even if you look at

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Speaker 3: Bernard Hermann's scores for Twilight Zones, he'd try out things

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Speaker 3: with that small, little little orchestra, and then you'd see

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Speaker 3: him fully fully exploring those same things and the feature

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Speaker 3: that he was doing. So this would almost to be

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Speaker 3: like a composures sketch pad. And so these were really

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Speaker 3: wonderful composers. And I love those themes. When I was

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Speaker 3: a kid, I actually recorded a whole bunch of TV

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Speaker 3: themes on like I said, just to listen to them

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Speaker 3: over and over and over again, and it was really fun,

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Speaker 3: really really fun.

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Speaker 2: That's great. And so how did you get interested in

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Speaker 2: the Twilight Zone. What was it that sparked your interest?

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Speaker 1: Well?

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Speaker 3: I was always sort of a science fiction kid, you know,

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Speaker 3: from from when I was little and twilight Zone was

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Speaker 3: syndicated in the afternoons here in Los Angeles, five days

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Speaker 3: a week, and so I would I lived around the

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Speaker 3: corner from my elementary school, so I would come home

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Speaker 3: and it would and turn on the TV and there

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Speaker 3: it would be. And they were just wonderful. I mean,

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Speaker 3: all of the kids watched Twilight Zone. We all knew

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Speaker 3: those stories and we'd share them with each other around

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Speaker 3: the campfire, as it were, and they were just you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a breaking about twilights on this. You know, you

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Speaker 3: can be a kid, you can meet an adult, you

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Speaker 3: can be a man, you can be a woman, you

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Speaker 3: could be any background at all, and those stories will

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Speaker 3: still resonate, They'll still pack a punch, you know, and

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Speaker 3: and they hold up. I mean, it's amazing. I'm to

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Speaker 3: this day, I'm talking to young people who just love

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Speaker 3: the show. And you know, a lot of other things

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Speaker 3: they don't want to see black and white, but Twilight

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Speaker 3: Zone black and white. That said perfectly, And of course

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Speaker 3: the visuals are astonishing. It's the best black and white

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Speaker 3: photography ever done on television.

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Speaker 2: What was the name of the show that went to

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Speaker 2: color after after twilight Zone that he did Gallery?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's got some good episodes, but he didn't

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Speaker 3: have the same control over it. He was very unhappy

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Speaker 3: and uh and so, but it's you know, but still

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Speaker 3: there's there's some jewels amongst the the lesser, lesser efforts

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Speaker 3: on that show. The batting average on Twilight Zone was

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Speaker 3: much higher.

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Speaker 2: And you met your buddy Billy Mooney, did you when

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Speaker 2: he was a kid?

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Speaker 3: Yes? Yes, I was home sick one day and I

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Speaker 3: was a fan of Lost in Space, and I pulled

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Speaker 3: out the big phone directly the white pages, which they

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Speaker 3: don't have anymore, and I called the stars of Lost

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Speaker 3: in Space, and mostly was just people with the same names.

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Speaker 3: But Billy's dad was in the phone in that phone book,

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Speaker 3: so I called and Billy's mom mom answered that Billy there,

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Speaker 3: and he came to the phone, and you know, we

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Speaker 3: as since I was over the cold. I was staying

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Speaker 3: home with the cold, in my pajamas and seven years old.

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Speaker 3: But as soon as I was well, my mom took

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Speaker 3: me to his house and traded comics books. And then,

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Speaker 3: of course I interviewed him when we did the Twilight

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Speaker 3: Zone companion, and I worked with him when I wrote

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Speaker 3: the Babylon Five. I cast in Space Command and it's just,

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Speaker 3: you know, being able to take this journey together over

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Speaker 3: all these years has been just really an honor and

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Speaker 3: an enormous fun.

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Speaker 2: What's his role in Space Command?

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Speaker 3: He plays a character named Greg Mazzy. He's sort of

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Speaker 3: liked the accommodations Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. He creates

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Speaker 3: these artificial humans that he've used his machines, and ultimately

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Speaker 3: one of them, played by Doug Jones of Startrek Discovery,

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Speaker 3: rebels and he becomes basically the Spartacus of the Androids

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Speaker 3: and leads the rebellion, but ultimately Greg Mazzie sees sort

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Speaker 3: of the error of his waves, and he continues throughout

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Speaker 3: the show as a character who has many adventures and

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Speaker 3: is really quite lovable and it's a sort of plenty

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Speaker 3: brilliant way. So it's really really fun.

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Speaker 2: And how many episodes of Space Command.

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Speaker 1: Have you done? Now?

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Speaker 2: So far?

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Speaker 3: We just finish shooting the sixth hour of the twelve

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Speaker 3: hour season, but we now have all the staffs, all

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Speaker 3: the costumes, all the props we need to shoot the

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Speaker 3: rest of the season. So now you know, just ongoingly

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Speaker 3: raising money and now we're starting to talk to the distributors.

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Speaker 3: Now that the strip is over, I can actually take

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Speaker 3: the show out, you know, and talk to the buyers.

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Speaker 3: And but meantime I can show it on mister sci Fi.

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Speaker 3: I can sell the Blu rays and DVDs, you know,

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Speaker 3: all of that stuff. And for the sixth Hour, we

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Speaker 3: just finished the rough cut of it, and it's really

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Speaker 3: it's really fun. It's really got wonderful sequences. They're giant

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Speaker 3: robots and you know, eight foot tall aliens and alien

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Speaker 3: spaceship sets and it's it's everything a kid could want.

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Speaker 2: And you always wanted to do it with private funding.

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Speaker 2: Why did you want to go after the networks or

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Speaker 2: bigger venues for that?

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, because I've written for all the major studios

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Speaker 3: and network hundreds of hours of TV, and you know,

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Speaker 3: and I've been very lucky. I've gotten a lot of

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Speaker 3: work done that I really am very proud of that

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Speaker 3: via that route. But with this, I didn't want to

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Speaker 3: take the risks. But they would cut me off at

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Speaker 3: script or cut me off at pilot, or give me

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Speaker 3: notes that I would have to listen to because they

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Speaker 3: were writing the checks, and those notes might move the show.

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Speaker 3: So I never raised money before, but I because I

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Speaker 3: mentor all these young people. They were talking about crowdfunding

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Speaker 3: and Kickstarter, and I said, well, let's let's try it.

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Speaker 3: And our first campaign, our target was seventy five thousand

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Speaker 3: dollars to raise in two months. We raised that in

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Speaker 3: three days and ultimately in that campaign we raised two

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Speaker 3: hundred and twenty one thousand dollars. Oh so yeah, and

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Speaker 3: so so I've raised about half the money from crowdfunding.

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Speaker 3: In fact, we're about to start a cloud funding campaigns

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Speaker 3: in the next couple of weeks for the box set.

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Speaker 3: Finished the box sets the first six hours of Space Command.

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Speaker 3: But I've also been telling investment shares just seventy top

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Speaker 3: one hundred dollars each, and people from all around the

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Speaker 3: world have stepped up to buy shares and help get

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Speaker 3: this decision made. And if the show seals to a buyer,

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Speaker 3: they'll get a return on investment. But that's not really

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Speaker 3: why they're doing it. They're doing it because they want

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Speaker 3: something hopeful. They want something that's got that's about honor

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Speaker 3: and bravery and empathy. And I always talk about active empathy,

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Speaker 3: active compassion. It's not enough just look across the cut

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Speaker 3: and see some like guy who's like down on as

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Speaker 3: Buck and say oh that poor man and walk on.

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Speaker 3: You have to take action for compassion to be worth having.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's not enough just to feel bad that

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Speaker 3: someone's suffering if they do something about it. And that's

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Speaker 3: where it's not a political issue at all. It's you

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Speaker 3: should come from a good heart, and there are people

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Speaker 3: with good hearts on every part of the spectrum. You know,

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Speaker 3: I don't need to get into political arguments with people.

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Speaker 3: I'd rather you know, say, we all want a good

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Speaker 3: future for our kids. We all want, you know, people

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Speaker 3: to not be suffering. We all want you know, everyone

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Speaker 3: to get a square break, you know. So there's things

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Speaker 3: we can all agree on.

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Speaker 2: And it's kind of cool for people to say I

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Speaker 2: own part of that film.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Well you know that our investors comes are

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Speaker 3: welcome to come on the set. On the set, we

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Speaker 3: will put them on a spacesuit and put them on

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Speaker 3: on camera. We invite them to comic Con. We get

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Speaker 3: them in on comic Con and take them to a

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Speaker 3: nice meal, and they're always welcome to's part of whatever

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Speaker 3: we're doing. And and you know, it's funny because when

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Speaker 3: I went to that start start Trexit, when I was

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Speaker 3: a kid, and sat in the captain's chair and stood

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Speaker 3: on the transporter and all of those things. It was

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Speaker 3: just such a magical world. And now when I step

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Speaker 3: onto my own spaceship sets, we've got three we've got

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Speaker 3: three sound stages now, two small ones and the big ones,

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Speaker 3: and uh, you know, thirty spacesuits. You know all this stuff,

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Speaker 3: and you know, it's it's just so amazing. It's magical.

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Speaker 3: And so when I bring people to the studio and

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Speaker 3: see their eyes light up, it's just it's really really

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Speaker 3: a thrill.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

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Speaker 1: one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to coastam

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Speaker 1: dot com for more