On The Tube: 'Medium' goes 'Night of the Living Dead'

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On Friday's episode of CBS's "Medium," psychic Allison Dubois (Patricia Arquette) has some nightmares that will look familiar to fans of director George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." For the episode, Arquette is inserted into scenes from the classic horror film, cast in the role of Barbara, originally played by Judith O'Dea.

"This one was so much fun to do," said "Medium" co-executive producer Craig Sweeny, who grew up in Point Breeze and is a 1992 graduate of Pittsburgh Allderdice High School. He wrote this week's "Medium" episode (9 p.m. Friday, KDKA-TV) with Robert Doherty. The story came about at the end of last season when the pair met with "Medium" creator Glenn Gordon Caron, who tossed out an idea he had back in his days writing for "Moonlighting": Insert the actors from his show in a movie that's in the public domain.

"He had no more notion of what the episode would be than that," Sweeny said. Doherty began looking into what films that might qualify and "Night of the Living Dead" stood out.



"Rob, in addition to being a colleague, is a very good friend and he knows I'm a very dedicated fan of Mr. Romero," Sweeny said. "As soon as we saw that, we were determined to find a way to make it work." After jumping through legal hoops, the writers got a green light from CBS lawyers on everything but the "Dead" soundtrack, which was replaced with music by "Medium" composer Sean Callery.

In the episode, series regular Allison suffers from what Sweeny calls "the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' effect": Allison suffers injuries in her dreams and wakes to find a corresponding injury on her body. "We were searching for a way to add some stakes to the episode," Sweeny said. "Once the audience gets over the novelty of seeing characters inserted into the film, we're still bound and determined to tell a story. It allowed Allison to carry her psychosomatic injuries into her life and might make her fear for the first time that she could die in the course of her dreams. It gave the episode a spine and we married [her dreams] to a real-world case that's Halloween-appropriate and takes place in a funeral parlor."

Sweeny said he'd already watched "Night of the Living Dead" at least 15 times before this writing assignment came up. He and Doherty watched it another three times to prepare for the episode and once they figured out which scenes they would use, they watched those scenes again and again to write precise, technical directions in the script of what shots from the movie to use.

The episode was directed by in-house "Medium" producer/director Aaron Lipstadt. Sweeny said Allison's first dream sequence, using the "They're coming to get you, Barbara" cemetery scene from the movie, is comprised of 80 percent "Dead" footage. Once Allison runs into a farmhouse, most of the footage is new. These scenes were shot in black and white on a set designed to duplicate a farmhouse interior in the film.

In a dream sequence three-quarters of the way through the episode, blink and you'll miss Sweeny playing a tall, bald zombie in overalls who chases Allison. "I told Patricia that if she didn't get behind the door in time, I would bite her for real," Sweeny teased. "So she made sure to get out of the way."

Sweeny said he has not spoken with Romero, but he's optimistic that the zombie king will appreciate the "Medium" homage. "We were very conscious of trying to honor the spirit of the movie," he said. "I hope if Mr. Romero were to watch it that he would dig it and think it was a lot of fun."

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