"NBC quickly agreed to give him the green light — IF Johnson would make the miniseries about aliens instead of authoritarians.
He was heartsick, but forged on. Maybe the sci-fi element could make it a more palatable allegory about fascism and freedom... The result was #V."
“I got to thinking, God, how would everyday people feel if suddenly there was a sea change in our life that turned it all around, if suddenly some hyper power rolled over us, just like the Nazis rolled into Europe?”
"Today, Johnson hopes to reclaim the show—from the executives who bungled it, from the conspiracy obsessives who misunderstood it, and from the reliquary of nostalgia TV. He is actively trying to remake it as a series of movies, believing its themes are more relevant than ever."
"Sinclair Lewis’s dystopian 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here was his inspiration. Lewis intended it as a warning to complacent Americans that their democracy was more vulnerable than they realized."
"In Lewis’s book, the United States is torn apart by a flamboyant blowhard politician who uses fearmongering and empty promises to the working class to win election before consolidating his power, shattering the traditions of governance, and stoking paranoia and division."
“A young guy named Jeff Sagansky was sitting in the corner. He said, ‘How about aliens, Kenny?’” Johnson says. “And I went, Aaaggghhh! I just didn’t want to go in that direction.”
Great piece:
vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023…
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