Stephen King is one of America's most prolific writers whose books have sold roughly 350 million copies worldwide. The Master of Horror, as he's been known for quite some time now, knows how to scare people and sell books, and naturally Hollywood has mined his voluminous output in the hopes of putting butts in the seats and dollars in the bank. From his earliest novel, Carrie, which was put to film two years after publication, hardly a year has gone by without a King adaptation being released in one form or another. There have been big-budget prestige films, low-budget passion projects, TV movies, mini-series, television series, all those "dollar babies" and, more recently, a number of long-form shows and movie options on streaming platforms.
For me it all started with the books. Well, it started with the movies, or rather the trailers and ads for the movies. But I was too young to see any of those R rated films when they first came out. So I started checking out his books from the library, beginning with The Shining, which lead to his previous novels and short story collections, then to buying the paperbacks, and ultimately to buying hardcovers. King adaptations became regular rentals and I always anticipated each new film and book.
Above is the introductory episode to the Spotlight on Stephen King series. Upcoming episodes will appear over the next few weeks and months between our regularly (and irregularly) scheduled programming.
