Look for a brief time in 1980-81 Stephen King was easy-to-understand--just a writer. Of horror at that. Once he did movies like 'Stand by Me' which were not horror he started seeming more uneven as such. Plus, why did they make him in any way an actor to star in some of his own written projects? He was a writer! Sometimes his later work seemed too much for laughs too. He was best in the first two years of the 80's.

PS Look. Night Gallery (which he did not work on) the 70's series sometimes had non-supernatural bits. Bits that were not scifi either.So earlier shows that were supposed to either be scifi or supernatural horror sometimes turned out to be neither as well. I remember watching some NG expecting a scifi or supernatural element to pop up and getting neither(like one segment about a cop)! But King took image breaking to a new level. I think author Mickey Spillaine starred in a movie based on his own work. But KIng starred in far too much.