June 26, 2023- number 90, 91

Spoilers

“The Fugitive”

Why do you have to be so mean, Ms. Hathaway?

This was a weird episode that was intended to be a sweet one, but lent itself into something less than sweet.

“It’s been said that science fiction and fantasy are two different things: science fiction, the improbable made possible; fantasy, the impossible made probable. What would you have if you put these two different things together? Well, you’d have an old man named Ben who knows a lot of tricks most people don’t know and a little girl named Jenny who loves him — and a journey into the heart of the Twilight Zone.”

Ben and Jenny are friends. Ben can do amazing things, such as shapeshift and other magical tricks. Trouble is that Ben is being pursued by two men who appear to be from the police.

Jenny is staying with her aunt Agnes, played by Nancy Kulp, most well known as Ms. Hathaway of the Beverly Hillbillies. Aunt Agnes was pretty mean, always yelling at Jenny and wanting Ben to go away forever.

The relationship between Jenny and Ben was meant to be sweet, but it really felt odd to me and was a drawback to the episode. That made this a weird installment of The Twilight Zone. Ben was revealed as an alien who was a king of his planet and the two police were actually subjects trying to bring him back. There were a lot of this episode that just did not work well for me.

“Little Lost Girl”

“Little Lost Girl” is a fascinating episode with some cool special effects creating a bizarre dimension, showing how different the they can be.

“Missing: one frightened little girl. Name: Bettina Miller. Description: six years of age, average height and build, light brown hair, quite pretty. Last seen being tucked in bed by her mother a few hours ago. Last heard: ‘ay, there’s the rub,’ as Hamlet put it. For Bettina Miller can be heard quite clearly, despite the rather curious fact that she can’t be seen at all. Present location? Let’s say for the moment… in the Twilight Zone.”

An opening between dimensions appears in the bedroom of Bettina Miller and she falls into it. Crying out for her parents, Chris and Ruth, they come to her room. They can hear her, but they cannot find her no matter where they look. When Mack the dog runs under the bed and disappears as well, they know that something weird was going on.

Fortunately, Chris has a friend named Bill who is, coincidentally, a physicist. He comes up with the alternate dimension theory and tells Chris that the dog was the key. The dog is trying to lead Bettina out from the dimension. Chris, however, winds up falling inside the portal too.

The special effects in the dimension was really cool, making everything feel unsettling and oft balance.

Chris is instructed that he must not move and that Mack had to lead Bettina to him. Chris kept calling his daughter and the dog and finally they came to him. Bill is able to pull them free of the dimension and back into their house.

Bill lets Chris know that the portal was closing and that Chris was actually just partially inside the dimension. Bill was worried that the portal would shut before Chris was out, leaving half of him in each dimension.

Bill and Mack the dog were clearly the MVPs of this episode. It just goes to show you that it is always a good idea to make friends with a physicist and have him on speed dial for those middle of the night dimensional emergencies.

June 25, 2023-number 89

Spoilers

“To Serve Man”

My friend Todd told me that this was his favorite episode of The Twilight Zone and that I would love it. I know that the expectations were high for the episode as it is considered one of the iconic episodes of the entire run.

“Respectfully submitted for your perusal — a Kanamit. Height: a little over nine feet. Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin: unknown. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we’re going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone.”

I enjoyed the way the episode started, with Michael Chambers locked inside a room by himself as instructions came over the speakers. It immediately places the audience on their guard. With his own narration used, it set a new feel for the episode since typically all we get for narration is Rod Serling at the beginning and the end of episodes.

The Kanamit aliens looked great, using their telepathy to talk is a really cool idea too. I see that Richard Kiel was the actor who played the giant aliens. Kiel also became famous for his role as Jaws in several James Bond movies.

Now, I did figure out the twist early in the episode. When I first thought about it- the fact that the Kanamits were actually doing everything for the humans because they were preparing them as food to eat- it seemed like a joke, a Soylent Green-esque moment. However, as the episode continued and when the cover title was deciphered, I had a pretty good idea that my guess was indeed the correct one.

I did love the twist and I am sure that it was sensational to the people of 1962 when this first aired. This was based on a short story of the same name by Damon Knight from 1950.

“The recollections of one Michael Chambers, with appropriate flashbacks and soliloquy. Or, more simply stated, the evolution of man. The cycle of going from dust to dessert. The metamorphosis from being the ruler of a planet to an ingredient in someone’s soup. It’s tonight’s bill of fare from the Twilight Zone.”

Todd was right again. I did love this episode. I kind of wish that I did not figure out the twist so early because I can see that line “It’s a Cookbook!” being a great horrific reveal.

June 25, 2023- numbers 84, 85, 86, 87, 88

This was actually the worst stretch of five episodes that I have seen from the series, with a couple of okay ones and a couple really low ones.

Spoilers

“The Hunt”

This was the best of the five episodes during this stretch. A good old country mountain man and his dog. He rather go coon huntin’ than much of anything else.

“An old man and a hound-dog named Rip, off for an evening’s pleasure in quest of raccoon. Usually, these evenings end with one tired old man, one battle-scarred hound dog, and one or more extremely dead raccoons, but as you may suspect, that will not be the case tonight. These hunters won’t be coming home from the hill. They’re headed for the backwoods — of The Twilight Zone.”

Hyder Simpson and his dog Rip went out hunting raccoon despite his wife Rachel’s objections. Rachel’s premonition came true as Rip chased the raccoon into the water and was drowning. Simpson dove in after his beloved dog, but neither came up.

Hyder awoke in the woods and returned to his home only to realize that no one could hear him and that he and Rip was dead. He found a fence that shouldn’t have been there and followed it, finding a gate where a man sat. The man said this was the gate to heaven but Hyder could not take Rip in with him. Hyder refused and decided to keep walking down the road for eternity.

Soon he came across another man who knew who he was and told him that the other guy was on the gate to Hell. This was actually the path to heaven. Hyder asked about the coon hunting in heaven.

An episode for dog lovers everywhere. I found it funny that the dog’s name was Rip (rest in peace).

“Showdown with Rance McGrew”

One of the dumbest episodes I have seen so far.

It appeared to be another Western episode. However, it was a Western TV series being filmed and the star of the show was Rance McGrew, arrogant, pompous, demanding.

“Some one-hundred-odd years ago, a motley collection of tough mustaches galloped across the West and left behind a raft of legends and  legerdemains, and it seems a reasonable conjecture that if there are any television sets up in cowboy heaven and any one of these rough-and-wooly nail-eaters could see with what careless abandon their names and exploits are being bandied about, they’re very likely turning over in their graves—or worse, getting out of them. Which gives you a clue as to the proceedings that will begin in just a moment, when one Mr. Rance McGrew, a 3,000-buck-a-week phoney-baloney discovers that this week’s current edition of make-believe is being shot on location—and that location is the Twilight Zone.”

Like several other episodes, Rance found himself transported to the past in the actual saloon like the show was taping at, but the crew was gone. The real Jesse James (who was the villain in the episode) was looking to make Rance pay. Apparently, Jesse was able to watch Rance on TV and knew all about the career path of the actor.

This got even stupider as well as Jesse wound up back in the present with Rance as his new “agent” and insisted on changes to the script to make the real life Western characters look better.

More comedy attempted. There have been very few comedic episodes of The Twilight Zone that worked.

“Kick the Can”

A nice little episode of the wish for youth and the cliché that you are only as old as you act/feel.

“Sunnyvale Rest, a home for the aged – a dying place, and a common children’s game called kick-the-can, that will shortly become a refuge for a man who knows he will die in this world, if he doesn’t escape into – The Twilight Zone.”

While the episode was harmless and did carry a decent message, there was not much to it as it carried on. The end was fairly expected and the way the staff treated these old people, especially Charles was shameful. The idea that Charles was considered senile because he wanted to stay young by finding the magic in a kid’s game was mean-spirited. The fact that his best friend Ben did not support his friend was quite off too. Admittedly, I did like the end with Ben losing out on the magic.

“A Piano in the House”

Speaking of mean-spirited, the episode ‘A Piano in the House’ is one of the most mean-spirited episodes of The Twilight Zone I have seen. I’m not sure the ending was sufficient of comeuppance for the cruelty shown by lead character, Mr. Fitzgerald Fortune.

“Mr. Fitzgerald Fortune, theater critic and cynic at large, on his way to a birthday party. If he knew what is in store for him he probably wouldn’t go, because before this evening is over that cranky old piano is going to play ‘Those Piano Roll Blues’ with some effects that could happen only in the Twilight Zone.”

Fortune had purchased a player-piano for his young bride’s birthday. Fortune discovered that the music played by the piano had strange effects on the listeners and he planned on using it during the party on some of his guests.

I especially felt bad for Marge Moore, played wonderfully by Muriel Landers, as the piano made her do things intended to humiliate her (and the whole crowd laughed). I am not sure why Fortune targeted Marge outside of simply sadism.

“The Last Rites of Jeff Mytlebank”

Roscoe P. Coltrane is back once again!

That is James Best is back as our titular character, a man who died and, during his funeral, sits up and is apparently alive… two days later!

“Time, the mid-twenties. Place, the Midwest, the southernmost section of the Midwest. We were just witnessing a funeral, a funeral that didn’t come off exactly as planned, due to a slight fallout from the Twilight Zone.”

This episode seemed to be hinting at the fact that people can get themselves riled up and lose common sense when confronted with rumors and speculation, especially when they are not necessarily the brightest of people (that is a relevant comment for today’s political world too).

There was a lot of exposition here, particularly at the very end when Jeff was being confronted by the town people about him being a demon that had taken over the dead body of Jeff. The ending was somewhat lackluster and lacking. This concept felt like it could have been much ore than what it turned out to be.

June 24, 2023- numbers 81,82,83

Spoilers

“Nothing in the Dark”

Robert Redford is Mr. Death?

“An old woman living in a nightmare, an old woman who has fought a thousand battles with death and always won. Now she’s faced with a grim decision—whether or not to open a door. And in some strange and frightening way she knows that this seemingly ordinary door leads to the Twilight Zone.”

Wanda Dunn has been hiding away from Mr. Death for years. She has seen him when others have died and it has led her to shut herself inside a condemned building and not leave the premises. When a police officer is shot outside her door, she opens it up to help him.

However, everything was not as it seemed, as is common in The Twilight Zone. When another man comes to try and convince Wanda to leave because the building has to be torn down, she realized that that man could not see the injured police officer in the room.

Turns out that the police officer was Mr. Death, offering Wanda a chance to come with him. He shows Wanda her own dead body, which lies on the bed in the room.

Well acted episode and the dialogue between Robert Redford and Gladys Cooper, who played Wanda, was a highlight.

“One More Pallbearer”

Not sure how the purpose of this episode. Was it meant to be a revenge tale or simply a practical joke meant to teach the subjects an abject lesson?

Either way, I did not like this.

“What you have just looked at takes place three hundred feet underground, beneath the basement of a New York City skyscraper. It’s owned and lived in by one Paul Radin. Mr. Radin is rich, eccentric and single-minded. How rich we can already perceive; how eccentric and single-minded we shall see in a moment, because all of you have just entered the Twilight Zone.”

Paul Radin held grudges from his life and he is looking for a way to save face. He pretends that he has called back three people form his past who have treated him poorly and he pretends that the world is going to be destroyed in a nuclear bombing. He provides them safety in his bomb shelter but he asks for apologies. None of the ‘victims’ want to stay. They all prefer to go to their homes and loved ones and die together if they must. This drives Paul crazy.

None of this makes any sense and it is just filled with exposition and nonsense.

“Dead Man’s Shoes”

The shoe is on the other foot, literally.

Another weaker episode of the show, as it follows poor hobo Nathan Bledsoe as he finds a dead body and steals that body’s new shoes.

“Nathan Edward Bledsoe, of the Bowery Bledsoes, a man once, a specter now. One of those myriad modern-day ghosts that haunt the reeking nights of the city in search of a flop, a handout, a glass of forgetfulness. Nate doesn’t know it but his search is about to end, because those shiny new shoes are going to carry him right into the capital of the Twilight Zone.”

The shoes belonged to a gangster named Dane, whose spirit then possessed Nathan in an attempt to gain revenge on the gangster that killed him.

However, Dane shows himself not very smart as he winds up dead again and dumped in another alley (this time, it being poor Nathan). Another hobo takes the shoes and apparently starts the circle all over again.

June 23, 2023-Number 80

Spoilers

“A Quality of Mercy”

I hardly recognized Dean Stockwell when he first came on the screen with the American army during “A Quality of Mercy” episode from season three. I had seen this episode low on lists of Twilight Zone lists, but I did not think it was that bad. However, I could tell what it was docked for. It’s the same thing that I am going to dock it for.

Dean Stockwell played Lieutenant Katell, a young officer during World War II (the last day actually) who arrived with a platoon that had lost its last two leaders. They had a group of Japanese trapped in a cave, but they were not sure what they were going to do. Katell showed up, ready to rush the cave and kill all the enemy soldiers.

The the Twilight Zone took over.

Katell found himself in the body of one of the Japanese soldiers, but earlier in the war, and the man in charge was acting the same way he did when arriving with the Americans. He was able to see how mercy could go a long way.

The problem? Stockwell had face paint, eyes done up and a horrendous Japanese accent. I do not know why it was decided that Stockwell perform this in such a stereotypically racial manner, but this choice ruined the scenes for me and really weakened an otherwise strong episode.

EYG Hall of Famer Leonard Nemoy was in the episode too as one of the American soldiers.

June 22, 2023- numbers 75, 76, 77, 78, 79

Spoilers

This evening, I went for five season three episodes and we got all kinds of variety.

“The Midnight Sun”

Whoa, what a hopeless feeling episode this was. Apocalyptic, twice within.

The earth’s orbit has been changed and it is now moving toward the sun and the temperatures on earth were getting hotter and hotter. Two women, Nora and Mrs. Bronson, were the only people remaining in their apartment building, trying to stay cool and survive the heat.

Water, looters, their own minds all were struggles they needed to face. As the news gets worse, the two women get closer to the end. Mrs. Bronson succumbs to the heat and Nora seems to be ready to go as well.

Then we learn that Nora was actually in a fever dream and that none of what we saw was real. However, we learn from Mrs. Bronson and the doctor that was attending Nora that the world was off its orbit but going away from the sun. The very opposite was happening, the planet was freezing to death.

This episode could certainly be used today as a metaphor for climate change, I’m not sure that would have been the basis for the idea back in 1961. The episode gives us a picture of how the human race would react to such an event, with a lot of anger, frustration and selfishness. Even though there would also be some good people as well.

“Still Valley”

Civil War conflict mixed with the occult and the devil… good times.

Not sure how to feel about this one.

“This is Joseph Paradine, Confederate cavalry, as he heads down toward a small town in the middle of a valley. But very shortly, Joseph Paradine will make contact with the enemy. He will also make contact with an outpost not found on a military map—an outpost called the Twilight Zone.”

Paradine wound up in the town, but he found all the Union troops frozen still. Not dead. Not asleep. Just standing still. He did not know how this happened, but… he would find out.

An old man was there and he claimed to have used black magic to freeze the Yankees. He did so by reading spells out of a book labeled ‘witchcraft.’ By doing so, he said that he had to align himself with Satan. The old man was dying and gave the book to Paradine, who returned to his camp and explained what happened, proving that he had this power.

The end was strange because Paradine was uncertain if he should continue to use the book because he had to renounce God as well as align with the devil. He ends up throwing the book into the fire.

Not the best episode I have seen. The characters were inconsistent and choices did not make much sense. Why did Paradine suddenly realize that he had to renounce God when he already used the book to freeze a troop of Union soldiers off camera? And these soldiers were meant to go to Gettysburg after this.

Not a very good episode.

“The Jungle”

“The carcass of a goat, a dead finger, a few bits of broken glass and stone, and Mr. Alan Richards, a modern man of a modern age, hating with all his heart something in which he cannot believe and preparing – although he doesn’t know it – to take the longest walk of his life, right down to the center – of The Twilight Zone.”

Alan Richards and his wife Doris have just returned from Africa where Alan was on a business trip. He was apparently cursed by some natives and his wife was really superstitious. She snuck all kinds of good luck charms, including a lion’s tooth, into their home and his pockets.

He leaves the tooth behind at a bar. Can you guess what happened next? I bet you can.

This one was dumb. Alan kept hearing drums and animal sounds as he tried to get home, only to be mauled by a lion that was on his bed (perhaps after already eating Doris?).

The animal sounds were unintentionally funny and the things that happened to Alan along the way were more and more ridiculous. And where was Doris?

“Once Upon a Time”

I thought this was a really creative and interesting episode. Featuring Buster Keaton himself, this episode was a tribute to the silent pictures that Keaton made his fame in.

The episode started out in a literal silent picture, following along Keaton as Woodrow Mulligan from the year 1890. It had the background music, the intertitles giving the audience dialogue to read and plenty of slapstick humor that was prevalent in the silent era of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin.

Mulligan worked as a janitor in a laboratory where the head scientist had created a ‘time helmet’ which gave the wearer a chance of going to any year and spend 30 minutes (this time seemed to change throughout the episode. A bit of a plot hole here). Mulligan put it on and was transported to 1961.

In 1961, we get sound, including Mulligan speaking aloud. It was no longer a silent picture. He met up with a man named Rollo and then it felt very much like a ‘Laurel and Hardy’ type film.

I enjoyed this tribute to the era of silent films and the icon Buster Keaton. It felt like one of those ‘very special episodes’ of shows(like “Atomic Shakespeare” for Moonlighting). I love the big swing for the episode.

“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”

Okay, I did not see that coming.

Five characters stuck in a strange circular prison. They could not remember anything. All they knew were what they were: A clown, a bagpiper, a ballerina, a tramp and a major.

The major was the newest arrival and was struggling trying to make sense of what had happened. He desperately tried to find an exit from their prison, trying everything. He would not give up even with the others not supporting him. The clown, in particular, was spending more time taunting him or making fun of him than being useful. The ballerina though seemed to believe in the major.

They stood on each other’s shoulders (in a fun pit of camera work) and tried to climb out, only to fall. The ballet dancer was injured, but that still did not deter the major, who set up a rope with the end of his sword to use as a grappling hook.

This time, the major makes it to the top and falls into a pile of snow. This is when we find out the truth… they were all dolls in a container during a toy drive for Christmas.

“Just a barrel, a dark depository where are kept the counterfeit, make-believe pieces of plaster and cloth, wrought in a distorted image of human life. But this added hopeful note: perhaps they are unloved only for the moment. In the arms of children, there can be nothing but love. A clown, a tramp, a bagpipe player, a ballet dancer, and a Major. Tonight’s cast of players on the odd stage—known as—The Twilight Zone.”

What a twist that was. No way I saw that coming. The ending took this episode to a much higher level than it had been. This was a top notch pay off. There have been some episodes where they have a great build but the ending is disappointing. This one stuck the landing, big time.

June 22, 2023- numbers 72, 73, 74

Spoilers

“The Grave”

The Twilight Zone returned to the Old West for another story involving Lee Marvin and Roscoe P. Coltrane.

This episode was a creepy tale of fear and revenge. A local rapscallion named Pinto Sykes is gunned down by a crew of townsfolks. The man, Conny Miller, who had been hired by the town to hunt Pinto down, returned to the town to find out that Pinto was already dead and buried.

The townspeople told Conny that Pinto claimed on his deathbed that if Conny ever came to Pinto’s grave, that Pinto would reach up and grab him.

The others in the bar, led by Roscoe (I know his name was not Roscoe, but the actor, James Best, is best known by me for his role as the Sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard), laid wagers that Conny did not have the courage to go and kneel by Pinto’s graveside. Conny made he bet (though honestly, he was not really quick about it).

The next day, Conny was found dead over the grave.

This was very atmospheric and creepy. I liked most of this episode. The only issue I had was that Conny did not end up shooting Pinto, it was someone else in town. We only heard about Conny and Pinto’ relationship and we did not see any of it. Why did Pinto hold such a negative feeling toward Conny? I’m really not sure.

Lee Marvin and Lee Van Cleef appeared in this episode and both men are veterans of Western movies, lending a high level of credibility to the show.

“It’s a Good Life”

A monster story about the worst monster ever… a little boy named Anthony.

“Tonight’s story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there’s a little town there called Peaksville. On a given morning not too long ago, the rest of the world disappeared and Peaksville was left all alone. Its inhabitants were never sure whether the world was destroyed and only Peaksville left untouched or whether the village had somehow been taken away. They were, on the other hand, sure of one thing: the cause. A monster had arrived in the village. Just by using his mind, he took away the automobiles, the electricity, the machines—because they displeased him—and he moved an entire community back into the dark ages—just by using his mind. Now I’d like to introduce you to some of the people in Peaksville, Ohio. This is Mr. Fremont. It’s in his farmhouse that the monster resides. This is Mrs. Fremont. And this is Aunt Amy, who probably had more control over the monster in the beginning than almost anyone. But one day she forgot. She began to sing aloud. Now, the monster doesn’t like singing, so his mind snapped at her, turned her into the smiling, vacant thing you’re looking at now. She sings no more. And you’ll note that the people in Peaksville, Ohio have to smile. They have to think happy thoughts and say happy things because, once displeased, the monster can wish them into a cornfield or change them into a grotesque, walking horror. This particular monster can read minds, you see. He knows every thought, he can feel every emotion. Oh yes, I did forget something, didn’t I? I forgot to introduce you to the monster. This is the monster. His name is Anthony Fremont. He’s six years old, with a cute little-boy face and blue, guileless eyes. But when those eyes look at you, you’d better start thinking happy thoughts, because the mind behind them is absolutely in charge. This is the Twilight Zone.”

We spent the episode watching the adults cower to this little boy, telling him how his bad behaviors were the right thing and how they were happy that he just killed thee people or created this three headed animal and then killed it.

I really wanted someone to step up and do something about Anthony. There was a time when one of the dinner party members, drunk as he was, tried to get the others to do something about the boy and he wound up getting turned into a jack-in-the-box and eventually sent to the “cornfield” which was a place Anthony sent all people who had negative thoughts.

Bill Mumy played Anthony after playing Billy in “Long Distance Call.” He was very sinister and unsettling as the little monster. I wish there was some form of resolution to the episode, but it is a well known, iconic episode.

“Deaths-Head Revisited”

One of the most haunting episodes of The Twilight Zone yet. Deaths-Head Revisited is a comment on the horrendous circumstances behind the concentration camps run by the Nazis before and during World War II.

A former Nazi SS captain, calling himself Schmidt, came to Dachau, Bavaria to go back to the Dachau concentration camp, walking around the compound, reveling in the remembrances and nostalgia. He is met by a man whom he takes as a caretaker of the camp. He does recognize the man as Alfred Becker, a former prisoner at the camp.

Becker takes Schmidt around the camp, as frightening sounds continued around. Finally, Becker told him that Captain Lutze (Schmidt’s real name) was to be put on trial for his crimes against humanity. Lutze realizes that Becker had been killed in Dachau years before and that this was a ghost facing him. Lutze wound up going mad, and would end up taken away in the present day to a mnetal instution.

The doctor who examined Lutze said “Dachau. Why does it still stand? Why do we keep it standing?” An answer mentioned in Serling’s closing narration:

“There is an answer to the doctor’s question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes; all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God’s Earth.”

The only criticism I have for this episode, which I found extremely powerful and haunting, was that I wish Lutze was not such a one-note villain. When he returned to Dachau, he was just as sinister, just as sadistic as he had ever been and he was outward about it. I would have like to have seen more than just the mustache-twirling villain that he was. Something with more layers would have made this even more powerful. Even still, this is one of my favorite episodes so far.