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The Incomparable

327: This Robot is Eisenhower

 

00:00:00   submitted for your approval one Rod [TS]

00:00:02   Serling rumbles television writer who [TS]

00:00:04   gained a sort of immortality by [TS]

00:00:06   appearing on camera introducing an [TS]

00:00:07   anthology series that would go down in [TS]

00:00:10   history as one of the finest of all time [TS]

00:00:12   his story was not an amazing story in [TS]

00:00:14   order to take viewers to the outer [TS]

00:00:16   limits [TS]

00:00:17   instead it took them to the heart of [TS]

00:00:19   human nature one of the darkest corners [TS]

00:00:21   of the twilight zone [TS]

00:00:24   the incomparable [TS]

00:00:28   number 377 November 2016 welcome back [TS]

00:00:37   everybody to the uncomfortable i am your [TS]

00:00:39   host Jason smell and we're here in this [TS]

00:00:41   episode to talk about classic television [TS]

00:00:43   series from long ago for more than 50 [TS]

00:00:46   years ago but you probably know it and [TS]

00:00:49   if you haven't seen it you know what you [TS]

00:00:51   probably still know it because of all [TS]

00:00:54   the references [TS]

00:00:55   it's so influential and funny thing it's [TS]

00:00:59   often rerun over the holidays in a [TS]

00:01:02   marathon which is one of the reasons [TS]

00:01:04   we're doing it right before Thanksgiving [TS]

00:01:05   it's the twilight zone we're going to [TS]

00:01:08   enter our dimension not only of sight [TS]

00:01:10   and sound but of mind dude and introduce [TS]

00:01:13   my panelists dune computed he is fresh [TS]

00:01:22   out of the asylum [TS]

00:01:23   so let's put them on an airplane it's [TS]

00:01:25   david lower hello [TS]

00:01:27   submitted for your approval a playwright [TS]

00:01:29   surrounded by cornfields reaping what he [TS]

00:01:32   sowed in the twilight zone also as Steve [TS]

00:01:35   let's hear it's good that you're here [TS]

00:01:37   it's really good Steve it's great that [TS]

00:01:38   you're here it's a real good podcast [TS]

00:01:41   you're making your Jason real it's real [TS]

00:01:42   good [TS]

00:01:43   it's it's really good make him stop [TS]

00:01:45   doing it make him stop [TS]

00:01:47   somebody hit the podcast host over the [TS]

00:01:49   head with something hard while I've got [TS]

00:01:51   distracted and now I first time on as a [TS]

00:01:57   panelist although you've heard his voice [TS]

00:01:58   before in some of our listener feedback [TS]

00:02:00   episodes he's also the host and this is [TS]

00:02:02   relevant of the random sterling podcast [TS]

00:02:05   it's a it's it's dan where's dan I'm [TS]

00:02:11   talky Tina and i'm going to introduce [TS]

00:02:13   you [TS]

00:02:15   look mom Santa Claus is loaded and then [TS]

00:02:19   I was going to introduce our next guest [TS]

00:02:22   with some dialogue from the classic [TS]

00:02:25   Twilight Zone episode the invaders but [TS]

00:02:28   there isn't any its Frank whoo [TS]

00:02:31   Frank welcome thanks i love the twilight [TS]

00:02:34   zone [TS]

00:02:34   I am so psyched about this I cannot [TS]

00:02:38   express in words because we're talking [TS]

00:02:40   about that so that is not [TS]

00:02:41   like I can I got president words just [TS]

00:02:43   how awesome this this is I i love this [TS]

00:02:46   show since I was little and ah yes now [TS]

00:02:50   see thanksgiving is not my twilight zone [TS]

00:02:52   holiday it is right for me it was always [TS]

00:02:55   a fourth of july i know that there [TS]

00:02:57   probably are some places some weird [TS]

00:02:59   places where thanksgiving is the time [TS]

00:03:01   for the twilight zone marathon but it [TS]

00:03:03   was always at least in the LA area he [TS]

00:03:05   was always a the fourth of July [TS]

00:03:07   independence that's just the [TS]

00:03:08   conversation around the table with the [TS]

00:03:09   inlaws that's what Thanksgiving is I'll [TS]

00:03:13   just we know you did this when we set [TS]

00:03:15   this episode of Steve III did my [TS]

00:03:17   research and the toilets and marathon [TS]

00:03:19   originated on Katla in la at [TS]

00:03:22   Thanksgiving of 1980 so it was a [TS]

00:03:24   thanksgiving marathon before it was a [TS]

00:03:26   fourth of July Wow in your face get on [TS]

00:03:28   KTLA no kidding well they changed that [TS]

00:03:30   they changed it then very easy steve-o [TS]

00:03:32   my recent it was always a new years day [TS]

00:03:35   marathon bag yeah it's a holiday thing [TS]

00:03:37   to it so anything could think of a [TS]

00:03:39   marathon about regardless yeah it works [TS]

00:03:41   better for the fourth of july though [TS]

00:03:42   because there's nothing else going on [TS]

00:03:43   the fourth of July you don't have any [TS]

00:03:45   meals to prepare anything just sitting [TS]

00:03:47   around waiting to blow stuff up in the [TS]

00:03:48   evening and well it's there's a lot of [TS]

00:03:50   homespun americana yeah and there are [TS]

00:03:53   there all episodes about how messed up [TS]

00:03:54   america is just too far more twilight [TS]

00:03:57   zone episodes are set in summers gone by [TS]

00:03:59   than any other season so there's only [TS]

00:04:01   one summer to every customer Jason I was [TS]

00:04:04   just thinking that you know you can put [TS]

00:04:06   something on the stove and for [TS]

00:04:08   thanksgiving and then watch all an [TS]

00:04:09   entire episode and then come back and it [TS]

00:04:11   wouldn't be done yet because these are [TS]

00:04:13   these are these are quick there Pacey [TS]

00:04:15   the fastest are fast there in and out 20 [TS]

00:04:17   minutes they're done [TS]

00:04:18   I got through these ones we watch for [TS]

00:04:19   this in just lickety-split [TS]

00:04:21   yeah it's fast speedy speedy it's kind [TS]

00:04:24   of nice instead of watching the movie it [TS]

00:04:26   goes on for three hours [TS]

00:04:27   I don't make them like this anymore we [TS]

00:04:30   watched six episodes and we're going to [TS]

00:04:31   talk about it but I thought we would get [TS]

00:04:33   I thought we maybe get started by [TS]

00:04:35   talking about the twilight zone [TS]

00:04:36   more generally you know it is it is in [TS]

00:04:38   in in people's memory they know about [TS]

00:04:41   maybe the voice of Rod Serling and him [TS]

00:04:43   appearing in a suit and introducing it [TS]

00:04:46   that every every introduction ends with [TS]

00:04:48   a littlie a little uh mention of the [TS]

00:04:51   twilight zone [TS]

00:04:53   and how does he work that in and how [TS]

00:04:55   does that all fit in the theme song [TS]

00:04:56   super creepy there are lots of really [TS]

00:04:58   interesting opening credits it's all in [TS]

00:04:59   black and white at lots of amazing [TS]

00:05:02   actors showed up in it and of course [TS]

00:05:05   it's famous for its surprising twist [TS]

00:05:08   endings that happen a lot i think it [TS]

00:05:10   sticks in our minds this is a this is [TS]

00:05:12   one of these these things that 55 60 [TS]

00:05:15   years later it's still quite memorable [TS]

00:05:17   the the all of these stories as an [TS]

00:05:20   anthology series especially it's a [TS]

00:05:22   little surprising their know like sink [TS]

00:05:24   in indelible characters like Star Trek [TS]

00:05:26   or something like that it's just these [TS]

00:05:27   stories and and and yet it remains i [TS]

00:05:32   would say i don't know if it's [TS]

00:05:33   influential but it's certainly strong in [TS]

00:05:35   memory they don't make shows like this [TS]

00:05:36   anymore [TS]

00:05:37   well but you know separately mirror-like [TS]

00:05:39   rehash that gets created about every [TS]

00:05:41   every 20 years yeah but even even there [TS]

00:05:44   you've got it is influenced episodes of [TS]

00:05:47   other shows it is important for sure it [TS]

00:05:49   has influenced the style of shows like [TS]

00:05:51   The X Files [TS]

00:05:52   I mean what is the x-files but just a [TS]

00:05:54   really long Twilight Zone that kinda [TS]

00:05:57   meanders and gets lost in some [TS]

00:05:59   technology halfway through the show but [TS]

00:06:00   anyway [TS]

00:06:00   well the simpsons halloween episodes [TS]

00:06:02   wouldn't exist without the top it's true [TS]

00:06:04   right there almost more of the men are [TS]

00:06:06   twilight zone episodes at this point to [TS]

00:06:08   you know and and part of the reason it's [TS]

00:06:10   endured where things like science [TS]

00:06:13   fiction theater and even the outer [TS]

00:06:14   limits the outer limits are still kind [TS]

00:06:16   of popular but you know anthologies were [TS]

00:06:19   big thing at the time the reason this [TS]

00:06:21   one indoors i think is because most of [TS]

00:06:23   those were about quick scares and it's [TS]

00:06:27   not it's not just hates monster [TS]

00:06:29   ah and trying to deal with monster or [TS]

00:06:31   hey its invaders from space right [TS]

00:06:33   there's more to it it's about the fear [TS]

00:06:36   of the unknown at work on a normal human [TS]

00:06:39   being and almost every episode does that [TS]

00:06:42   that creeping sense of something is [TS]

00:06:45   really really weird and and it's gonna [TS]

00:06:48   eventually overwhelm me if I don't do [TS]

00:06:51   something and sometimes the main [TS]

00:06:53   character is overwhelmed sometimes it's [TS]

00:06:56   someone who deserves their comeuppance [TS]

00:06:57   and sometimes it's working on a [TS]

00:06:59   perfectly innocent person or someone we [TS]

00:07:02   think is a perfectly innocent person and [TS]

00:07:04   and so there's there's more at work [TS]

00:07:06   there than just scary story creepy story [TS]

00:07:10   well their morality plays I mean yeah [TS]

00:07:12   yeah Rod Serling really use this as a [TS]

00:07:15   way to tell stories about politics [TS]

00:07:17   because he had had a show i think it was [TS]

00:07:20   called the arena or something like that [TS]

00:07:21   which is about politics in 1956 and then [TS]

00:07:24   they killed it because it was talking [TS]

00:07:26   about you know current for the [TS]

00:07:27   politicians and it's like well so make [TS]

00:07:29   everybody a robot until the exact same [TS]

00:07:32   sorry that will be fine and and everyone [TS]

00:07:35   will know that this robot is Eisenhower [TS]

00:07:38   and this other robot is perfect Steven [TS]

00:07:40   said and you know I can say whatever I [TS]

00:07:42   want Ike was a robot did the final straw [TS]

00:07:45   was when he tried to do a teleplay about [TS]

00:07:47   the Emmett Till story and they [TS]

00:07:50   completely I mean they said well you can [TS]

00:07:52   you can set a hundred years earlier and [TS]

00:07:55   you can set it in a little mexican town [TS]

00:07:57   and and it won't have anything to do [TS]

00:07:59   with Emmett Till and it'll barely [TS]

00:08:01   resemble the real story and he said this [TS]

00:08:03   is ridiculous and it was awful i think [TS]

00:08:05   it's called a town is turned to dust and [TS]

00:08:08   and that was the moment when he said you [TS]

00:08:09   know again if I said it in the science [TS]

00:08:12   fictional setting think they just go out [TS]

00:08:14   robot school [TS]

00:08:15   yeah that's what they used to do in [TS]

00:08:16   soviet russia that was the secret sauce [TS]

00:08:18   and star trek to write is a trace [TS]

00:08:21   you don't think it's so ridiculous that [TS]

00:08:22   we can slide in RR meaning and and [TS]

00:08:25   everybody can just agree it's going to [TS]

00:08:28   be an allegory it's going to be [TS]

00:08:29   metaphorical it's not going to be that's [TS]

00:08:31   why I like some of the best Star Trek [TS]

00:08:32   episodes are also some of the worst and [TS]

00:08:34   let that be the last year about you [TS]

00:08:36   where you like guys are like black and [TS]

00:08:38   one time went on the other side as [TS]

00:08:40   opposed to the guys are whitening that [TS]

00:08:42   side in black and yellow set which is [TS]

00:08:44   either the dumbest idea you've ever seen [TS]

00:08:46   are the most drawing idea [TS]

00:08:48   it's like it's hard to tell what the [TS]

00:08:50   problem is when they're too on the nose [TS]

00:08:51   yeah and and one thing that Sterling was [TS]

00:08:53   good about was coaching things properly [TS]

00:08:55   within enough of a sci-fi or horror [TS]

00:08:57   environment that whatever the message [TS]

00:09:00   was it was relatively unrecognizable he [TS]

00:09:03   wasn't beating you over the head with [TS]

00:09:05   his humanism or whatever it was that he [TS]

00:09:07   was pounding that week I feel like a lot [TS]

00:09:09   of the these episodes including those [TS]

00:09:10   samples that we watch one of the one of [TS]

00:09:12   the great things about them is [TS]

00:09:14   not all of them but some of them you [TS]

00:09:16   don't you're not entirely sure what [TS]

00:09:18   you're watching when you're watching it [TS]

00:09:20   and um where the supernatural element [TS]

00:09:23   will come in if it comes in at all some [TS]

00:09:25   of them are a little more obvious but [TS]

00:09:26   some of them are not just waiting for [TS]

00:09:28   the twist your like waiting to see when [TS]

00:09:31   you take like an episode like there are [TS]

00:09:34   a lot of these where whether somebody [TS]

00:09:36   who you think may be losing it and it's [TS]

00:09:37   unclear whether you're really witnessing [TS]

00:09:40   a supernatural event or just a crazy [TS]

00:09:42   person like you know living doll is [TS]

00:09:44   kinda like that and nightmare at 20,000 [TS]

00:09:48   40,000 feet for sure is like that which [TS]

00:09:50   and the beauty of that is he starts as [TS]

00:09:53   someone who just left an asylum right [TS]

00:09:57   Ryan he's he's struggling you know it's [TS]

00:09:59   like Izzy crazy at the end [TS]

00:10:01   no he didn't see a thing on the wing and [TS]

00:10:03   he has regained his sanity even though [TS]

00:10:05   they wheeled him away or I will get to a [TS]

00:10:07   woman we talked about this one but in [TS]

00:10:09   month the monsters are due on Maple [TS]

00:10:10   Street I mean you could go very very [TS]

00:10:12   deep like literally to the last shot of [TS]

00:10:15   that and just cut it off before the end [TS]

00:10:17   and say there are no aliens [TS]

00:10:21   there's no fantastic element monsters r [TS]

00:10:23   us kid vs the monsters arrives we [TS]

00:10:25   established this we're done right and [TS]

00:10:27   that i love that about it almost look [TS]

00:10:29   better in fact that many together [TS]

00:10:30   episode [TS]

00:10:31   yeah so the reason the twilight zone [TS]

00:10:33   stuck with me was particularly that it [TS]

00:10:36   was like the perfect first geeking out [TS]

00:10:38   kind of show you i was not old enough to [TS]

00:10:42   be around when these originally aired [TS]

00:10:43   but I saw them constantly in syndication [TS]

00:10:45   and in particular those those marathons [TS]

00:10:48   i look forward to every year and I would [TS]

00:10:50   sit there and watch them over and over [TS]

00:10:51   again and it was really the first show [TS]

00:10:54   that I just completely geeked out about [TS]

00:10:56   and I wanted to make sure I had seen all [TS]

00:10:58   of them and it was one of the first [TS]

00:11:02   shows that i can think of that had a [TS]

00:11:03   companion book that came out that listed [TS]

00:11:05   every episode of The Twilight Zone [TS]

00:11:07   companion by Mark Scott decree long [TS]

00:11:10   before the internet made these things [TS]

00:11:11   you know the things that you can just [TS]

00:11:13   pull up with the tap of a couple of [TS]

00:11:15   fingers you have to go to bookstore and [TS]

00:11:17   specifically by the twilight zone [TS]

00:11:18   companion but it was great because it [TS]

00:11:20   listed all the episodes you know season [TS]

00:11:22   by season with the original airdate [TS]

00:11:24   switch wasn't necessarily the same as [TS]

00:11:26   the day [TS]

00:11:26   that they were produced in and it was [TS]

00:11:32   written early enough that and thank [TS]

00:11:35   goodness that he wrote it when he did as [TS]

00:11:37   opposed to wait until the Internet age [TS]

00:11:38   because he was able to to interview the [TS]

00:11:40   creator's you know there were some of [TS]

00:11:41   them are still alive and the ones who [TS]

00:11:43   weren't were not so far gone that people [TS]

00:11:46   had forgotten you know the the various [TS]

00:11:47   things that they had said about the [TS]

00:11:49   episode so I mean it was just it was a [TS]

00:11:51   treasure trove for somebody who liked to [TS]

00:11:53   really get into something and sort of [TS]

00:11:56   appease that collectors urge you might [TS]

00:11:59   my copy is sitting three feet away from [TS]

00:12:01   you as as we speak [TS]

00:12:03   I'm holding in my hands unfortunately [TS]

00:12:05   lost my first edition I'm I've got the [TS]

00:12:06   2nd edition so Dan what prompted you [TS]

00:12:09   mean you obviously care enough about [TS]

00:12:11   this that you decided to do a podcast [TS]

00:12:12   all about the the rod serling TV series [TS]

00:12:16   so what what what made this click for [TS]

00:12:18   you so it's interesting at least I hope [TS]

00:12:20   it's interesting to people that's it [TS]

00:12:22   that's the purpose that will be the [TS]

00:12:23   judge of that [TS]

00:12:24   there's the twist the yes will it be [TS]

00:12:26   interesting or not the the the thing for [TS]

00:12:28   me is like but like many of you all have [TS]

00:12:31   said I'm not old enough to have seen the [TS]

00:12:33   show in its original runs but it was [TS]

00:12:36   very familiar with through syndication [TS]

00:12:37   you know i can recall watching many [TS]

00:12:40   episodes on the couch with my [TS]

00:12:41   grandmother who lived with us at the [TS]

00:12:43   time we were and she kind of turned me [TS]

00:12:45   into a TV junkie or did she or was it [TS]

00:12:50   your grandmother she was dead the whole [TS]

00:12:52   time but yeah it's a so for me I have [TS]

00:12:56   some memories of that but then I really [TS]

00:13:00   hadn't watched any episodes of the show [TS]

00:13:01   in a very long time and I was feeling [TS]

00:13:05   the urge to create a show that had you [TS]

00:13:07   know give me a reason to find guests and [TS]

00:13:10   talk to different people and and just [TS]

00:13:13   kind of happened upon well here's this [TS]

00:13:14   thing that note that not only there's [TS]

00:13:17   the twilight zone but then I also added [TS]

00:13:18   night gallery into the mix to you know [TS]

00:13:21   just to add some just crummy your [TS]

00:13:23   television [TS]

00:13:25   no I like my gallery and often it has it [TS]

00:13:28   has its moments so yeah part of my [TS]

00:13:29   motivation was that I'm not as well [TS]

00:13:31   versed is is as you all actually are and [TS]

00:13:33   so it was giving me a of a reason and a [TS]

00:13:35   justification with a full-time job to [TS]

00:13:38   spend as much time as i'm planning to [TS]

00:13:40   watching all this TV I felt like I had [TS]

00:13:42   to have something coming out of it [TS]

00:13:43   creatively so so that's kind of the [TS]

00:13:46   shows as much for my education and in [TS]

00:13:48   learning for my guests is anything else [TS]

00:13:50   i mean 20 minutes a week who that's a [TS]

00:13:53   group anyway let's let's III randomized [TS]

00:13:58   using random.org a list of the second [TS]

00:14:00   battery life [TS]

00:14:01   yes that's right when you want to watch [TS]

00:14:03   twilight zone episodes randomly choose [TS]

00:14:05   random.org the invaders came up first no [TS]

00:14:09   but yeah we're just gonna be quiet for [TS]

00:14:11   20 minutes [TS]

00:14:12   that's that's we talk about the the ways [TS]

00:14:15   this is influential one of my like three [TS]

00:14:17   notes that i made for this episode this [TS]

00:14:19   is the episode where agnes moorehead is [TS]

00:14:21   chased around by these adorable little [TS]

00:14:23   likes robot astronaut things that are [TS]

00:14:27   creatures of some stuff so modern ebay [TS]

00:14:29   they are adorable they're adorable and [TS]

00:14:32   tell the one is holding a knife that's [TS]

00:14:33   bigger than him ocean suddenly actually [TS]

00:14:35   I'm terrifying but it was self-defense [TS]

00:14:37   when you should then they're just [TS]

00:14:38   shining their little light at her and [TS]

00:14:40   making well it's raised up on her skin [TS]

00:14:42   they're not quite so terrifying but as [TS]

00:14:43   soon as the things got the knife [TS]

00:14:45   sticking out [TS]

00:14:46   well I mean the headline is local woman [TS]

00:14:47   menaced by adorable robots I think [TS]

00:14:49   that's what yeah that is my favorite [TS]

00:14:51   shot in like any Twilight Zone episode [TS]

00:14:53   where where she's grabbing the the [TS]

00:14:56   doorknob and the knife comes out and [TS]

00:14:58   Qatar him and yeah it's so bad it's sold [TS]

00:15:02   mr. all and the wood thing i love about [TS]

00:15:04   this episode in the reason that works [TS]

00:15:06   for me because you know as someone who's [TS]

00:15:09   worked in animation someone that really [TS]

00:15:11   likes animation is like anyone who's [TS]

00:15:13   because any interest at all in doing [TS]

00:15:14   animation should see this episode [TS]

00:15:16   because the reason a lot of CGI doesn't [TS]

00:15:19   work is because the characters don't [TS]

00:15:21   interact with the environment it's like [TS]

00:15:23   an and Prometheus are taking this [TS]

00:15:25   vehicle from the spaceship to the alien [TS]

00:15:27   ruins and there's always cool landscape [TS]

00:15:29   that you see out the window no one's [TS]

00:15:31   looking out the windows and like in this [TS]

00:15:34   episode she's like she's making food [TS]

00:15:36   she's at that that knife is set up by [TS]

00:15:38   when she takes a slice of potato or [TS]

00:15:41   whatever and she eats it [TS]

00:15:43   she's like actually eating so you get [TS]

00:15:45   this sense that she's actually in this [TS]

00:15:47   environment working in interacting with [TS]

00:15:50   objects in their environment [TS]

00:15:52   she used that knife we saw it in use [TS]

00:15:54   yeah when I for the night yeah exactly [TS]

00:15:55   and so when she got stabbed by the knife [TS]

00:15:58   and cut by the knife you like really [TS]

00:15:59   feel like and that's why I think that's [TS]

00:16:01   absurd really works and I mean one thing [TS]

00:16:04   is that if you look closely i mean it [TS]

00:16:07   starts out you know you see the [TS]

00:16:09   establishing shot of the cabin with the [TS]

00:16:11   smoke coming out from the chimney and [TS]

00:16:13   and rod is doing his little introduction [TS]

00:16:15   and so it looks kind of rustic and that [TS]

00:16:18   explains why things look a little [TS]

00:16:19   different and of course the twist [TS]

00:16:22   spoiler horn is that she's on another [TS]

00:16:26   planet and the invaders are your [TS]

00:16:29   thoughts [TS]

00:16:30   monsters are us once again oh now and [TS]

00:16:33   all of the tools and everything she uses [TS]

00:16:36   head had to be specially designed just [TS]

00:16:38   for the episode so that they looked [TS]

00:16:40   enough like what we would use on earth [TS]

00:16:42   to be recognizable and yet when you go [TS]

00:16:45   back and watch it again [TS]

00:16:47   they look just a little more stylized [TS]

00:16:49   they look like a little bit different [TS]

00:16:50   which and even that the vegetable or [TS]

00:16:52   whatever is the children right sort of [TS]

00:16:53   like a cab yeah chopping up doesn't [TS]

00:16:55   really look exactly like a cabbage and [TS]

00:16:58   distance really a potato and and I mean [TS]

00:17:01   I wanted I want to just talk for a [TS]

00:17:03   second about the director because [TS]

00:17:04   everybody talks about the writers Duggan [TS]

00:17:07   is Douglas an eye of the beholder has [TS]

00:17:09   got to be [TS]

00:17:10   oh yeah spectacular mean at least of all [TS]

00:17:12   the twilight zone episode during which [TS]

00:17:14   he was kind of a journeyman director on [TS]

00:17:16   television in the fifties and sixties [TS]

00:17:18   and then went into movies a little bit [TS]

00:17:20   and and some of his stuff is just very [TS]

00:17:23   straightforward you he wrote and [TS]

00:17:24   directed several episodes of Maverick [TS]

00:17:26   which you know there's kind of a shift [TS]

00:17:28   and but yet these two episodes he [TS]

00:17:32   directed I think nine Twilight zones all [TS]

00:17:35   together and and all nine of them are [TS]

00:17:36   very good but these two are just really [TS]

00:17:40   smartly directed and and especially in [TS]

00:17:43   this one [TS]

00:17:44   one of my mother's tests for whether [TS]

00:17:46   something was a was a good story or good [TS]

00:17:49   movie was you know back back then when [TS]

00:17:52   you were you were flying across country [TS]

00:17:54   they just had one giant screen so [TS]

00:17:56   everybody was forced to watch the movie [TS]

00:17:57   where they had headphones or not and she [TS]

00:17:59   wouldn't get the headphones she would [TS]

00:18:00   just you know kind of zone out and watch [TS]

00:18:02   the movie [TS]

00:18:03   and usually she could tell what was [TS]

00:18:05   going on in the story just from the [TS]

00:18:06   visuals yeah this one you keep you know [TS]

00:18:10   if you're if you're just watching the [TS]

00:18:11   visuals without the audio you don't [TS]

00:18:13   quite get what's going on at the end if [TS]

00:18:15   you're just listening and you don't have [TS]

00:18:17   the video you have no idea what's going [TS]

00:18:19   on at the end and this one you need both [TS]

00:18:22   it's one of the few things where you [TS]

00:18:23   absolutely have to be paying attention [TS]

00:18:24   to get what's going on and that's that's [TS]

00:18:28   kind of a neat trick [TS]

00:18:29   yeah this is it got to be a tough [TS]

00:18:30   episode to produce just because you're [TS]

00:18:33   what i mean there's the the [TS]

00:18:35   complications of you know making this [TS]

00:18:38   alien without making it seem alien so [TS]

00:18:40   you get to the twist and you aren't you [TS]

00:18:42   know spoiled on it but then there's the [TS]

00:18:44   fact of the little dudes that had to be [TS]

00:18:46   basically puppets you know and and how [TS]

00:18:48   do you make them semi menacing when [TS]

00:18:51   they're just like little fat guys little [TS]

00:18:52   Michelin men walking around its kind of [TS]

00:18:55   clothes sometimes that is really but you [TS]

00:18:57   know you can hold it off and look at the [TS]

00:18:59   turning point is when they're shooting [TS]

00:19:01   the Raygun adder it's not really that [TS]

00:19:02   freaky and then though the one takes a [TS]

00:19:05   knife to work to her ankle and and [TS]

00:19:07   suddenly it make it takes a turn and it [TS]

00:19:09   actually is genuinely scary and you know [TS]

00:19:12   i love this episode because it's because [TS]

00:19:14   it's a straight-up horror episode and [TS]

00:19:16   there aren't necessarily that many of [TS]

00:19:18   those in the twilight zone can and I [TS]

00:19:19   mean it's usually more of a sci-fi [TS]

00:19:20   aspect to it and this one gets to it at [TS]

00:19:23   the end but for the most part it's just [TS]

00:19:25   a horror story and and this is written [TS]

00:19:27   by Richard Matheson who that was really [TS]

00:19:29   kind of his specialty in a way it's a [TS]

00:19:30   lot like do all it is the movie that [TS]

00:19:33   hero with no dialogue with the guy the [TS]

00:19:36   the trucks Weaver ya Dennis we're so one [TS]

00:19:39   of the things that struck me about it [TS]

00:19:41   while I was watching the invaders is the [TS]

00:19:43   like when TV series modern TV series do [TS]

00:19:47   like stunts episode special episodes [TS]

00:19:50   they are they are trying to be like The [TS]

00:19:55   Twilight Zone I mean the twilight zone [TS]

00:19:56   was almost all stunned episodes in one [TS]

00:19:58   way or another but the ones that really [TS]

00:20:00   got me were invaders and I the beholder [TS]

00:20:03   which are both very high concept ideas [TS]

00:20:05   like invaders there's no dialogue and I [TS]

00:20:07   of the beholder which we'll get to in a [TS]

00:20:09   moment is the way the cameras are moving [TS]

00:20:13   and the way the actors are moving so [TS]

00:20:15   that you never really see the faces of [TS]

00:20:16   any [TS]

00:20:17   the characters until the big reveal at [TS]

00:20:18   the end and I was immediately taken back [TS]

00:20:21   with with the invaders in particular to [TS]

00:20:24   hush the the silent episode of buffy the [TS]

00:20:28   vampire slayer which is just I mean it's [TS]

00:20:30   the same concept it's what if we had to [TS]

00:20:33   tell a story without dialogue and you [TS]

00:20:35   know the x-files did a bunch to do you [TS]

00:20:37   know what all those deer and Morgan [TS]

00:20:38   episode of the x-files are like five or [TS]

00:20:40   six of them they are funny but they're [TS]

00:20:42   also even more than the series as a [TS]

00:20:45   whole because I think David's right [TS]

00:20:47   that's sort of like what if what if two [TS]

00:20:48   people investigated the twilight zone [TS]

00:20:50   every week with the x-files is they [TS]

00:20:53   would have their get kind of kind of [TS]

00:20:54   gaming episodes and I I just a it [TS]

00:20:57   reminded me that a lot of that a lot of [TS]

00:21:00   that stuff was done first and probably [TS]

00:21:02   inspired the the latter ones by the [TS]

00:21:05   twilight zone and the event invaders is [TS]

00:21:06   a great example of that the the thing [TS]

00:21:08   that stuck out to me and correct me if [TS]

00:21:10   I'm wrong did didn't she started in [TS]

00:21:13   terms of fighting with him she yes she [TS]

00:21:16   kicks kind guy down oh I was watching on [TS]

00:21:20   the whole and that the earth men shoot [TS]

00:21:22   first no I just could tell when they [TS]

00:21:24   were shot they were just know she's [TS]

00:21:26   bringing out she hides behind the [TS]

00:21:28   trapdoor and then the one comes around [TS]

00:21:29   the trapdoor as anything about how you [TS]

00:21:31   doing we meet these guys we know are [TS]

00:21:35   being like flickering and she kicked [TS]

00:21:36   well okay maybe maybe ought to go back [TS]

00:21:39   and watch but i'm pretty certain that [TS]

00:21:40   she can sit down the trap door and and [TS]

00:21:42   technically like it even in that [TS]

00:21:44   establishing scene where she's still [TS]

00:21:46   chopping the vegetables of whatever it [TS]

00:21:49   is and and if you listen carefully [TS]

00:21:51   again this is a really smart sound [TS]

00:21:54   design there's a little bit of music [TS]

00:21:56   right and you're Indiana as she's you [TS]

00:22:00   know dumping her vegetable into the pot [TS]

00:22:02   she stirs the pot and there's one [TS]

00:22:04   melodic tone that suddenly starts just [TS]

00:22:06   taking over and right rising and it [TS]

00:22:09   turns out that's the ship landing and [TS]

00:22:12   then all the rest of the music drops out [TS]

00:22:14   it's just that sound and she starts [TS]

00:22:16   clutching your head [TS]

00:22:17   and.and that I think that headache is [TS]

00:22:20   the thing that really triggers it [TS]

00:22:22   so yeah they totally started agnes [TS]

00:22:24   moorehead you got to say she straight up [TS]

00:22:26   magnificent in this you know her facial [TS]

00:22:28   expressions and the little sound she [TS]

00:22:30   makes are there they're so strange there [TS]

00:22:32   so off and I mean when she first here's [TS]

00:22:35   that spaceship and and she's like [TS]

00:22:37   feeling that you look like she's being [TS]

00:22:38   deafened or something by it and she's [TS]

00:22:41   just acting so oddly that you wonder [TS]

00:22:44   well maybe this woman's maybe she's a [TS]

00:22:46   little touched [TS]

00:22:47   yeah yeah yeah but no it turns out that [TS]

00:22:50   her mannerisms are strange because she's [TS]

00:22:51   giant space alien but you know you are [TS]

00:22:53   supposed to know that until the end and [TS]

00:22:55   of course she doesn't say anything [TS]

00:22:56   either because if she started saying [TS]

00:22:59   like don't believe in loudoun globin or [TS]

00:23:01   something it would ruin the surprise but [TS]

00:23:03   instead she's got like these little [TS]

00:23:04   guttural these guttural noises she makes [TS]

00:23:07   that are you know you could you could [TS]

00:23:09   see a human doing that but it makes [TS]

00:23:12   sense at the end when it turns out that [TS]

00:23:14   she's not if she's a hermit living off [TS]

00:23:16   by herself in the wilderness [TS]

00:23:18   you know maybe she hasn't got any [TS]

00:23:20   sounding years [TS]

00:23:21   yeah I do want to say it is a little [TS]

00:23:23   depressing when they revealed that its [TS]

00:23:25   space probe number one that landed in [TS]

00:23:27   this town talking about was it was my [TS]

00:23:29   first one it's gonna set the space [TS]

00:23:32   program back like years it's one small [TS]

00:23:34   step for man [TS]

00:23:36   no Mon Air Force you should have known [TS]

00:23:39   that was at the planet of giants [TS]

00:23:41   come on i guess i'm a silly optimist I [TS]

00:23:43   was hoping it was a reusable craft it's [TS]

00:23:47   the 9th mission of space probe number [TS]

00:23:49   one [TS]

00:23:49   okay that's what I was opening their you [TS]

00:23:52   all right uh the eye of the beholder [TS]

00:23:53   another another kind of gimmick thing [TS]

00:23:56   like i said that this is this is your [TS]

00:23:58   showcase for the director and for the [TS]

00:24:00   lighting because that's what we've got [TS]

00:24:04   going on is a a woman is her face is [TS]

00:24:07   wrapped in bandages she's poor ibly [TS]

00:24:09   disfigured this is her last attempt at [TS]

00:24:13   plastic surgery to correct her horrible [TS]

00:24:15   disfigurement and throughout the episode [TS]

00:24:17   we don't see her face and we also don't [TS]

00:24:21   see the faces of the nurses and doctors [TS]

00:24:24   who are taking care of her [TS]

00:24:27   and you know i think part of the [TS]

00:24:29   challenge with a lot of these twilight [TS]

00:24:31   zone episodes with twists is you know [TS]

00:24:33   the twist is a modern audience and you [TS]

00:24:35   have to kind of put yourself in the mind [TS]

00:24:36   of the story that they're trying to tell [TS]

00:24:37   and what would have been like if you [TS]

00:24:38   didn't know the twist and all that and [TS]

00:24:40   what I kept thinking about this episode [TS]

00:24:42   is you can read it as a nice bit of of [TS]

00:24:47   symbolism right like she's nice faceless [TS]

00:24:50   and their faceless and it's only at the [TS]

00:24:52   end is like yeah but that's not it [TS]

00:24:54   that's it's more it's more than that [TS]

00:24:56   happening here and again this is douglas [TS]

00:24:58   Hayes bear in mind they only had like [TS]

00:25:02   two and a half to three days to film [TS]

00:25:04   these and there's a lot of blocking and [TS]

00:25:06   camera work for that yeah the blocking [TS]

00:25:08   and the lighting and shadows now and the [TS]

00:25:11   movement there's a lot of movement to [TS]

00:25:13   Allah camera the camera cam yeah because [TS]

00:25:15   you know anyone who they're there are [TS]

00:25:17   several points where the doctor gets up [TS]

00:25:18   and starts to walk towards the light and [TS]

00:25:20   the camera has to shift so that the [TS]

00:25:21   nurse blocks his face right now there's [TS]

00:25:23   a lot of choreography going on this one [TS]

00:25:25   and a lot of creativity and in the [TS]

00:25:28   filming when when they do the unbanned [TS]

00:25:30   a'junk at the end [TS]

00:25:31   basically they stuck a fishbowl on the [TS]

00:25:34   camera lens and wrap that in bandages [TS]

00:25:36   that they could show it cutting away and [TS]

00:25:39   getting lighter and lighter and then you [TS]

00:25:41   know cutting back and forth to you know [TS]

00:25:42   seeing the hands cutting the bandages [TS]

00:25:44   away and things like that but that's a [TS]

00:25:46   really clever way of getting that that [TS]

00:25:50   sensation of being wrapped in bandages [TS]

00:25:52   for the point of view shot but yeah the [TS]

00:25:55   whole thing is so smart and it it does [TS]

00:25:58   sound if you get if you close your eyes [TS]

00:26:00   and listen to it it almost sounds like [TS]

00:26:03   an episode of Ben Casey which I'm sure [TS]

00:26:06   was intentional [TS]

00:26:07   you know right down to sort of like [TS]

00:26:09   little soap operatic interactions [TS]

00:26:11   between the doctor the nurse and the one [TS]

00:26:13   scene and and then you know it takes [TS]

00:26:17   that sort of interesting thing midway [TS]

00:26:18   through where you know at first you [TS]

00:26:20   think it's just a normal story right and [TS]

00:26:23   then up here comes a video screen from [TS]

00:26:26   the the ceiling and it's time to hear [TS]

00:26:28   the words of our leader you know what I [TS]

00:26:30   had completely forgotten about that [TS]

00:26:32   whole that was illegal is the only thing [TS]

00:26:35   I remembered from having seen this over [TS]

00:26:37   and over as a kid [TS]

00:26:38   what [TS]

00:26:38   is the the a plot you know the the right [TS]

00:26:41   Harvey and Esther I completely i was [TS]

00:26:45   shocked when i watch this and that [TS]

00:26:46   there's the whole leader in the hole [TS]

00:26:48   like this snow isn't God stuff and [TS]

00:26:50   already bits about the freaks being [TS]

00:26:52   segregated in ghettos right now that's [TS]

00:26:54   where its setting you up for the twist [TS]

00:26:56   I'm not sure any of that stuff is [TS]

00:26:57   necessary to be honest I mean it's no no [TS]

00:26:59   i thought no i think it is absolutely [TS]

00:27:01   necessary because otherwise it's just [TS]

00:27:02   about like you know people who look [TS]

00:27:04   different but this but the whole thing [TS]

00:27:07   about the leaders saying stuff like [TS]

00:27:09   there's glorious conformity and everyone [TS]

00:27:11   got to be the same and we cut out [TS]

00:27:14   everything that stuff is important to [TS]

00:27:15   have one form and we must all conform to [TS]

00:27:18   it that's right conformity is the key to [TS]

00:27:20   survival he starts up and I feel like [TS]

00:27:22   that stuff's overkill though I mean you [TS]

00:27:24   get the message without it [TS]

00:27:25   maybe seems like you're kind of [TS]

00:27:26   hammering point yourself I thought the [TS]

00:27:28   best part about that was the was it was [TS]

00:27:30   their special effects on the fake TV [TS]

00:27:33   screens yes that are better than some of [TS]

00:27:35   the ones i see on TV today [TS]

00:27:37   yes those were nicely done i love this [TS]

00:27:39   episode for so many reasons like the the [TS]

00:27:41   way it's filmed and the dialogue in the [TS]

00:27:43   way that they did not build it up but [TS]

00:27:46   but it's it's the the leader stuff that [TS]

00:27:49   makes me like really watch this episode [TS]

00:27:50   because it really underlines like I mean [TS]

00:27:55   like like when Mitt Romney talked about [TS]

00:27:57   self-deportation back four years ago we [TS]

00:28:00   laughed at them and but what's going [TS]

00:28:03   what happened a couple days ago is that [TS]

00:28:05   we have segregation going on this [TS]

00:28:08   country but it's self-segregation [TS]

00:28:09   because we have people on the left you [TS]

00:28:12   have no idea what's going on with the [TS]

00:28:14   rest of the country and we talked about [TS]

00:28:17   the Fox News bubble and everything and [TS]

00:28:19   echo chamber but we had that on the Left [TS]

00:28:22   where people never went into the country [TS]

00:28:25   to see the despair and and people who [TS]

00:28:28   only have jobs working at Walmart and [TS]

00:28:30   stuff and it's that political divide [TS]

00:28:32   where instead of like the beautiful [TS]

00:28:35   people and the ugly people being divided [TS]

00:28:37   it's like people on the right and the [TS]

00:28:38   left where they never black people white [TS]

00:28:41   people never have lunch together and [TS]

00:28:43   people from political parties never like [TS]

00:28:45   sit down and just talk about stuff and I [TS]

00:28:49   think that's what's going on that's what [TS]

00:28:51   like one of the things that is [TS]

00:28:52   talking about in this episode where the [TS]

00:28:54   conformity within each political party [TS]

00:28:57   I think the one of the things that's [TS]

00:29:00   going on here and there is a question [TS]

00:29:02   right this is the message of this [TS]

00:29:03   episode you know it's all relative [TS]

00:29:06   you know it's all in the eye of the [TS]

00:29:07   beholder do we we make these judgments [TS]

00:29:10   but they're totally arbitrary and they [TS]

00:29:12   could be reversed and and it is that it [TS]

00:29:14   or is there this extra dimension that [TS]

00:29:16   the leader stuff gives you which is that [TS]

00:29:18   this is itself a an oppressive society [TS]

00:29:22   and that perhaps there's this whole [TS]

00:29:24   other thing here where everybody is [TS]

00:29:25   trying to look like the leader or he [TS]

00:29:27   looks like them and and you know it is [TS]

00:29:30   there a larger more terrifying kind of [TS]

00:29:32   Conformity that's going on beyond the [TS]

00:29:36   sort of more gentle conformity of just [TS]

00:29:38   little like it looks like everybody else [TS]

00:29:40   like just naturally and that it it adds [TS]

00:29:42   another dimension I don't know if it's [TS]

00:29:44   if I think it would probably be fine [TS]

00:29:47   without it but it adds that whole extra [TS]

00:29:49   dimension of the fact that this is like [TS]

00:29:50   a dystopian fascist kind of regime [TS]

00:29:54   that's happening here with this with [TS]

00:29:56   this exalted leader giving his speeches [TS]

00:29:58   on TV that it just it makes it that much [TS]

00:30:00   scarier and creepier and and that [TS]

00:30:02   explains her terror right because it's [TS]

00:30:05   not it's not that she wants the surgery [TS]

00:30:07   it's not that she's trying to look [TS]

00:30:09   beautiful quote unquote beautiful on her [TS]

00:30:11   own [TS]

00:30:12   it's that she knows she's gonna be a lot [TS]

00:30:15   of trouble if she doesn't look like the [TS]

00:30:16   leader it looks like everybody else [TS]

00:30:18   she's gonna be in trouble if she doesn't [TS]

00:30:19   she's gonna be segregated that's the [TS]

00:30:21   very reason why it detract from the a [TS]

00:30:23   fun for me which is that the it's it's [TS]

00:30:26   more effective for me I mean don't get [TS]

00:30:28   me wrong I love that I think this is [TS]

00:30:29   probably one of my favorite episodes of [TS]

00:30:30   the whole series and I i enjoy the the [TS]

00:30:33   leader stuff it's it's all interesting [TS]

00:30:35   but I feel like that the message that [TS]

00:30:38   the main message that he's trying to get [TS]

00:30:39   across is basically just the you know [TS]

00:30:42   the relativity of it and I think for me [TS]

00:30:44   the fact that she's horrified [TS]

00:30:46   just because you know she's a wreck of a [TS]

00:30:49   woman just because she's been different [TS]

00:30:51   as opposed to I she'sshe's different and [TS]

00:30:55   that means that she's going to be killed [TS]

00:30:56   by the state [TS]

00:30:57   I think it's much more effective if it's [TS]

00:30:58   just that she's she's a ruined person [TS]

00:31:00   just because people have always pointed [TS]

00:31:02   and laughed at her but you know again [TS]

00:31:05   that [TS]

00:31:06   all that's all up to your personal [TS]

00:31:07   perspective I i think it attracts but [TS]

00:31:09   it's a great episode [TS]

00:31:11   I the brilliance of of of having the [TS]

00:31:15   fact that she's in bandages be used as [TS]

00:31:17   the ploy to avoid showing the nurses and [TS]

00:31:19   doctors faces is is so so genius because [TS]

00:31:23   I mean the minute you see the script [TS]

00:31:25   you've got to be thinking to yourself [TS]

00:31:26   how the hell man accept this is secret [TS]

00:31:29   until the end you know that I've got 20 [TS]

00:31:31   minutes to kill it and we've got the [TS]

00:31:34   doctors and the nurses all talking [TS]

00:31:36   what's the excuse i'm going to have to [TS]

00:31:39   do the ridiculous things where people [TS]

00:31:40   keep walking in front of each other or [TS]

00:31:42   the doctors just happens to walk into a [TS]

00:31:44   shadow at the exact moment he turns [TS]

00:31:46   around and if that excuse is that she [TS]

00:31:49   can't see their faces so neither can we [TS]

00:31:52   and so we're just being put in her shoes [TS]

00:31:54   that's a great excuse i mean that it [TS]

00:31:56   really works perfectly for me and you [TS]

00:31:58   don't notice it after a while you know [TS]

00:32:01   and be there a couple of scenes were [TS]

00:32:02   just sort of jars right back [TS]

00:32:04   it's like oh oh yeah we can see their [TS]

00:32:05   faces but in a lot of cases there are [TS]

00:32:07   enough moments where you know like [TS]

00:32:08   there's an overhead shot or a long [TS]

00:32:10   distance shot and it feels again it [TS]

00:32:13   feels like a normal Hospital show of the [TS]

00:32:15   time the it i'm not sure of rod learned [TS]

00:32:20   the lesson of the show because the end [TS]

00:32:23   narration I and I notice the last time i [TS]

00:32:27   watched to right he goes now the [TS]

00:32:30   questions that come to mind where's this [TS]

00:32:32   place when is it [TS]

00:32:33   what kind of world where ugliness is the [TS]

00:32:35   norm and beauty the deviation [TS]

00:32:37   yes like right uh you just said beauty [TS]

00:32:40   is in the eye of the beholder yeah okay [TS]

00:32:43   can you just upset at all the people [TS]

00:32:45   making fun of his snaggle tooth all [TS]

00:32:46   those years in here he's trying to [TS]

00:32:49   restate the premise for the 1960s TV [TS]

00:32:53   audience who might have been right right [TS]

00:32:55   i do think it's a little strange that [TS]

00:32:56   the woman's deformity apparently [TS]

00:32:57   includes full makeup mean I wasn't [TS]

00:32:59   expecting that is a good well I will say [TS]

00:33:02   though that the the pig face dr. idly [TS]

00:33:04   smoking under his prosthetic as he [TS]

00:33:06   flirts with a pic me and it might be my [TS]

00:33:08   favorite yeah it's not image the thing [TS]

00:33:10   that it definitely worked a [TS]

00:33:12   and as far as you being in her shoes i [TS]

00:33:16   found myself stuck with the thought that [TS]

00:33:18   this was the 11th procedure and the the [TS]

00:33:23   fact that she'd undergone this 10 times [TS]

00:33:24   before the I was dwelling on the the [TS]

00:33:27   idea of you know we see your kind of [TS]

00:33:29   come unhinged in this of course but how [TS]

00:33:33   that's most likely been building over [TS]

00:33:34   the course of you know the prior 10 [TS]

00:33:36   failed attempts and and I found myself [TS]

00:33:39   just coming back to that over and over [TS]

00:33:41   again [TS]

00:33:41   well her bond structure flesh type many [TS]

00:33:44   factors prohibit the surgical approach [TS]

00:33:46   that's good science that's just get [TS]

00:33:48   signed [TS]

00:33:48   so I think it's nineteen sixties medical [TS]

00:33:51   science [TS]

00:33:51   I think they probably on the up-and-up [TS]

00:33:52   based on that I was just confused at how [TS]

00:33:55   after eleven surgeries that she she just [TS]

00:33:59   looks flawless like smooth because [TS]

00:34:02   really you in those guards you don't [TS]

00:34:04   think they would be trying to like make [TS]

00:34:06   her get the pig face right and then that [TS]

00:34:08   we should see that she's sort of like [TS]

00:34:10   but that's not you know that's not what [TS]

00:34:12   they want for the big reveal but so what [TS]

00:34:14   are they doing they were doing surgery [TS]

00:34:15   on her [TS]

00:34:16   they are they're using some sort of [TS]

00:34:17   examples makeup know they're supposed to [TS]

00:34:19   be injecting her with some kind of a [TS]

00:34:20   chemical like an appeal like to hope [TS]

00:34:22   that it would be with like having over [TS]

00:34:23   the reaction shapes the face little they [TS]

00:34:27   could include latex your face [TS]

00:34:28   yeah well cedar the the first time i [TS]

00:34:31   watch this one with the boys [TS]

00:34:34   my older son would have they must not be [TS]

00:34:36   good plastic cereal box that it's taken [TS]

00:34:39   them that long and she still looks like [TS]

00:34:40   Elly May that's not right [TS]

00:34:42   yeah it is a little strange that if [TS]

00:34:44   they're just using some sort of I don't [TS]

00:34:45   know stem cell treatment or some other [TS]

00:34:47   weird dna-based thing that they would [TS]

00:34:49   have to cover her face for a couple of [TS]

00:34:50   weeks not entirely sure what that's [TS]

00:34:53   about I we might be overthinking this [TS]

00:34:55   yeah maybe a little bit links let's move [TS]

00:34:57   onto maple street where the monsters [TS]

00:35:00   monsters are due there so this is a this [TS]

00:35:03   is a this is a classic so we we acted [TS]

00:35:07   this out as a play in my sixth-grade [TS]

00:35:10   class or maybe yes sixth-grade class so [TS]

00:35:13   i have fond memories of this because [TS]

00:35:15   it's not you have to get teach kids [TS]

00:35:16   young with the monster is us [TS]

00:35:18   I say and that's what happened [TS]

00:35:20   especially kids [TS]

00:35:21   yeah yeah so Claude Claude Akins TV [TS]

00:35:24   sheriff Lobo is in this one [TS]

00:35:26   and this is the kindest adventures as [TS]

00:35:28   usual yes and this is the classic tale [TS]

00:35:31   of paranoia where a spaceship passes [TS]

00:35:33   overhead maybe ? the lights go out [TS]

00:35:36   occasionally lights turn on and cars [TS]

00:35:39   start and things like that and the [TS]

00:35:40   entire neighborhood is convinced once [TS]

00:35:43   one dumb kid tells them about a science [TS]

00:35:45   fiction story he read where aliens were [TS]

00:35:47   among the people during the invasion and [TS]

00:35:50   look just like people everybody turns on [TS]

00:35:53   each other they become super paranoid [TS]

00:35:54   and I and a bad things happen in theirs [TS]

00:35:59   and there's a ride and of course the end [TS]

00:36:00   of the big the big reveal in the very [TS]

00:36:03   last shot as i mentioned earlier is that [TS]

00:36:05   the aliens are there but they're just [TS]

00:36:08   kind of watching the humans turn on each [TS]

00:36:10   other and they don't need to do anything [TS]

00:36:12   more because we are we are the worst and [TS]

00:36:14   we will take care of ourselves and then [TS]

00:36:17   they fly away in the Forbidden Planet [TS]

00:36:18   ship they do you gotta reuse spaceships [TS]

00:36:20   again it's only want my big note from [TS]

00:36:23   this episode is that charlie is the [TS]

00:36:26   worst that is pretty bad is the worst [TS]

00:36:29   he's a loudmouth and then and then he he [TS]

00:36:33   makes up when they start to suspect him [TS]

00:36:36   he just immediately just makes up [TS]

00:36:38   somebody's I know who it is it's the kid [TS]

00:36:40   the kid he did it [TS]

00:36:42   it's just that he's terrible he's the [TS]

00:36:43   worst but everybody the guy who spends [TS]

00:36:45   his time looking up at the sky early in [TS]

00:36:47   the morning because there's something [TS]

00:36:48   wrong with that kind of a person yeah [TS]

00:36:50   don't go out sometimes that or or [TS]

00:36:51   working on a radio yeah i love the way [TS]

00:36:53   that the scapegoat all it keeps changing [TS]

00:36:56   yeah my main note on this one is that [TS]

00:36:58   this episode really needs to be longer [TS]

00:37:01   than 20 minutes because in order for it [TS]

00:37:04   to get going [TS]

00:37:04   they have to instantly take that kids [TS]

00:37:06   comic book plot seriously after you have [TS]

00:37:08   more really has happened in a power [TS]

00:37:10   outage and a dead car battery and so the [TS]

00:37:12   whole thing for me comes off as a little [TS]

00:37:14   bit silly but you know they only have 20 [TS]

00:37:16   minutes so what are you gonna do I mean [TS]

00:37:18   to be fair this is what happened after [TS]

00:37:20   the 1965 New York blackout so i'm pretty [TS]

00:37:23   sure that lasted longer than 15 minutes [TS]

00:37:24   before you start losing their stuff [TS]

00:37:26   let's talk about the link for a minute [TS]

00:37:28   because this is one of those things or [TS]

00:37:29   for 22 minutes about the twilight zone [TS]

00:37:32   that's interesting is some of the [TS]

00:37:33   stories and I think some of the great [TS]

00:37:34   stories they have chest enough story to [TS]

00:37:38   withstand 22 minutes [TS]

00:37:40   that you can never tell that story over [TS]

00:37:41   an hour but over a half hour you can do [TS]

00:37:43   it right like like the invaders is a [TS]

00:37:46   good example or even I the beholder like [TS]

00:37:47   those are short stories they really [TS]

00:37:49   benefit from it sometimes there's an [TS]

00:37:51   episode where where I agree Steve I i [TS]

00:37:53   look at it and I think wow you what you [TS]

00:37:56   have had to do a lot of work to pack [TS]

00:37:58   this in here to this short timeframe and [TS]

00:38:01   I think the monsters are due on Maple [TS]

00:38:02   Street a good example that because this [TS]

00:38:03   feels like a play to me this is a great [TS]

00:38:05   play where it's claustrophobic [TS]

00:38:07   everybody's out on the street and they [TS]

00:38:09   are turning on each other one by one and [TS]

00:38:12   you know it's it's AII that's what I [TS]

00:38:15   love about it but it does all happened [TS]

00:38:16   pretty fast like to turn abouts are [TS]

00:38:18   ready yeah i don't know why i like i [TS]

00:38:20   like the patient intercepts oh and in [TS]

00:38:22   you know one of the things I really [TS]

00:38:23   liked about the twilight zone show that [TS]

00:38:26   came on the eighties is that they had [TS]

00:38:27   the whole hour and they could tell as [TS]

00:38:29   many stories right like two or three and [TS]

00:38:32   then if the story was five minutes line [TS]

00:38:33   to give five minutes and then you're [TS]

00:38:35   done [TS]

00:38:35   yep r & and they didn't have to pad [TS]

00:38:38   things out didn't have to stretch things [TS]

00:38:39   and and I think that that worked really [TS]

00:38:41   well because you never knew one that's [TS]

00:38:43   Kristin's coming right [TS]

00:38:44   yeah i mean the the fourth season of the [TS]

00:38:46   original show was all hour-long shows in [TS]

00:38:48   their boring [TS]

00:38:49   yeah there are a few that are ok but [TS]

00:38:51   even the best of the emerges [TS]

00:38:53   okay yeah and and there's a reason why [TS]

00:38:56   they went back to half an hour just feel [TS]

00:38:58   like maybe an extra 10 minutes on this [TS]

00:38:59   yeah just about right because the [TS]

00:39:01   ramp-up is just so fast it was just [TS]

00:39:03   enough time for me to go in 15 minutes [TS]

00:39:06   forget all about Pete who walked over to [TS]

00:39:08   the next block 04 shotgun iron I think [TS]

00:39:12   it's a mistake to zoom in on his hammer [TS]

00:39:14   at the end that I feel like I feel like [TS]

00:39:16   at this point this is the only season 1 [TS]

00:39:18   episode we did and i think at this point [TS]

00:39:20   they're still making the assumption that [TS]

00:39:22   maybe audiences really are quite clued [TS]

00:39:25   into what's happening yet and so we [TS]

00:39:26   gotta make it real easy for him [TS]

00:39:28   I keep having to remind myself on the [TS]

00:39:30   hammer thing that you know this is a [TS]

00:39:32   this is a preview our world so maybe you [TS]

00:39:35   know had no dwell on things a little [TS]

00:39:37   more because he only had one shot at the [TS]

00:39:40   getting everybody's attention and [TS]

00:39:42   telling them they couldn't run it back [TS]

00:39:43   now i just i love the I love the dark [TS]

00:39:45   view of human nature here and and like i [TS]

00:39:47   said earlier you know there could be no [TS]

00:39:51   aliens at the end of this [TS]

00:39:52   and it would just be that story right of [TS]

00:39:55   a blackout makes everybody turn on one [TS]

00:39:57   another and the aliens in the end just [TS]

00:39:58   are adding this little twist of like [TS]

00:40:00   look science fiction we can take over [TS]

00:40:02   this whole but we can take them all over [TS]

00:40:03   because we're we're exploiting how [TS]

00:40:05   terrible humanity is that like just [TS]

00:40:07   heads a little extra extra thing to it [TS]

00:40:10   but i do like this before that for that [TS]

00:40:12   and i'll make another reference to [TS]

00:40:13   another episode the my one of my very [TS]

00:40:16   favorite episodes of doctor who is [TS]

00:40:18   called midnight by Russell to davis and [TS]

00:40:22   it is very much the monsters are due on [TS]

00:40:24   Maple Street in a claustrophobic and [TS]

00:40:27   I'll in a kind of a space like a subway [TS]

00:40:30   car plus that is stuck somewhere and [TS]

00:40:33   everybody turns on each other and it's a [TS]

00:40:35   very similar kind of thing i love it and [TS]

00:40:36   it's dark and it's all about sort of [TS]

00:40:38   human nature is is to be awful and turn [TS]

00:40:41   on each other and and I was every time I [TS]

00:40:44   I think of everytime i watch monsters [TS]

00:40:46   are due on Maple Street I think of [TS]

00:40:47   midnight and vice versa because they're [TS]

00:40:49   they're very similar and wonderfully [TS]

00:40:51   written pull sort of play structure of [TS]

00:40:54   low-budget because midnight is one set [TS]

00:40:57   essentially and yet [TS]

00:40:59   great acting performances and and you [TS]

00:41:02   just get to see all the worst of human [TS]

00:41:03   nature which I Joyce you know sometimes [TS]

00:41:05   those episodes where where it is the [TS]

00:41:07   fear of the unknown working on you it's [TS]

00:41:09   very subtle this one is pretty much you [TS]

00:41:11   know boom fear of the unknown [TS]

00:41:13   something's happening what the hell's [TS]

00:41:15   going on in everybody freaks out which [TS]

00:41:17   is kind of cool [TS]

00:41:18   well this episode in the shelter which [TS]

00:41:19   is to somewhere where the the bomb [TS]

00:41:22   shelter and we turn each other it's a [TS]

00:41:25   anyway it reminds me a lot of like the [TS]

00:41:28   German movies that came out like 1925 [TS]

00:41:31   1930 like between World War One World [TS]

00:41:34   War two like cabinet of dr. Caligari [TS]

00:41:36   metropolis and am in the Blue Angel we [TS]

00:41:39   have this veneer of civilization [TS]

00:41:40   everyone's acting really nice but then [TS]

00:41:43   you just scratch right below the surface [TS]

00:41:45   and there's always pestering hate and [TS]

00:41:47   rage and and in anger and then just [TS]

00:41:51   touch something and all blows up and it [TS]

00:41:56   kind of feels like America's a little [TS]

00:41:58   bit like that now way to bring down the [TS]

00:42:00   room I swear you in [TS]

00:42:03   is it Frank its Frank exactly like that [TS]

00:42:07   not that hard like or he doesn't look [TS]

00:42:09   like ass always is there oh wow [TS]

00:42:12   what's he doing in this country and that [TS]

00:42:14   like that's what they do in this episode [TS]

00:42:15   is like oh well they're they're not from [TS]

00:42:17   around here they're from like Iowa or [TS]

00:42:19   something [TS]

00:42:20   I think the real moral of this one is if [TS]

00:42:22   you leave a group of people and you come [TS]

00:42:24   back and its pitch black out and say hi [TS]

00:42:26   and see if ya me it's me Pete horn when [TS]

00:42:33   your hip and say hey remember the hammer [TS]

00:42:35   from before a couple couple things I [TS]

00:42:37   want to mention about this one because [TS]

00:42:38   it is an early one it's the only season [TS]

00:42:40   1 episode this is the only episode that [TS]

00:42:42   we watched with the original music which [TS]

00:42:44   when I was a kid you know the the [TS]

00:42:46   classic twilight zone theme is so iconic [TS]

00:42:48   and and and everybody recognizes it at [TS]

00:42:52   the drop of a hat virtually everybody [TS]

00:42:54   from you know 52 55 405 can can just you [TS]

00:42:59   know helmet but yeah and I never used to [TS]

00:43:02   really think much of this the original [TS]

00:43:03   Bernard Bernard Herrmann the opening [TS]

00:43:06   music which is mostly just HAARP but man [TS]

00:43:08   I love it it's great it i think it [TS]

00:43:11   almost it almost works better as a theme [TS]

00:43:14   song for me than the than the little bit [TS]

00:43:16   too much on the nose [TS]

00:43:18   avantgarde thing that they eventually [TS]

00:43:19   switched over to ya that they switched [TS]

00:43:22   over to mary's constant scoffs yeah [TS]

00:43:24   which is really cool but the other [TS]

00:43:26   Bernard Herrmann what is unsettling it [TS]

00:43:28   really does kind of put you in the mood [TS]

00:43:30   for something weird thats to come yet [TS]

00:43:32   it's also beautiful but you know it [TS]

00:43:34   gives you that sense that something is [TS]

00:43:35   lurking just below the surface which i [TS]

00:43:37   think is great because and then the [TS]

00:43:39   other only other thing I wanted to [TS]

00:43:40   mention with this being an early episode [TS]

00:43:42   is that the ending aeration ends with [TS]

00:43:45   the pity of it is that these things [TS]

00:43:47   cannot be confined to the twilight zone [TS]

00:43:49   and I think that might be I didn't go [TS]

00:43:52   back and look but that might be [TS]

00:43:53   serling's first open admission that this [TS]

00:43:56   is pointed social commentary is just [TS]

00:43:59   silly side for the kids [TS]

00:44:00   this is I'm pointing at you and saying [TS]

00:44:03   you're the real monsters people [TS]

00:44:05   yep tune in again next week thank you [TS]

00:44:07   think about it [TS]

00:44:08   CBS how it makes you think doesn't it [TS]

00:44:10   mhm we're all the monster i'm at let's [TS]

00:44:13   move on to the cornfield [TS]

00:44:16   yes home of of Anthony's is very good [TS]

00:44:21   it's good it's a real good thing that [TS]

00:44:22   it's really good at taking this is a [TS]

00:44:24   choice that that's it's Cloris Leachman [TS]

00:44:26   the realest leachman's in it and and so [TS]

00:44:29   are you mean great great bill movie I [TS]

00:44:31   haven't watched this one since I became [TS]

00:44:34   apparent and I'll one of the things that [TS]

00:44:37   just musing about it's a good life is [TS]

00:44:40   you know kids are monsters [TS]

00:44:43   he's just Anthony who's got this [TS]

00:44:45   all-powerful it's like really it's like [TS]

00:44:46   what if you had somebody was [TS]

00:44:48   all-powerful mental powers and was just [TS]

00:44:50   a kid and Anthony you know he's not he's [TS]

00:44:54   done [TS]

00:44:54   I mean the whole beginning is he's a [TS]

00:44:56   monster this monster is a little boy [TS]

00:44:58   haha but another level it's like he's [TS]

00:45:00   not really I mean he's no more than any [TS]

00:45:03   other child he he all all kids are [TS]

00:45:05   monsters at least from time to time [TS]

00:45:08   the problem is that he is all-powerful [TS]

00:45:09   and so he can conjure anything and make [TS]

00:45:13   things go away with his imagination [TS]

00:45:15   which is let everybody around him to be [TS]

00:45:17   in this town that's been cut off from [TS]

00:45:18   the rest of the world all that's left is [TS]

00:45:20   his little town and they're all [TS]

00:45:21   terrified a conscience yet that's the [TS]

00:45:23   thing yeah exactly [TS]

00:45:24   he still the completely ruled by his his [TS]

00:45:27   whims you know child of six that you [TS]

00:45:31   would not want in charge of anything [TS]

00:45:32   know all the stuff that he's doing is [TS]

00:45:34   kind of awesome i mean like making he's [TS]

00:45:39   like made to TV go away and he just [TS]

00:45:42   produces TV on his mom with his mind and [TS]

00:45:44   what does he want you want to start over [TS]

00:45:46   fighting [TS]

00:45:47   yeah I would agree that there isn't yes [TS]

00:45:49   the only ok that scene is great because [TS]

00:45:51   everyone everyone looks completely [TS]

00:45:53   horrified by the stop-motion dinosaur [TS]

00:45:55   show is making it looks really good yeah [TS]

00:45:58   it looks awesome at the beginning of the [TS]

00:46:00   episode [TS]

00:46:01   she's like making horrible monsters [TS]

00:46:03   which are like three-headed frogs or [TS]

00:46:04   something that's cool but then he kills [TS]

00:46:08   it [TS]

00:46:09   I'll make him dead now I'm tired of [TS]

00:46:11   playing with him somebody get Franco 32 [TS]

00:46:13   gopher he makes he takes a guy and he [TS]

00:46:16   like makes them into a jack-in-the-box [TS]

00:46:18   that's awesome man [TS]

00:46:19   yeah like yeah like yeah like I might [TS]

00:46:22   have stopped me their blessing but it's [TS]

00:46:24   like see I think I think what they the [TS]

00:46:27   town people misinterpreted this but they [TS]

00:46:29   really needed was like somebody like me [TS]

00:46:32   the show up and say like wow can you do [TS]

00:46:34   a four-headed frog [TS]

00:46:36   how about five six seven and then like [TS]

00:46:39   while he's like making all this like [TS]

00:46:41   really cool stuff for me then he's like [TS]

00:46:43   distracted by doing that and then you [TS]

00:46:45   have been the head with a bottle exactly [TS]

00:46:47   what else can think up but like like me [TS]

00:46:50   and asked me an afternoon like making [TS]

00:46:52   cool stuff it's like hey you know arm [TS]

00:46:54   spaceships from alien and aliens like [TS]

00:46:57   can you make those in the sky yeah sure [TS]

00:46:58   that's like we do that like for four [TS]

00:47:02   hours i would be awesome when in this [TS]

00:47:04   this episode is kind of unusual in that [TS]

00:47:06   it's got one of the longest opening [TS]

00:47:08   narration in the whole series and [TS]

00:47:10   there's a twist in the opening narration [TS]

00:47:11   right yeah yeah it's it's really nice [TS]

00:47:14   having you know he sort of introduces [TS]

00:47:16   you to the 10 this is going to recognize [TS]

00:47:17   it and it's this very small town and all [TS]

00:47:20   of a sudden the rest of the world [TS]

00:47:21   disappeared in the town was left by [TS]

00:47:23   itself and then he starts introducing [TS]

00:47:25   you to the people and he gets in and [TS]

00:47:26   then mentions that there is a monster [TS]

00:47:28   and they have to think happy thoughts [TS]

00:47:30   and then it gets it gets the point with [TS]

00:47:32   you know this particular monster can [TS]

00:47:33   read minds you see he knows every [TS]

00:47:35   thought he can feel every emotion [TS]

00:47:37   oh yes i did forget something didn't I i [TS]

00:47:39   forgot to introduce you to the monster [TS]

00:47:42   this is the monster and you see Bill [TS]

00:47:44   movies sitting there Billy hand on his [TS]

00:47:46   fists looking really innocent and sweet [TS]

00:47:48   his name is Anthony fremont he's six [TS]

00:47:50   years old with a cute little boy face [TS]

00:47:52   and blue guyless eyes but when those [TS]

00:47:55   eyes look at you you'd better start [TS]

00:47:56   thinking happy thoughts because the mind [TS]

00:47:58   behind them is absolutely in charge [TS]

00:48:00   this is the twilight zone and there's no [TS]

00:48:03   there's no artful like you know you know [TS]

00:48:06   the next signpost up ahead is the I mean [TS]

00:48:08   it's just it's like this is the twilight [TS]

00:48:10   zone [TS]

00:48:11   yeah that's at that tells me that he [TS]

00:48:12   learned from his experience of making [TS]

00:48:14   the monsters are due on Maple Street [TS]

00:48:16   like you know I screwed expositions fine [TS]

00:48:19   we'll just lay it all out there and [TS]

00:48:21   now we can get into the meat of the show [TS]

00:48:23   yeah this one I think this I have to say [TS]

00:48:25   this is probably my favorite episode of [TS]

00:48:27   the show you're a bad man you see this [TS]

00:48:30   is the one that still manages to make me [TS]

00:48:32   feel dread in the pit of my stomach that [TS]

00:48:34   the tangible desperation on all of the [TS]

00:48:37   characters as they walk around on [TS]

00:48:38   eggshells is so tense and the way he [TS]

00:48:41   casually throws things out like I'll [TS]

00:48:43   make him dead now I'm tired of playing [TS]

00:48:44   with him or that's why I made him go on [TS]

00:48:48   fire he cheerfully says about some [TS]

00:48:49   neighbor [TS]

00:48:50   yeah it's it's just so horrifying and [TS]

00:48:53   and it's it's monstrous even for early [TS]

00:48:55   sixties TV and it's rough it's monstrous [TS]

00:48:57   even for modern-day TV and in this this [TS]

00:49:00   by the way this is the one that that [TS]

00:49:01   freaked me out the most is a kid and [TS]

00:49:03   it's mainly because of dan Hollis his [TS]

00:49:05   head on the jack-in-the-box bobbing back [TS]

00:49:08   and forth with that impassive expression [TS]

00:49:10   or did that freak me out the good when I [TS]

00:49:12   was a kid and and the looks on his [TS]

00:49:14   parents faces through the whole show I [TS]

00:49:15   mean Cloris Leachman as I mean she's [TS]

00:49:17   wonderful and John large who I mean he [TS]

00:49:20   had a career through sixties and early [TS]

00:49:21   seventies TV of looking nervous and [TS]

00:49:24   guilty and mrs. like the most nervous he [TS]

00:49:27   ever looked its mouth is great when they [TS]

00:49:29   gave birth to this monster that killed [TS]

00:49:31   everybody [TS]

00:49:32   yeah I can understand why they won't [TS]

00:49:34   kill him it seems strange that maybe [TS]

00:49:36   like the young guy won't do it but I [TS]

00:49:38   mean they're just all terrified I that [TS]

00:49:40   makes some sense but it's painful at the [TS]

00:49:42   end it's kind of a high noon sort of [TS]

00:49:45   situation where dan hall as he goes out [TS]

00:49:47   on the limb he gets it he gets everybody [TS]

00:49:49   already has anyone of you anytime now go [TS]

00:49:52   ahead and clock him on the head with a [TS]

00:49:53   bottle or a lamp or something and no one [TS]

00:49:55   has the balls and the only does that [TS]

00:49:57   Liam and then he's a jack-in-the-box and [TS]

00:49:59   he gets wish to the cornfield and all [TS]

00:50:00   man it just it tears me up man this [TS]

00:50:03   whole episode is just it's hard for me [TS]

00:50:05   to watch almost it's so tense [TS]

00:50:07   it reminds me of the second pilot star [TS]

00:50:10   trek where no man has gone before where [TS]

00:50:12   they get that moment that the indelible [TS]

00:50:14   moment where Jerry Mitchell's eyes turn [TS]

00:50:16   back to normal and it's like the moment [TS]

00:50:19   that you can get to kill him and then in [TS]

00:50:21   Kirk hesitates and then the moment has [TS]

00:50:24   lost its actually spoke is like killing [TS]

00:50:26   that that's the moment here that tense [TS]

00:50:28   moment where he's like I'm distracting [TS]

00:50:30   him you could all kill him now and [TS]

00:50:33   nope no comes comes right out and says [TS]

00:50:36   it [TS]

00:50:36   I know what ya up little deal when when [TS]

00:50:40   sterling passed away he was on the third [TS]

00:50:42   draft of a feature film version of the [TS]

00:50:44   story and never got made you know i'm [TS]

00:50:47   not sure it would be necessary [TS]

00:50:49   I mean I don't think he's actually are [TS]

00:50:51   20 minutes or whatever it is is not [TS]

00:50:52   perfect for this all you would be doing [TS]

00:50:54   is adding more horror moments but you [TS]

00:50:56   know i don't think i could hack it to be [TS]

00:50:58   on around you this what this is rough as [TS]

00:50:59   it is now I thought was perfect [TS]

00:51:01   it doesn't without showing you anything [TS]

00:51:03   I mean it heat they tell us he has a 300 [TS]

00:51:06   go for and he's holding this really foul [TS]

00:51:07   looking tail up in the air but you can [TS]

00:51:10   kind of envision this poor thing [TS]

00:51:12   yeah but it doesn't know how he got [TS]

00:51:14   called into being or that it's about to [TS]

00:51:16   be killed just randomly probably in some [TS]

00:51:19   horrible way that's great so one of the [TS]

00:51:22   things i like about this and and I have [TS]

00:51:24   to have to mention now and I i figure if [TS]

00:51:27   I don't mention it Franklin mentioned so [TS]

00:51:28   I'm going to mention now Frank they made [TS]

00:51:30   a sequel to this [TS]

00:51:32   oh it's still a good like the forest [TS]

00:51:33   whitaker version so here's the here's [TS]

00:51:35   the problem with it in that one it's [TS]

00:51:36   like many years later and he's got [TS]

00:51:38   Anthony's got a son or daughter and [TS]

00:51:40   people are still living in the play by [TS]

00:51:42   his daughter played by Phil mommy's [TS]

00:51:43   daughter and and Cloris Leachman said [TS]

00:51:45   here's the problem [TS]

00:51:46   one of the things that's great about [TS]

00:51:47   it's a good life this original episode [TS]

00:51:49   is the tension about the fact that while [TS]

00:51:52   Anthony is very good at destroying [TS]

00:51:54   things he can't really create things and [TS]

00:51:57   that you see that where it's like the [TS]

00:52:00   supplies are dwindling right and and the [TS]

00:52:04   last scene where he makes it snow and [TS]

00:52:06   they're gonna lose half the crops like [TS]

00:52:08   part of the tension of this town is not [TS]

00:52:10   just that Anthony is a monster who is [TS]

00:52:13   who [TS]

00:52:14   you have to think good thoughts around [TS]

00:52:15   all that it's that they are completely [TS]

00:52:17   cut off from the rest of the world with [TS]

00:52:18   the rest of the world is gone [TS]

00:52:20   we've been at a bar soap for a year you [TS]

00:52:21   know that exactly right there running [TS]

00:52:23   out of everything so the sequel is dumb [TS]

00:52:25   because it just doesn't talk about that [TS]

00:52:27   and miss like now people are people live [TS]

00:52:29   for many years with Anthony in the town [TS]

00:52:31   and it's like no that's what's [TS]

00:52:32   terrifying about it is anthony kids a [TS]

00:52:34   force of destruction can't make things [TS]

00:52:36   and so they are all gonna die [TS]

00:52:39   I think what I one of the reasons that I [TS]

00:52:41   like this is the claustrophobia aspect [TS]

00:52:43   of it is not just that there's a monster [TS]

00:52:44   but you're saying [TS]

00:52:46   him in this little pocket universe and [TS]

00:52:48   your supplies are dwindling and it's you [TS]

00:52:50   know that just Ratchet it up another [TS]

00:52:53   whole level you sense that piques bills [TS]

00:52:55   got maybe like a six-month period yeah [TS]

00:52:57   when everybody is either dead or the [TS]

00:52:59   lack of crops have killed you know they [TS]

00:53:00   starved to death yeah like even if [TS]

00:53:02   Anthony doesn't kill them they'll starve [TS]

00:53:04   to death [TS]

00:53:04   hmm yeah and they're already done so but [TS]

00:53:07   but you talk about the dark ending it's [TS]

00:53:09   just amazing right the snow comes down [TS]

00:53:11   they're gonna lose half the crops [TS]

00:53:13   yeah it's good that you did Anthony it's [TS]

00:53:15   really great and he's just a good thing [TS]

00:53:17   you did you have Milan with his chin on [TS]

00:53:19   his hand looking off into the distance [TS]

00:53:22   with a wistful smile [TS]

00:53:23   meanwhile and Amy who is given a stroke [TS]

00:53:26   or something smiles in the background [TS]

00:53:27   right Andy me that's yeah she was the [TS]

00:53:32   only one who had any control over him [TS]

00:53:33   but then she pushed it [TS]

00:53:34   yep because the thing is like he can [TS]

00:53:36   know he can't make normal things he can [TS]

00:53:38   only make crazy things like the [TS]

00:53:40   three-headed gopher right like if he if [TS]

00:53:42   he he kills the corner with the snow but [TS]

00:53:46   he can't make normal car [TS]

00:53:47   no but he might be able to make like [TS]

00:53:49   weird poison car [TS]

00:53:51   yeah i'm not sure that he can't make [TS]

00:53:52   things I mean that the sense that I get [TS]

00:53:54   is that he created the gofer at the [TS]

00:53:56   beginning although it's possible that he [TS]

00:53:58   turned he turned it into a monster from [TS]

00:53:59   a regular go for like you did with the [TS]

00:54:01   pig maybe it's also a monstrous [TS]

00:54:02   three-headed thing like he can create [TS]

00:54:04   maybe you can create things but they're [TS]

00:54:05   not any good right yeah like maybe the [TS]

00:54:08   corn would taste like something bad [TS]

00:54:10   candy corn it be des corn although he [TS]

00:54:12   might just do that because it was funny [TS]

00:54:13   a shout out to Jerome Bixby or out the [TS]

00:54:16   original short story who like his kind [TS]

00:54:19   of forgotten even though he's the guy [TS]

00:54:21   that wrote the mirror episode of Star [TS]

00:54:23   Trek and created like spoke with the [TS]

00:54:25   beard and everything right fantastic [TS]

00:54:27   voyage and read the whole genre like [TS]

00:54:30   miniaturizing people and also it the [TS]

00:54:32   terror from outer space which is kind of [TS]

00:54:34   the basis of of the alien movies and [TS]

00:54:37   he's kind of forgotten which i think is [TS]

00:54:39   a real shame [TS]

00:54:40   so nick of time I hate this upset me too [TS]

00:54:44   why do we watch this one I think out of [TS]

00:54:46   all these episodes i think this is the [TS]

00:54:48   only clunker and Rod Serling once said [TS]

00:54:50   you know 30 episodes are probably really [TS]

00:54:52   good sermon are ok and the third of them [TS]

00:54:55   are for the dogs and I thought this is [TS]

00:54:56   what [TS]

00:54:57   well once for the dog [TS]

00:54:58   even though i love twilight zone and [TS]

00:55:01   richard matheson and in Wayne chatter [TS]

00:55:04   and I really want to know who voted for [TS]

00:55:06   this episode we didn't want the answer [TS]

00:55:08   is Dan and David both voted for nick of [TS]

00:55:11   time so they're gonna have to explain [TS]

00:55:12   themselves justify this is one of my [TS]

00:55:15   all-time favorite episodes because yeah [TS]

00:55:19   I like terrible things [TS]

00:55:22   no there is well Shatner Shatner and you [TS]

00:55:26   know there's only so much you can do but [TS]

00:55:27   this is one of the episodes where maybe [TS]

00:55:31   it's supernatural [TS]

00:55:32   maybe it's not yes but it works either [TS]

00:55:34   way and it works beautifully if it's not [TS]

00:55:37   supernatural it's about the dangers of [TS]

00:55:39   blind faith and superstition right get [TS]

00:55:42   in superstition right and and there is [TS]

00:55:44   nothing supernatural going on if if you [TS]

00:55:48   want to see it that way if you want to [TS]

00:55:49   say ok the little fortune teller machine [TS]

00:55:51   is is controlled by Satan and it's [TS]

00:55:53   keeping them in this town but it's not [TS]

00:55:56   it's just shatters character gets a [TS]

00:55:58   fortune from it and goes hey I'm [TS]

00:56:01   connecting this to things that are [TS]

00:56:02   actually happening I'm justifying the [TS]

00:56:04   order up i'm figuring out like a full of [TS]

00:56:07   reading or something it's fraudulent [TS]

00:56:09   yeah it's all it's all in his head it's [TS]

00:56:11   all superstition and magically gets the [TS]

00:56:13   more the more that happens the more he [TS]

00:56:16   slips into the mania of it and his wife [TS]

00:56:18   is trying to pull them back out and [TS]

00:56:20   finally breaks breaks the spell near the [TS]

00:56:22   end and at the very end you know they're [TS]

00:56:25   like okay okay we're gonna walk out of [TS]

00:56:27   here and as they walk out we see another [TS]

00:56:29   couple come in and sit down and and the [TS]

00:56:31   guy just does the fortune machine and [TS]

00:56:33   says can we leave town today and the [TS]

00:56:36   Machine basically says it is not likely [TS]

00:56:38   or something like that and and it's like [TS]

00:56:41   okay here's a look at the slip and [TS]

00:56:43   you're stable just deflate right right [TS]

00:56:45   thats that's the one part of this [TS]

00:56:47   episode I like is the couple at the end [TS]

00:56:48   at like 10 seconds at the end when the [TS]

00:56:50   couple comes in trying to escape the [TS]

00:56:52   town [TS]

00:56:53   ok dad Dan why did you pick next time [TS]

00:56:56   well for me it was definitely there was [TS]

00:56:58   a nostalgic element to it so I I [TS]

00:56:59   definitely remembered it more finely [TS]

00:57:01   that I probably think of it now after [TS]

00:57:02   having more just watched it but because [TS]

00:57:05   i think this definitely fits we were [TS]

00:57:06   talking earlier about [TS]

00:57:08   you know the the episodes that fill the [TS]

00:57:11   time just right versus those that are [TS]

00:57:13   crammed in versus those I think like [TS]

00:57:15   this one that are that are don't have [TS]

00:57:17   quite enough material for ya think it [TS]

00:57:20   has a great button at the end and and [TS]

00:57:23   you know that last you know four minutes [TS]

00:57:26   of it is is fantastic but there is no [TS]

00:57:29   there is a little bit of a slog even [TS]

00:57:31   with the 25-minute show i think i tapped [TS]

00:57:33   the apple TV remote a couple of times [TS]

00:57:35   where somewhere [TS]

00:57:39   yeah i mean the the acting is not great [TS]

00:57:41   well it seems to have actually learn his [TS]

00:57:43   lines for this one though [TS]

00:57:44   yeah there are multiple let's show you [TS]

00:57:46   doing a good job but let's details we [TS]

00:57:48   get the itemized bill of their time at [TS]

00:57:50   the diner at one point I don't have [TS]

00:57:52   stated that yeah you're now looking at [TS]

00:57:55   the world's youngest office manager [TS]

00:57:57   oh ah really for me I do think there's [TS]

00:58:02   one thing that's kind of redeeming about [TS]

00:58:04   it [TS]

00:58:06   remote from a social standpoint that you [TS]

00:58:08   know that at the time it was said the [TS]

00:58:11   idea that a newlywed bride would be the [TS]

00:58:14   one to you know stand up to her her new [TS]

00:58:18   husband who's the breadwinner and got [TS]

00:58:20   this big promotion and all that and it's [TS]

00:58:21   it really is heard that finally snap [TS]

00:58:23   them out of it and then pulls them out [TS]

00:58:25   of this you know this this superstitious [TS]

00:58:27   mania and and is the one to say that she [TS]

00:58:30   wants to make things happen together not [TS]

00:58:33   just find out from some machine and that [TS]

00:58:36   I I thought that was there's there's [TS]

00:58:38   something there that especially for a [TS]

00:58:41   for that time in the early sixties but [TS]

00:58:43   she's clearly a very poor decision [TS]

00:58:45   makers she married this obvious lunatic [TS]

00:58:47   yes and she knows it from the start [TS]

00:58:49   because spends the entire episode right [TS]

00:58:51   from the very moment they sit down at [TS]

00:58:53   the booth and there's a little fair [TS]

00:58:54   portion telling machine there she spends [TS]

00:58:56   that entire episode looking like she's [TS]

00:58:57   full of regrets [TS]

00:58:59   what did i do I really married this [TS]

00:59:01   cloud seriously yeah I think I think she [TS]

00:59:05   starts acting the story about 15 minutes [TS]

00:59:07   before she should be right she knows [TS]

00:59:10   yesterday is going where is she should [TS]

00:59:11   actually kinda like him at the beginning [TS]

00:59:13   like all your so silly keeping putting [TS]

00:59:15   putting more pennies in this stupid [TS]

00:59:17   machine it's hard to be the voice of [TS]

00:59:18   reason the voices and [TS]

00:59:20   forgets to drive the plot never gets all [TS]

00:59:23   the voice of reason gets the USA like mm [TS]

00:59:25   no that's stupid iphone her initial [TS]

00:59:28   regret was was just not taking up the [TS]

00:59:30   diner on his he was really pushing that [TS]

00:59:32   chicken fried steak yeah I know takers I [TS]

00:59:35   watched it home yeah I know do you [TS]

00:59:36   raised a good sounds good [TS]

00:59:38   Shannon just wants us like us little [TS]

00:59:40   sandwich come on [TS]

00:59:42   yes i got like a better and radio said [TS]

00:59:43   like a BLT here watching his way to me [TS]

00:59:47   is not even any friggin meeting you [TS]

00:59:49   gotta be spelled to be the world's [TS]

00:59:50   youngest office manager well the problem [TS]

00:59:52   steve is that is that if he eats the [TS]

00:59:53   chicken-fried steak you know what's [TS]

00:59:54   gonna happen is that he doesn't have to [TS]

00:59:56   switch from his standard office manager [TS]

00:59:58   shirt into a slightly [TS]

00:59:58   shirt into a slightly [TS]

01:00:00   four seasons rally round is on your [TS]

01:00:02   blouse man if only shattered even more [TS]

01:00:08   tomato and let us say this is over the [TS]

01:00:09   course of his weird I i am impressed [TS]

01:00:11   that they ordered an iced coffee at the [TS]

01:00:13   end [TS]

01:00:14   yeah only had really well that's that's [TS]

01:00:16   the second ice coffee is it was in the [TS]

01:00:19   itemized bill is on the docket yeah [TS]

01:00:21   that's right now [TS]

01:00:21   yeah I no wait i mean we went over it [TS]

01:00:25   what what I like about this episode is [TS]

01:00:26   that is that it could be nothing [TS]

01:00:28   supernatural at all and it is a nice [TS]

01:00:31   curing of of people who are super [TS]

01:00:33   superstitious like really superstitious [TS]

01:00:35   and like oh I don't wanna touch this [TS]

01:00:37   right i don't want to step on this or [TS]

01:00:39   things like that and this is the this is [TS]

01:00:40   the extreme which is you know you [TS]

01:00:42   believe in this thing and it will just [TS]

01:00:44   ruin your life and it's stupid and we [TS]

01:00:46   should just leave and he and the push [TS]

01:00:48   and pull between the two of them I i [TS]

01:00:49   like that but yeah it goes a little too [TS]

01:00:51   long [TS]

01:00:52   yeah there's no real attention to it [TS]

01:00:54   because from the start it's clear that [TS]

01:00:55   Shatner is a dingus and I quiet forever [TS]

01:00:58   have to admit a story that is based on [TS]

01:01:00   this is stupid we should leave is that [TS]

01:01:02   ok i'll agree to that I just think it [TS]

01:01:04   could have been executed better so we're [TS]

01:01:06   gonna leave nick of time behind now [TS]

01:01:08   because people have regrets and the last [TS]

01:01:12   one on the list of assigned of shows was [TS]

01:01:15   night of the meek so we go from one of [TS]

01:01:18   my least favorite that sense to one of [TS]

01:01:20   my very favorite that's so you love the [TS]

01:01:23   suicide Carney as the as the drunk [TS]

01:01:26   department store Santa Claus this is [TS]

01:01:28   special in a lot of ways and that it's a [TS]

01:01:31   it's got the twilight zone form but uh [TS]

01:01:34   and you're waiting for the horrific [TS]

01:01:36   twist and in fact halfway through you [TS]

01:01:38   get the sort of the twist where he's [TS]

01:01:39   like going to be arrested for stealing [TS]

01:01:41   everything and any and the twist is kind [TS]

01:01:43   of delightful and fun and not dark at [TS]

01:01:45   all which I find great [TS]

01:01:47   the only problem I have with this [TS]

01:01:48   episode is this comes i looked it up [TS]

01:01:50   from a span of six episodes where they [TS]

01:01:53   thought they would save some money by [TS]

01:01:55   shooting on video videos it looks like a [TS]

01:01:58   live TV stage production looks like [TS]

01:02:00   these it would be so much better if it [TS]

01:02:03   was on whatever they normally used for [TS]

01:02:06   comes to Huck it's a shame because it [TS]

01:02:08   would feels all wrong [TS]

01:02:09   it does but it's still great this [TS]

01:02:11   episode i think is a great [TS]

01:02:13   example of the really sappy side of [TS]

01:02:15   surly and the thing yeah serling's [TS]

01:02:18   Serling scripts whether it be for his [TS]

01:02:21   earlier work or for twilight zone for [TS]

01:02:24   pretty much anything there's a star [TS]

01:02:26   comparison between him and Matheson and [TS]

01:02:28   Charles Beaumont who we really should [TS]

01:02:30   have done an episode with him writing [TS]

01:02:31   but ok the thing about sterling is every [TS]

01:02:34   one of these episodes that he writes [TS]

01:02:36   there's a real like even the ones that [TS]

01:02:40   are dark there's a sense that he's he's [TS]

01:02:43   trying to tell us this because he has [TS]

01:02:44   hope for the human condition you know [TS]

01:02:47   you you always get the the sense that [TS]

01:02:49   you know even that even at our darkest [TS]

01:02:51   there's he's really pushing for us and [TS]

01:02:54   this this one is just an example of him [TS]

01:02:56   just outright going for sap straight [TS]

01:02:58   straight up and in the midst of watching [TS]

01:03:01   a bunch of other sort of more depressing [TS]

01:03:02   episodes it really comes across as [TS]

01:03:04   unbelievably sweet [TS]

01:03:05   yeah I think that's what I really [TS]

01:03:07   appreciate I mean I mean the sympathy [TS]

01:03:10   further for poor people and talks about [TS]

01:03:12   you know and you get nothing for [TS]

01:03:14   Christmas because we don't have any [TS]

01:03:16   money and the only thing that comes down [TS]

01:03:17   the chimney at Christmastime is is more [TS]

01:03:19   poverty and like the only way that we [TS]

01:03:22   can respond to this is by having [TS]

01:03:24   compassion to for each other with love [TS]

01:03:26   for other people by like stopping [TS]

01:03:29   someone's trying to turn left and [TS]

01:03:31   letting them go are like stopping when [TS]

01:03:33   people are trying to like cross the [TS]

01:03:34   street and that's what we need to do is [TS]

01:03:37   like respond with love and compassion [TS]

01:03:38   even though it's done on videotape of [TS]

01:03:42   those six episodes this is the only one [TS]

01:03:44   that's even worth watching more than [TS]

01:03:46   once it is just so wonderful and even at [TS]

01:03:49   that i don't know that it would work as [TS]

01:03:52   well if it weren't for art car [TS]

01:03:53   II I mean handwrite beautiful is that [TS]

01:03:56   casting and he he is that character he [TS]

01:03:59   just lives it with with a look he [TS]

01:04:01   doesn't even have to say anything and [TS]

01:04:03   you know his his life story [TS]

01:04:05   yep yeah the biggest problem with this [TS]

01:04:07   episode for me is that the poor kids [TS]

01:04:10   don't look poor enough i need a [TS]

01:04:13   shorthand at the kids I mean they think [TS]

01:04:14   they're very well-dressed and very [TS]

01:04:16   bundled up and they don't look dirty at [TS]

01:04:18   all and they just they're not [TS]

01:04:19   ragamuffins you know I understand that's [TS]

01:04:21   not really you know the you don't [TS]

01:04:23   necessarily [TS]

01:04:24   not all not all poor people wear rags [TS]

01:04:26   you know but for shorthand you know when [TS]

01:04:29   they walk up to him and they're [TS]

01:04:30   demanding gifts I need to see them [TS]

01:04:33   actually look destitute or else they're [TS]

01:04:35   just some kids who are demanding gifts [TS]

01:04:37   you know especially when one of them is [TS]

01:04:39   asking for a job for daddy later though [TS]

01:04:42   after after asking for 14 other things [TS]

01:04:44   that are more rational little kid [TS]

01:04:45   demands they finally get to that the [TS]

01:04:48   thing that actually points out that [TS]

01:04:49   they're hurting you no I totally agree [TS]

01:04:51   on this being very rewatchable I think [TS]

01:04:53   this is you know it was it was a [TS]

01:04:55   pleasant surprise to to come maybe rifa [TS]

01:04:58   militarized with this one and I kind of [TS]

01:05:00   keep a partly and thanks to this show a [TS]

01:05:03   very eclectic mix of things I try to [TS]

01:05:06   watch every holiday season and i'm going [TS]

01:05:08   to make sure that the this episode gets [TS]

01:05:10   inserted into that you know that Q this [TS]

01:05:13   is a good one for that there are a [TS]

01:05:14   couple things i wanted to note about [TS]

01:05:16   this 11 is as somebody who loves Miracle [TS]

01:05:18   on thirty-fourth Street I like that this [TS]

01:05:20   is like the reverse of Miracle on [TS]

01:05:22   thirty-fourth Street where you know in [TS]

01:05:24   in miracle [TS]

01:05:25   there's a there's a drunk Santa right [TS]

01:05:28   who loses his job and then they hire the [TS]

01:05:30   real Santa Claus and here the drunk [TS]

01:05:32   Santa loses his job and discovers the [TS]

01:05:35   spirit of Christmas and become Santa [TS]

01:05:36   Claus it's like that's another path to [TS]

01:05:38   being Santa you could do one or the [TS]

01:05:40   other [TS]

01:05:41   there's there's some options I i really [TS]

01:05:43   enjoy that and the other thing i want to [TS]

01:05:44   mention is that his name is corwin and [TS]

01:05:48   that is a that is a reference to to [TS]

01:05:51   norman Corwin who was a I think mentor [TS]

01:05:54   of Rod Serling's and was a blacklisted [TS]

01:05:57   screenwriter he came out of the world of [TS]

01:05:59   radio yeah and and also notable because [TS]

01:06:01   there's a Babylon 5 character named [TS]

01:06:03   Corwin for the same reason because he [TS]

01:06:05   was also a mentor of J michael [TS]

01:06:07   Straczynski so every time i hear [TS]

01:06:09   character for when I go oh yeah I guess [TS]

01:06:11   that's normal or when they're [TS]

01:06:12   referencing Norman Corwin there he was [TS]

01:06:14   hugely influential if you look into his [TS]

01:06:17   Wikipedia page he he was one of the [TS]

01:06:21   pioneers of doing more than just soap [TS]

01:06:24   operas and stuff on radio you know we [TS]

01:06:26   all know Orson Welles and where the [TS]

01:06:28   world and everything he was doing with [TS]

01:06:30   koren he was following Corwin's lead on [TS]

01:06:32   that stuff is just can't in there [TS]

01:06:34   yeah yeah what's with all these games [TS]

01:06:36   Bullock and it's so great though that [TS]

01:06:39   such a great moment of like hey you know [TS]

01:06:41   hey you people who are jerks you know [TS]

01:06:43   what you get garbage you make garbage [TS]

01:06:46   come out of the magic bag [TS]

01:06:48   how do you feel now you mentioned how [TS]

01:06:51   great art carney is in this and this is [TS]

01:06:52   really just one in a long line of great [TS]

01:06:54   Christmas shows that he did culminating [TS]

01:06:55   in the star wars holiday special but but [TS]

01:07:00   john fiedler pickle his own bad self [TS]

01:07:03   oh my gosh herb you and the moment where [TS]

01:07:06   he's pulling cans out of the bag and [TS]

01:07:08   then he pulls out an upside-down cat is [TS]

01:07:10   super hot and then what does he want he [TS]

01:07:14   just wants someone cherry brings the [TS]

01:07:16   cherry brandy antigen 1983 yeah it was [TS]

01:07:18   all right and darker as Rapunzel oh good [TS]

01:07:21   year [TS]

01:07:22   wow well oh not this episode is that [TS]

01:07:27   like in in a lot of the other twilight [TS]

01:07:30   zone episodes there's this fantastic [TS]

01:07:32   element and people are like scared and [TS]

01:07:34   horrified by it but here is like wow I [TS]

01:07:37   get to be Santa Claus that's lost [TS]

01:07:39   whereas you have the movie The Santa [TS]

01:07:41   Clause where guy turns into sand flies [TS]

01:07:43   like yeah there's never a holy crap [TS]

01:07:47   moment here is there he just did the bag [TS]

01:07:49   falls over he sees their presence and [TS]

01:07:50   just start shoving back in and runs out [TS]

01:07:53   into the street he's ready to start [TS]

01:07:54   handing them out [TS]

01:07:55   yeah exactly what it's almost like he [TS]

01:07:57   was Santa and he got drunk and forgot [TS]

01:08:00   sort of like ever it reminds everything [TS]

01:08:03   oh yeah that's what I do [TS]

01:08:04   alright but yeah I mean this is one [TS]

01:08:07   where it's not fear of the unknown but [TS]

01:08:08   it is still the unknown working on it is [TS]

01:08:10   like what bag full of gifts [TS]

01:08:14   yeah well he's loaded so he's ready to [TS]

01:08:15   embrace it the only other note i have is [TS]

01:08:18   that this is one that really would have [TS]

01:08:19   benefited from the original theme being [TS]

01:08:21   in the end credits because yeah it's [TS]

01:08:24   very sweet moment at the end he flies [TS]

01:08:26   off in his sled and john fiedler says [TS]

01:08:28   you god bless [TS]

01:08:30   whatever it is miracles or something and [TS]

01:08:33   then suddenly theory or do you really [TS]

01:08:35   think it's completely distorted it's [TS]

01:08:37   creepy [TS]

01:08:38   so I mention the twist earlier that the [TS]

01:08:39   twist is like literally he goes down an [TS]

01:08:41   alley and there's a sled and reindeer [TS]

01:08:44   and a [TS]

01:08:45   it's just it's just a while it's like oh [TS]

01:08:48   ok alright i was impressed that they [TS]

01:08:51   actually got real reindeer and a real [TS]

01:08:53   elf now just some kid I'll suit but a [TS]

01:08:56   great episode i love this up so it may [TS]

01:08:58   be made me laugh that that's it that's [TS]

01:09:00   his thing is like you get to be Santa [TS]

01:09:02   Claus now come on let's go [TS]

01:09:03   once again he's not he's not concerned [TS]

01:09:05   about it only just hops in the seat and [TS]

01:09:07   let's go [TS]

01:09:08   no I what I liked about it was it you [TS]

01:09:10   know I I kind of feel like the modern [TS]

01:09:11   version of the story would reveal that [TS]

01:09:13   he was Santa Claus all along or [TS]

01:09:15   something like that it's like no no [TS]

01:09:16   Santa Clauses you know like you now you [TS]

01:09:19   could be Santa Claus if you truly have [TS]

01:09:21   the holiday spirit them they might come [TS]

01:09:23   for you when put you in this led i don't [TS]

01:09:26   know i mean he's an unrepentant drunk [TS]

01:09:27   but he's got the spirit does he Santa [TS]

01:09:30   Anna's got a lot of spirit lot of spirit [TS]

01:09:32   yeah that's for sure [TS]

01:09:33   why most of what most twilight zone [TS]

01:09:35   episodes like people fight the twilight [TS]

01:09:37   zone includes they're just crushed at [TS]

01:09:39   the end there and I you know killed by [TS]

01:09:41   the the devil dollar you know whatever [TS]

01:09:43   and in this episode like has a happy [TS]

01:09:46   ending which is the same as our that's [TS]

01:09:48   great and and the way that it just talks [TS]

01:09:52   about compassion friend and love for [TS]

01:09:55   Humanity just just warms my heart [TS]

01:09:59   yeah there are a fair number that end [TS]

01:10:01   wistfully but i think this may be one of [TS]

01:10:03   the very few that and straight up [TS]

01:10:05   happily so I now that we've reached the [TS]

01:10:07   end of these episodes we should say we [TS]

01:10:09   didn't watch the ones that everybody [TS]

01:10:10   knows everybody knows what we kind of [TS]

01:10:12   did these are these are all we are [TS]

01:10:14   really watch they just talked about [TS]

01:10:17   yeah i watched about 20 even even the [TS]

01:10:19   ones that we talked about these are all [TS]

01:10:20   fairly well-known episode it's true [TS]

01:10:22   probably lay these plots out to be but [TS]

01:10:24   nightmare at 20,000 feet and to serve [TS]

01:10:26   man seemed so obvious that we didn't go [TS]

01:10:28   into it i will say that i did watch to [TS]

01:10:31   serve man and I thought it was really [TS]

01:10:32   not good that man was kind of dumb and [TS]

01:10:38   meritorious fetus is fine [TS]

01:10:40   that's that's got lots shattering oh [TS]

01:10:42   it's got all the shatner actually built [TS]

01:10:44   you know the nice thing about nightmare [TS]

01:10:46   at 20,000 feet is I like the end because [TS]

01:10:48   you really are set up for it to be [TS]

01:10:50   he's a madman nobody will ever believe [TS]

01:10:52   him and the last line is basically like [TS]

01:10:54   oh but then they're going to see what [TS]

01:10:56   was on the way [TS]

01:10:56   and they're gonna realize that was [TS]

01:10:58   really a monster the end goodbye [TS]

01:11:00   it's like that's different that's the [TS]

01:11:01   key right he regains his sanity he [TS]

01:11:04   proves he's saying at least tonight yeah [TS]

01:11:06   and that's why you know as good as John [TS]

01:11:08   Lithgow is in the movie it doesn't work [TS]

01:11:11   because yeah they think he's insane and [TS]

01:11:14   then he gets driven away by dan Aykroyd [TS]

01:11:16   at the end [TS]

01:11:16   yeah but see the cat wasn't really [TS]

01:11:18   talking he just thought oh maybe [TS]

01:11:20   interviewers were taking his purse pound [TS]

01:11:22   on we saw that thing that was peeled up [TS]

01:11:24   on the way so do you want to do bring [TS]

01:11:27   out your dead round of episodes we love [TS]

01:11:30   alright so let's let's not gonna take [TS]

01:11:32   David's suggestion before we go and wrap [TS]

01:11:33   it up if there are other episodes of The [TS]

01:11:35   Twilight Zone that you want to put a [TS]

01:11:36   shout out to now would be a good time [TS]

01:11:39   David what does this is a hugely [TS]

01:11:41   influential show for me I would you know [TS]

01:11:42   I just love the series but if I had to [TS]

01:11:45   narrow it down i would i would [TS]

01:11:47   it's hard to pick between Jack Klugman's [TS]

01:11:50   episodes i love all of them and for [TS]

01:11:52   different reasons [TS]

01:11:53   there is a scene in praise of PIP which [TS]

01:11:56   kills me if it killed me before I had [TS]

01:11:59   children but now that I do it is just [TS]

01:12:02   gut-wrenching but and a game of pool is [TS]

01:12:05   terrific and you but it's it's a passage [TS]

01:12:08   for trumpet where he plays a trumpeter [TS]

01:12:10   who's gonna give up he's you know [TS]

01:12:12   nothing is working for me is just gonna [TS]

01:12:14   walk out in the street and kill himself [TS]

01:12:15   and he runs into who might be the angel [TS]

01:12:20   Gabriel who talked him down and it is [TS]

01:12:23   just the the the the span of heartbreak [TS]

01:12:28   to joy and all the emotions in between [TS]

01:12:31   the clubman does with his face it is [TS]

01:12:34   astonishing [TS]

01:12:36   I love the jack klugman episodes alright [TS]

01:12:40   you take the jack klugman episodes [TS]

01:12:42   alright Frank what did we miss that you [TS]

01:12:44   love to that the howling man which is [TS]

01:12:47   the one where they capture Satan and the [TS]

01:12:51   obsolete [TS]

01:12:52   yeah yeah I love it so preachy no [TS]

01:12:57   nobody's been in a good way anybody but [TS]

01:13:00   in a good way in a good way it's about [TS]

01:13:02   the importance of books I can get behind [TS]

01:13:03   that's right yeah and and again talk to [TS]

01:13:08   totalitarian States you got [TS]

01:13:10   it's Weaver all he's awesome yeah right [TS]

01:13:13   Dan [TS]

01:13:14   what are your ones did we miss that you [TS]

01:13:16   love well for me I had it I've had an [TS]

01:13:19   opportunity recently in in recording my [TS]

01:13:21   show to catch up on one Jonathan I don't [TS]

01:13:24   think we hit tonight and that's the the [TS]

01:13:26   war genre that the military episodes and [TS]

01:13:30   I've been fascinated and rewatching some [TS]

01:13:33   recently about realizing that in a time [TS]

01:13:36   before PTSD was acknowledged as a as an [TS]

01:13:39   actual condition and then what the [TS]

01:13:41   effects of of being a fighting man and [TS]

01:13:45   more time were in world war two and in [TS]

01:13:47   Korea immediately preceding the show [TS]

01:13:50   being on the air it's it's been very [TS]

01:13:53   interesting for me to watch some of the [TS]

01:13:54   episodes where very clearly the the [TS]

01:13:56   writing staff certainly himself others [TS]

01:14:00   working through some of their own issues [TS]

01:14:01   and in exposing some of this and in a [TS]

01:14:05   time [TS]

01:14:05   previous nom when you know people [TS]

01:14:07   haven't seen war on TV so much and so [TS]

01:14:11   the episode that comes to mind is a [TS]

01:14:13   quality of mercy from my season 3 it's a [TS]

01:14:17   and we talked about all the Star Trek [TS]

01:14:20   cast in there Leonard Nimoy's in that [TS]

01:14:23   one and in a in a very young girl little [TS]

01:14:29   his name escapes me at the moment Dean [TS]

01:14:30   Stockwell the only disturbing thing [TS]

01:14:32   about some of these to me looking back [TS]

01:14:34   was there so there's some pretty blatant [TS]

01:14:37   you know a casual racism of the time in [TS]

01:14:40   in depicting Japanese soldiers and some [TS]

01:14:43   of that but but the message about the [TS]

01:14:46   horrors of war and all that i think is [TS]

01:14:47   is a great thing that they cannot hit [TS]

01:14:49   upon a few times but that's one episode [TS]

01:14:51   that sticks out for me [TS]

01:14:52   alright Steve what about you now I've [TS]

01:14:55   got a lot of dead i'll go through a [TS]

01:14:56   quick okay mostly like the real creepy [TS]

01:14:59   once those are the ones that always [TS]

01:15:01   stuck in my head as a kid and so i'll [TS]

01:15:03   just go through those most of those the [TS]

01:15:05   after hours in which and Francis is a [TS]

01:15:07   mannequin but she doesn't know it [TS]

01:15:09   that was super creepy something in the [TS]

01:15:12   dark which i haven't seen in years and I [TS]

01:15:14   feel like probably isn't as good as I [TS]

01:15:15   remember it but that's the one with [TS]

01:15:17   Robert Redford is trying to get in [TS]

01:15:19   he's an injured he's [TS]

01:15:20   your policeman or something yeah yeah [TS]

01:15:22   yeahs nothing nothing in the dark [TS]

01:15:24   the woman outside is nothing in the dark [TS]

01:15:26   that's it that's it and the woman in the [TS]

01:15:28   house is afraid to let him in because [TS]

01:15:30   she's afraid to die and it turns out [TS]

01:15:32   he's in fact death but he's [TS]

01:15:33   compassionate is really solid in my in [TS]

01:15:37   my recollection but I will watch it [TS]

01:15:39   again and probably hated living doll and [TS]

01:15:42   remembers living doll that's the talky [TS]

01:15:43   Tina episode or telling survives know [TS]

01:15:46   he's a jerk he deserves it [TS]

01:15:48   ya know it's yes definitely you root for [TS]

01:15:50   them dollars now you can tell the very [TS]

01:15:52   your daddy I never root for the doll [TS]

01:15:55   uh yeah like you wouldn't that make some [TS]

01:15:57   long-distance call which is an earlier [TS]

01:16:01   bill movie episode where he talks to his [TS]

01:16:03   dead grandmother on the toy phone [TS]

01:16:05   oh yeah and she wants him to join her [TS]

01:16:08   yeah that's good and freaky to which is [TS]

01:16:12   elizabeth montgomery and Charles Bronson [TS]

01:16:14   fighting fighting it out in a [TS]

01:16:15   post-apocalyptic the dummy because it [TS]

01:16:19   has a dummy in it and the guy turns into [TS]

01:16:20   the dummy at the end it's really freaky [TS]

01:16:22   totally traumatized me another good [TS]

01:16:26   conformity based one number 12 looks [TS]

01:16:28   just like you have that one of the masks [TS]

01:16:32   in which the guy forces his narrative [TS]

01:16:34   well family to wear different masks did [TS]

01:16:36   that represent their various flyballs as [TS]

01:16:39   the will is read and then at the end [TS]

01:16:40   they take off the mask in their faces [TS]

01:16:42   are permanently molded into the shape of [TS]

01:16:44   whatever it was [TS]

01:16:45   that's a good one and the 1i another one [TS]

01:16:48   that I haven't seen in years but i [TS]

01:16:49   remember being very moving when I was a [TS]

01:16:50   kid is the big tall wish in which the [TS]

01:16:53   young boy wishes for the [TS]

01:16:56   down-on-his-luck fighter to win a [TS]

01:16:59   particular fight and he does but then [TS]

01:17:00   the guy refuses to believe that the wish [TS]

01:17:02   had anything to do with any suddenly [TS]

01:17:04   finds himself flat on his back in the [TS]

01:17:05   ring and it turns out that because he [TS]

01:17:07   didn't believe in the wish he ended up [TS]

01:17:09   losing the fight and that's a good one [TS]

01:17:12   yeah that's it so I'm going to be a [TS]

01:17:15   monster we're all the monster jro [TS]

01:17:17   martyrs and i'm going to say you know [TS]

01:17:20   what has a what what has all [TS]

01:17:22   surprisingly number are good number of [TS]

01:17:24   stories it's the 1985 revival of The [TS]

01:17:26   Twilight Zone where you can find such [TS]

01:17:28   excellent stories as the star shattered [TS]

01:17:31   a paladin lost our [TS]

01:17:33   play a message from charity a matter of [TS]

01:17:35   minutes in episode that is not that [TS]

01:17:37   great and yet I think about it at least [TS]

01:17:40   once a month I think about this random [TS]

01:17:42   story from the 895 twilight zone [TS]

01:17:45   they did a cold equations adaptation [TS]

01:17:47   that's pretty good and the best perhaps [TS]

01:17:49   episode title ever crazy as a soup [TS]

01:17:51   sandwich so it's that said lastly it's [TS]

01:17:55   harlan ellison but there's some really [TS]

01:17:56   good ones in there it is an 80 show it [TS]

01:18:00   you know they made some bad mistakes as [TS]

01:18:01   well but i think the the tragedy of it [TS]

01:18:04   is I think creatively were pretty solid [TS]

01:18:06   and they had some tone issues with CBS [TS]

01:18:10   big shock and the network kind of lost [TS]

01:18:12   support for it and then they basically [TS]

01:18:14   sold it off and acidification and gave [TS]

01:18:16   up and it's too bad because there were [TS]

01:18:17   actually some very good stories and as [TS]

01:18:19   mentioned earlier the advantage of the [TS]

01:18:20   hour-long format what they would do is [TS]

01:18:22   they would do these various lengths one [TS]

01:18:25   so they have some short short ones that [TS]

01:18:27   are like little almost like little jokes [TS]

01:18:29   that go for five minutes and are done [TS]

01:18:31   that were there's there's a really good [TS]

01:18:33   one where I think Ron glass is the devil [TS]

01:18:35   that's really great so don't pooh-pooh [TS]

01:18:39   the the eighties twilight zone [TS]

01:18:41   really it's not the same kind of thing [TS]

01:18:44   is the one from the sixties but there's [TS]

01:18:46   some good stuff there too so that's [TS]

01:18:48   that's my plug palette of the lost our [TS]

01:18:50   is one of my very figure out what all [TS]

01:18:52   also Harlan Ellison yeah with with danny [TS]

01:18:55   kaye also i'll put a plug for the [TS]

01:18:57   opening credits of the eighties twilight [TS]

01:18:59   zone [TS]

01:19:00   it's really creepy and weird and cool [TS]

01:19:01   and they have a stylized version of the [TS]

01:19:02   theme song performed by the grateful [TS]

01:19:04   dead and there's a like I strike hazy [TS]

01:19:08   smoky like ghosts of Rod Serling who [TS]

01:19:10   appears briefly in the opening credits [TS]

01:19:12   it's pretty cool so yeah that's my [TS]

01:19:14   that's my plug for for that and [TS]

01:19:16   charles81 actually who was in a couple [TS]

01:19:18   of class equality on episodes was the [TS]

01:19:20   narrator and was really great as the [TS]

01:19:21   narrator of those it's a fine yeah [TS]

01:19:24   unfortunately then when they put in [TS]

01:19:25   syndication they redoubled all of his [TS]

01:19:27   narrations and ruined it but the race [TS]

01:19:29   Robin war yes well they they made they [TS]

01:19:31   made in canada and J michael Straczynski [TS]

01:19:33   worked on that show and and and the [TS]

01:19:36   episodes are not badly written but [TS]

01:19:37   they're cheap and made in Canada so you [TS]

01:19:40   know and they look at and they look at [TS]

01:19:41   all right well we have we have been in [TS]

01:19:44   the twilight zone [TS]

01:19:45   submitted for your approval [TS]

01:19:47   four panelists enter a strange dimension [TS]

01:19:49   known as a podcast I don't have a whole [TS]

01:19:52   thing written i just threw that in there [TS]

01:19:54   so I'd like to thank my guests for [TS]

01:19:56   making it through this podcast and out [TS]

01:19:59   of the twilight zone David Laura thank [TS]

01:20:01   you thank you i just i just want to say [TS]

01:20:03   I've spent more than 22 minutes with you [TS]

01:20:05   all [TS]

01:20:05   will the real Martian please stand up [TS]

01:20:08   fair enough [TS]

01:20:09   Franco I all I've got here is this [TS]

01:20:12   bottle of cherry brandy but it's from [TS]

01:20:15   1904 so it's a good year the great here [TS]

01:20:19   it's not 1903 thank you for being here [TS]

01:20:21   I Steve let's i don't i don't even know [TS]

01:20:24   what to say Cloris Leachman hey thanks [TS]

01:20:26   for being here with he's a very bad man [TS]

01:20:29   you're a very bad man Jason and you keep [TS]

01:20:32   thinking bad thoughts about me I will I [TS]

01:20:38   promise and swear I know who it is it's [TS]

01:20:42   dead where shoot him [TS]

01:20:44   thank you for being on the incomparable [TS]

01:20:45   as a panelist and not just a voice plate [TS]

01:20:49   on on a computer somewhere it's my [TS]

01:20:52   pleasure in the idea i don't know what's [TS]

01:20:54   going to happen Jason but I want to make [TS]

01:20:56   it happen together [TS]

01:20:58   ok so you can check out a random [TS]

01:21:04   sterling available we're fine podcasts [TS]

01:21:06   are sold [TS]

01:21:07   is that right indeed he has some random [TS]

01:21:08   certainly dot-com thank you see there [TS]

01:21:10   you go if you want if you want even more [TS]

01:21:12   twilight zone and Knight gallery you [TS]

01:21:14   know the state does provide for the [TS]

01:21:16   extermination of undesirables just [TS]

01:21:19   thought I'd throw that out there [TS]

01:21:21   well until next week i have been your [TS]

01:21:23   host Jason smell all hail the leader and [TS]

01:21:26   we'll see you next time [TS]

01:21:38   [Music] [TS]