Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Twilight Zone: “Kick the Can” [Season 3, Episode 21]
Original Air Date: February 9, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Starring: Ernest Truex, Russell Collins and John Marley.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Charles Whitley [Truex] lives with other elderly residents of an old folks home. They think he is going crazy, but he believes he has found the secret to return to childhood.
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The Last Ship season three trailer is here!
Twilight Zone: “Showdown with Rance McGrew ” [Season 3, Episode 20]
Original Air Date: February 2, 1962
Director: Christian Nyby
Writer: Rod Serling based on an idea by Frederic L. Fox
Starring: Larry Blyden, Arch Johnson and Robert Cornthwaite.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Rance McGrew [Blyden] is the star of a 1950’s western series. Each week McGrew outdraws and out smarts the likes of Billy the Kid, Jesse James and other outlaws. The reality is that McGrew is terrible with a gun, afraid to do his own stunts and a prima dona.
When McGrew suddenly finds himself transported to the past and face to face with the real Jesse James, he knows that there will be no second takes.
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Twilight Zone: “The Hunt” [Season 3, Episode 19]
Original Air Date: January 26, 1962
Director: Harold D. Schuster
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
Starring: Arthur Hunnicutt, Jeanette Nolan and Robert Foulk.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An elderly man takes his old dog hunting one evening. When they return the following day, no one can see them and his wife is in mourning. Although the old man and the dog have died they are about to go on a journey that will take them through the Twilight Zone.
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Twilight Zone: “Dead Man’s Shoes” [Season 3, Episode 18]
Original Air Date: January 19, 1962
Director: Montgomery Pittman
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: Warren Stevens, Richard Devon and Joan Marshall.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
A homeless man witnesses a gangland killing and before the police arrives steals the dead man’s shoes. Once he has the shoes on, he gains the dead man’s memories and decides on revenge.
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Twilight Zone: “One More Pallbearer” [Season 3, Episode 17]
Original Air Date: January 5, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Joseph Wiseman, Katherine Squire and Trevor Bardette.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Paul Radin [Wiseman] is a very wealthy but very petty man. He lures three people from his past to his private bunker hoping to get an apology from them for perceived wrongs. Radin has set up an elaborate prank – that there is about to be a nuclear war – and their apologies will allow them to stay safe with him in his bunker.
As expected in the Twilight Zone – things often don’t work out as planned.
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Jake Rosen and Mental Floss present 13 Arresting Facts About Cops. Here are three of my favorites…
6. THE SUSPECTS NEED TO GIVE THEIR PERMISSION TO APPEAR ON THE SHOW.
Contrary to popular belief, being arrested doesn’t absolve anyone of his or her right to not be filmed for a national television show. Producers on Cops have to get releases signed by arrestees and suspects. If they’re already handcuffed, the crew can follow them to jail and get them to sign there. Langley has said that proper timing is key when it comes to getting their permission—during a fight is a problem—and estimated that 95 percent of everyone filmed signs a waiver to appear. According to Langley, they simply want to be on television.
8. THE CREW HAS HAD TO JUMP IN.
The official Cops crew policy is that camera and microphone operators are there only to observe: They’re not allowed to interfere with anything going on. The exception, Langley says, is if an officer’s life is in danger. In one instance, a suspect was about to secure an officer’s weapon when the sound man put down his gear and jumped in; another show staffer administered CPR to a woman in need. He was a paramedic; the officer didn’t know the technique.
1. JOHN LANGLEY THOUGHT OF THE IDEA DURING A COCAINE BUST.
The producer was in charge of a crew covering a real-life drug raid for a 1983 documentary called Cocaine Blues when inspiration struck: He thought it would be a good idea to have a no-frills chronicle of the everyday experiences of police officers. While the concept (then titledStreet Beat) was simple, no one shared Langley’s enthusiasm. He was repeatedly told no show without a narrator, music, or plot could succeed.
Twilight Zone: “Nothing in the Dark” [Season 3, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: January 5, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Starring: Gladys Cooper, Robert Redford and R.G. Armstrong.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An old woman is afraid Death will take her if she leaves her apartment. She has food delivered and never opens the door until no one is around. Death has come calling before but she never lets him in. When a police officer is shot and left to die outside her door she is faced with a dilemma…
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Twilight Zone: “A Quality of Mercy” [Season 3, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: December 29, 1961
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: Rod Serling from an idea by Sam Rolfe
Starring: Dean Stockwell, Albert Salmi, Rayford Barnes and Leonard Nimoy.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
World War II is days from ending. A ragged group of battle-weary soldiers on the front line get a new Lieutanant [Stockwell] who hopes to make a name for himself no matter the cost to his men.
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Twilight Zone: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” [Season 3, Episode 14]
Original Air Date: December 22, 1961
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling from a short story by Marvin Petal
Starring: Susan Harrison, William Windom and Murray Matheson.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An army major, a ballerina, a clown, a hobo and a bagpiper wake up to find themselves in a strange round room. The walls are sheer and high, but there is no roof so if they could some how make it up and over they could escape. But escape to where?
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Twilight Zone: “Once Upon a Time” [Season 3, Episode 13]
Original Air Date: December 15, 1961
Director: Norman Z. McCleod
Writer: Richard Matheson
Starring: Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams and James Flavin.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
In 1890, Woodrow Mulligan [Keaton] is a janitor cleaning up a scientist’s lab when he tries on a time-machine helmet and is transported to 1962.
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Twilight Zone: “The Jungle” [Season 3, Episode 12]
Original Air Date: December 1, 1961
Director: William Claxton
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: John Dehner, Walter Brooke and Jay Adler.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Back home in New York City, after a year in Africa overseeing a major construction project, Alan Richards [Dehner] discovers his wife secretly placed a charm to ward off evil spells in his coat pocket.
His wife was afraid because a witch doctor had placed a curse on Richards and those working on the project which was destroying their land. Richards leaves the charm on the bar as he heads home and it isn’t long before dangerous things begin to happen.
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Twilight Zone: “Still Valley” [Season 3, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: November 24, 1961
Director: James Sheldon
Writer: Rod Serling from a story by Manly Wade Wellman
Starring: Gary Merrill, Vaughn Taylor and Mark Tapscott
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Confederate Scout Joseph Paradine [Merrill] enters a town deserted except for an old man and a Union Army unit frozen in place in the middle of the street. The old man is a warlock and since he is dying, willing to pass along his powers to Paradine. With his new powers Paradine plans to change the course of the war.
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Twilight Zone: “The Midnight Sun” [Season 3, Episode 10]
Original Air Date: November 17, 1961
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Lois Nettleton, Betty Garde and Tom Reese
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
The Earth has come out of orbit and is moving ever closer to the sun. Most people have headed north or south to delay the inevitable. With the city abandoned, with no police, no running water or fresh food deliveries, a pair of women are struggling to survive in their city apartments.
An armed man breaks in looking to steal what they have and we come to discover things are not as they seem.
Contains a classic Twilight Zone twist ending.
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Twilight Zone: “Deaths-Head Revisited” [Season 3, Episode 9]
Original Air Date: November 10, 1961
Director: Don Medford
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Joseph Schildkraut, and Oscar Beregi Jr.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Nearly two decades after the end of World War II, SS Capt. Gunther Lutze returns to the deserted concentration camp he once rules. As he walks through the rundown buildings, Lutz remembers with glory the wonderful feelings he had torturing and putting to death his inferior prisoners of war… that is until the executed prisoners return to extract their revenge.
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