Category: TV

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Dust” [Season 2, Episode 12]

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Twilight Zone: “Dust” [Season 2, Episode 12]
Original Air Date: January 6, 1961

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Thomas Gomez, John Larch and Vladimir Sokoloff.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers

Gallegos’ son is scheduled to be hanged for the accidental death of child. Gallegos begs the Marshall for mercy, but unless the dead child’s parents give consent to stop, the hanging must go on.

An unscrupulous traveling salesman offers to sell Gallegos magic dust which has the power to grant his wish.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Night of the Meek” [Season 2, Episode 11]

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Twilight Zone: “The Night of the Meek” [Season 2, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: December 23, 1960

Director: Jack Smight

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Art Carney and John Fiedler.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Henry Corwin [Carney] is an alcoholic who gets seasonal work playing Santa at a department store.  When Corwin shows up late to work and under the influence he is fired.  Corwin thinks about all of the children he has let down and how he wishes he were the real Santa and could give out presents to all.  Sometimes wishes do come true…

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “A Most Unusual Camera” [Season 2, Episode 10]

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Twilight Zone: “A Most Unusual Camera” [Season 2, Episode 10]
Original Air Date: December 16, 1960

Director: John Rich

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Fred Clark, Jean Carson and Adam Williams.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When a husband and wife team who are small time hustlers get their hands on a camera that takes photos that are five minutes in the future, they head to the race track to get rich. All is good until the brother-in-law shows up.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Trouble with Templeton” [Season 2, Episode 9]

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Twilight Zone: “The Trouble with Templeton” [Season 2, Episode 9]
Original Air Date: December 9, 1960

Director: Buzz Kulik

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Brian Aherne, Pippa Scott and Sydney Pollack.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Booth Templeton [Aherne] is an aging actor nostalgic for the good old days when he was the toast of the town and his wife was still alive.  Sadly, when Templeton gets a chance to visit the past he finds things are not as he remembered them.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Lateness of the Hour” [Season 2, Episode 8]

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Twilight Zone: “The Lateness of the Hour” [Season 2, Episode 8]
Original Air Date: December 2, 1960

Director: Jack Smight

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Inger Stevens and John Hoyt.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jana Loren [Stevens] has grown up surrounded by servants.  Her father is an inventor and the servants are robots designed to meet all of the family’s needs.  Jana desires more freedom and wants her parents to get rid of the robots… which of course is a path she shouldn’t go down since she is in The Twilight Zone.
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Z-View Twilight Zone: “Nick of Time” [Season 2, Episode 7]

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Twilight Zone: “Nick of Time” [Season 2, Episode 7]
Original Air Date: November 18, 1960

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writer: Richard Matheson

Starring: William Shatner and Patricia Breslin.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

While driving through a small town heading for their honeymoon, Don [Shatner] and Pat [Breslin] Carter’s car breaks down.  The mechanic says it will take a few hours to repair, so the newlyweds head into a small cafe for lunch and to pass the time.

Don is nervous to hear about a possible promotion but is afraid to call his boss.  There’s a little penny fortune-telling machine at their table, so Don jokingly puts in a penny to get the answer.  When it appear that the machine got the answer correctly, Don asks more and more questions and the machine answers with startling accuracy… or does it?

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “Eye of the Beholder” [Season 2, Episode 6]

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Twilight Zone: “Eye of the Beholder” [Season 2, Episode 6]
Original Air Date: November 11, 1960

Director: Douglas Hayes

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Maxine Stuart, William D. Gordon, George Keymas, Edson Stroll and Donna Douglas.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Janet Tyler [Stuart] is lying in her hospital bed, her head and face totally covered by bandages.  Tyler nervously waits for her doctor to remove the bandages hoping that her latest (and last) surgery will make her look normal.

Sadly Tyler is hideously ugly and lives in a society where the less desirables are sent away.  As the bandages are removed her worst fears are revealed.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Howling Man” [Season 2, Episode 5]

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Twilight Zone: “The Howling Man” [Season 2, Episode 5]
Original Air Date: November 4, 1960

Director: Douglas Hayes

Writer: Charles Beaumont

Starring: John Carradine, H.M. Wynant and Robin Hughes.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

David Ellington [Wynant] while on a long hike alone in the woods in Europe becomes ill.  Ellington stumbles across a monastery.  Initially told he cannot stay, Brother Jerome [Carradine] allows him to stay until he is well enough to travel.

While recuperating, Ellington hears a man howling in pain.  The screams lead to a cell where a man is being held prisoner.  Before Ellington can release him, Brother Jerome arrives and explains that the thing in the cell is not a man, but the devil!

How could the devil be held in a cell?  Are the monks insane?  If so, Ellington is in danger as well.  Isn’t his duty to help the man escape?  These are the thoughts that race through Ellington’s mind before he makes a decision that will haunt him for the rest of his life.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “A Thing About Machines” [Season 2, Episode 4]

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Twilight Zone: “A Thing About Machines” [Season 2, Episode 4]
Original Air Date: October 28, 1960

Director: David Orrick McDearmon

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Richard Hayden and Barney Phillips.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Bartlett Finchley is a bit of an eccentric.  He’s a writer who lives alone in a large house and always seems in a battle of will with all of the machines in his house… the tv, his electric razor, his typwriter, well, you get the idea.  Finally things reach the point of no return and the war is on.

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room” [Season 2, Episode 3]

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Twilight Zone: “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room” [Season 2, Episode 3]
Original Air Date: October 14, 1960

Director: Douglas Hayes

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Joe Mantell and William D. Gordon.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jackie Rhoades [Mantell] is a cheap hood nervously waiting in a flop house hotel room for his next job. His boss [Gordon] shows up with the job — to murder a bar owner refusing to pay his debts.

Rhoades argues that he’s not a killer, but the boss gives him no choice and leaves.  Rhoades begins to talk to himself in the mirror looking for a way out… suddenly his reflection begins to talk back to him and may have an idea!

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Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Man in the Bottle” [Season 2, Episode 2]

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Twilight Zone: “The Man in the Bottle” [Season 2, Episode 2]
Original Air Date: October 7, 1960

Director: Don Medford

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Luther Adler, Vivi Janiss and Joseph Ruskin.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Arthur [Medford] and Edna [Janiss] run a small secondhand store that is barely making it.  Despite their money troubles, Arthur’s kind heart causes him to buy an empty wine bottle from an old lady in need of a few dollars.

The bottle turns out to contain a genie that when released offers Arthur and Edna four wishes.  When in the Twilight Zone always remember to be careful what you wish for.

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14 Things You Don’t Know About Gordon Ramsay

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Candace Braun Davison and Esquire present 14 Things You Don’t Know About Gordon Ramsay.  Here are three of my favorites…
2. He’s Just As Serious About Fitness As He Is Food.
Ramsay has participated in more than a dozen marathons, three ultra-marathons, three half-Ironmans (which span 70.3 miles, swimming, biking and running) and competed in the Ironman World Championship twice.The championship, held in Hawaii, is known for being incredibly grueling—it combines a 2.4-mile swim with a 122-mile bike ride and a full marathon (26.2 miles). While he completed the race in 14 hours in 2013, he had to drop out of the competition this past year due to dehydration, according to TMZ. Ramsay says he’ll be back in 2016 though.

6. He’s One of the 25 Highest-Paid Celebrities Out There.
The Hell’s Kitchen star is No. 21, technically, raking in $60 million last year, according to Forbes. That makes him the wealthiest celebrity chef out there.

13. He’s Got A Great Trick for Phenomenal Oatmeal.
Ramsay often starts the day with a bowl of oatmeal—just water, salt and oats—but when he really wants to take breakfast to the next level, he does this:

“The night before, put 3 to 4 bananas in the oven on a pilot light. And the next day, squeeze the bananas into almond milk, bring it to a boil, then add the oatmeal and dried cranberries, and you’ll have the most amazing oatmeal for breakfast,” he wrote in his AMA.

Z-View Twilight Zone: “King Nine Will Not Return” [Season 2, Episode 1]

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Twilight Zone: “King Nine Will Not Return” [Season 2, Episode 1]
Original Air Date: September 30, 1960

Director: Buzz Kulik

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Robert Cummings

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

An American bomber pilot [Cummings] wakes up in the desert lying next to his downed plane.  He has no memory of how he got there and his crew is nowhere to be found.
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15 Campy Facts About “Batman”

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Jake Rossen and Mental_Floss present 15 Campy Facts About Batman.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. A QUARTERBACK FOR THE L.A. RAMS ALMOST PLAYED BATMAN.
The kitschy approach of Adam West was not on producer Ed Graham’s mind when he optioned Batman for a television series from DC Comics (then National Periodical Publications) in 1962. Figuring he could capitalize on a Saturday morning kids’ series similar in tone to the George Reeves-starring Adventures of Superman from the 1950s, Graham struck a deal with CBS and enlisted former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Mike Henry for the title role. With CBS dragging their feet, Henry decided to opt out and play Tarzan instead; ABC was more ambitious about the idea, securing the license from National and moving ahead with producer William Dozier and writer Lorenzo Semple Jr., who agreed the show would work best if it didn’t take itself seriously. (Just seriously enough not to cast a football player.)

6. IT HAD THE LOWEST TEST SCORE OF ANY TV PILOT IN HISTORY.
Before its January 12, 1966 premiere, ABC screened the pilot for a test audience. Using knobs that could express their approval (or disapproval), the group verified the equipment was working when they gave the “control” footage, a Mr. Magoo cartoon, a favorable rating. When Batman ended, it scored in the upper forties, a disastrous number. (Most pilots of the day scored in the mid-sixties.) The national audience, prepared with weeks of advertising to help contextualize the humor, found it funnier: the show was an immediate success.

10. BRUCE LEE SCARED THE TIGHTS OFF OF BURT WARD.
Ward, who fancied himself something of a martial arts expert, once boasted to West that he had sparred with Bruce Lee. When Lee made an appearance on the show as part of a crossover with Dozier’s other series, The Green Hornet, he and Robin were scheduled to have a fight. According to West’s autobiography, Lee showed up to the set wearing a dour expression and looked ready to kill Ward, who put his hands up in a defensive reflex. Lee cracked a smile and called out, “Robin’s a chicken!” Everyone but Ward found this funny.