Category: TV

Twilight Zone: “What You Need” [Season 1, Episode 12] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “What You Need” [Season 1, Episode 12]
Original Air Date: December 25, 1959

Director: Alvin Ganzer

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Lewis Padgett

Starring: Steve Cochran and Ernest Truex with a cameo by Arlene Martel.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Fred Renard [Cochran] is a thuggish man who gets what needs from life through bullying, intimidation and worse.  Sadly Renard’s ways have gotten him little.  In a bar one night an old man [Truex] enters selling little novelties and necessities.

The old man peddler seems to know what each person needs before they do.  The peddler tells a woman she needs stain cleaner and she accepts it.  Another patron needs a bus ticket to Scranton.  The patron is doubtful but accepts it.  Within minutes the old man is proved correct — he has provided them exactly what they need.

Renard has found the golden goose!  He intimidates the old man to provide him with what he needs for quick, easy cash.  The old man comes through but Renard isn’t satisfied.  He tracks the old man down for more.  Will the old man have what is needed?

We’re in the Twilight Zone, baby!  Of course he will.

Final Thoughts: The ending is a twist but one most won’t see coming.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “And When the Sky was Opened” [Season 1, Episode 11] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “And When the Sky was Opened” [Season 1, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: December 11, 1959

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Richard Matheson

Starring: Rod Taylor and Jim Hutton

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Astronauts Lieutenant Colonel Forbes [Taylor], Major Gart [Hutton] and Colonel Harrington are piloting an experimental rocket ship’s initial flight. Upon reentry the ship crashes in the desert.  Gart suffers a broken leg and is hospitalized.  Forbes and Harrington visit Gart and share the newspaper with a headline declaring the three of them as heroes.

After the visit Forbes and Harrington go to a bar to celebrate. Harrington suddenly begins to fill ill and decides to call his parents.  His parent answers and tells a shocked Harrington that they have no son! Harrington instantly disappears and the newspaper headline changes to two astronauts as heroes.

Forbes didn’t see Harrington disappear and begins to look for him.  Everyone in the bar says that Forbes came in alone.  Forbes remembers the newspaper headline and gets it to show the bar patrons.

Shocked to see the headline has changed, Forbes rushes back to the hospital and to tell Gart what has happened.  Gart shocks Forbes by saying there were only two of them on the flight.  Forbes suddenly begins to feel ill…

Final Thoughts: Rod Taylor sells the episode.  The ending is a bit of a letdown but everything leading up to is excellent.Rating:

12 Timeless Facts About “12 Monkeys”

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Janet Burns and Mental_Floss present 12 Timeless Facts About 12 Monkeys.  Here are three of my favorites…

6. WILLIS TOOK A PAY CUT FOR THE GIG, AND EVEN OFFERED TO SHAVE HIS HEAD.
As Den of Geek reported, Willis and his co-star Madeleine Stowe both accepted substantially less than their usual pay rates for their roles in 12 Monkeys in order to work with Gilliam. During the intensive filming process, it was Willis who came up with his character’s signature hairstyle. “It was his idea to shave his head, and it changed him a lot,” Gilliam said. “It makes him much stronger, much more dangerous. He looks like a prisoner from a Soviet Gulag … Bruce has got one of the great architectural craniums in the world! It’s just a great, beautiful thing to photograph.”

8. BRAD PITT UNDERWENT PSYCHIATRIC COACHING FOR THE ROLE.
Dr. Laszlo Gyulai, who directs the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s bipolar disorders unit, helped the then-up-and-coming actor to fine-tune his institutionalized character’s mannerisms through the study of real mental illness. Gyulai told The New York Times that films featuring psychiatric patients sometimes “make them look like lunatics, [while] many patients who are mentally ill are not crazy at all, particularly if they have depression or mood disorders.” Legend has it that Gilliam put an extra and very genuine bit of tension into Pitt’s performance by taking away his cigarettes on set, too.

9. PITT’S HARD WORK EARNED HIM A GOLDEN GLOBE, AND HIS FIRST OSCAR NOMINATION.
12 Monkeys made its splash at the box office just as Pitt’s career was hitting overdrive, and his Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor were among the actor’s very first accolades. As the Manila Standard reported, Pitt was “surprised” by his 1996 award, and kept his comments brief during the “moment of absolute terror” in which he delivered his acceptance speech, stating: “I’d like to thank the members of—actually, the makers of Kaopectate. They’ve done a great service for their fellow man.”

Twilight Zone: “Judgment Night” [Season 1, Episode 10] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Judgment Night” [Season 1, Episode 10]
Original Air Date: December 4, 1959

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Nehemiah Persoff, Patrick Macnee and James Franciscus

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A man [Persoff] finds himself on a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic in the middle of World War II.  He doesn’t know who he is, how he got there,  The one thing he does know is that their ship will soon be sunk by a German submarine.

Final Thoughts: The ending is a twist but one most will see coming.  A very young James Franciscus makes a welcome appearance.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “Perchance to Dream” [Season 1, Episode 9] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Perchance to Dream” [Season 1, Episode 9]
Original Air Date: November 27, 1959

Director: Robert Florey

Writer: Charles Beaumont

Starring: Richard Conte, John Larch and Suzanne Lloyd

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Edward Hall [Conte] hasn’t slept in days.  Fatigued and on the ragged edge, Hall not only has a mental issue [fear of dying if he sleeps] but a weak heart.  Hall visits psychiatrist Dr. Eliot Rathmann [Larch] in hope of a cure.

Hall explains that each time he falls asleep Maya, a strangely alluring and dangerous carnival Cat Woman that he met in one of his fevered dreams visits him.  Hall knows the Cat Woman will kill him but he can’t escape her or sleep.

Final Thoughts:  Conte is excellent as the tormented, fatigued Hall.  Lloyd comes off perfectly as the dangerous but irresistible Maya.  The dream sequences are memorable.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Twilight Zone: “Time Enough At Last” [Season 1, Episode 8] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Time Enough At Last” [Season 1, Episode 8]
Original Air Date: November 20, 1959

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Rod Serling based on a short story by Lynn Venable

Starring: Burgess Meredith, Vaughn Taylor and Jaqueline deWit

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Poor little, nearsighted, henpecked Henry Bemis [Meredith] loves to read.  Reading is his passion but sadly life deprives him of it.  His boss at the bank, Mr. Carsville [Taylor] won’t allow reading at work.  Bemis’ wife [deWit] destroys his books at home.

Bemis decides to take his lunch in the bank’s underground vault so he can sneak in some reading as he eats.  While in the vault a massive explosion is felt. Bemis emerges to a world destroyed by nuclear war.  He is totally alone.

At first frightened, Bemis finds food and water to ensure his survival for years.  When he discovers a library Bemis realizes he now has time enough at last to read everything.  Of course this is the Twilight Zone and the episode concludes with one of its most famous twist endings.

Final Thoughts:  Meredith owns his role as Bemis.  A classic episode worthy of its reputation.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Twilight Zone: “The Lonely” [Season 1, Episode 7] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “The Lonely” [Season 1, Episode 7]
Original Air Date: November 13, 1959

Director: Jack Smight

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Jack Warden, John Dehner, Jean Marsh and Ted Knight

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

James Corry [Warden] killed a man in self-defense. Found guilty of murder, Corry was sentenced to life not in prison but alone on an asteroid.  In the future convicts are imprisoned off Earth.  Corry’s only contact with others is when he receives a supply drop every three or for months.

Captain Allenby [Dehner] feels sorry for Corry. Four years into Corry’s sentence of living alone on the asteroid, Allenby secretly brings a female-programmed robot in Corry’s supplies.  The robot looks, feels and acts like woman.

At first Corry wants nothing to do with this machine…

Final Thoughts:   Warden and Dehner deserve kudos for their acting.  It’s fun seeing Ted Knight in an early role.  The ending has a nice TZ twist.  This episode will stick with you.Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Escape Clause” [Season 1, Episode 6]

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Twilight Zone: “Escape Clause” [Season 1, Episode 6]
Original Air Date: November 6, 1959

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: David Wayne and Thomas Gomez

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Walter Bedeker [Wayne] is a hypochondriac who despite being perfectly healthy believes he is on death’s doorstep.  While lamenting that life is too short, Bedeker is visited by the Devil [Gomez] who offers immortality for Bedeker’s soul.  

The soul is collected on Bedeker’s death but since he is immortal how will the Devil collect?  Ah, there is an escape clause should Bedeker decide he no longer wishes to live.  

Bedeker accepts and comes to learn rather quickly that immortality in certain situations isn’t all he thought it would be.  

Final Thoughts:  This is a fun episode.  I enjoyed Bedeker’s plan to get rich.  Joe Flynn’s cameo was fun.  A nice twist ending caps the episode.

Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Walking Distance” [Season 1, Episode 5]

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Twilight Zone: “Walking Distance” [Season 1, Episode 5]
Original Air Date: October 30, 1959

Director: Robert Stevens

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Gig Young

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Martin Sloan [Young] is a 36 year old New York business executive.  Everything for him is rush, rush, rush.  While on a drive back to the city Sloan finds himself at a gas station one and a half miles from the little town he grew up in.  He decides to take a walk to the town while the gas attendant services his car.

Once in the town Sloan finds nothing has changed.  The prices are the same… the people are the same.  Somehow he has gone back in time.  He goes to his home and his parents seeing a grown man claiming to be their son and send him away.  Sloan decides to find himself as a boy to give himself advice.

You know that old saying, “You can’t go home again” — Sloan finds out it is true.

Final Thoughts:  This episode doesn’t work for me.  When Sloan meets his parents his efforts to convince them of who he is are weak.  When his father does learn that somehow his son has come back to the past, dad basically tells his son to leave and go back to the future [not the movie, but the time he came from].  Sloan getting a limp because of something he caused to happen in the past is a nice touch.  Ron Howard has a brief cameo in one of his first acting roles.

Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” [Season 1, Episode 4]

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Twilight Zone: “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” [Season 1, Episode 4]
Original Air Date: October 23, 1959

Director: Mitchell Leisen

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Ida Lupino and Martin Balsam.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Barbara Trenton [Lupino] used to be a big movie star… but that was 25 years ago and her star has faded with age.  Trenton increasingly spends her days and nights sitting alone in her room running her old films.  Her agent [Balsam] is worried that she is losing touch with reality and attempts to get her a part in a new film.  When Trenton discovers it is a supporting role and she will play the star’s mother — she insults the movie executive and retreats to her film room.

If only she could find a way to the past where she was happy…

Final Thoughts:  This episode feels like Sunset Blvd. lite.  Everything is played straight until Trenton somehow appears on her projection screen in an old movie setting.  When Balsam sees it, he calls to her to “come back” — almost as if he is not surprised/shocked that she is “in there.”  This episode fell flat for me.

Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” [Season 1, Episode 3]

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Twilight Zone: “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” [Season 1, Episode 3]
Original Air Date: October 16, 1959

Director: Allen Reisner

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Dan Duryea, Martin Landau and Doug McClure.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Al Denton [Duryea] used to be good with a gun.  Now he is the town drunk.  Dan Hotaling [Landau] is the town bully who takes great pleasure in humiliating Denton.  Hotaling pushes Denton around, makes him sing and beg for drinks even to the point of breaking a bottle of booze and throwing it in the street just to watch Denton scramble for it.

The townspeople nervously laugh at Hotaling’s antics and while some don’t like it, none will take a stand.  As Denton chugs from the broken bottle of booze, a new comer to the town named Henry J. Fate observes from a distance.  Suddenly a gun appears and Denton picks it up.

Hotaling sees Denton with the handgun and challenges him to a gunfight.  Denton wants no part of it but Hotaling won’t let him walk away.  Denton is a dead man unless [Henry J.] Fate steps in…

Final Thoughts: This episode had so much potential but ends up feeling disjointed to me.  Since I am picking nits: I don’t think the title of the episode fits.  Landeau comes off as a cartoon bully from the way he is dressed to his actions.  Naming the newcomer Henry J. Fate seems a bit heavy-handed.  Denton, the town drunk gives up booze with no effort — thanks to Fate?  Abruptly, Landeau is out and McClure is in.  When Duryea and McClure realize that they’ve both just drank the potion is a nice touch.

Overall not a bad episode, but could have been better.

Rating:

Z-View Twilight Zone: “One for the Angels” [Season 1, Episode 2]

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Twilight Zone: “One for the Angels?” [Season 1, Episode 2]
Original Air Date: October 9, 1959

Director: Robert Parrish

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Lou Bookman [Wynn] is a street vendor.  Bookman makes enough to get by selling his cheap toys, ties and novelties, but he’s always wanted a chance to make a pitch to really show off his sales skills.

When Death [Hamilton] shows up in human form to give Bookman a chance to prepare for his death later that evening, Bookman requests an opportunity to make the pitch of his, er, life.

As with most deals with death [or the devil], you often get more [or less] than you bargained for.

Final Thoughts:  Serling gives us a tale with a nice twist and just the right amount of humor.  Hamilton does a fine job as Death.  “One for the Angels” has grown on me over the years.  Perhaps because as I get older, I may one day be in Bookman’s shoes?

Rating: