1x13 "The Night of the Mensch"

Shalom aleykham! Christmas may be over, but those eight crazy nights of Chanukah are still in full swing! Join us for a delightful conversation with our good friend Dr. Reba Wissner, author of A Dimension of Sound: Music in The Twilight Zone. This is strictly a BYOL affair (Bring Your Own Latkes). L’Chiam!

Opening music: “Neither Here nor There” (2^nd Revision) by Twin Loops

“Chanukah, Oh Chanukah” performed by Theodore Bikel (from the album A Taste of Chanukah, copyright 1999 by Rounder)

“Maoz Tzur” by JivingGerbil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0r3cA3O5g)

http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=662

http://uudb.org/articles/rodserling.html

The Twilight Zone is a trademark of CBS, Inc.

Between Light and a Shadow: A Twilight Zone Podcast is a nonprofit podcast. Music clips and dialogue excerpts used herein are the property of their respective copyright owners; we claim no ownership of these materials. Their use is strictly for illustrative purposes and should be considered Fair Use as stated in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107. 

1x12 "Feliz NaviRod"

Season’s greetings! This week Craig peers beneath the tinsel on “The Night of the Meek,” not just a Twilight Zone classic but a perennial holiday must-see, then flashes forward 25 years to see if the 80’s remake can hold a candle to it (spoiler alert: it can’t). He then wraps (har har) things up with a reading of a classic Rod Serling piece on his most memorable Christmas. Grab some egg nog or spark up a doobie (whatever gets you all warm ‘n fuzzy), curl up by the fire… and bask in the glow. Happy holidays, y’all.

Opening theme: “Neither Here nor There” (2^nd Revision) by Twin Loops

The Twilight Zone is a trademark of CBS, Inc.

Between Light and a Shadow: A Twilight Zone Podcast is a nonprofit podcast. Music clips and dialogue excerpts used herein are the property of their respective copyright owners; we claim no ownership of these materials. Their use is strictly for illustrative purposes and should be considered Fair Use as stated in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. section 107. 

TZ Spotlight: 2010 Christmas Card (Andrew Ramage)

I've spotlighted a few Twilight Zone greeting cards in the past, from both Hallmark and American Greetings. This time around, however, I'm pleased to present something much more limited. In fact, it's damned near unobtainable unless you happen to be a friend of fellow TZ fan/collector Andrew Ramage (which, I'm happy to report, I am). The following showed up in mailbox a couple weeks before Christmas last month, and I was floored.

Front:

Back:

Andrew used Vistaprint to create the card, and it's really a first rate job. The publicity still of a rather downcast Art Carney from "The Night of the Meek" is utilized beautifully. I can't deny that I feel strongly compelled to create my own TZ-themed Christmas card next time the holidays come 'round.... stay tuned.

Mr. Ramage, pictured here with H.M. Wynant, star of season two's "The Howling Man," at the 2006 Twilight Zone convention in New Jersey.

Thanks, Andrew! Hope your Christmas was merry, and keep an eye on your mailbox next December...

TZ Promo: "The Night of the Meek" (12/23/1960)

"The Night of the Meek"
Season Two, Episode 11 (#47 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3663

The second of season two's six videotaped offerings, "The Night of the Meek" manages to transcend its humble production limitations and offer something truly remarkable. It's transcendent, period. I watch it every year around the holidays, where it stands proudly alongside such venerable classics as It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, and Miracle on 34th Street. Tonight, this delightful episode turns 50.


There is literally nothing wrong with this episode, which is a bit of a surprise, given that it's a light comedy by Serling (Serling and comedy mix about as well as oil and water). Art Carney is utterly charming, swimming in pathos but eager to please, as Henry Corwin, a drunken bum who, once a year, works as a department store Santa Claus (how he survives the rest of the year is a mystery).


John Fiedler is equally impressive as the prickish department store manager who berates him, fires him, then sics the cops on him. We dislike him, but we never really hate him. C'mon, it's Christmas. We don't hate anyone this time of year. By the end of the episode, we'll actually kinda like him.


1994's The Santa Clause stole its basic premise from this episode, which is my way of telling you how this episode turns out without actually telling you. 2003's Bad Santa, meanwhile, stole the idea of a drunk who works as a department store Santa. However, Henry Corwin is nothing like the slimy criminal that Billy Bob Thornton portrayed. He's a decent guy, terminally sad, usually drunk. He reminds us of Jack Klugman's Joey Crown, from season one's "A Passage for Trumpet."


In a strange way, the blurry videotape look actually works in the episode's favor. There's an immediacy to it, like live TV, and a spontaneous vibe that adds to the magic. The impressive set, which looks about the size of a full city block, is perpetually blanketed in falling snow.


And there are reindeer! REAL LIVE reindeer!


Our friends at Bif Bang Pow! have a Henry Corwin/Santa Claus action figure in the works (a prototype was shown at Comic Con in July; he's in the background above), but we likely won't see it till late 2011.... just in time for the holidays, I imagine.

Next week: Repeat city, folks. Season One's "A Stop at Willoughby" gets its second showing. In two weeks: We're back to film again (man, season two's like a yo-yo!), where we find a young man on the eve of his execution. If you're still glowing with holiday cheer by then, this should take care of that.

Second Thoughts…

As the title suggests, I'm having some second thoughts. It concerns a commitment I made a few months ago. I made this commitment with the best of intentions, with a strong and fervent desire to see it through. The thing is, I didn't think it would be this hard. Truth be told, I'm having a helluva time sticking to my guns. I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel and calling it a day.

What the hell am I talking about, you ask?

As The Twilight Zone's 50^th anniversary approached, I made the rather ambitious decision to put myself on an "anniversary celebration schedule," in which I would watch all 156 episodes on their respective anniversaries. I would only watch one episode per week, perfectly mimicking the original broadcast schedule (including repeats), for five years. I actually avoided the series entirely for well over a year in anticipation of this undertaking, leaving my glorious Definitive Edition DVD sets to gather dust on the shelf. October 2^nd, the glorious 50^th anniversary of the series' debut on CBS, couldn't come fast enough and, once it did, I was in heaven… and have continued to be, for half an hour each week, for the past 11 weeks.

Until now. You see, there's no episode to celebrate this week. On 12/18/1959, the show was pre-empted by "Iran: Brittle Ally" with Edward R. Murrow (the show was pre-empted a number of times throughout its run… the next one happened on 4/22/1960).

Perhaps it's no coincidence that I'm questioning my commitment to this viewing schedule in the same week that there's no episode to watch. What's the problem, you (impatiently) ask? Why, I'm Zone-dependent, an anxiety-ridden addict, and this one-episode-per-week thing is leaving me seriously Zone-deprived. I crave more. I need more. The thought of not seeing "Shadow Play" for a year and a half just kills me. Worse, "Death Ship" is over THREE YEARS away!

What to do? Well, perhaps I can have the best of both worlds. I could still watch each episode on its 50^th anniversary, but I could also give myself permission to watch as many other episodes as I want from week to week. But... wouldn't that dilute the experience? As I stated in an earlier entry, I committed to this schedule for the express purpose of experiencing the show just as it was originally presented, and hopefully gaining new insight into the show as a result. At first, I enjoyed the resultant anticipation, excitedly counting down the days until the next episode… but lately it's been more frustrating than anything else. Chalk it up to my immediate-gratification-oriented generation, or perhaps my individual lack of patience; either way, the dearth of Zone in my life is starting to drive me crazy. Those beautiful DVD sets just sit there, crying out for attention, and I must turn a perpetually deaf ear to their pleas. And yet, to cave in and give up only 11 weeks in…. well, that would make me pretty weak, wouldn't it?

*Sigh* I dunno. What to do, what to do?

Perhaps a compromise is in order here. Perhaps I could "gift" myself a free episode whenever there's a hole in the schedule (like this week, for example). And since it's almost Christmas, this would allow me to watch "The Night of the Meek," which I usually watch every holiday season (along with A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, etc) but was planning to skip because of this so-called "anniversary celebration schedule."

Funny… it's feeling less like a celebration and more like a form of masochism. The Twilight Zone is by far my favorite TV series of all time (and frankly, I love it even more than my favorite movie of all time, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo), and maybe this experiment, or endeavor, or whatever the hell it is… well, maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. All this self-denial can't be good for the soul. Bottom line --- if I'm not enjoying it, then there's something seriously wrong.

Hence… second thoughts.