TZ Promo: "Printer's Devil" (2/28/1963)

 Season 4, Episode 9 (#111 overall)

Cayuga Production # 4864

Originally aired February 28, 1963

After entertaining us with multiple manifestations during the first two seasons of The Twilight Zone, His Satanic Majesty (a.k.a. Ol’ Scratch, Beelzebub, Lucifer, The Prince of Darkness, The Devil; he answers to all of them) apparently took last year off.  Happily (or not, depending on your religious/spiritual inclination), he/she/it makes up for it by appearing twice this season.

50 years ago tonight, The Evil One visited the city of Danzburg under the name “Mr. Smith.” His target?  One Douglas Winter, editor of the failing Danzburg Courier. Winter’s just lost his linotype operator to the competing Danzburg Gazette, effectively spelling the end of his paper. Full of self-loathing and liquor, Winter is poised to jump off a bridge… until Smith shows up out of nowhere, looking for a job.  It seems he’s an expert linotype operator and a crack reporter to boot.

  

With Smith on board, The Courier quickly becomes the town’s top newspaper, consistently scooping The Gazette. Winter’s long-suffering girlfriend Jackie doesn't trust Smith; in fact, she suspects he’s behind the very catastrophes he’s reporting. When Winter confronts him, Smith lays his cards on the table:  he’ll continue providing his services, guaranteeing permanent success for The Courier, in exchange for Winter’s soul.

Smith’s diabolical work on The Courier comes with an interesting twist: he isn't directly influencing events in Danzburg; rather, he’s “made some modifications” to the paper’s linotype machine that causes whatever is typed into it to come true. This ultimately causes Smith’s plans to unravel, as the linotype machine twists reality regardless of who uses it. Some may cry deus ex machina, but I think it’s a nice touch.

"Printer's Devil" is scored with an impressive array of CBS library cues, including selections from previous TZ scores "The Big Tall Wish" and "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" (the latter is put to great use to build suspense during act four; both are composed by Jerry Goldsmith). CBS Music Director Lud Gluskin had an amazing knack for choosing preexisting music for episodes for which original scores hadn't been commissioned.  "Printer's Devil" is a perfect example of this: the entire score, stock though it is, is imminently listenable on its own (happily, it's isolated on the season four Definitive DVD and blu-ray sets for our listening pleasure).

This is the fourth and final TZ appearance by the great Burgess Meredith: he’s previously graced “Time Enough at Last” and “The Obsolete Man” (he also starred in the dreadful “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” but we try not to talk about that ‘round here). He’s just marvelous as the (literally) devilish Mr. Smith, particularly in his completely unapologetic horndoggedness.  Note his unsubtle ogling of the waitress, about whom he observes: “She moves quick for a big one.”  Later, he whispers something (presumably highly inappropriate and/or offensive) into Jackie’s ear, which prompts her to slap him (after all these years, I still wonder what exactly he said!).  This is my favorite of Meredith’s four TZ performances (yes, even over his brilliant work as the obsolete Romney Wordsworth).  Meredith is probably remembered best as either The Penguin on TV’s Batman or as boxing trainer Mickey in 1976’s Rocky.

  

Robert Sterling is suitably morose as Douglas Winter in his only Twilight Zone appearance. Genre fans may remember him as Captain Lee Crane in 1961’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

The editor of the competing Danzburg Gazette is played by Ray Teal, who is probably best remembered as Sheriff Roy Coffee on TV’s Bonanza.

TZ babe alert! Winter’s girlfriend Jackie is played by Patricia Crowley, and she’s a fine looking specimen indeed; unfortunately, she spends the entire episode frowning and complaining. She appeared on TV’s Bonanza a mere four days before “Printer’s Devil” aired (“The Actress” on 2/24/1963); unfortunately Sheriff Coffee wasn’t in that episode.

The actor falling asleep at the wheel in act four is uncredited, but he looked damn familiar to me, so I tried tracking him down… to no initial avail (IMDB, Wikipedia, The TZ Café, even the ever-useful Martin Grams Jr. book…. nothing, nada, zip). However, after much digging, I’m convinced that he’s David Armstrong, who almost ran over the mechanical grandma in season three’s “I Sing the Body Electric” (Jesus, somebody revoke this guy’s driver’s license!). He also appeared as an uncredited extra in “To Serve Man” and was Simon Oakland’s stunt double in “The Rip Van Winkle Caper.”  His greatest TZ moment, however, came in “The Trade-Ins,” in which he had a speaking role as the surgeon who successfully turns Joseph Schildkraut into Edson Stroll.

“Printer’s Devil” is great fun, maybe not quite top-tier Zone, but quite good all the same (Meredith’s performance advances it several notches, just as Julie Newmar will do for “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville” in a few weeks).  If you’re keeping track, this puts us exactly halfway through season four.

Next week:  Dane Andrews tries to assassinate Hitler but burns down a school instead.  D’oh!

                

TZ Promo: “The Obsolete Man” (6/02/1961)

“The Obsolete Man” (6/02/1961)
Season Two, Episode 29 (65 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3661

“There is no God. The State has proven that there is no God!”

The Chancellor bellows pro-State sentiments from his impossibly high lectern. A meek librarian stands below, the reality of the situation sinking in. He has been found obsolete. He is to be executed.


TZ alums Burgess Meredith (“Time Enough at Last,” “Printer’s Devil,” and, sadly, “Mr. Dingle, the Strong”) and Fritz Weaver (“Third from the Sun”) return as the librarian and the chancellor, respectively, and both turn in excellent performances. When we meet them, the chancellor is vicious and predatory, while the librarian is weak and fearful. By the end of the episode, the tables aren’t so much turned as flipped over and smashed.


The first half of the episode takes place in a futuristic courtroom, which looks like something out of a German Impressionistic nightmare (was director Silverstein channeling Fritz Lang?). The door that Meredith enters through is impossibly tall, for no apparent reason other than to amp up the ominousness quotient.


Rod Serling’s “The Obsolete Man,” directed by Eliot Silverstein, is an absolute classic. This is one of those episodes in which every component operates at maximum greatness, and the combined result is transcendent. “The Eye of the Beholder” is frequently cited as the all-time greatest episode of The Twilight Zone but, for my money, “The Obsolete Man” trumps it. I recently revised my Top Ten Favorites list to include it, and I can’t wait to watch it tonight, on its 50th anniversary, in glorious high definition (thanks, Image Entertainment!).


In 1995, a local theater company called Hellfire Productions performed “The Obsolete Man” (along with “A Game of Pool” and “Nothing in the Dark”), complete with an actor performing Rod Serling’s narration. I was fortunate enough to attend, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I still have the program:

Front.

Inside.

Back, for completeness' sake.

In between episodes (okay, acts), they had a TZ trivia contest. As I recall, one of the questions asked which two actors starred in the most episodes. The answer is, of course, Jack Klugman and Burgess Meredith, which I’m happy to say I answered correctly (I don’t recall getting a prize, however). After the play, I got myself on their mailing list. They produced nine more episode adaptations over the next 3 years... but for some unfathomable reason, I never saw them. I still have the postcards they sent me advertising each production, which I'll scan and post sometime soon. In fact, I'm hoping to track down somebody connected with the production for an interview...

The music in “The Obsolete Man,” is sourced from Bernard Herrmann’s score for the CBS Radio Workshop’s 1956 adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” This score (like much of Herrmann’s radio work) was subsequently added to the CBS Music Library, and its various cues found their way into several TZ episodes. The score was released on vinyl in the early 80s by Cerberus Records (Bernard Herrmann: Music for Radio and Television), and on CD in 2003 by Prometheus (Bernard Herrmann: The CBS Years Volume 2: American Gothic).

Next week: The summer rerun season kicks off with a bang. We return to where it all started: Earl Holliman stars as a lonely man with no memory, wandering through an empty town and wondering… say it with me now… “WHERE IS EVERYBODY?”

TZ Promo: “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” (3/03/1961)

“Mr. Dingle, the Strong”
Season Two, Episode 19 (55 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3644

Remember last season’s Mr. Bevis? Remember how horrible it was? Remember how you hoped the series would never again sink to such a hideous low? Fifty years ago tonight… well, a dubious form of lightning struck twice. Yeah, The Twilight Zone unveiled something every bit as awful as Mr. Bevis.

In front of the camera, we have the brilliant Burgess Meredith, who is excellent in his other Zone outings (“Time Enough at Last,” “The Obsolete Man,” and “Printer’s Devil”), but here… well, he’s a bumbling idiot. Martian scientists secretly imbue his character, Luther Dingle, with superhuman strength.


Now, this could’ve opened the door to something interesting (Dingle single-handedly saves the world or something… a kind of proto-Greatest American Hero), but... nope. He opts instead to show off his new strongman talents like a complete ass. Oh, and he gets revenge on a bully, well-played by a young (okay, younger) Don Rickles. Serling employed a similar concept in season one’s “Escape Clause,” in which David Wayne is made indestructible by The Devil in exchange for his soul. Wayne’s character, a verbally abusive hypochondriac, abused the power too, but it made sense because that’s what a guy like him would do. Dingle, meanwhile, has no depth of character to speak of, other than the fact that he’s a hapless punching bag, so never really get any logical motivation for his show-off antics.


Maybe I’m reading too much into this. The episode certainly doesn’t merit such scrutiny. It’s a piece of shit. Anyway, the Martians realize their mistake and take Dingle’s superhuman strength away. As they leave, a pair of diminutive Venusian scientists (obviously played by children!) show up, intent on bestowing superhuman intellect on Dingle. *Sigh*

Oh, we also get a brief appearance by James Millhollin, who we enjoyed in season one’s “The After Hours” as the prissy and befuddled department store manager. Here he plays a snippy television reporter who has a few unkind words for Dingle after his strength abruptly vanishes. He’s by default the hero of the story.


Behind the camera, we have a moronic script by Serling, trying his hand yet again at comedy and failing miserably. Directing is John Brahm, who helmed a few Zone classics (“Judgment Night,” "Mirror Image," "The Four of Us Are Dying," "Shadow Play") as well as the moody horror classic Hangover Square. It’s too bad he got stuck with this crap. I can’t imagine it ended up on his resume.


The only point of interest in the whole sad affair is the clever special effects. Dingle crushes alarm clocks, rips large rocks in half, and lifts an assortment of large objects (statues, park benches, cars, etc). These effects are generally well done. However, the aliens --- both pairs of them --- are far and away the lamest creatures The Twilight Zone ever presented in its five years on television. Even the Cyclopsian miniature aliens from season five’s “The Fear” don’t suck this bad. Here’s hoping Bif Bang Pow! does NOT make action figures or bobbleheads from this episode.


Season two had a total of three absolute stinkers in its 29-episode run: “A Most Unusual Camera,” “The Whole Truth,” and this one. It’s really hard to believe that these three were produced alongside masterpieces like “Eye of the Beholder” and “The Obsolete Man.” Serling wrote all three. What a travesty. The upside is that the rest of season two is pretty good (well, except for one mediocre outing that we won’t get to until mid-May), including a few absolute classics. The worst, as they, say is behind us… for this season, anyway.


Go ahead and watch “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” then slap yourself for wasting 25 minutes of your life. Have I made myself clear enough here? I HATE this episode.

Next week: Back to videotape again. This time we’ve got an enchanted radio that only plays the oldies. Spin the knob and tune in.

TZ Repeat: "Time Enough at Last" (7/08/1960)

50 years ago tonight, "Time Enough at Last," written by Rod Serling and starring Burgess Meredith, had its encore broadcast, the first of 11 repeats sandwiched between The Twilight Zone's first and second seasons (it premiered on 11/20/1959, the 8th episode aired). I've already written quite a bit about this particular episode (see here and here), so I don't have much to say. I don't like it much, despite its iconic status. As always, your mileage may vary.


Next week: Well, nothing. No episode was shown on 7/15/60 due to CBS's coverage of the Democatic National Convention, from which John F. Kennedy emerged as the party's Presidential nominee. Even a hardcore Zone fan like me can't deny the fact that this piece o' history trumps a Twilight Zone rerun. Here's a shot of the festivities (thanks, Wikipedia!):

Dissecting “Time Enough at Last”

A variety of factors prevented me from watching "Time Enough at Last" Friday night as scheduled…. I didn't get to it till late last night (Sunday). I've had most of the day to mull it over, and I think I'm prepared to tackle this beast head on. As I mentioned previously (in Friday's "promo" post), I can't deny this episode's iconic status. Among the 156 episodes that make up The Twilight Zone, it's among the best remembered, the most beloved. I've remembered it well enough over the years, but I can't bring myself to love it. I have some, shall we say, issues with it. I'm going to assume that anyone reading this has seen the episode, so I won't bother with a synopsis of the plot.

First, the positives. It's well directed (by John Brahm, who would go on to direct a total of 12 episodes, more than any other director). It's well shot (by George T. Clemens, a.s.c.). The sets are undeniably impressive (the smoldering cityscape wreckage, the library ruins). It's certainly a visual treat, and provides many frankly unforgettable images.

So what's my problem? First, the characters. I don't give a damn about any of them. We're supposed to sympathize with the Burgess Meredith character, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. Here's a guy who is so obsessive about reading that he's blind to everything else around him. He hides a copy of David Copperfield on his lap and reads from it while counting out money to a customer (he's a bank teller), short-changes her, then drones on about his book without noticing that she's walked away. Christ, man, snap out of it and do your job! It's hard to get too upset with his boss for chewing him out… I'd be chewing him out too. And okay, we can all agree that the wife is an uber-bitch, so maybe on that front it's impossible not to sympathize with him a bit. But hell, he married her, didn't he? If he's not going to stand up to her, then he gets what he gets.

Meredith's performance doesn't help matters either. I'm usually a fan of his work, but this particular performance bugs me (though not as much as his work in season two's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong," an episode which I liken to a barbed-wire root canal). He doesn't draw me in; quite the opposite: he repels me, and it's not just those coke-bottle glasses either. He's annoying, self-absorbed, and idiosyncratic to a fault, as if he's suffering from some mild form of asperger's syndrome.

A couple of logic problems plague the episode. First, our unfortunate hero finds a pistol in a shattered display case from a sporting goods store. And yeah, it's fucking loaded. I'm pretty sure that even in 1959 the guns didn't come pre-loaded. Second (and much more significant), our hero wanders around for two days in the radioactive ruins of his bomb-blasted city, unaffected. Surely he'd suffer from massive radiation poisoning, but he trots merrily along, seemingly unaffected. It seems the hydrogen bomb in this particular alternate universe merely scorches things and knocks buildings over.

After all that (as if "all that" weren't enough), my single biggest problem with the episode is the cruelty with which the protagonist is ultimately dispatched. He discovers the ruins of the local library, gathers up enough books to last him for years, and then…. his glasses get broken. The tragedy isn't limited to the loss of a lifetime of literary joy. We've already seen how bad his eyesight is without them, thanks to a clever POV shot earlier. He's not going to make it off those library steps without falling and cracking his skull and, even if he does, he'll never find his way back to the food supply he's squirreled away. The breaking of his glasses is quite literally a death sentence. And for what? Some vague commentary on the evils of nuclear arms? Jesus, give the guy radiation poisoning if that's your angle. No, this is something else altogether: it constitutes a writer's contempt for his or her protagonist on a quantum level. As annoying as I find him, he doesn't deserve this fate. If it's intended to be some sort of tragedy… well, good tragedy has a point. This…. well, this doesn't. So I guess I do sympathize with him after all, not because of the other characters, or the horrendous fate that befalls him. I sympathize with him because his creator, the writer, clearly hates him and seeks to torment him from start to finish.

It's not Serling's fault either. He didn't come up with this; he merely adapted an existing short story. Lynn A. Venable, the original author, is the one to blame. My God, what a toxic, pointless exercise.

One final note: I'm apparently not the only one to react this way to the episode. As recounted in The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic (by Martin Grams, Jr.), Serling responded to an offended viewer's letter with the following: "We were attempting irony and in the view of many of the audience, we created only sadism."

TZ Promo: “Time Enough At Last” (11/20/1959)

Time Magazine recently released a Top 10 Twilight Zone Episodes list, which can be viewed here. There's really no science or actual polling behind this list; rather, it appears to simply list ten of the most iconic, best-remembered episodes. We can debate the relative merits of such an approach (incidentally, only one of my top 10 favorites, "The Hitch-hiker," appears on Time's list), but what's the point? Most fans love all ten. I certainly do. Well… almost. There's one that I have serious issues with, and that episode is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary tonight.

Generally beloved by fans both casual and hardcore, and certainly well remembered (if for no other reason than it's shocking, ridiculously tragic ending), "Time Enough at Last" stars Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis, a sad, henpecked son of a bitch who just wants to READ. Newspapers, books, poetry, ketchup bottles, whatever. Trouble is, everyone around him seems determined to stop him, relentlessly so. Then, a twist of fate (surprise, surprise) changes the game completely. And then another twist of fate…. well, surely you know how this ends. But if you don't, I'm not spoiling it. At least not until my next entry, in which I'll dissect the hell out of it and see if I hate it as much as I think I do.

Anyway --- the episode was written by Rod Serling (based on a short story by Lynn Venable), directed by John Brahm, and has spawned many media references and parodies over the years (including a very funny bit on The Drew Carey Show; it was also mentioned in Twilight Zone: The Movie, which I should probably do a spotlight on one of these days). The episode features an original musical score by Leith Stevens, who scored hundreds of radio shows, including episodes of Suspense and The Abbot and Costello Show. This was his sole contribution to The Twilight Zone.

Top 40 Favorite Episodes

I've been a Twilight Zone fan since the early 80's... over 25 years now. I've seen every episode many times (except maybe "Ring-A-Ding Girl," which I barely remember) and, naturally, I have my favorites. A few months back, I compiled a list of my top 40 all-time favorites. This list is not set in stone; in fact, as I endeavor to re-watch the entire series over the next five years (viewing each episode on its 50th anniversary), my preferences will almost certainly change. But as of this writing, today, right now... the list is accurate. The episodes are arranged chronologically and separated by season; they are NOT listed in order of preference. My top ten favorites are in all caps.

Season 1

Walking Distance
The Lonely
PERCHANCE TO DREAM
AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED
The Four of Us Are Dying
Third From the Sun
THE HITCH-HIKER
Mirror Image
A World of Difference
LONG LIVE WALTER JAMESON
A Passage for Trumpet

Season 2

King Nine Will Not Return
Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room
The Howling Man
The Eye of the Beholder
The Night of the Meek
The Rip Van Winkle Caper
SHADOW PLAY
The Obsolete Man

Season 3

Nothing in the Dark
A GAME OF POOL
The Grave
It's a Good Life
Death's Head Revisited
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
To Serve Man
The Dummy

Season 4

IN HIS IMAGE
DEATH SHIP
Printer's Devil
The Incredible World of Horace Ford
On Thursday We Leave for Home

Season 5

IN PRAISE OF PIP
Steel
Living Doll
Number Twelve Looks Just Like You
Night Call
The Masks
The Jeopardy Room


A few observations:

All four episodes featuring Jack Klugman ("A Passage for Trumpet," "A Game of Pool," "Death Ship," and "In Praise of Pip") made the list, and three of them made the top ten. It's not just because I'm a big Klugman fan either: the fact is, all four are excellent episodes.

I've love to say every Burgess Meredith episode is great too, but the wretched "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" makes it impossible (not even Don Rickles could save it). And speaking of Burgess Meredith: Yes, I'm aware that "Time Enough At Last" isn't on the list. Yes, I'm aware that it's an iconic Zone episode, beloved by millions. And yes, it's quite good on a technical level, but... well.... hey, it's coming up in a few weeks (11/20/09), so I'll address my issues with it then.

Wow, none of my top ten favorites have happy endings. Wait, I guess "In His Image" ends well. But that's only one out of ten. Hmmm....