2x17a "A Fredly Chat"

You say last week’s chat with The Twilight Pwn’s Fred left you wanting? Too short? Not enough delicious Fredness to sate your Fred-centric appetite? Say no more---- herein you’ll find the entire unedited conversation, tongue-clicks and ‘ums’ horrifically intact. It’s raw, sloppy and unpolished, the perfect aural accompaniment for a raw, sloppy and unpolished New Years Eve. Cheers!

Opening Theme: ‘Neither Here Nor There (3.6)” by Twin Loops

“Captain Picard sings ‘Let It Snow’” created by James Covenant (used without permission)

The Twilight Zone is a trademark of CBS, Inc.

Between Light and 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. 

2x17 "I'll Be Zone for Christmas"

It’s Christmastime again, so of course we’ve cooked up a special treat for y’all---- two, count ‘em, TWO special guests grace our RSS feed this week: Dr. Reba Wissner talks shop about the music score for the Twilight Zone classic “What You Need” (which we’re covering this week… I probably should’ve mentioned that first), then the irrepressible Fred from The Twilight Pwn returns to lend us some much-needed TZ ‘cast credibility. It’s a heart-warming holiday special for the whole family (assuming they’re all over 18 and aren’t easily offended), so pour yourself a tumbler of your best cherry brandy and prepare to get festive. Oh, we’re also unveiling two new jingles this week, for those keeping track. And hey, make sure you stick around after the credits for a last-minute tribute to Outer Limits composer Dominic Frontiere (1931-2017).

Tom Elliot reads Lewis Padgett’s “What You Need”: 

http://thetwilightzonepodcast.com/special-tom-elliot-reads-need-2/

The Twilight Pwn’s coverage of “What You Need”

http://twilightpwn.libsyn.com/episode-78-what-you-need

Theme Music: “Neither Here nor There (3.6)” by Twin Loops

“Nature Boy” performed by Stan Getz (from the album Cool Velvet, copyright 1960 by Verve Records)

“Sex and Candy” performed by Marcy Playground (from the album Marcy Playground, copyright 1997 by Capitol Records/EMI)

“Home (Where Shadows Fall)” performed by the Jackie Gleason & His Orchestra (from the album Merry Christmas, copyright 1956 by Capitol Records)

The Twilight Zone is a trademark of CBS, Inc.

Between Light and 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 Promo: "The Man in the Bottle" (10/07/1960)

"The Man in the Bottle"
Season Two, Episode #2 (overall #38)
Cayuga Production # 173-3638

Fifty years ago tonight, a couple in need received a very special gift... and completely squandered it. This is their story.


Serling's "The Man in the Bottle," directed by Don Medford, is something of a variation on the classic short story "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs (which you can read here). Through supernatural means (in the story, the eponymous monkey's paw talisman; here, a genie in a bottle), a couple is granted a number of wishes, but at the end of their wishing, they've gained absolutely nothing. "The Monkey's Paw" is a horror story whose moral is made clear from the outset with the following anonymous quote: "Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it." "The Man in the Bottle," meanwhile, ends up encouraging the viewer to count his or her blessings. Not a bad message, but unfortunately the episode generally falls flat... until a spectacular moment occurs late in Act 2 that almost makes the whole thing worthwhile. Almost.


The genie (played by Joseph Ruskin) is certainly not your typical genie. This guy (or entity, or spirit, or whatever) has clearly never seen the inside of a brass lamp. He looks like he just came from having tea at the country club. He does possess a certain malevolent charm, but his toothy grin is a bit too much at times. Ruskin would return in season three to provide the voice of the Kanamit in "To Serve Man." As a proud Kanamit fan, this makes Ruskin A-OK in my book.


The couple in question is Arthur and Edna Castle (played by Luther Adler and Vivi Janiss, respectively; Janiss played another long-suffering wife in season one's "The Fever"), the owners of a pawn shop who exist on the edge of perpetual financial oblivion. Castle takes pity on an old woman and buys what appears to be a worthless bottle from her. The above-described genie appears in a puff of smoke and grants them four wishes. I won't go into detail about the first two wishes, but I will point out that they're exactly what you'd expect, and neither of them quite works out. I usually try to avoid spoilers, but I'll make an exception here, since the third wish is the only thing that recommends this episode. Castle comes up with what he believes is a fool-proof wish: he'll be the ruler of a foreign country in the 20th century, one who can't be voted out of office. Wow, what a weird wish. It's a fairly clunky narrative device injected solely to set up the shock that follows... but boy, what a shock.


Yup, he's Hitler. Zing! Worse, it's the end of World War II, on the day that Hitler reportedly committed suicide. His fourth and final wish? To undo the disastrous third one, of course. And there you go.

The Hitler reveal is very effective. It's too bad it didn't appear in a better episode. Other than this one short scene, the episode is pedestrian, predictable, forgettable. Come on, a genie in a bottle story? Really? Worse yet, the series will do it again in season four ("I Dream of Genie"). What a hoary, overused gimmick. It's almost as bad as a guardian angel story.... oh wait, The Twilight Zone did that one too. Twice. Hoo boy.

Interesting bit of trivia, courtesy of Wikipedia: Actor Luther Adler played Hitler in two different movies in 1951: The Magic Face and The Desert Fox. Another interesting note: Nathan Van Cleave's original musical score from season one's "What You Need" is featured prominently among this episode's stock cues.

Next week: He's a nervous man in a four-dollar room, and he.... hey, wait, that would make a great episode title....

TZ Promo: "What You Need" (12/25/1959)

Fifty Christmases ago, the twelfth Twilight Zone episode premiered. It isn't a holiday-themed episode per say, but it does feature an old man who gives out gifts to strangers. Hmmm....

Ernest Truex stars as Pedott, a curious little peddler who has the uncanny ability to give people exactly what they need when they need it, be it a pair of scissors, a bus ticket, or a leaking fountain pen. Steve Cochran co-stars as Fred Renard, a no-account thug who tries to monopolize the old man's gift for his own questionable purposes. It's safe to say that Mr. Renard will be getting a dose of comeuppance for Christmas, expediently delivered... from The Twilight Zone.

Rod Serling adapted the teleplay from a story by Lewis Padgett and, like the earlier "And When the Sky Was Opened" (which was adapted from a Richard Matheson story), the script differs radically from the story. Interestingly, the short story was previously adapted for television (and much more faithfully so) on Tales of Tomorrow in 1952 (this episode can be viewed here), which featured Edgar Stehli (who would later appear in TZ's "Long Live Walter Jameson," which we'll get to in a few months) in the role of the prescient old man, here called Peter Talley (as in the seminal short story).

Alvin Ganzer directs. Nathan Van Cleave provides the music (it should be noted, on this joyous of holidays, that Mr. Van Cleave orchestrated the score for the Bing Crosby-Danny Kaye film White Christmas, which is required viewing in my house every year).

Merry Christmas to my faithful readers... all four of you. And speaking of four.... well, we'll get to that next week.