Under Construction....

For the first time since I started this blog... well, I'm taking a brief break from posting. But alas, I won't be resting. I'm in the middle of a pretty awesome development that (if it pans out) will greatly enhance this blog. Therefore, I'm temporarily ceasing operations while I iron things out.

I should be back in a couple of weeks, tops. I've got a lot of great things planned for the summer, so it'll definitely be worth the wait.

In Retrospect: Season 2 (1960-1961)

Another season of The Twilight Zone has come and gone. What can one say about season two? Um… well, it was shorter than the other seasons (with the exception of season four, but since that’s only a half-season, it’s not really a fair comparison) due to budgetary demands by CBS (which resulted in six videotaped episodes, most of which were subpar). Season two was also a slight step down in quality from season one, but it still contained some absolute gems (including two of my top ten favorites, “Shadow Play” and “The Obsolete Man,” as well as other classics like “Eye of the Beholder,” “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room,” and “The Invaders”). There were also some clunkers sprinkled throughout (“Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” “The Whole Truth,” and “A Most Unusual Camera” should’ve been aborted before they ever saw the light of day), and a few mediocre offerings (“The Man in the Bottle,” “A Thing About Machines,” and “The Mind and the Matter” weren't exactly awful, but they weren't especially good either). Nothing in season two trumped the absolute crime against television that season one’s “Mr. Bevis” committed, but “Dingle” sure as hell tried.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the series would never match the overall brilliance of its first season. “Bevis” aside, it was nine months of damn good television. Season two, despite its abbreviated length, was a pretty impressive follow-up (however, I should note that a whopping nine of my top 20 favorite episodes of all time come from season one, while a mere three come from season two). Season three will feature some brilliant episodes, but things will start to get a bit stale… well, we’ll get there in the fall.

As I did last year, I’ll post screen captures from select episodes that I didn’t use during the season (usually to prevent spoilers). Enjoy!

King Nine Will Not Return.... well, I guess it kinda did return after all.

The Eye of the Beholder. Makes me wonder what the pigs on that planet look like....

Gotta love an elaborate makeup job that still allows you to smoke. I'm sure Oasis Cigarettes appreciated this.

The Invaders are from... earth. Wait, so we're actually the invaders? OMG!!!

Henry Corwin is the REAL Santa Claus. I derive from this that it's perfectly okay for me to get drunk on Xmas Eve.

Static: it seems nostalgia really CAN make you younger.

A crack in the glass meant this Rip Van Winkle never woke up. Oh well, he would've died anyway.

The Silence: The guy with the voicebox-removal scar is a total cheater.

The Obsolete Man: Romney Wordsworth meets an explosive end.

The Obsolete Man: The chancellor meets an explosive end of his own.

Season Two was brought to you by Oasis Cigarettes. Thank you, and goodnight.

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: “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (5/26/1961)

“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (5/26/1961)
Season Two, Episode 28 (64 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3660

I’ve observed many times that Rod Serling couldn’t write comedy. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but most of the time his attempts at lighter material fell flat. 50 years ago tonight, he gave us one of the exceptions.



“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” is a tongue-in-cheek variation on the classic British mystery story in which a wanted criminal is hiding in plain sight in a room full of innocents. The detective, using the process of elimination and his own power of deductive reasoning, ferrets the culprit out and solves the crime. The detective here is represented by a pair of state troopers. They’re following tracks in the snow that originate at the site of a crashed flying saucer and lead to… a diner.

There are nine people inside this diner. One of them isn’t who they appear. Commence mystery.


The comedy comes mostly from the increasing tension among the suspects, a wacky old man in particular. Serling keeps things light partly by avoiding the obvious questions: why is the alien being hunted at all? Has he (or it) done anything wrong? Why do we always assume the worst of that which we don’t understand? Serling will tackle the theme of xenophobia again, in season three’s “The Gift” and season five’s “The Fear.” His effort here is by far the superior of the three, surprisingly enough.


John Hoyt (last seen in “The Lateness of the Hour”) and Barney Phillips (last seen in “A Thing About Machines”) are delightful as always. Bif Bang Pow! is about to release an action figure based on Phillips’ character. I can’t really show him without risking a spoiler, but… well…. okay, screw it.


Product placement alert! During season 2 of the series, Serling did plugs for Oasis Cigarettes, a product of sponsor Liggett & Myers (these plugs usually appeared right before the end credits, and they are happily preserved on the blu-rays). At the climax, a certain character pulls out a pack of smokes…. which just happen to be Oasis. It seems Martians really dig the cigarette with “the softest taste of all.”


Oh man, there’s another spoiler. Sometimes it really can’t be helped.

Next week: Season two ends on a high note (the best season finale of the series’ five years). Burgess Meredith redeems himself after the awful “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” with one of the greatest performances of his career. He’s a librarian, in a future society where books have been outlawed, and he’s just been found…. ob-so-lete. Not to be missed.

TZ Favorites: A Minor Mutation.

Back on 11/03/2009, I wrote the following: “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.”

The combined experience of re-watching each episode and writing this blog has indeed changed my preferences, though probably not as extremely as I might have thought (with one major exception; see below). Additionally, I’m only two seasons into the project (well, almost), so things will likely change even more over the next three years. However, as of today, the following are my Top 20 favorite episodes. Top 10 favorites are in all caps. Notes and thoughts follow.


Season 1:
Walking Distance
The Lonely
PERCHANCE TO DREAM
AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED
THIRD FROM THE SUN
THE HITCH-HIKER
Mirror Image
Long Live Walter Jameson
The After Hours

Season 2:
The Eye of the Beholder
SHADOW PLAY
THE OBSOLETE MAN

Season 3:
A GAME OF POOL
It’s a Good Life
Death’s-Head Revisited
THE MIDNIGHT SUN
TO SERVE MAN

Season 4:
In His Image
DEATH SHIP

Season 5:
In Praise of Pip


First off, let me say that it’s MUCH harder to narrow the list down to 20 (versus 40, which I did last time… I may go back to 40 next time I do this). Harder still was choosing 10 favorites from the final 20. I’m still not 100% comfortable with the list, but close. Let’s say 93% and move on.

The most monumental change concerns “Long Live Walter Jameson.” For years I’ve counted it as my all-time favorite, but for some reason I’m less enamored of it these days. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it (and it’s still in my top 20), but… well, tastes change. I knew going in that this was possible (see above), but for my #1 episode to drop clear out of the top 10? Talk about a fall from grace.

“The After Hours,” which was erroneously omitted entirely from the previous list, now resides in the lower half of the top 20. It’s not quite top 10 material right now, but who knows? I really dug it when I re-watched it recently (on 3/17/11, the 50th anniversary of its original repeat telecast). Who knows what the future holds? A really cool Marsha the Mannequin action figure from Bif Bang Pow! might be all it takes to push it up into the top 10.

Look at how much the list skews toward season 1. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: episode for episode, ounce for ounce, season 1 is BY FAR the best season of the series. Of course every season has its gems, but season 1 is practically uniform in its brilliance. If it weren't for that goddamned "Mr. Bevis"....

Three episodes have asserted themselves sufficiently in my mind (or heart, or both, or whatever makes us compose favorites lists) to achieve top 10 status. They are “Third from the Sun,” “The Obsolete Man,” and “To Serve Man.” Welcome to greatness, you three.

Sadly, this means that three episodes had to drop out of the top 10 to make room. These are “In His Image,” “In Praise of Pip,” and the aforementioned “Long Live Walter Jameson.” All three are still in the top 20, so I clearly still think very highly of them. No tears. And who knows? Again, I have no doubt that this list will change in the future.

TZ Promo: “The Mind and the Matter” (5/12/1961)

“The Mind and the Matter” (5/12/1961)

Season Two, Episode 27 (63 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3659

Rod Serling will forever be remembered as a dramatist of distinction. His greatest works stand among the best that television has ever offered. The Velvet Alley. Patterns. Requiem for a Heavyweight. “Walking Distance.” “The Eye of the Beholder.” The list goes on. Upon cursory examination, his body of work is staggering in its radiant brilliance. However, the guy was human. He worked himself ragged which, coupled with his relentless chain smoking, killed him at the tender age of 50. He took on way too many commitments and, as a result, sometimes turned in work that was beneath him. When examining his body of work with a more critical eye, it’s impossible to deny that some of his stuff, for lack of a better work, stunk. 50 years ago tonight, one of his lesser literary children debuted.


“The Mind and the Matter,” written by Serling and directed by Buzz Kulik, doesn’t quite descend to the depths of past stillbirths “Mr. Bevis” or “Mr. Dingle, the Strong,” but it’s still pretty bad. To sum up: guy hates people. Guy is given a New Age book on mind control, which actually works. Guy makes humanity disappear. Guy gets lonely and repopulates the earth with duplicates of himself. Guy realizes what an ass he really is. Guy puts everything right.


That’s it. Do we care? No. Are we glad when it’s over? Hell YES. Funnyman Shelley Berman tries to make it work, but Serling’s script is just limp. The only interesting sequence -- -when our dubious hero surrounds himself with copies of himself --- is ruined by bad makeup effects (probably the only failure in William Tuttle’s illustrious career… this guy created the makeup for The Time Machine’s Morlocks, fer chrissakes).


Jack Grinnage, playing the sap who spills coffee on our hero and gives him the mystical magical book as an apology of sorts, is shockingly annoying. According to imdb.com, Grinnage turned down a role in Forbidden Planet (thankfully!). It’s pretty thin, but I’m counting is as a Twilight Zone-Forbidden Planet connection.


Berman, meanwhile, has had quite a career as a comedian and actor. He’s still active today, probably most recognizably from his recurring role as Judge Sanders on the late Boston Legal, which starred… William Shatner. There’s your Shatner connection.

Shelley Berman today.

The Twilight Zone does have its share of successfully comedies. Unfortunately, they’re usually written by people other than Serling. I wonder what George Clayton Johnson would’ve done with this story…? Serling will give us a much more interesting enchanted book --- Ye Book of Ye Black Art --- in a much funnier outing called “The Bard” near the end of season 4. We’ll get to that one in a couple of years.

Two weeks from tonight: Another Serling comedy. But wait! This one doesn’t suck. In fact, it’s quite good. Count your eyeballs and tune in.

TZ News Flash: William Shatner action figure!!!!!!

Bif Bang Pow! has announced another Comic Con exclusive to flank their already-announced Icons of The Twilight Zone bobblehead, and this one's a doozy.

William Shatner. The Shat. Captain James T. Kirk. T.J. Hooker. Denny Crane. And, for our purposes here, Don Carter from season two's "Nick of Time" and, more famously, Bob Wilson from season five's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Bif Bang Pow! has already given us a bobblehead of the diabolical Mystic Seer fortune-telling machine from "Nick of Time" (and will be bringing us a fully-functioning life-size replica later this year), plus they gave us The Gremlin from "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" in both action figure and bobblehead form. Shatner is the link between these two episodes. And now, the circle will be complete.

Okay, so one action figure, two distinct outfits with accessories (if there was ever a reason to buy two of something, this is it!). Shatner himself approved the head sculpt, so you just know it'll rock (it's hard to judge it without some multiple-angle closeups). And just look at that adorable little Mystic Seer! This gives me hope that maybe we'll get an Agnes Moorhead figure with tiny little Invaders....

LOVE the box! Man.... Bif Bang Pow! is really stepping up the Comic Con exclusives this year....

Wanna pre-order it? Go here.