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The Twilight Zone (1959 — 1964)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 7:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

After reading Andrew Bogdan's review above, I watched this episode and discovered that he underrated it severely. Shocked

To be fair, he was right when he said that no explanation was offered for how or why Russel Johnson's character managed to zip back in time and then return. But the episode is quite clear on other elements that Andrew seemed to have misunderstood.

For example.


Bogmeister wrote:
. . . a young professor (Russell Johnson) suddenly finds himself back in 1865, on the day of Lincoln's assassination. Now he can put theory to the test — about whether the past can be changed.

He has several hours to effect a change, which he attempts to do with warnings, but he is placed in jail for his erratic behavior. Just as suddenly, he has a mysterious benefactor who gets him released, which suggests that he has a chance to succeed.

But he is drugged and awakens too late. It turns out that the mysterious benefactor was none other than John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin.

Andrew missed the obvious story elements that prompted him to write the section below.

Bogmeister wrote:
. . . why does Booth go through the trouble of getting the professor released from confinement? Curiosity? It's never explained. It just happens to provide some lopsided tension. And besides that, why would the police release the professor into Booth's custody?

The episode makes it clear that Russel Johnson's character went around trying to warn people that Lincoln would be assassinated. There's even a scene of him pounding on the theater's stage door, shouting his warning.

Obviously, John Wilkes Booth heard him at some point and knew he'd have to stop him from arousing people's suspicions!

So, Booth comes to the police station and offers to take responsibility for the poor man the police think is either drunk or insane. They let him take Johnson home, where Booth gives him drugged wine and then goes off to commit the crime of the century.

Later a young police officer who heard Russel's dire warnings (and is worried that Johnson might know something important) shows up at Booth's boarding house room just as Johnson revives and begs the policemen to stop the assassination.

But shouts from the street outside alert the men that it's too late. Lincoln is dead.

The twist ending which Andrew mentioned was the fact that an elderly attendant we see briefly at the men's club earlier in the episode is the now the rich descendant of the young policemen, who went on to enjoy fame and fortune (somehow caused by his experience with Johnson), and he's now a member of the men's club.

The point of all this, according to Rod Serling's closing remarks, is that some events in history cannot be changed, while other can.

I don't subscribe to that basic theory, however. The story provides a perfectly good reason for why Russel Johnson failed; he shot off his mouth too much and allowed Booth to hear him, thus allowing the assassin to thwart his efforts by drugging Russel to prevent his warnings from being heard.

This would actually have been a good sci-fi episode if it had provided a logical way for Russel to travel back and forth in time.

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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 21, 2019 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud wrote:
This would actually have been a good sci-fi episode if it had provided a logical way for Russel to travel back and forth in time.

This kind of reminded me of the way Chris Reeve's character time traveled in SOMEWHERE IN TIME. It is as if time travel depends on somehow utilizing a part of the human mind.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 9:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Gord Green wrote:
This kind of reminded me of the way Chris Reeve's character time traveled in SOMEWHERE IN TIME. It is as if time travel depends on somehow utilizing a part of the human mind.

Very true. Somewhere in Time is a good movie, but "time travel by thinking about it real hard" is not exactly the strongest element of the plot.

You're right, though, in both cases the person just "travel through time" and then came back.

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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 22, 2019 5:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________
Episode #108 - Death Ship Empty Episode #108 - Death Ship

Air Date: 2/7/63 written by Richard Matheson Directed by Don Medford.

_

This was based on Matheson's short story of the same name, published in 1953 in Fantastic Story Magazine.

__

It's the story of a 3-man crew (Jack Klugman as the captain, Ross Martin as Lt. Mason and Fredrick Beir) in their flying saucer ship, the E-89, in the year 1997.

Their job is to conduct surveys of planets and take specimens back to Earth for analysis. While over such a planet, Lt. Mason notes a blip and the captain orders that they land to investigate. They land near another ship which appears to have crash landed. It soon becomes evident that this wrecked ship is a duplicate of their own and that they may be seeing their near future.

Or are they already in that gloomy future?

__

This is a ghost story transposed into a science fiction setting — the future of space exploration ('97 seemed far in the future at the time this episode was made and is now over a decade in our past; the mind whirls). When I first saw this many years ago, I didn't think Klugman was the captain during the first minute and was surprised to learn this as the episode progressed.

He was an atypical representation of the usual ship's captain, not the expected tallest and most manly member of the crew; I was used to seeing Klugman in supporting roles or playing weak, weaselly characters. He also plays this captain as wound a bit too tight.


_______ Twilight Zone - Death Ship - Philip Glass


___________




BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 09, 2019 6:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

It occurs to me that in a way, this is the worst Twilight Zone episode of the entire series for the folks like me who yearn for great science fiction like On Thursday We Leave for Home.

Here's why.

The Wikipedia plot summary starts out this way.
________________________________

The Space Cruiser E-89, crewed by Captain Paul Ross, Lt. Ted Mason, and Lt. Mike Carter, is on a mission to analyze new worlds and discover if they are suitable for colonization.

While orbiting a planet, Mason sees a metallic glint in the landscape. He conjectures that this might be a sign of alien life, but the pragmatic Captain Ross disagrees. Nevertheless, the cruiser prepares to land next to the mysterious object.

________________________________

Any member of All Sci-Fi could take that opening and make a great story. But the Wikipedia plot summary goes on to describe all the wacky "afterlife" reunions the crewmen have with dead loved ones, all of which are interrupted by the crazy Jack Klugman character. It ends with this.
________________________________

Mason and Carter [realize] that they [have] already crashed and are dead. Their afterlife visits were real, and it is their current situation which is the illusion. Ross refuses to accept this. He rejects his crew's pleas to be allowed to embrace their deaths and be reunited with their loved ones, and says that they will "go over it again and again" until he figures out an alternative explanation.

In compliance with Ross's order, the men are returned to the moment where Mason first spotted the E-89's wreckage, doomed to relive the past several hours of investigation over and over.

________________________________

In other words, Klugman plays a kind of Captain Ahab who dooms his crew to share his mad obsession, and they're both dumb enough and weak enough to follow his order!

I object to the lack of logic in this story's weak premise!

I also object to Klugman's insane behavior, and I REALLY object to the idea that two starship crewmen don't have the balls to stand up to a lunatic who dooms them such a horrible fate! Sad

Finally, there's this.

In the 1960s when I first saw this episode, I cringed at the scene when the C-57-D took off from the planet . . . with a flame spurting out from its underside!






Whose insanely stupid idea was it to give the C-57-D a booster rocket in its ass? Shocked
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filmdetective
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 3:02 am    Post subject: I Tend To Agree Reply with quote

I tend to agree with Bud that "On Thursday We Leave For Home," is one of TZ's best episodes.

One thing I really appreciated was the Poetry of the Night Time, as Benteen lectures the children of the planet with two suns, who have grown up never knowing the beauty of the night time.

This is very similar to the Outer Limits episode, "The Mutant," on another planet where there is no Night Time.

And, here, we get into some semantics.

What is the difference between Night and Darkness?

In "He's Alive," a TZ episode which I don't think has been discussed on this thread, but I do feel is worthy of consideration, Dennis Hopper plays a young neo-Nazi, who comes under the influence of the ghost of Adolph Hitler, who tells him, "I invented Darkness."

Darkness is often used as a metaphor for evil, and sometimes even the night time is viewed in negative terms.

But, is Darkness itself, the absence of light, necessarily evil?

Benteen's lecture on the beauty of the night time in "On Thursday We Leave For Home" is quite memorable, as is the character in the OL episode "Mutant," who, says, of the planet of eternal daytime that he lives on: "I get so lonely for the night . . . " and goes to his death from the radioactive touch of the Mutant comforting himself with the thought, "It's going to be like a long night, to dream in."

Well, these three SFantasy TV episodes have given me a lot to think about, and I wonder if they had the same effect on any of you other ALL SCI-FI board posters?
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Krel
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 2:38 pm    Post subject: Re: I Tend To Agree Reply with quote

filmdetective wrote:


But, is Darkness itself, the absence of light, necessarily evil?



No, it is what lurks in the darkness, that preys on the unwary that is evil.

David.
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Gord Green
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PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2020 4:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darkness has long been used as a metaphor for "evil" and danger.

I think it's a throwback to when darkness before the invention of "domesticating" fire was a time of terror to the pre-human and protohuman psyche. Daytime could be dangerous but night time was terrifying!

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Eadie
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PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2020 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rare color tests of the make-up for Eye of the Beholder:


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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"On Thursday We Leave For Home" ran into a big production problem that had TTZ crew scrambling.

The set was a planetary terrain that had a number of metal shacks that the colonists resided in.

Director for this episode Buzz Kulick told Director of photography George T. Clemens that he wanted to start out the next day's filming with a really high camera shot of the set.

Clemens suggested that they get a ladder prior to filming and get a bird's eye view of the set, which they did.

They got a shock when they saw that none of the metal shacks had roofs.

Clemens explained that sets normally don't have roofs because you need to arrange lights overhead in order to film interior scenes.

The crew hurried in order to place tack & canvas over the tops of the metal shacks overnight so that the director could accomplish his scene where he placed the camera high overlooking the colony.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Uncle Simon," November 15, 1963 was directed by Don Siegel. Siegel directed the 1950's SF classic movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Last edited by Pow on Sat Jan 02, 2021 7:35 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"The Midnight Sun," November 17, 1961 had only a three day shooting schedule and $52,577 to portray a dying Earth.

One scene had a melting painting that ran down its canvas.

To achieve this, a picture was painted in wax on the surface of a hotplate and then the hotplate was turned on for the effect.

When this episode was filmed there was no air conditioning on the set back in those days, so it was indeed hot enough for the actors to give the impression of a planet moving towards the sun since this episode was filmed in the summer.

Lois Nettleton who plays Norma was a very fine actress & attractive actress in anything she did.
I was sorry that she did not have a bigger career than she did.
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Where Is Everybody?," October 2, 1959.

This debut episode for The Twilight Zone was shown by the network to potential sponsors some months before its television premiere.

It would differ in some ways from the finished episode.

The visual opening for the series had images of galaxies dissolving into one another until finally out of a spiral galaxy three-dimensional looking block letters show TWILIGHT ZONE.

It would be abandoned because it was cliche looking.

In Rod Serling's opening narration he says "There is a sixth dimension."

Producer William Self told Rod that there were only four known dimensions. So it was rewritten & rerecorded as "There is a fifth dimension."

There were other revisions in the show's opening to follow.

"Sunlight of his knowledge" was altered to "summit of his knowledge."

"It is an area that might be called The Twilight Zone" would become "It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone."

Added to the opening was "The Twilight Zone was the middle ground between science and superstition."
That was a good idea with that last line. It allowed Rod to not be restricted with his stories to just SF. He could delve into the mysterious and unknown.

All the revisions to the opening were for the better.

Rod said that he came up with the term "Twilight Zone" based upon the USAF.

The (obscure) term relates to a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and the pilots are unable to see the horizon.

Having Rod become the narrator for the series came about by accident.

The original narrator was Westbrook Van Voorhis who had done the "March of Time."

His voice was certainly big enough, but it was felt that it came off as a bit pompous.
Why not ask him to come back and rerecord the opening in a more toned down manner? I mean, Rod was terrific as the narrator, I just wonder about things that might have been done if the individual was given a second chance and instructed to use their voice in a more subtle way?

Orson Welles was high on the list as a narrator for the series...except for Rod who was not pleased with this choice.

Having Welles narrate was popular with the Ashley-Steiner Agency which represented Rod. Welles was also high on the list with both the CBS network and the sponsors.

It all came to an end when Welles asked for more money than the show planned to spend.

Producer William Self said many other people were considered. Finally Rod suggested himself. This was met with skepticism as Rod was known as a fine writer but had no narrating credits.

Rod did a terrific job according to Self and they never looked back.

The scene where Mike Ferris (Earl Holliman) believes he's trapped in a phone booth and pushes and pushes on the door only to discover it pulls open actually happened to Rod. He wanted to include something that he experienced once.

Over the years, Rod felt that "Where Is Everybody?" did not age very well.

In the 1960 Bantam book "Stories From The Twilight Zone," Rod altered the ending to this episode.

When Ferris walks into the theater there is no one taking tickets of course. Ferris reaches in and takes a ticket, he then tears off the stub and drops it into the small reticule and places the stub into his pocket.

In the denouement, as Ferris is being carried away on the stretcher after removal from the simulator, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the theater stub.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 11:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Terrific post, Mike! Very Happy

I agree that all the revisions improved the show's opening narration.


Pow wrote:
In the 1960 Bantam book "Stories From The Twilight Zone," Rod altered the ending to this episode.

In the denouement, as Ferris is being carried away on the stretcher after removal from the simulator, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the theater stub.

I'm really glad the episode did not include this rather typical Rod Serling "surprise" ending. Shocked

It would seem like a cheap way to add a false metaphysical element to the story, when it was supposed to be a straightforward tale about what fear and isolation will do to a man's mind.

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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 8:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"The Lonely": November 13, 1959.

Death Valley was selected to appear as the asteroid for location filming .

The temperature would reach 130 degrees during filming.

When it's required to indicate extreme heat with actors doing a scene, they are sprayed with a combination of oil and water so as to appear to be sweating.

Due to the intense heat in Death Valley, the spray would immediately evaporate. The makeup crew resorted to using a spray that was a combination of ninety percent oil and ten percent water.

Jean Marsh (Alicia) would later go on to co-create and star in the classic Masterpiece Theater presentation "Upstairs, Downstairs."
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