There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call…the Twilight Zone.
According to the National Day Calendar, today is Twilight Zone Day: “Always observed on May 11, National Twilight Zone Day is that mysterious day highlighted with eerie background music and unexplainable occurrences. [However,] within our research, we were unable to find the creator of National Twilight Zone Day.”
Well, real holiday or not, any reason to celebrate the creation of Rod Serling is a good one. After all, the latest revival of the series—produced and hosted by Academy Award–winning writer/director Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us)—is still available on the CBS All Access streaming channel, with season 2 about to launch. And since this year TZ Day falls while we’re all staying in place during the coronavirus pandemic, what better way to pass the time than by watching a mini-marathon of classic episodes?
I’m intentionally avoiding the easy choices: “Time Enough at Last” (the one with Burgess Meredith and all the books), “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (the one with William Shatner and the gremlin), “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (the one with the bus passengers stopping at a remote diner), “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” (the one that’s a study of paranoia and hatred in small-town America), “To Serve Man” (the one about the aliens who carry around the creepiest how-to book ever—at least where humans are concerned), and “It’s a Good Life” (the really scary one with Billy Mumy as the kid who “wishes away” people who displease him). You know them, you’ve probably seen them at some point in your life, and they’re undoubtedly what you’d expect to find in a post about Rod Serling’s brainchild.
So here are a half-dozen other TZ episodes worth checking out:
“One for the Angels” (written by Rod Serling; Season 1): The second episode of the series stars Ed Wynn as Lou Bookman and Murray Hamilton (who’s probably best known as the mayor of Amity in the original Jaws) as Mr. Death. Bookman is a third-rate salesman who peddles tchotchkes and items of little use on the streets of New York—a failure in life who’s nevertheless shocked to find Death waiting to take him to the great beyond. Bookman doesn’t want to go, though, not until he’s achieved his ultimate dream as a peddler: to make a sales pitch so amazingly enticing that no one can resist it—“one for the angels,” he calls it. Death, surprisingly, agrees to back off until Bookman succeeds. Of course, what both he and Bookman know is that the peddler has no intention of ever trying to succeed, not if it ends with a trip to the afterlife. And so Death takes steps that will ensure Bookman makes his angelic sales pitch…
“A Game of Pool” (written by George Clayton Johnson; Season 3): Jack Klugman might best be remembered for his role as the slobby sports writer Oscar Madison in the TV comedy series The Odd Couple (alongside Tony Randall as Oscar’s obsessive-compulsive “neat freak” roommate, Felix Unger), but before that he’d established himself as one of Hollywood’s top-level character actors. In “A Game of Pool,” he plays Jesse Cardiff, who dreams of being the all-time-greatest pool player, but knows he can’t because the man he’d have to beat for that title—the legendary “Fats” Brown (played by comedic actor Jonathan Winters)—died years ago. But then Fats pays a visit from the afterlife to challenge him…
“The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms” (written by Rod Serling; Season 5): Three National Guardsmen (Warren Oates, Ron Foster, and Randy Boone) on weekend maneuvers near the site of General George Custer’s defeat by Native American tribes at the Little Bighorn in Montana slowly find themselves drawn into that historical battle. It’s no surprise as to what the payoff will be, but watching the Guardsmen as they journey on toward their fate is worth the watch.
“The Night of the Meek” (written by Rod Serling; Season 2): Art Carney—best known to fans of classic TV as Ralph Kramden’s best friend, sewer worker Ed Norton, on The Honeymooners—plays Henry Corwin, an alcoholic who’s hired by a department store to play Santa Claus. It’s Henry’s drinking on the job that gets him fired; he says he drinks because he lives in a world where people live in poverty and kids go hungry, and it’s a sham for him to pretend to be Santa when he has no real power to help the unfortunate, especially at Christmas. But then, on his way home, he picks up a discarded garbage bag and what spills out is anything but trash…
“The Obsolete Man” (written by Rod Serling; Season 2): A totalitarian society decides which citizens have value and which have become worthless—such as Romney Wordsworth (played by Burgess Meredith), whose job as a librarian is considered “obsolete.” The punishment for obsolescence is death, which he’s willing to face with one exception: the man who judged him, the Chancellor (Fritz Weaver), must sit with him right up to the appointed time of his execution. What Wordsworth doesn’t say is just why he wants the Chancellor in attendance… Overall it’s a good episode with great performances by Meredith and Weaver, but its final act gets a bit ham-fisted when Serling injects clichés into the story by having Wordsworth read passages from the Bible so the Chancellor can get some religion.
“The Howling Man” (written by Charles Beaumont, based on his short story; Season 2): Lost in a storm somewhere in Europe, David Ellington (H.M. Wynant) stumbles across a castle run by a religious order that’s led by Brother Jerome (horror legend John Carradine). At first Jerome refuses to allow Ellington in, but when the man collapses on the doorstep Jerome and the other monks have no choice but to give him aid. Ellington is grateful for their help, but his gratitude comes to a quick end when he discovers that the monks are holding someone prisoner—a man whose unearthly howling convinces Ellington that the prisoner must be freed. That’s when Brother Jerome explains just who the howling man really is—and what his release could do to the world…
Happy TZ Day!
