The Twilight Zone was the weekly anthology series that started in 1959 and ran for five seasons. It remains the standard by which every sci-fi/ fantasy television program since has been measured by. Hosted by the brilliant Rod Serling, it was known for its weird plot twists and ironic endings. Every story was like a small screen morality play, as there was some kind of lesson to be learned with each episode. The acting was exceptional and the actors featured in individual episodes through the run of the program were among the best, including some who went on to become Oscar winners. The writing was also of superior quality and included top-notch writers, such as Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson,Charles Beaumont and Serling himself among them. Despite the fact that The Twilight Zone only lasted five seasons, it has continued to be in syndication for years and has a huge cult following.
Every fan has his or her favorite episodes. Here are five of them I consider to be among the best.
“Kick the Can”
Age is just a matter of mind. At least, that appears to be the message in this episode. A group of old people in a nursing home have evidently accepted that fact that their age means that life, for them, has now become little more than a waiting game for the inevitability of death. Their lives are dreary, colorless and uninspired. They are perfectly satisfied with being cranky and miserable. However, the introduction of a new resident into the nursing home shakes things up a bit. He may be old in body, but his spirit is young and he invites some of the residents to join him in playing “Kick the Can”, an old childhood game. I n the beginning, they are appalled by his suggestion, believing him to be a little on the crazy side. However, as they reminisce about the times of their younger days, they decide to reluctantly follow him outside in the middle of the night. As they play “Kick the Can”, they become children again. A more skeptical resident who failed to join them, goes to the nursing home manager, to rat them out, but when a search is made, all that is found is a group of kids, the ones who used to be old people. Their youth restored, they disappear into the night, leaving him behind. The other resident realizes he missed his chance to become young again and the episode ends with him playing “Kick the Can” on his own, with the hope that he can recapture his childhood and join his friends.
No matter how time alters our bodies, if we remain young at heart, life can still have excitement and importance. That is what this particular episode taught me personally.
“It’s a Good Life”
I have encountered some bratty kids in my life, but none comes close to the vicious little tyke in this episode. At first the 6-year-old little”darling”, played by Billy Mumy, appears to be an adorable, fresh-faced child. He lives in a farmhouse with his parents and other assorted relatives, who seem to adore him. You quickly discover that everything is not the way it looks. Beneath the innocent exterior is a monstrous little bully, with incredible powers. He can make things happen simply because he wants them to and heaven help anyone who displeases him or disagrees with him. His “family” is not really his family at all, but individual townspeople he has picked to serve as his family members. It’s clear that these adults are terrified by this creepy kid and when one person, stressed out by the pretense, decides to do something independent of the boy’s wishes, he is turned into a jack-in-the-box. At the conclusion, the remaining adults are sadly resigned to living shadows of their real lives, unable to ever break free of this tiny demonic child. One has to wonder, if he is this bad at age 6, how much worse will he be when he becomes a teenager? Every time I meet a person with an incorrigible kid, I am immediately reminded of this episode.
“Time Enough at Last”
No one who has ever seen this episode can fail to pity poor Henry Bernis, the shy bookworm who works as a bankteller. Actor Burgess Meredith lends a quiet, pathos quality to this character. Bernis wants nothing more than to fulfill his consuming passion, which is to read. Neither his shrewish wife nor his demanding boss seem to understand or sympathize with him and he finds himself stuck in a marriage and job that do not allow him time to satisfy his most intense desire to read. Bernis ends up locked in the bank safe, but it’s a good thing, because an atomic bomb is dropped and being in the safe keeps him protected. When he emerges, he discovers that he is the sole survivor and the world, as he knew it, is demolished. Searching to see if there might be others, he comes upon the local library, which has been destroyed, and sees hundreds of books laying about.
Finding out if there’s any food or drink doesn’t seem to matter to the euphoric Bernis, as all he can think about is the fact that he has access to all the books he could ever want and, at last, there is time enough to read, without anyone ever disturbing him again. Of course, the typical ironic “Twilight Zone” ending we all anticipate occurs, as he bends down to pick up something and his glasses fall to the ground. The very nearsighted Bernis accidentally steps on the glasses, shattering them, left alone in a pile of books he will never be able to read now and muttering about the unfairness of his situation.
“The Fever”
I suppose I like this one because the story takes place in Las Vegas. Character actor Everett Sloane, who appeared in many Orson Welles’ productions, plays the role of Franklin, a dour, uptight man who comes to Las Vegas with his wife, only because they won a free trip there. At first he is highly judgmental about what he considers to be the moral weakness of people who allow themselves to get caught up in gambling. Intent on “proving” to his wife, whom he sees as gullible, that everything is set up for her and other foolish gamblers to lose their money, he puts a couple of coins in the slot. To his amazement, he pulls the lever and gets a big payout. When you see the look on his face at that moment, you know that he has gotten infected by the “fever”. Although he goes back to their hotel room with his wife, he is unable to sleep, because the desire to go back to the casino floor and to the slot machine is pulling irresistibly at him.
While his wife sleeps, Franklin slips back downstairs to the casino and starts to feed the slot machine coin after coin. This time around, of course, it fails to win, no matter how much he puts into it. By the time his wife comes down to search for him, he has lost his winnings from the day before and is writing checks to get more money to put into it. Franklin believes it will be just a matter of time before the machine wins again. When that doesn’t happen, he goes berserk, accusing the slot machine of taunting him and angrily knocking it to the floor. He is taken back to his room, but begins to have hallucinations, in which he sees the machine moving towards him and hears it calling his name repeatedly, in order to lure him back. Despite his spouse’s protestations that there is no slot machine, the tormented Franklin backs away and smashes through the window, falling to his death, as a loose coin from a slot machine rolls over near his dead hand.
Serling caught the very essence of gambling addiction and how easy it is to get caught up in it. Having lived in the real Vegas for a few years myself, I have seen people who become instantly hooked after just one payout from a slot machine. Although the scenary and sets are outdated, since everything looks like it was back in “Old Vegas”, the message is just as relevant now, in the time of bigger, glitzier casinos, as it was then.
“Walking Distance”
This is such a poignant episode and, particularly if you are a Baby Boomer, you can easily relate to the main character, played by actor Gig Young. This is a man who obviously lives in a high-pressured world that he finds difficult to deal with now. While out on a drive, he finds himself going to the small town he grew up in, full of wistful memories about life in the slow lane, band concerts and an easier, less complicated time. He discovers that the time has gone back 30 years and he is back in his own childhood. He becomes obsessed, after encountering himself as a boy, and runs after the frightened child, facing his parents who don’t recognize him and think he’s a bit off his rocker. He later tries to get on a merry-go-round in order to get close enough to talk to the boy he was, but the child, still terrified of him, falls off, and injures his leg, which results in the grownup version of himself having a permanent limp. Later, his father catches up with him, having found and looked through his wallet. He realizes that Gig Young is his son, who has somehow traveled back in time. He tells his son that he can’t stay, because this time belongs to the boy he was and there isn’t enough room for the both of them. He encourages him to return to his own time and try to find something good in the life he has.
This episode was very easy for me to relate to, because many of us in the Baby Boomer generation, tend to over-romanticize the past. Somehow we think that if we could just return to the days of yore, life would be easier and we could try to fix all the mistakes we made back then. Sadly, this option is not available for any of us, so we are forced to face the here-and-now of our existence.
