So, here goes another series of blog entries.
A new fad of "binging" TV shows was introduced in the early 2000's with the advent of such on-line streaming sites like Netflix, although the concept had been around for some time. In earlier years, however, the idea of "binge-watching" was a bit different. Albeit at the mercy of the decisions of the programmers. you could often find what were classed as "marathons", in which a TV station would run in succession several episodes of a classic TV series one after the other. I remember even from childhood sometimes catching a Star Trek or Twilight Zone marathons, usually on holidays.
Nowadays you can buy the entire run of TV episodes of classic (and recent) series that you enjoyed when they were first broadcast. I have a number of them in my own personal collection. The Bingeworthy series of posts represents a personal opinion of what are great shows. Everyone has their favorites. My posts for Bingeworthy is only going to include ones that I think are worth watching, not necessarily ones that are critical successes. It is, therefore, not, in any way, meant to be definitive. You can find websites that have differing opinions on what are the best TV series to do this. Rotten Tomatoes, for instance.
So, over the course of this endeavor, you will be getting an overview of some of my favorites, along with a focus in each entry on some of my favorite episodes from those shows. Your opinion may differ, and that's OK. You might like different episodes entirely, and you might even dislike the whole series itself. Feel free to express your opinion in the comments.
As a side note: I will vary the number of episodes highlighted in each entry. This one on The Twilight Zone features one favorite from each of the 5 seasons. In some cases, when the series lasted for many many years, I may limit the number of episodes I highlight, just to keep the post at a manageable length.
Bingeworthy: Episode One: The Twilight Zone (1959-64):
The Twilight Zone was introduced to me via marathon broadcasts on Thanksgiving sometime in the early 70's. I was not even born yet when it first started airing, and I was not even yet 3 by the time it went off the air as a weekly series. Maybe I caught an episode on TV before then, but my memory is from about 1973 as being the first time. And I have to admit I was hooked from the beginning.
The first episode of The Twilight Zone that I can recall seeing was when my family went to Houston for Thanksgiving. One of the local UHF stations had a 6 hour or so block of the show, running 12 episodes of the series in succession. I doubt I got to commandeer the TV for the entire run; it was Thanksgiving, after all, and we all know tradition is you watch the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys play football on Thanksgiving Day. (I love football more than any other sport, so I was not disappointed by that intrusion...)
My memory is that the first episode I watched was "The Old Man in the Cave". Over the years, until about 2006, my experience with the show was only whenever a TV station would broadcast episodes. But in 2006, I acquired a boxed set of the entire series. A couple of the episodes listed here I had never seen until I got that boxed set, but they are the ones that rank highly in my list of favorite episodes. For the purposes of this blog entry I chose my favorite episode in each season. As stated above, your opinion may differ.
"The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (Season 1 Episode 22; original broadcast Mar. 4, 1960):
The essence of The Twilight Zone often delved into moralistic tales. Here we have a typical rural section of a town coping with some odd happenings; the power goes off and telephone service goes down, and the citizens of Maple Street gradually turn against one another. The real paranoia stems from a rather ridiculous theory for the unusual events proposed by a young boy, who claims that it is all being done by aliens.
It seems that the citizens are wholly susceptible to this outlandish theory. Especially when some of the citizens start having their electrical power problems vanish. The boy's claim is that, in a story he read in his science fiction magazine, the aliens had sent an advance scouting crew to Earth, posing as "normal" humans. All of the citizens gang up on the one who has seemingly been alleviated of the problems the rest of them are having.
The problem escalates when one of the other citizens suddenly becomes the focus when his house is now with electrical power. As neighbor turns against neighbor, accusations fly about strange behavior that each has shown in the past; stuff that normally wouldn't even get a second glance in regular society. (One of them is accused of scanning the sky at night, which he claims is only because he suffers from insomnia).
You have to wait until the final denouement to see what is all behind these weird events. I am sure you will be able to see the ending a mile away (assuming you have never seen or heard about this classic episode in the first place...) This episode almost always ends up on "Best of Twilight Zone"compilations, as it encapsulates the theme of the series best (that of the "gotcha" ending).
"The Obsolete Man" (Season 2 Episode 29; original broadcast June 2, 1961):
In a dystopian future, you must be of use to the society as a whole, or you will be classified as "obsolete" and eliminated as a drain on society. As a parable of the dangers of allowing the government to dictate what is acceptable and what is not, it is very prescient. Over the last 20 years or so it has appeared to be a mirror into the way society may be moving. I refer here to the way whoever is in power in the Oval Office tries to quell any opposition to their policies.
In this world, one of the "useless" fields of endeavor is the acquisition of knowledge. A librarian, therefore, is obsolete and must be eliminated. Romney Wordsworth (Burgess Meredith) {and there's a fitting character name, if there ever was one} is a librarian called before the prevailing judge (in the person of Fritz Weaver). Since Wordsworth can do nothing to justify his continued existence, he is slated for elimination. He has only one request: that he gets to choose his own method and time of execution.
One of the other "useless" things in this world is that of religious belief. The government does not believe in any such frivolous things as a Supreme Being. This plays into the plot as Wordsworth is a devout believer, probably one of the other reasons he is being classified as obsolete. Ultimately the final battle comes down to a conflict of words and faith. And, possibly, like the old adage of "there are no atheists in the fox hole", even the government official may find himself classed as obsolete.
"A Game of Pool" (Season 3 Episode 5, original broadcast Oct. 13, 1961):
My absolute favorite episode of The Twilight Zone, this is one of those rarities in the series where there are only a couple of people on screen the entire episode. In this story, Jesse Cardiff (Jack Klugman) is a pool hustler who is absolutely convinced he is the greatest pool player ever. However, there was a legend in the past, Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters), whom everyone flings into Jesse's face with the implication that he, Jesse, is good, but he will never be better than the legend.
Jesse wishes he could play Fats just once, just to prove who is better, but unfortunately for Jesse, Fats has been dead for 15 years. But he is still going to get his wish, as Fats shows up from the afterlife to give Jesse a chance to prove his mettle. Jesse is, of course, skeptical when Fats shows up:
(And I love to use Fats' quote. It comes in handy...)
The episode is more about the one on one conversation between Jesse and Fats than the actual game, although the outcome of the game is on the line. Fats' stakes for the game is: if Jesse beats him then Jesse will live and if Jesse loses he will die. Serious stakes.
There were two different endings for the episode. One had Jesse losing and one had him winning his game with Fats. I won't reveal the one that was used in the actual broadcast here, watch it and find out, but I will tell you when they remade the episode for the 1980's version of The Twilight Zone they filmed it with the alternate ending. And the 80's version was the one that had the original short story ending that author George Clayton Johnson envisioned.
BTW, as a footnote: Klugman was in four Twilight Zone episodes, and this one was his favorite of the four.
"He's Alive" (Season 4 Episode 4, original broadcast Jan. 24, 1963):
If there is any downfall to binging The Twilight Zone it would have to be the season 4 faux pas, due to circumstances, which included not being renewed initially, but coming in as a mid-season replacement. The show that it was replacing was an hour long show, so the producers had to expand the regular 30 minute show from the previous seasons to a hour long one. I admit that many of them seem bloated by comparison to the rest of the series (it went back to a 30 minute show in the 5th season). But there are a few well worth the effort.
The most profound of this hour long endeavor involves Peter Vollmer (Dennis Hopper), a neo-Nazi who struggles to get any followers to his cause. That is, until he acquires a mentor. The mentor guides Vollmer into ways to get backing for his views, which include sacrificing one of the members of his cause. The neo-Nazi group under Vollmer intentionally murder one of the subordinates and make it look like it was the act of one of their enemies. And what do you know, gradually Vollmer acquires more and more of a following.
Watching Hopper, who is one of the under-appreciated greats in my opinion, as he struggles seemingly with his own conscience is a sight to behold. You kind of get the idea that he would prefer things to progress in a more reasonable manner, but has to gradually come to terms with the fact that the power he seeks can only be acquired through nefarious means. This is put in a more direct light when it is finally revealed who the mentor in the shadows really is. (And, yes, it is pretty much obvious who is Vollmer's "mentor", but that is probably the only flaw in the episode that I see...)
The parallels, not only with the history that happened before the events in the episode, but also some seemingly prescient parallels to a more current demagogue is what makes this episode the best of season 4. There are a few others that are good, too, but I am limiting this entry to just one episode from each season, for brevity's sake.
"The Jeopardy Room" (Season 5 Episode 29 original broadcast Apr. 17, 1964):
Some of the best episodes of the series came out in season 5. In the introduction I mentioned "The Old Man in the Cave", an episode that stuck with me even though I never saw it a second time until I acquired the boxed set. The season also included "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" which makes many lists as among the best of the series. But I picked one that may be a little less well known, simply because it is memorable in its own right.
Somewhat unique in the series, this episode didn't have any supernatural horror or science fiction overlying theme. It was simply a tense nail-biting political thriller. Ivan Kuchenko (Martin Landau) is trying to defect from Russia. Although he is in what is essentially a neutral country (unnamed in the episode), he has been tracked down by a government official, Commissar Vassiloff (John van Dreelen) and his subordinate, Boris (Robert Kelljan).
Boris is of a rash mind and just wants to just shoot Ivan and be done with it, but the Commissar, who apparently watched too many James Bond movies, wants to do it with finesse. He drugs Ivan and then installs a bomb in the room. Then he leaves a tape recorded message stating the rules. Ivan has to actively look for the bomb. If he tries to run he will be shot. If he tries to turn out the lights he will be shot. His only option is to try to find the bomb. The Commissar promises that if Ivan finds and dismantles the bomb he will be free to leave unmolested (although I am pretty sure the Commissar would not keep that promise... you can't trust Commies...)
Like the previously mentioned "A Game of Pool" (and a few others), this episode relies on a minimal number of actors. You probably already know how good an actor Landau is, but van Dreelen is also pretty good.
Thus we end our first Bingeworthy series. New episodes will appear as time permits in the future.
Quiggy
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