The Twilight Zone is one of the most well-known series of all time. The term itself has become part of the American vernacular. Originally airing from 1959 – 1964, the show is often credited with many TV first-- such as the way episodes where shot and the twist ending. The anthology series has always been special to me because I felt as if it were a window to the past. I remember watching all these as a kid then watching the New Year’s SY-FI marathons. I used to marvel at watching the menus at the restaurant walls with the prices of meals—a cheeseburger for 35 cents 😊; watching the serene towns and thinking to myself if they ever truly looked like that. I plan to have quick synopsis of each episode, rate all of them (it may take a while) and then rank them. I started with Episode 5 and 6. Re-watching these episodes for this write up was a lot of fun—can’t wait to watch all the episodes all over again.
The first episode that I will be reviewing this week will be “Walking Distance” Season 1 Ep. 5 (1959)
The show opens with 36-year-old executive Martin Sloan is running away from the daily grind in New York City when he pulls into a gas station he notices that within walking distance of his hometown of Homewood. Upon reaching his town he notices that the old soda shop selling ice-cream for the same price it was when he was a kid. He sees a neighbor with a brand new 1936 Roadster (when the date should be 1959) Martin eventually runs into a younger version of himself and realizes that he has somehow walked into his past.
This episode examines man’s nostalgic yearning for his childhood. Rod Serling (the series creator) revisits this idea many times through the series. It is thought that maybe Serling himself was beat up by the grind of Hollywood and had these were his personal thoughts of being transported to a simpler time.
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Martin ends up chasing his younger self off a carousel ride in which the younger Martin trips and falls injuring his leg. The elder Martin instantly yells indicating that it is a permanent injury and young Martin is taken to the hospital. Martin’s father then shows up to let future Martin know that they boy will be ok and then tells Martin that he knows he is telling the truth about being his son and coming from the future. Oddly, Martin’s father is pretty emotionless and uninterested in why future Martin came to the past in the first place and pretty much tells him to go back as this summer belongs to 1936 Martin.
The lesson learned in this episode is that you shouldn’t live your life looking back at the past especially because you tend to remember the good times and not the bad as much. I am a fan of all of the episodes with this premise as I tend to look back fondly on the “good old days”.
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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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The second episode that I will be reviewing this week will be “Escape Clause” Season 1 Ep. 6 (1959)
This episode opens with Walter Bedeker lying on his bed complaining about non-existing symptoms to his doctor and wife just being a malcontent. He continues to whine about why man lifespan must be so short. On cue the devil pops up and offers immortality for Walter’s soul. A stipulation of an escape clause is presented, if Walter ever gets tired of living he can invoke the clause and will be granted a peaceful death. Walter laughs this off and saying he will never call upon this call.
*** Spoiler Alert ***
After the deal was made Walter instantly attempts to kill himself in a myriad of different ways—throwing himself in front a train, bus, drinking poison. Finally, he called the police on himself after his wife fell off from their apartment building roof in the hopes of giving the electric chair a whirl. This time the ending isn’t much of twist as it can be seen coming a mile away. Of course Walter doesn’t get the electric chair, he gets life in prison instead and invokes the escape clause.
While Thomas Gomez was comical, in a good way, as the devil. This storyline was a little under developed. Its kind of hard to believe that someone like Walter can go from being horribly afraid to die in one moment and then dying within days of gaining immortality. This is not the last time that the premise of making a deal with the devil is explored in the series, however this is the worst of those episodes.
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Rating 1 out of 5 stars
There are two other series that I would be interested in giving this treatment to—Another Rod Serling series, Night Gallery which is more horror focused then The Twilight Zone and Black Mirror, which is a very high-quality anthology focused on technology. I would like to know if there would be any interest in reading about those series.