September 28, 2024: The Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 4, episodes 1-4!

Season 4, Episode 1, “In His Image”

This episode was first broadcast January 3, 1963.

This episode was based on Charles Beaumont’s short story, “The Man Who Made Himself”. Apparently, Rod Serling had sought to purchase the rights to the short story for the first season but had been unable to do so at the time. Later, after “The Lateness of the Hour” aired, many of Beaumont’s friends contacted him wondering why he hadn’t been credited on the episode given its similarities to his short story.

There’s a certain sad irony in the fact that this episode deals with a man who begins to question his memories and, only months after it aired, writer Charles Beaumont began to exhibit signs of the early onset alzheimers that would claim his life.

The fourth season saw the episodes expand to a one hour format. Longtime TZ producer Buck Houghton’s vehement objection to the change resulted in his parting ways with the production.

This was the first episode to feature the memorable opening sequence featuring the door, a window breaking, and the flying doll.

The device on the wall in the robot lab was also used as part of the Krell machine in Forbidden Planet (1956).

Actor George Grizzzard, who played Alan Talbot, previously portrayed Roger Schackleforth in “The Chaser”.

Gail Kobe, who played Jessica Connelly, appeared as Sally the secretary in “A World of Difference”. Reflecting back on her Twilight Zone experience: “Rod Serling was around quite a lot for that – he was such a gentleman. He wasn’t very tall and my daddy wasn’t very tall either, so I had this love for men who were Rod Serling size.”

Katherine Squire, who played the Old Woman, previously appeared as the teacher, Mrs. Langsford, in “One More Pallbearer”.

George Petrie, who played the Driver, was Eddie Haskell’s father on Leave it to Beaver. His 14 guest appearances on The Honeymooners was second only to the main cast members.

Although I expect later episodes will stretch their respective premises pretty thin, this episode doesn’t really suffer from the extra runtime. It’s a pretty compelling mystery provided you can ignore some of the logic issues. Perry Lafferty, who would direct the first three episodes of the show’s fourth season, does a pretty good job here and makes me cautiously optimistic for future episodes.

Season 4, Episode 2, “The Thirty-Fathom Grave”

This episode was first broadcast January 10, 1963.

This episode was written before the network decided to transition to the one hour format. As a result, Serling ended up having to add several new scenes and, on the whole, the episode feels somewhat padded.

When sending the first batch of scripts for network approval, Serling included the following note: “I ask only that you keep in mind that story material for Twilight Zone is very much “camera” writing. That which may read as a slow and static movement, gains considerable momentum in its shooting.” Hmmmmmm.

Many point out similarities between the plot of “The Thirty-Fathom Grave” and the 1962 horror film “Carnival Of Souls” in which the survivor of a car crash is haunted by the undead until she ends up back to where she avoided death in the first place, her corpse recovered at the sight of the original car crash. Despite the similarities, it’s unlikely Serling could have been inspired by the movie, or vice-versa. Chalk this one up to coincidence.

In the initial draft, the skeletal remains of the sub’s crew are revealed but it was decided this would be distasteful so the reveal was lost in a subsequent rewrite.

Also in the original ending, Bell turns out to have been ghost all along. The network bumped on this.

The exterior shots of the ship in this episode were of the The “Mighty Mux” USS MULLINNIX DD-944, A Forrest Sherman class destroyer. The interior shots were on board the USS-Edson DD946.

Episode co-stars Mike Kellin and Simon Oakland died three days apart.

Among the crew members in this episode is a young Bill Bixby who gained fame, first as a co-star on My Favorite Martian (1963), then playing widowed father Tom Corbett on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (1969), and finally as Dr. Bruce Banner on The Incredible Hulk (1977). Bixby was an accomplished director, magician, and dated Yvonne Craig, aka Batgirl from the 1966 Batman series.

I liked the set-up and didn’t mind the slow burn at first but, halfway through, it did begin to feel a little repetitive. I also think the reveal of the long dead crew man clutching a hammer would have served this episode well. Showing is always infinitely more interesting than telling.

Overall, I didn’t hate it – BUT I suspect I’m going to be hardpressed to come up with 10 favorite episodes. Maybe a Top 5?

Season 4, Episode 3, “Valley of the Shadows”

This episode was first broadcast January 17, 1963.

The original title of this episode was “Peaceful Valley”.

Actor Ed Nelson, who played Philiip Renfield, starred in many low-budget Roger Corman movies including Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) in which he played a giant crab. He and actresss Barbara Perkins were the only cast members to appear in the very first and very last episodes of Peyton Place (1964-1969).

Natalie Trundy, who played Helen Marshall, had a promising career cut short by a serious back injury she suffered after being struck by a car. She made somewhat of a comeback, appearing in four moves in the Planet of the Apes series, but was never able to recapture her lost momentum. She married five times and spent her final years volunteering at Mother Theresa’s hospice in Kolkata, India.

James Doohan makes a small appearance in this episode. Better known as Star Trek’s Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty, Doohan voiced 53 different characters for the Star Trek Animated Series (1973).

Young Suzanne Caputo, who would later change her name to Morgan Brittany, made a previous Twilight Zone appearance as a little girl in season 1’s “Nightmares as a Child”. Reflecting back on this episode, she recalled: “Ed Neslon was great. A lot of actors back then dismisssed children or didn’t have a rapport with kids, but Ed was different. I remember we were doing the thing with the cat, and he came over and sat on the porch with me – he was a really nice guy. I don’t remember his dog’s name, but I do remember that its trainer was giving him so many treats that he didn’t want to work anymore.”

Overall, a pretty good episode although I did find it odd how fairly backwards this town was despite its access to advanced technology. I also found the Ellen Marshall character taking less than 24 hours to fall in love unintentionally funny – but I guess indicative of how many writers wrote female characters back in the day. My favorite charater was Rollie the dog who displayed incredible range here, from playful to angry, dead to alive. Maybe a Season 4 Top 5 entry?

Season 4, Episode 4, “He’s Alive”

This episode was first broadcast January 24, 1963.

Rod Serling apparently considered this episode “the most important” episode of the series.

Actor Dennis Hopper, who played Peter Vollmer, befriended James Dean on the set of Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and was grief-stricken by the young actor’s death. He considered Dean the finest actor he ever worked with.

Hopper appeared in mostly westerns until his breakout hit Easy Rider (1969) which he starred in and co-wrote with Peter Fonda and author Terry Southern. Some of his most memorable performances included his work on Apocalypse Now (1979), Out of the Blue (1980), True Romance (1993), and Speed (1994). He was apparently offered the role of Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs (1992), but was unable to commit so the part went to Steve Buscemi.

Director Paul Mazursky appears as Frank in this episode.

This episode is a great example of a writer becoming so intoxicated with the importance of his message that he casts aside subtlety in favor of bludgeoning the viewer with his lesson. Yes, yes, nazis are bad. What else ya got? The fact that this neo-nazi has developed a mutual friendship with a Jewish survivor of WWII is propsterous and borderline offensive. Meanwhile the “surprise” reveal of Hitler is absolutely ludicrous. As another reviewer pointed out, he looked like some schlub dressing up as Hitler up for a costume party. Also, that German accent was pretty atrocious. At the begining, it sounded vaguely Spanish! Overall, kind of embarrassing.

The post September 28, 2024: The Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 4, episodes 1-4! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.