October 19, 2024: The Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 5-8! Plus our 13 Days of Halloween countdown begins with Longlegs!

October 18, 2024: The Friday Report! October 19, 2024: Sharky Sunday! Plus...

October 19, 2024: The Twilight Zone rewatch continues with season 5, episodes 5-8! Plus our 13 Days of Halloween countdown begins with Longlegs!

Season 5, Episode 5, “Last Night of a Jockey”

This episode first aired October 25, 1963.

This episode features the smallest cast of any episode of The Twilight Zone.

Rod Serling wrote this script for actor Mickey Rooney who happened to be a friend. Said Serling: “I thought of Rooney, and then I tailored the story to fit him. (-) This is a brilliant actor. He is just great.”

The racing commission lawyer Grady speaks to over the phone is referred to as Mr. Newman. Joseph M. Newman was the director of this episode.

Three separate but more or less identical sets were created for this episode that was shot on Stage 19 at MGM.

Alas, season 5’s strong start stumbles in an episode that ultimately feels like a less interesting version of “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room”. Rooney is a little too over-the-top while Sterling’s script doesn’t really do him any favors.

Season 5, Episode 6, “Living Doll”

This episode first aired November 1, 1963.

June Foray, who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, provided the voice of the “Talky Tina” doll. She was also the voice of Mattel’s “Chatty Cathy” doll, upon which “Talky Tina” was based. The doll itself was not custom-made but actually an existing doll, Brikette, made by the Vogue Doll Company.

According to The Twilight Zone Companion, this episode was written in one day by Jerry Sohl, even though credit was given entirely to Charles Beaumont. Sohl recalled: “I think Chuck Beaumont and I were walking along and saying “Suppose we had a doll that talked, and could answer our questions and reprimand us. Just think of all the things that doll could do!” Not anything animal or carnal, but in speaking. So we got on that track. It was no problem at all, once we had worked out the idea. A couple of months passed, and I said “Gee, it’s about time that I did Living doll” because Beaumont was in no condition to do it. I usually wrote most of Beaumont’s stuff at that stage of the game. He had some kind of illness. It was a good project and I really enjoyed it. I thought it turned out very well.”

The house set was later reused in Ring-A-Ding Girl (1963).

This episode inspired The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror segment “Clown without Pity”.

Actor Telly Savalas, who played dear dad in this episode, is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Kojak. His character was always sucking on a lollipop because Savalas used it as a trick to quit smoking.

Savalas was originally cast in the title role of Cool Hand Luke (1967) but ended up relinquishing the role to Paul Newman due to a scheduling conflict. Interestingly enough, Savalas wasn’t the first choice to play Kojak. Marlon Brando was offered the role but turned it down.

This was an absolute killer episode and presently ties “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” forgets of this season. Top-notch performances and a delightfully creepy script by Jerry Sohl. I wondered how dark they would go and, boy, they went there.

Season 5, Episode 7, “The Old Man in the Cave”

This episode first aired November 8, 1963.

This episode was based on the short story, “The Old Man”, by Henry Slesar. Even though it was copyrighted in 1962, the story went unpublished until 1980.

The main character in this episode is named Goldsmith, after Jerry Goldsmith (father of Stargate composer Joel Goldsmith) who was one of the show’s composers.

This episode marked actor John Aderson’s fourth and final appearance on The Twilight Zone.

This one wasn’t bad and was helped by a terrific twist (the computer reveal) and the downbeat ending (the entire community pays the price for their rebellion). I thought it would have benefited with a little more insight into why the community members had decided to rebel given the old man’s suggestions had borne out correctly to date. Also didn’t really understand why the people were so outraged that they felt compelled to destroy the computer. And speaking of the computer, how the hell did it get up in that cave? It didn’t look very portable.

Season 5, Episode 8, “Uncle Simon”

This episode first aired November 15, 1963.

A slightly altered version of Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot makes an appearance in this episode. Robby was the most expensive prop built for the 1956 movie with a price tag of $125 000.

The entry hall and living room sets in this episode were previously used in season 4’s “Miniature”.

The entirety of the episode was shot on MGM’s Stage 18.

Actor Vic Perrins provides the voice of the robot.

Sponsor American Tobacco vetted the script and complained about Barbara’s line “Get rid of your ugly smelling pipe ashes”. They also objected to the scene in which Barbara sweeps the pipes and ashtray off Uncle Simon’s desk before angrily stamping on them. Serling noted the requests but made no changes to the script.

Boy, this one was a weird one. Uncle Simon was an outright asshole and I suppose as the episode progresses, you’re supposed to dislike Barbara as well and feel her comeuppance is well-deserved, but I simply felt sorry for her throughout. All the same, I did find it an enjoyable enough episode despite its inherent silliness.

Meanwhile, our 13 Days of Halloween countdown begins with…Longlegs.

The narrative pieces don’t fully come together in a heavily telegraphed ending that fails to deliver in either surprising or fully satisfying fashion but, boy oh boy, does Nic Cage deliver one hell of an unnervingly weird performance as the titular character.

3.5/5 Pumpkins

What did you all think?

Here’s the rest of the viewing schedule:

Saturday, October 19: Trap

Sunday, October 20: Stopmotion

Monday, October 21: I Saw the TV Glow

Tuesday, October 22: Cuckoo

Wednesday, October 23: Exhuma

Thursday, October 24: Strange Darling

Friday, October 25: Oddity

Saturday, October 26: The First Omen

Sunday, October 27: In Violent Nature