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 Posted:   Aug 22, 2020 - 7:24 PM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

Looking forward to once again watching the Burgess Meredith-as-the-devil episode next week. Meredith, along with Jack Klugman and Albert Salmi, is one of the Zone's most frequent performers.

I'm not surprised that these S4 shows rarely aired in syndication, but they have proven to be rewarding to this sophisticated viewer.

I'll be sure to punish anyone reading this thread with my top 5 S4 episodes once I've rewatched all of them.

 
 Posted:   Aug 22, 2020 - 7:34 PM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

I only see this three segments as classic ones:
“On Thursday We Leave For Home”
“Valley Of The Shadow”
“The Parallel”

But I enjoy:
“In His Image”
“The New Exhibit”
“Miniature”
“Mute”
“Printer’s Devil”
“No Time Like The Past”


In His Image appears to be a favorite. I liked it well enough, but thought it a less-than-ideal choice to open the season. I suppose I liked Death Ship more than the average FSMer.

Miniature is my favorite of the season so far; a fine cast and all deliver superb performances.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 22, 2020 - 8:05 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Oh here I go again playing the elder statesman. Yeesh. ANYWAY, I saw just about all of the hour longers when they originally aired and tomorrow during a rare family Zoom will ask m'sister over in the UK if "Cliffordville" rings a bell. Can still see her imitate Albert Salmi when she was a teenager and it cracked me up every time she said Cliffordville. LOL!

It never ceases to amaze how great an impression TZ made on me as a kid. It was the first thing I mentioned to Goldsmith that started a string of thank-yous during the whole weekend.

Oh and it doesn't get any better in Season 4 than when James Whitmore recites his monologue with that wonderful tracked in stock cue underneath the close-up.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 23, 2020 - 12:26 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

HA, she remembered!

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 23, 2020 - 1:50 PM   
 By:   ZardozSpeaks   (Member)

HA, she remembered!

A fond recollection, no doubt.

Interesting how certain things leave an 'imprint' in a young mind.

How did 8-year-old Howard L's brain process the stimulus of Julie Newmar's physique and/or the notion of a female devil? smile

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 23, 2020 - 3:45 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Oh you mean Stupefyin' Jones? How about seeing her when I was like 4 or 5 in that one?! At the movies! Li'l Abner himself a/k/a Peter Palmer was our next-door neighbor. Some of the stage cast showed up for cook-outs on the weekend. Don't know if Miss Julie attended but Stubby Kaye did. Most of them ended up in the movie.

PS


big grin

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 23, 2020 - 6:34 PM   
 By:   ZardozSpeaks   (Member)

Wow! Howard L had a charmed childhood from where I sit.

 
 Posted:   Aug 24, 2020 - 4:34 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

I thought if a Boomer remembered the 1960s that means they weren't there, or in Philadelphia, which is nowhere, man.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 24, 2020 - 7:52 AM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Didn't John Adams say that somewhere? big grin

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 28, 2020 - 4:17 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Ok so Serling thought the 30-minute format was ideal and the 60-minute undesirable. Didn't matter to me, it's TZ and that's what mattered. I'm prejudiced and cannot be objective; as far as I'm concerned there was not one clunker the whole route. Including "Cavender" even with the annoying laugh track.

That being said, there are nothing but fond memories of the hour longies. Have never, ever forgotten George "Alan Talbot" Grizzard in the first one. And his lady friend's offer to fix him some eggs at the end.

See, that's the thing: You see them in real time as a youngster and there's always something that sticks. Howard Morris in the genie one. The old folks and the lady who said they decided the young folks didn't have to die on the Lady Anne. Ed Rossi taking a shovel and smashing an invisible barrier in the one where he couldn't leave town. The guy with the beard & hatchet ready to take down Martin Balsam's bro-in-law. And oh the knocking in the submarine and the payoff at the end. I didn't know Dennis Hopper but I sure knew the guy telling him what to do at the end of that one, too.

This is just a sampling. I only saw a few reruns maybe a couple decades ago when WGN in Chicago aired them late on Saturday nights(?). But the memories have endured. Give me a few more moments and I'll show ya. eeksmile

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 28, 2020 - 5:44 PM   
 By:   LoungeLaura   (Member)

Looking forward to once again watching the Burgess Meredith-as-the-devil episode next week. Meredith, along with Jack Klugman and Albert Salmi, is one of the Zone's most frequent performers.

I'm not surprised that these S4 shows rarely aired in syndication, but they have proven to be rewarding to this sophisticated viewer.

I'll be sure to punish anyone reading this thread with my top 5 S4 episodes once I've rewatched all of them.


Which channel, app, whatevs is showing this. I'm sorry to respectfully say I do not like the hour-long episodes but I will defend your right to enjoy them!

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 29, 2020 - 5:49 AM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Ah, "Printer's Devil"! The headlines, the presses...and a vague picture of someone drowning in an overturned fishing boat or the like?

 
 Posted:   Aug 29, 2020 - 5:20 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

I went through all of Season 4 a couple months ago. It demonstrated why the hour-long format doesn't work well for TZ much as I also felt "Outer Limits" tended to come off as more pretentious and bloated at an hour.

The best episodes, clearly "On Thursday We Leave For Home", "Jess-Belle" and "Death Ship" and honorable mention for "Printer's Devil". They worked fine in the hour-long format, and I'll also give a nod to "The Bard" which I enjoy for Burt Reynolds' hilarious Brando sendup and that line, "What's my tertiary motivation?"

OTOH, there are a lot of episodes that seem tedious and drawn out. "Thirty Fathom Grave". "No Time Like The Past". "Passage On The Lady Anne" (an episode that really just goes nowhere in more ways than one!). "In His Image" is a strong episode that works at an hour but the problem is that it shouldn't have had its shock opening, which took me out of the storyline for the next half hour leading up to the big reveal.

"Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" didn't land with me. It was too ridiculous for me to believe that Salmi would have forgotten that he had to wait 25 years for the oil land to pay off (did he forget how he became successful in his early years?) but I really had a problem with the "role reversal" ending with Hecate, because first off, you've got Hecate being turned into a "bad guy" against his will basically. If he were a rich guy with a good attitude that would be different.

 
 Posted:   Aug 30, 2020 - 4:25 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

"Printer's Devil" is another near masterpiece, even though Burgess Meredith exhibits some of the traits reminiscent of his future role as "Penguin." He's such a charming rogue. 9/10

"No Time Like the Past" Rod Serling writing in his bitter, resentful-of-mankind mode again, but Dana Andrews--one of THE great underrated performers imo--channels dour Rod's sour notes wonderfully, with the sadness of a great lament for our failed species. It's Fred Derry, nearly 20 years after his "Best Years." 8/10

 
 Posted:   Aug 30, 2020 - 10:08 AM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

"No Time" would have benefited from a short running time. The opening scenes of Hiroshima etc. are just needless filler and he's not very bright if he thinks he can make an impact on such short notice.

Interesting how the very next episode, "The Parallel" starred Andrews brother Steve Forrest.

 
 
 Posted:   Aug 30, 2020 - 4:36 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

"No Time Like the Past" Rod Serling writing in his bitter, resentful-of-mankind mode again, but Dana Andrews--one of THE great underrated performers imo--channels dour Rod's sour notes wonderfully, with the sadness of a great lament for our failed species. It's Fred Derry, nearly 20 years after his "Best Years." 8/10

You...have...read...my...mind.
This is one I have never forgotten. Would like to see it again right now. The brief shot (ha!) of Hitler in the crosshairs spooked me as a kid. Have always enjoyed the time travel ones.

 
 Posted:   Sep 4, 2020 - 8:38 AM   
 By:   Jim Phelps   (Member)

Tonight's episodes will be "The Parallel", which I cannot recall too well, and the dreaded "I Dream of Genie." Hopefully, "Genie" will wear a little better for this next viewing.

 
 Posted:   Sep 4, 2020 - 9:21 AM   
 By:   David Sones (Allardyce)   (Member)

I absolutely love The New Exhibit and always have. An underrated gem IMO.

Regarding Death Ship which seems to be a fan fav of season 4, I appreciate the concept but what distracts me from appreciating it more is the horrendous performance by one of the crewmen, I believe Fred Behr was his name. I remember listening to a commentary praising his work, and I was sitting there dumbfounded because I think even by 1963 standards, his performance is one of the worst I’ve ever seen. He never stops over emoting and mugging and it drives me nuts! Even when I don’t look at him I can sense his ridiculous facial expressions that are so not on the same level as the rest of the cast.

 
 Posted:   Sep 4, 2020 - 6:48 PM   
 By:   Eric Paddon   (Member)

Tonight's episodes will be "The Parallel", which I cannot recall too well, and the dreaded "I Dream of Genie." Hopefully, "Genie" will wear a little better for this next viewing.

The problem I had with "Genie" is that you couldn't build a half hour with Howard Morris as your lead, let alone an hour. He's just not an appropriate "star" for an episode in contrast to having say, Shelley Berman do a TZ.

"New Exhibit" to me has a simple flaw that it can't overcome. We see the wax figures commit the murders so the "twist" makes no sense whatsoever.

 
 
 Posted:   Sep 4, 2020 - 7:05 PM   
 By:   Howard L   (Member)

Exactly, would have been wiser of having the camera creep in on Balsam the entire sequence without any shot of the figures. But as a kid, the shock value of the ending as it was was palpable.

The one line I remember all these years from Morris--"I can have anything. Anything! --But only one wish..."

 
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