Twilight Zone 1.2 One for the Angels
The one where a street vendor (Ed Wynn) tries to talk Death (Murray Hamilton) out of taking him at midnight. What rating would you give this?
shareProbably a 6 or a 7. Wynn and Hamilton have a nice rapport. Doesn't seem to hit its stride until the little girl's life hangs in the balance. Wynn's willingness to sacrifice himself for Maggie is touching. Serling's outro resonates.
shareI was struck by how much times have changed such that an older man is no longer able to befriend a young neighborhood child for fear of being labeled a pervert. I wonder if Spielberg remembered Hamilton's role and cast him as the evil mayor because of this part. It wasn't much of a story but it was cool to see the life of a pitchman... I guess you still might find one in a place like Venice beach but for the most part nowadays you'd just go to a thrift shop, swap meet or 99 cent store for those things.
share If this were set in modern times Lou Bookman, sadly, would probably find himself sitting across from Chris Hansen at some point.
How would you rate "One For The Angels" and "Where is Everybody"?
I intend to watch more episodes before I put my own ratings... I decided to watch the shows in order as I've only watched them randomly before. What will be hard when choosing the rating will be to put myself in 1959 before all the twist endings that may have been inspired by shows such as the Twilight Zone were all recycled.
shareThankfully, the best episodes have more to offer than just twist endings. I knew how both "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "Eye of the Beholder" ended and still adored them.
shareWell after watching so many films like The Others, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, etc. It's hard to feel the impact of "Where Is Everybody?" in the way a 1959 first time viewer would've seen it. If you judge it in the context of 2017, you might get a meh reaction, similar to what some were saying about Psycho recently. So my intention is to watch the episodes and rate them against each other or other shows from its era... that would be a more fair rating. But I like old films so I do appreciate more than twist endings.
share "The Matrix" was a "Twilght Zone" episode that unfortunately someone saw fit to fatten up into a feature-length film. Ditto "The Others" and "The Sixth Sense"
What's cool about "The Twilight Zone" is that it takes feature-length stories and shortens them to twenty-five minutes, without compromising their themes (in some cases, despite briefer running times, deepening them).
So, it's fun seeing stories you're familiar with get "The Twilight Zone" treatment. Serling and his fellow scribes were masters at packing a great deal into a finite amount of time.
Oh, I don't mind longer stories... I love the Black Mirror episodes and the new Westworld reboot. But I can also admire how Serling was able to pack so much power into such a tight format.
share I need to watch "Westworld." Nathanael Booth tweeted once that "In His Image," a season four episode of the "Zone", was "like a better version of the best parts of 'Westworld.'"
"Black Mirror" is great. "White Christmas" was overstuffed though. It should have just focused on that woman not realizing she was a 'cookie.' That's the part of the episode that struck a chord the most. An episode of the "Zone" called "A World of Difference" deals with a theme not dissimilar to this one.
I love the show so I didn't mind the longer episode... I always enjoyed the Downton Abbey Christmas specials as well. White Christmas along with San Junipero are the highest rated episodes btw.
shareI agree with the consensus on "San Junipero." Not so much "White Christmas."
shareThe cookie story by itself has been covered from stories like Her, AI, Ex Machina, Blade Runner... what it means to have human thought vs artificial intelligence... but the extra layer of extracting a confession from someone's cookie was an new level of complexity I thought.
shareI agree that wrinkle relieves it of any "been-there-done-that" stigma.
What episode of "Black Mirror" do you like the most? How about least?
First series "The Entire History of You"
Second series the Christmas Special
Third series "Shut Up and Dance"
Least maybe "Nosedive" thought it went ridiculously over the top by the end although the concept was great... but I like them all in some way.
One For The Angels, which less than sixty years old, is already a period piece for many reasons already mentioned on this thread. It plays almost like an O. Henry story now, and is maybe best appreciated in the spirit rather than the "dreadful" dated. Yes, it's old-fashioned. It's also very sweet.
Where Is Everybody? has really grown on me. It was the premiere episode of the first season, was the only Zone not filmed on the MGM back lot (it was Universal instead). Earl Holliman's very good as the man with (literally) no name and the nightmarish feeling is nicely conveyed. It still feels fresh. I can see why it sold the show back in the day.
Wow, I'm impressed with the knowledge you all have about each episode... did Universal decline the pilot and then it ended up with MGM? I think it was a CBS show so I'm not sure of the studio/network relationships back then.
shareThanks, Sentient. I don't think the back lot issue was as crucial as it might seem. More likely Where Is Everybody? was filmed much earlier than the other first season eps, as I believe it was, maybe even by a year, and Rod Serling's Cayuga company in conjunction with CBS were able to utilize the Uni back lot.
By the time the series got the green light Serling and CBS had struck a deal with MGM. I doubt that Uni declined. The show was, I believe, a joint product of Serling and the network,, thus no matter where it was filmed the rights (reruns, etc.) would revert to the show's owner (or owners), not the studio whose back lot was used for the series. That's my understanding anyway.
I appreciate your response, am hoping this and other boards here will "get a life" and actually start breathing.
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I would guess it might a function of the subject matter as well, I think there are Asian serials where women go on guided tours of the locations. I think there was a similar passion for Sex and the City as well when it was popular. But you are probably right that men focus more on the puzzles while women might examine the body language and psychological reactions of the characters.
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cool story about the old men, you should ask them to explain more about that if you get to be friends with them.
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