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By all means "butt in"!!! LOL We can use the company.
As gbennett says, I'm still here. I keep checking in, hoping for new posts and discussions. I'm sure the IMDB site wasn't built in a day either! It takes time.
I found IMDB when I was looking up some movie trivia. When I saw that it had message boards I was so excited. I thought, "How long has THIS been going on??"
Over the years I saw posts from people who also found the site. Some people were just lurking and decided to chime in. Hopefully there are lurkers here who will become inspired to join in the discussions and post. I haven't given up hope.
Strannger- if you can't think of anything, just ask anyway! lol The diehard fans of Bewitched love to answer any and all questions, start new topics, whatever. We just have to do our part to keep this site going.
Just a little FYI, the character's name was Bob, not Walt. lol I thought some of the posts were referring to a different episode. But then I remembered that the character was named Bob.
Almost all the moments in that episode are WTF! The kitchen in the house they woke up in was all fake. The "food" in the refrigerator is fake. But first, imagine the bathroom "plumbing"!! In those days toilets were not shown or even alluded to on TV. But I think Bob and Millie would have to "go" when they woke up. I imagine Bob saying something like, "Hey Millie, this toilet doesn't flush!!"
They saw the little squirrel on the tree which turned out to be a stuffed animal. The "grass" caught on fire. Everything in that "town" was totally weird.
Well that's a very interesting and insightful look at Rod Serling, the writer! He did set up the characters. So many of the TZ stories were the set up and the shock or twist ending.
He tended to focus on a character's one trait and it was usually a negative trait, i.e., greed, vanity, anger, selfishness. Then the person got his comeuppance. I thought he did quite well in the confines of thirty minutes, minus five minutes for commercials. A half hour program just doesn't allow for a deep exploration of a character.
I wouldn't exactly say that his artistry was "limited", but he was limited to the confines of thirty minute TV episodes. Have you ever seen some of his other work such as Requiem for a Heavyweight or Patterns? When he had the time, he wrote a great story. Rod Serling also had to deal with the censors and the sponsors. In one interview he said that he had to change the dialogue of a character who was "fording" a stream because the sponsor was a different car company (maybe Chevrolet). lol
A lot of TZ episodes were stories adapted from other writers and the directors had a hand in creating a visual story. After all, TV IS a visual medium. There is a visual shorthand for the audience to see the story in pictures.
I have "The Twilight Zone Companion" which examines each episode. The author of the screenplay for The Howling Man, Charles Beaumont, just wanted to show a cloven hoof at the end. But the director, Douglas Heyes, wanted a more dramatic visual, basically the character walking down the long corridor and as he passed each pillar he began to look more satanic. The final look was considered too melodramatic or campy. But when I was a little kid, it scared the spit out of me! lol
They achieved a much more subtle look with simple lighting as the prisoner is freed from his cell. He looks benevolent, but with the tiny shift of lighting, he looks evil.
The episode ended on a campy note. But I consider what has been said about Satan. His greatest weapon is that people do NOT believe that he exists. People look right in the face of evil and don't recognize him or they are seduced by his lies. The episode sets up the idea that the prisoner was just an innocent man held captive by a religious fanatic.
I grant you, it wasn't an in depth look at the subject. But it WAS television after all. My dad used to say that TV was written for "the lowest common denominator." Mass produced entertainment can't get too cerebral or it loses at least half of its audience, I'd say! lol
Again, I enjoyed your post, not trying to start an argument. I just think Rod Serling knew his audience and the medium he was writing for. Granted, a lot of his characters were one note. There just wasn't time for deep character study in a thirty minute format. Sometimes he took shortcuts to get to the big twist at the end.
Love that song! Eddie's no great singer, but that was a fun, catchy tune!! When I hear it I jump up and start dancing (and I'm NO dancer).
I was so mad when they broke up Rhoda and Joe! Sure, David Groh did not have the comedic skills of the other actors. He was usually playing the straight man to Rhoda's neuroses and that was enough. But they seemed to love each other.
I think the writers just invested a whole lot in the WEDDING episode and then neglected to write for a marriage. If Ricky Ricardo could put up with Lucy's craziness all those years, Joe could've stuck it out with Rhoda.
It was just very lazy writing I think.
Thinking about this some more. I think the marriage was doomed from the start. Rhoda fell in love with Joe so quickly and she wanted to be married RIGHT AWAY.
Joe was divorced and wanted to take things slowly. But Rhoda pressed him for a commitment. She basically issued him an ultimatum. As we saw in the episode with Joe's ex, Rhoda was the opposite of Marion. So he thought, " Well maybe this time it will work. A very different woman will mean a very different marriage."
I've known several people who jump into another marriage without coming to terms with what went wrong with their LAST marriage.
Gold? No she was platinum!!
I recently watched a few episodes which featured a lot of Ida and Nancy Walker had me in stitches the whole time.
The one episode is Rhoda finally meeting Joe's ex Marian. Ida begged her not to go. "I once met your father's old girlfriend. She was a dog. Totally ruined my respect for his taste in women." lol
The other episode is when Ida has a crush on her doctor and wants Rhoda and Brenda to talk her out of seeing him. Just too funny for words. Nancy Walker never seemed to say lines that were supposed to be "funny". It was her deadpan delivery that was so funny. We really have lost a comedy gem. She was hilarious.
"My name's Talky Tina and you better be nice to me!" I'd be pretty scared if I heard THAT coming out of a doll! lol
I'm sure this was a nod to a popular doll of the time, Chatty Cathy. I had one of those but she had no homicidal tendencies.
I think the Talky Tina episode could be taken in two ways. First, a total supernatural creepy episode with an angry doll who had real powers.
The other possibility is that Eric was a bit unhinged. He indicated that he and his wife couldn't have children. Since she had a daughter, it was probably an infertility problem on his part. Christie was his stepdaughter. She called him "daddy" and seemed to love him, but Eric was so resentful and bitter about not having a biological child, that he lost his mind. He "heard" the things that Tina said because of his own unresolved guilt over his cruel behavior towards Christie. He may have put the doll on the stairs without realizing it. Later he "tripped" over it and fell to his death because of his guilt over the way he treated Christie. Either that or Christie put the doll there in the hope that stepdad would trip over it!
Interesting that the names Christie and Tina are both nicknames for Christine. I sometimes think that Tina was Christie's alter ego and in her teen-age years she would no longer have put up with her stepfather's abusive behavior. She would have done something bad to him. But this way, the doll took care of her problem for her.
We never missed this show at our house. But clearly, lightning did not strike twice!
His co-workers were just not up to the same level as Buddy and Sally. They were good characters but they just suffered in comparison to perfection.
Hope Lange also did not have the same chemistry with Dick van Dyke as Mary Tyler Moore. She had way more chemistry with the ghost of the sea Captain in 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'.
The show might have done better if they had not tried to clone the original Dick van Dyke show. It wasn't bad. It was just an imitation of the original.
Lucy's friendships is an interesting topic to me. She obviously had a wide circle of friends but Ethel was her one true, closest friend.
For one thing Ethel was not in competition with her like Carolyn Appleby was. I often saw Lucy and Carolyn as "frenemies". I heard that term a few years ago and I think it indicates people who are friends but very competitive. As you said, extremely competitive! And when they became mothers at the same time, even more competitive!
I am referring to "Baby Pictures" when Lucy just had to drop by and see Carolyn with little Ricky and they engaged in insulting each other's babies. Both babies were awfully cute! There was no need for either mother to act so silly. But as usual, Lucy started it!
Lucy did have a lot of girlfriends though. In the episode when Ricky is waiting to hear from Hollywood, he kept telling her friends that Lucy wasn't home so they wouldn't tie up the telephone. Later on Ethel is babysitting and has a pile of messages from friends who call Lucy.
I especially like when she explained that Ricky wanted the phone lines open because Lucy can be on the phone with "one of her gabbier friends like Carolyn" for hours and it WAS Carolyn she was speaking to! lol
Now that I think about it, Lucy never enlisted any of her friends in her wild schemes. It was always the long suffering Ethel!
Of course it was only a thirty minute show. They couldn't show all of Lucy's friendships. Like on the old Dick van Dyke Show, Carl Reiner said that they couldn't write for too many characters. Buddy's wife Pickles was in a few episodes. But usually he was at the Petrie house for dinner or parties without her. Unusual for a married man to go so many places without his wife all the time, but that's the nature of the sitcom.
Lucy seemed to have a lot of girlfriends but we rarely saw them. She usually spoke to them on the phone or they were at the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League meetings.
That's a tough one. I wouldn't want either as a relative! lol
Uncle Simon though, seemed unnecessarily cruel to his niece, played by the wonderful Constance Ford. She may have taken care of him and stayed for the inheritance , but really, with his personality, who ELSE could stand him? lol He was lucky that she lived with him and took care of him.
I never saw Jason Foster as being cruel for the sake of cruelty. He had a totally self centered, nasty, greedy family. He only told the truth about them. They rushed down to see him on his supposed deathbed just to get their inheritance. It's not as if they even made the slightest attempt to care for him over the years. They were just like he described them. The husband was greedy and selfish, the mom was a pathetic hypochondriac and self pitying "martyr", the daughter was vain and self absorbed and the son was a sadistic, oafish bully.
It's not insulting when you speak the truth!
Typical "thoughtful" leftie response. No, I don't want "this board", my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see the latest Trump slurs from this crowd. I actually never watch The (demented) View anyway.
But the crowd, alas(!) has dispersed because, I suspect, they got bored with agreeing with each other.
Hope you're having fun elsewhere too!!!
That's a good one!
My favorite is when Mr. Chambers is boarding the Kanamit space ship and his assistant runs up and shouts, "To Serve Man, it's a cookbook!"
It makes no sense that humans could interpret an alien language as if were a code, but still, one of the scariest WTF endings!
Runner-up- Nan Adams calling home only to find out that she had died in a car accident. "I believe you are going MY way?"
I liked the actress who played her, but Marla McGivers was totally unprofessional and needed a good court martialing! She was so unbelievbly disloyal to her Captain and ship. How did she ever qualify for Starfleet when she was such a weak willed ninny who abandoned her duties in favor of hormones? lol
Well if she was court-martialed she would've been alive in a Federation prison somewhere instead of dying on that planet. But maybe she did get what she deserved.
Oh yes, the Lucy theme sung by Ricky was so nice. As Desi Arnaz said, "I Love Lucy was never just a title."
Didn't mean to imply that I actually liked the "Friends of the Friendless" song. lol It's just one of those oddball tunes that gets stuck in my head sometimes. It's happened with other songs too, even commercial jingles.
Caroline Appleby, not in attendance? I'd like to think that Ricky invited her but that she had accepted a previous engagement like Charlie had a business dinner to attend. I was just watching "Sentimental Anniversary" and neither she nor Marion Strong were invited by the Mertzes. They weren't present when the Ricardos had a party after they returned from Hollywood.
It always seemed strange to me that the two women were established as Lucy's friends but they didn't get invited to social functions. I guess they weren't "extras" as you said. They weren't going to be in attendance just to stand in the background.
Well that's interesting, thanks for the quick reply. Why do you say though, that God does not give "free will"? Would you rather that you have NO will?
"Most Gods?" There is only ONE! LOL
I don't see myself as a sycophant when I worship God and thank Him for all He has given me. No one knows for sure where they or anyone else will go in the afterlife. Only God knows what is in the heart of a person. If someone lacks faith but they are trying to live a good life without worshipping a Supreme Being, only God knows what they feel. You mistake God for a lot of organized religions who pass judgement on people based on how they "keep the rules."
Anthony Fremont did NOT create life, so it was not up to him to pass judgement on people. Are you saying that the God of the Universe has no right to judge His creation? Of course if you are approaching this topic from a secular, atheist or agnostic view, I suppose you would say that.
For myself, I worship God, I sin, I mess up, but I know God always gives me another chance. Anthony Fremont offered no redemption. He was just an immature little boy, wanting his own way, drunk with a power which he did not understand.
Seriously? I don't get the question. Or are you just joking?
If you'd explain what you mean, I'd happily discuss it.
Little Anthony was a child who had NO wisdom or compassion, just a lot of power which he wielded to satisfy himself. He allowed no one to practice their free will, he just punished everyone who displeased him, which was just about everyone.
So what's wrong with being "born out of wedlock"? Does the left even recognize that as an actual negative condition these days? The majority of black babies and almost half of white and Hispanic babies are born that way today, thanks to the welfare policies of the left. I'd say that Donald Trump was just bucking the popular trend!
The "low reading comprehension" of the average American is mostly due to the government run education system. Don't knock it. LOL The average Washington politician owes his success to the ignorance of the American voter.
Oh, no problem, and no mistake. It's not as if everyone announces their gender in their posts! lol On the IMDB site, I exchanged posts with people for a long time and wasn't sure of their gender.
Yeah it really is pretty bad! I haven't even thought of that episode in a long time. And even though I have all six seasons, I never go out of my way to watch that one.
It is too maudlin and childish, a grown woman so upset about a forgotten birthday.
Ricky, in his own clumsy way, thought he had come up with a great surprise, only to have Lucy depressed for her entire birthday.
The only bright spot for me is the "Friends of the Friendless" band. It is such a goofy song, but I admit I sometimes sing it when I am doing stuff around the house, "We are friends of the friendless, yes we are, yes we are..." lol Such a silly song, but I sometimes sing it.
Lucy, on the other hand, should have known better. She certainly wasn't friendless. Sh had a loving husband and friends. I think it was just the type of silly sitcom antics which were acceptable in that era. Today, not so much!
Okay keelai, thanks for the post. I am trying to be nicer to liberals here than I was on the old IMDB board. Trying to turn over a new leaf. So I'll keep it civil. I hope! lol Okay, I'll use lesbian from now on and not lesbo. But I hardly see the difference when gays are so proud that they march in parades, wearing clown make-up, sometimes dressed as nuns, shoving their lifestyle down everyone else's throats. But I really do NOT have a problem with gays. I have gay relatives (who doesn't).
I confess to making the lesbo remarks just to rile up the straight left wingers who go bananas over "intolerance". They seem to tolerate only those who agree with them,namely NOT conservaties.
Feminists sure helped push for legal rights for women. I really DO know that. I was watching an old Honeymooners episode where Ralph was laid off from the bus company and Alice took a job in an office in the meantime. She had to tell her boss that she was single because it was "office policy" not to hire married women. Yes I do know these things. I am not taking legal rights for granted. My objection to today's "all inclusive" feminism comes from feminists totally disregarding women like Condoleeza Rice, Sarah Palin, Kellyanne Conway, etc, etc, because they are on the wrong side of the political aisle. It's no longer about women , it's about Leftwing women. And heaven forbid if you are a pro-life woman, or anti- abortion ...whatever you want to call it. Today's feminists disregard conservative women and want to emasculate men. According to their "openmindedness" you either agree with what they say or you are the enemy.
Boob? YOU used the term first! So what's with the "closeted lesbian" remark? A slur? An insult? Why insult me for being a "secret" lesbian if homosexuality is so normal and wonderful!! You lefties speak out of both sides of your mouths, ya know that? No not closeted, more like Elaine on a Seinfeld episode. She was the "best man" at a lesbian wedding. "I'm not a lesbian. I hate men, but I'm not a lesbian!!" Me? Just divorced and happily leading a man-free, romance free life. I have found other, more important things to focus on in middle age (if you need to know!).
"Crying" about celebs and jocks making millions? You think some of today's movie stars make millions from their "brains"??? LOL
Seriously? I pointed out a fact and you think I am sobbing! You totally missed my point there! Again, money is earned ,not redistributed, unless of course you want to take into account our welfare system which pays teen-agers to have babies out of wedlock and pays illegals to cross the border and collect benefits.
"Republicans redistribute money from the middle class to the rich". Well you MUST be enrolled in a liberal dumbass college, taking liberal dumbass courses from liberal dumbass professors who teach liberal dumbass nonsense.
Interesting that you call books by Drs. Sowell and Williams "right wing propaganda". Have you read any of their writings or was that just a typical kneejerk, leftwing response? I would suggest that you start small and just read some of their articles and essays on line. Go to Jewish World Review and read some of what they have to say before labeling them "right wing". Dr Sowell in particular was no fan of Donald Trump. Doesn't like him and didn't want him to be President. Both men are way more libertarian than conservative in their philosophies.
Curious that you cite a book about "how to make money" in the stock market. I remember Bill and Hillary excoriating the "greedy Reagan eighties" when people were so gauche, greedy and ill-mannered as to WANT to make money! LOL Yeah, as if they didn't make millions themselves. Hillary just had a lot of "luck" with those cattle futures. ha ha I have no problem at all with making money. It is the government propensity for TAKING money from people who have earned it and GIVING it to those who haven't that I find troubling.
And of course, it's NOT FREE STUFF. That is the point that conservatives have been trying to hammer home to the lefties, without results. Nothing is free. It may be FREE to the recipient, but someone else is paying for it. No kidding. I don't disagree wih you on that.
"I settle for so little in life that it is sad"???? Because I don't expect Big Daddy government to support me?? That's sad? Because I expect to pay my own way and not rely on a bunch of Washington politicians to support me, it's sad? Because I'd rather rely on MYSELF and not Santa Claus in Washington to support me, that's sad?
What did YOU expect from a Hillary Presidency? Free birth control, like Sandra Fluck? Free abortions? Food stamps, free health care? Hillary was all for telling the gullible that she'd provide their heart's desire. Click those ruby slippers together Dorothy. You' ll get what you want. And I AM sad? Seriously , get a clue!! lol
What's sad is that you have bought into the socialist crap that is ruining our country!!
Okay so now Pres. Trump is evil cos David Duke likes him. Why does the left barf up the totally irrelevant David Duke every few years? Does anyone have control over who supports them anyway? Did the left go apesh#t when Reverend Jeremiah Wright said "g##damn America" and Obama sat for it and sat in his church for twenty years?? Was the former President responsible for his pastor's beliefs?
And please don't try to give off that phony narrative about your "hopes" for a Trump presidency. Like most lefties, I really think you hoped he would go down in flames and explode. No need to be insincere.