Summer Nose-talgia #33: "One Step Beyond" & Pippo the Clown! Scary!

People always get a few shows mixed up in their memories.  Lots of folks conflate episodes of Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond, Thriller and The Outer Limits, especially the first two because they were (mostly) half-hours and shared a lot of actors.

Whereas Twilight Zone had writer Rod Serling's acerbic gloomy presence looming over its introductions to the dramatic delights to come, One Step Beyond had the far more gentle John Newland -- he directed most of the episodes -- to lead us into what were very often touted as real-life stories of the supernatural.  Genre fans will also note that Newland directed the very good "Errand of Mercy" episode of Star Trek: TOS in 1967.

Despite decent syndicated exposure One Step Beyond never quite achieved the high visibility and genuine cult status of Twilight Zone, but those of us who watched both found ourselves loving quite a few of the episodes.  They were a little nuttier than Twilight Zone, often had an international flair -- not a TZ trait at all -- and then there was that frisson of authenticity that often made them genuinely spooky.

One of the most memorable episodes perfectly combined a straight-up creepy subject matter -- a clown! -- with a gritty urban sensibility which honestly could have come from the Twilight Zone.  You can understand why people think this might be a TZ except if it were it would certainly end up in "best of" marathons on holidays and would be better known.

Christopher Dark & Yvette Mimieux

Shaughnessy as Pippo

Shaughnessy as himself

From 1960,  it's called "The Clown" and stars an 18 year-old Yvette Mimieux in one of her first acting roles; her big break in The Time Machine would come later that same year.  Veteran actor Mickey Shaughnessy played the clown named Pippo, and actor Christopher Dark (a very frequent guest star on TV until his death in 1971 at the age of 51) played Yvette's hot-tempered husband.  There's a short history of clowns at the beginning of the episode, and it's interesting to note that the name Pippo is a traditional clown name used over the years by various performers (even after this episode!).  Enjoy!

Titanic at 100: The Night Gallery!

 

Though many people assume that there must have been an episode of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone about the Titanic, there never was.  One of the hour TZ episodes had Dana Andrews traveling back in time to prevent various disasters and he ended up on the Lusitania, one of history's other famous sunken ships, but the Titanic never sailed through the Twilight Zone.  However, in Serling's second series The Night Gallery he wrote an episode -- or a segment, each hour contained several stories -- entitled "The Lone Survivor" about a haunted passenger from the doomed Titanic who ends up on...the Lusitania. 

"The Lone Survivor" is John Colicos (left), the great character actor well-remembered as Klingon Commander Kor in the Star Trek TOS episode "Errand of Mercy" and from his role in classic Battlestar Galactica; his performance here is wonderful.  The equally great actor Torin Thatcher -- Star Trek TOS "Return of the Archons" (the one with Landru and the Red Hour) and the wizard in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad -- co-stars as the captain of the Lusitania. 

It's the second segment of the episode; you can forward past the first, unless you want to watch Phyllis Diller in her story, which you might.  She's always fun!



More on Titanic later today!

Happy Twilight Zone Day Today!

"The Invaders"

Though nobody seems know exactly why, today is known in some parts as Twilight Zone Day, and who are we to dispute a holiday which honors one of our favorite TV shows?  It's a show we've been watching since we were little, and even today more than fifty years later, Twilight Zone retains its class and its ability to entertain with a unique twist.  Rather than write something that you probably already know about the show, we thought we'd just offer up a selection of images from some of our favorite episodes.  With 159 to choose from that's a lot of great material, and even more tremendous performances to enjoy. 


Rod Serling intro for "Nick of Time"



"Time Enough at Last"



"The Dummy"



"The Long Morrow"



"I Sing the Body Electric"

"The Passersby"



"Miniature"




"Walking Distance"



"To Serve Man"

"People Are Alike All Over"

"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"



"The Howling Man"

"The Odyssey of Flight 33"



"Eye of the Beholder"



"Nothing in the Dark"



"It's a Good Life"



"The Hitch-Hiker"



"Living Doll"



There are several great TZone sites on the web, including The Twilight Zone Archives and My Life in the Shadow of The Twilight Zone, two of the most interesting.

Happy Twilight Zone Day, everybody!

"Twilight Zone" 4th of July Marathon on SciFi Channel Today

Before they make their silly and unwelcome name change to SyFy in the near future, you can still enjoy the SciFi Channel today as it presents its 4th of July Twilight Zone Marathon. Long a staple of the network, however they by no means invented the convention of a T Zone marathon. It was a longstanding tradition to hold Twilight Zone-athons on many of the local stations running the show back in the day.

My old station KTLA was famous for running a most excellent Thanksgiving Day festival, and on other holidays also. Twilight Zone was a particularly perfect show for a marathon -- ideal genre, well-told tales, the iconic presence of Rod Serling, complete baby-boomer cultural immersion, lots of episodes, and familiar guest stars who could be promoted. Wonderful!

We did not originate it, however; T Zone was syndicated all over, and the marathon idea sprang up on the East Coast, in Boston, I believe first, though possibly in a different market. I know that we had the show, and in my policy of always giving credit where it's due, our then-Program Director Brooke Spectorsky who had come from WSB (I think...) had done one there and brought the notion to KTLA. We ran with it and it became a beloved tradition.

And so it goes. Nothing is new in television, believe me!

(Sci Fi's marathon actually started yesterday with eps from the 1980's Twilight Zone redo series, but continues today with the originals.)

Nose-talgia Visits The Twilight Zone!

And not Twilight Zone in general, one T-Zone episode in particular is what I'd like to focus on in this Nose-talgia piece. I'm speaking of A Stop At Willoughby, in my opinion one of the best episodes of an exceptionally brilliant television series.

Who can ever forget the pure joy of staying home sick from school and being able to watch a Twilight Zone repeat in the middle of the day. You hear the frantic, almost psychotic music, followed by Rod Serling's flat, ironic, Binghamton New York monotone. "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone." Wow. One doesn't experience writing that pretty on TV anymore, unless it's HBO.

Brief digression before my Willoughby swoon to mention that fellow Blogger Lisa was part of a genius programming team that invented the Thanksgiving Day Twilight Zone Marathon on LA's indie TV station KTLA. It was to counter program the endless football games, and was an instant ratings winner.

And now for my favorite T-Zone episode, "A Stop At Willoughby", which I've seen something like two or three hundred times. It never gets old, in fact it was quite prescient for the early sixties in predicting the frantic, type A environment of the advertising and media industry that still exists today. Gart Williams is a 38 year old advertising executive who is becoming unhinged at a very rapid pace. His wife is a brass blond shrew, his boss is a spit slinging screamer and his co-workers are gargoyles. The pressure is on at work to land a new account and Gart is failing faster than he can say please pass the Alka Seltzer. In one memorable scene, that I have personally lived through dozens of times in real life (as a media ad exec), the boss bellows, "Push Push Push, Williams!!! Push Push Push". You can practically smell his hot fetid breath through the TV screen.

Every day Gart takes the train home from this nightmare work environment, but there is no rest for the weary there, because his wife is a steel edged social climbing bitch. He'd get more warmth and sympathy from the Frigidaire.

But one night Gart falls asleep on the train and when he wakes up there is a special surprise outside his window. It's Willoughby...a little town stuck in the year 1880...somewhere in The Twilight Zone. In Willoughby it is always summer, and a band plays in the park. Strangers tip their hats and kids play in the grass. Think of the hottest, thirstiest moment you have ever had. Willoughby is the glass of lemonade.

Of course, Gart is transfixed by Willoughby. Of course, when he asks the conductor about the stop, he is met with a blank stare.

One day the work, the wife, the whole mess that makes up Gart's stressed out 20th century life proves too much for him and when the train stops he strolls right off into the sunny streets of Willoughby. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've watched that scene and wanted to go along with him.

The final scene of the episode raises classic T-Zone goose bumps. The train has stopped and the conductor is standing outside in the snow with a couple of policemen. We see Gart's body being loaded into an ambulance, and when the doors to the emergency vehicle close, there is one word painted onto the exterior: "Willoughby".

Nice. I have it on DVD. Think I'll go watch it again, for the 301st time.