Ep. 3 - Mr. Denton on Doomsday (1959)

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That is exactly right. It is indeed the first Twilight Zone western. Where "death" was personified in the previous episode, "fate" would be personified as Henry J. Fate, a peddler in "everything", in this episode. Both Mr. Fate and Mr. Death seem to be as pragmatic and objective in the Twilight Zone, as any good, moral, and professional man from the 1950s. Mr. Death finalizes the paperwork for his claim (with option for appeal, of course) and Mr. Fate makes an offer that simply cannot be refused. All this begs the question...what might be behind the objective curtain? Hhmmmmm...reminds me of the blurred line between a Made Man and a Politician.



Regardless, Serling's "simple twist" of fate(s) provide an opportunity not just for redemption, but also for genuine repentance from a life of violence.

Check out the younger Martin Landau in the top frame. Outstanding performance.

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Ep. 2 - One for the Angels (1959)

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While certainly not an outstanding episode, it still provides a basic ethical dilemma that brings about significant tension, even if short lived. Interestingly, my seven year old son watched the episode with me. I was slightly anxious about how he would respond to a manifestation of death (Mr. Death) in human form (with a business suit, no less), but he was more surprised than scared. As the plot unfolded, we paused to discuss the ethical issue Mr. Bookman was now confronted with, considering the potential choices and the reasons behind them.

"A salesman, Lew Bookman, is told by Death that he is to die at midnight. Mr. Bookman argues that his life's work as a salesman is not quite complete, and convinces Death to give him a stay of execution until he can give one last, great sales pitch - "a pitch for the angels", as Mr. Bookman puts it. Once Death agrees, Bookman then announces his intention to quit selling and find another line of work. He is proud of having outsmarted Death and virtually assured himself of immortality.

What Bookman hasn't counted on is that someone has to die at midnight. Because of this, Death has to take one of Bookman's many young friends, a little girl who lives in the same building, who is hit by a truck (but not yet killed)."

My son adamantly decided that the old man should sacrifice his life for the young girl in this particular predicament. This is, of course, exactly how things play out. Predictable, maybe - but definitely an outstanding introduction to ethical matters according to "The Twilight Zone".

Worthy of note, minor role actors Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton (pictured above) turned out solid performances.

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Ep.1 - Where is Everybody? (1959)

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Safe to say that I have been waiting to have all access to "TTZ" for ten years or more. I used to record the Sci-Fi Channel marathons on VHS during Christmas and New Years - which meant waking up in the middle of the night to switch tapes every six hours. Then I spent about five years convincing myself not to spend hundreds of dollars on the DVD collections. After that I tried several times to download entire seasons which claimed too much space for less than desirable viewing quality. And now, finally, Netflix is streaming the first five seasons. Lovely. Last night, for the first time, I watched the very first episode of "The Twilight Zone". It was indeed, fascinating.

OLN - I do find Rod Serling to be as important as Chaplin, Kurosawa, Miyazaki, and others when looking at significant issues, symbols, and overt paradoxes of industrialization, modernism, science, and technology. I also enjoy the short parable format, particularly. Anyway...apparently I have dedicated an entire blog to my next journey with "The Twilight Zone". Comments are welcome.

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"The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch could be our journey."



The first episode of TTZ seems to have been more than foundational for the Wachowski Brother's masterpiece, "The Matrix", released forty years after we initially encountered Rod Serlings' first vision of the fifth dimension. A man confined inside of a large box for 20 days in which to simulate isolation on a (not yet possible) trip to the moon, until his sensory-depleted mind creates it's own reality in which to cope. What his mind thinks is a "walking" signal button on the street corner, is actually a button inside the box which communicates to his superiors that he is ready to be "unplugged" from the simulation. Interesting, huh? Well, it seems that Serling had an even deeper concept to further push the story into the philosophy of reality and perception.

"In the written form of the story, published as a collection of Rod Serling stories, as Mike is carried on a stretcher away from the isolation booth, a ticket falls out of his pocket. It is the ticket to the movie he saw in his "hallucination." He really was there, it seems."



"Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting. Waiting with the patience of eons. Forever waiting...in the Twilight Zone." - Rod Serling

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