The Twilight Zone S2 E17: Twenty Two

Enjoying a look back at some of the lesser known episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) featuring beloved actors of the era. This writer missed this one featuring Jonathan Harris opposite actress Barbara Nichols.





The Twilight Zone, Season Two, Episode 17, Twenty Two falls short of the more impressive story featuring Harris we covered here at Musings Of A Sci-Fi Fanatic called The Silence (S2, E25).

Twenty Two is interesting if just to see Harris offer a laugh to his special thespian brand, but the story based on a ghost story anthology from 1944 (The Hearse Driver) and before that a short story called The Bus-Conductor by E.F. Benson (1906) is a mostly underwhelming entry.



The overall 65,000 dollar budget per episode was cut well in half  for six episodes of The Twilight Zone's Season Two. One of those episodes was Twenty Two along with Bill Mumy's appearance in Long Distance Call, ironically S2, E22 (episode twenty two).

The visual limitations are notable, but the story isn't quite as effective as some of the best despite a solid concept of a haunted actress unable to distinguish reality from nightmare.

The entry was directed by Jack Smight, the man behind The Illustrated Man (1969) and Damnation Alley (1977).

Writer: Rod Serling. Director: Jack Smight.

 

The Twilight Zone S2 E25: The Silence

"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.

A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.

That's the signpost up ahead.

You're next stop, The Twilight Zone."

Our journey into The Twilight Zone to see some of the stars we loved and adored from our yester years reaches the latest sign post, The Twilight Zone, Season Two, Episode 25, The Silence directed by The Omega Man's (1971) Boris Sagal.



Once again circling about the stars that once populated the original classic that was Lost In Space, this episode features one Jonathan Harris.

After a look at Season Two, E22, Long Distance Call with little Billy Mumy, his future cast mate and friend Harris arrives just a few episodes later. Never fear Smith is here.



The late great Harris, best remembered as the villainous and often cowardly Dr. Zachary Smith in Irwin Allen's Lost In Space (1965-1968), appeared in a number of other genre classics in television. You may recall his part as the voice of Lucifer in the classic Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979). He played another villain in Allen's Land Of The Giants (1968-1970) in Pay The Piper. He appeared in beloved Bewitched (1964-1972) and Sanford And Son (1972-1977) and sci-fi fans will likely recall Space Academy (1977) for a single season (15 episodes).

Harris delivers a much more sobering performance, a kind of anti-Lost In Space-Season Three-Dr. Smith.



(SPOILER) The tale is of a bet between two men that in the end reveals a sad truth about them both. Each gives away something that becomes no longer of value to the other. One man severs his vocal cords to ensure he wins the bet because he knows he will not be able to remain silent without such a move. The other man offering the bet reveals himself to be as much of a fraud as the man he despises. One has nothing to give but loses face and all credibility in the end while the other has everything to gain, but loses his voice and gains nothing.

Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone wasn't ingenious in being entirely original at every turn, but the series was often original in employing ideas and concepts to science fiction or horror that had been traversed before by executing brilliantly.



The Silence offers a kind of spin on the O. Henry (author William Sydney Porter) story The Gift Of The Magi (1905). It's not exactly the same, but the idea of two people attempting to give one another something each needs or wants, but in the end both are proven to have no value. And like the twist-ending of the aforementioned O. Henry story, The Twilight Zone too was often incredibly smart at delivering a twist in its tales.

While the O. Henry story centers on love and how far a couple is willing to go for their love, The Silence, in turn, is about a seething hatred and how far two men are willing to go to make a useless point as greed and hatred root the men in evil intent.



This writer never saw The Silence, but it's a solid little morality play and almost literary in style in its approach to inverting a concept like The Gift Of The Magi. It's less science fiction and simply a solid story idea populated by one of the science fiction performing legends in the late Jonathan Harris.

Writer: Rod Serling. Director: Boris Sagal (The Omega Man).

The Twilight Zone S2 E22: Long Distance Call

"You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.

A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.

That's the signpost up ahead.

You're next stop, The Twilight Zone."

Reading Marc Cushman's book trilogy on Lost In Space (Irwin Allen's Lost In Space: Volume One: The Authorized Biography Of A Classic Sci-Fi Series) has inspired me to revisit the many tentacles of Irwin Allen's imagination be it Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (1961) here, Lost In Space (1965-1968) or the many shows his very actors and stars populated inside and outside of his own fantasy worlds.




The Twilight Zone is one of those series that enjoyed a great many guest stars. It was The Love Boat (1977-1986) or Fantasy Island (1977-1984) of the late 1950s and 1960s. Each year The Twilight Zone runs endlessly on the SyFy channel on New Year's Day and you'd think I'd have seen all of them by now. Some it seems I've seen several times while others have proved surprisingly allusive. That's bound to occur for a series that ran five seasons complete with 156 episodes.



So I've cherry-picked some of these brief episodic tales for personal reasons just to see some of the faces I grew up with and adored. Raised and reared on their work I wanted to see their performances elsewhere.

My warm up was The Twilight Zone, Season One, Episode 25, People Are Alike All Over (1960). It featured the late great Roddy McDowall (1928-1998) whose list of credits is vast and impressive. McDowall starred, of course, in Planet Of The Apes (1968) as Cornelius and went on to continue in that fantastic series of films. The Mars-based tale People Are Alike All Over offers a very Bradburian like cautionary tale on humanity with a nice twist that predates The Keeper (1966) concept from Lost In Space by six years.



Season One, Episode 28, A Nice Place To Visit (1960) featured Sebastian Cabot. As a fan of Cabot in his role as Giles French (Mr. French) on family drama Family Affair (1966-1971) it was another must see. This little heaven and hell tale sees Cabot shine. But like any of these little tales there's never long to really showcase the acting chops of any one actor. They are there seemingly more to serve the story and yet it's a nice bit of star power for the fans to enjoy particularly looking back today.

Season Two, Episode 7, Nick Of Time, features William Shatner (Star Trek) in one of two of the more popular or better known episodes of The Twilight Zone. So it's with my intention to look at some of the episodes that slipped through the cracks for me that piqued my personal curiosity.



On the cusp of the eve of the Netflix release of the Lost In Space reboot (yes, I'll be binging that one with much anticipated pleasure this weekend), this writer couldn't help but look back to the classics of television. Am I naïve enough to think the Netflix Lost In Space will be the same? I can't imagine it will come close to the charms of the 1960s original, and I have no expectation it will, but I'm still interested to see what they do with this retelling of the concept. The general framework is there from the original from the family to the vehicle to Smith, but it's a brave new world isn't it?



Actor Bill Mumy, as Will Robinson, was a big part of the success of Lost In Space along with the rest of that amazing cast. I hope they cast the series well and do it justice even if contemporary justice when compared to the many series that continue to retain classic status today like the original Lost In Space and The Twilight Zone. These series were by no means perfection, but warts and all there aren't many fans who believe they can successfully be recreated. Though the appeal of the anthology series (Black Mirror, Electric Dreams) is returning with a vengeance too.



The biggest highlight thus far for me was The Twilight Zone, Season Two, Episode 22, Long Distance Call (1961) featuring one Billy Mumy in one of three appearances on the series alongside It's A Good Life (1961) and In Praise Of Pip (1963).

(SPOILER) In the story, Billy (his character name in the story too "It's me Billy"), has a close relationship with his grandmother. When she passes he can still speak with her through a toy phone. In the end, through an accident, Billy almost dies, but his father pleads with his mother to give Billy back to them and he survives in a rather uplifting ending when it comes to The Twilight Zone.



Channeling Rod Serling imagine if you will for a moment a different ending here. I did. How about Billy dies and the father, or perhaps the mother who was angry at Billy's imaginary connection to his grandmother, picks up the phone only to discover it works. Not only does the mother hear her in-law's voice on the other end but the voice of her son now taken away at the young age of five. I might have enjoyed that more perverse ending in some ways more in keeping with eerie expectations of The Twilight Zone. As Long Distance Call stands though it's a rather affecting emotional plea.



The Twilight Zone episodes always present a short story with a thoughtful bit of social reflection that continue to stand the test of time. They may not enjoy the compelling pace of today's television but they are incredibly smart for their vintage.

Long Distance Call is by no means among the series best, but seeing a sweet little Billy Mumy making contact with the twilight zone is always a highlight.

Director: James Sheldon. Writer: Charles Beaumont/William Idelson.