You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension,
a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind.
You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas.
You've just crossed over into the twilight zone. If you were a child
in nineteen fifty nine America, there was a distinct possibility that you might wake
up on Christmas morning to find underneath your Christmas tree a doll called Riquette from
the Vogue Doll Company. Standing at twenty two inches tall, with green eyes
and orange hair, Riquette would have made scores of children happy until she was
discontinued in nineteen sixty one. Well, perhaps for the child who wanted a
bit more life in their doll. The Chatty Cathy doll from Mattel was also
manufactured in nineteen fifty nine. But this doll had a string in its back,
and when you pulled it, Kathy would say one of eleven phrases.
But you do get a new doll? All Chatty Cathy asked? First,
sure, because a dog can talk or something? How do you brush my
hair? Okay, Daddy, Well I told you she could talk. I
get pulled this wing and she said eleven different things make her say that again?
Maybe she walked part of the funniest She never not chatty, Cathy l
play net? Will you play with me? This skin is so soft?
Hey, he feels real. I love you, ah so tonight in a
sense, we're going to merge these two popular dolls and add a touch of
Twilight Zone magic to bring to life one of the most iconic creations that the
show ever produced. And we'll meet her in a moment. But first of
all, let's meet the street Or family parents, Eric and Annabelle and their
daughter Christie. She's alive, daddy, and her name is Tackie Kina.
For heaven's sake, annabou a doll like that would cost? I put it
on the account. Tina does everything she moves, and she can talk,
and I just love her already. My name is Kakie Kina, and I
love you very much. All Right, how much did the cost? I
told you? I know you charged it, but how much did it cost?
Right? That's enough? How much did it cost? Donna? Eric?
I don't think it's the price of the doll that's upsetting you. Now
we'll get some more of that freudy and gibberish you've been getting from a doctor.
It isn't doctor Lubin's fault. She feels rejected. My name is Ka
Kietina, and I love you very much. Will you shut that thing up?
But Talkietina hasn't arrived in a happy home, and she's definitely got something
to say about it. So tonight we pull the string on living doll.
My name is Ka Quietina, and I don't think I like you Talkietina,
the doll that does everything, A lifelike creation of plastic and springs and painted
smile. To Eric Straighter, she is a most unwelcome addition to his household.
But without her, he'd never enter The Twilights Face broadcast on November Face,
nineteen sixty three, written by Charles Beaumont, but more on that in
a moment, and directed by Richard C. Serafian. So as opening narrations
go, this has to be one of the briefest in Twilight Zone history.
I think, not a great deal to say about a standard Twilight Zone whippan
and then just this very brief intro from sailing. So while I said that
the writer was Charles Beaumont, because he is the credited writer. This seems
to be well and truly an episode written by Jerry Saul. Now we have
dug into this topic before, but for any new listeners, just briefly,
at this point in the Twilight Zone, one of its major writers, Charles
Beaumont, was sadly succumbing to the illness that would end up taking his life
for too young, and because of this, he was struggling to meet deadlines
and struggling to get Wake done. So another Jerry Saul, ghost wrote some
of Charles Beaumont's episodes at this stage in the show, and Martin Graham's junior
documents in Unlocking the Door to a television classic that Saul said, I think
Chuck Beaumont and I were walking along and saying, suppose we had a doll
that talked and could answer our questions and reprimand us. Just think of all
the things that doll could do, not anything animal or carnival, but in
speaking. So we got on that track. It was no problem at all.
Once we had worked out the idea. A couple of months passed and
I said, gee, it's about time I did living doll. Because Beaumont
was in no condition to do it. I usually wrote most of Beaumont's stuff
at that stage of the game. Now, if you are a new listener,
I do go into this a bit deeper in past episodes. Tonight's director
is another newcomer for season five, Richard C. Seraffian. He was born
in New York in nineteen thirty, so would have been in his early theaties
at this point. But his show business career is quite an unusual one,
and I think we can see why when we look at his younger life.
As a student, he studied law and medicine at university, but he was
a poor student apparently until he switched over to film studies, and when he
did that, he excelled at it. So it's a classic case of when
you get that chance to work on something you love, you do become betterar
But after university he joined the army and became a reporter for the Army News
service. But it was during the Korean War that he met the future director,
Robert Altman, and the two of them became friends, not just friends,
but family because Sir Raffian married Altman's sister, and they also became colleagues
because Sir Raffian acted in a play that Altman directed and worked as Alt's assistant
as his career began to take off, and the first thing that Saraffian turned
his hand to apart from being Altman's assistant, was writing. In nineteen fifty
four, he translated into English the script of an Italian co production of Attila
the Horn, but then in nineteen fifty eight wrote three very cool sound in
crime films, The Notorious Mister Monks, The Cool and the Crazy and The
Man Who Died Twice. And he did go on to write a little more
through the rest of his career, but the sixties mainly saw him follow his
friends Robert Altman into directing, and he did at least an episode or two
of a lot of the popular shows at a time, like seventy seven Sunset
Strip, Bonanza, and Batman. And like Altman, Sir Raffian also made
the jump from the small screen to the big screen, and one of his
biggest successes is the influence chill car movie Vanishing Point, that boasts some of
the best car chases ever put on screen. But it seems that his directing
career was destined to go back to the small screen. And he kept directing
until nineteen ninety with a number of television episodes and TV movies. But nineteen
ninety wasn't the end of his showbiz career, because throughout the seventies and eighties
he had been peppering in the occasional acting job, and this is something that
he kept up until two thousand and seven. He was in the Johnny Depp
movie Don Juan DeMarco, he was in the Wachowski's movie Bound prior to their
massive success with The Matrix, and he even voiced a beaver in the Eddie
Murphy movie Doctor Doolittle. And sadly, Saraffian died at the age of eighty
three in twenty thirteen from complications from pneumonia after he was recovering from a broken
back. So mister Saraffian had quite the career, spanning decades different areas of
the business, and while he may have only directed one Twilight Zone, he
certainly directed an iconic one. Eric, I don't know how much more of
this I can take, exactly. What is it you're taking Annabelle, You're
anger towards Christie. I know you're having a difficult time adjusting to her but
I can't let you treat her this way. She's my daughter, Eric,
I love her. I love her, but I don't love her. I'm
only her stepfather, and I'm incapable of loving children because we can't have any
of our own. Isn't that what you're saying, Annabelle? Oh no,
Eric, believe me, it's not. You could love Christie. I know
you could, if you'd only give yourself half a chance. Good. I'm
glad I'm not the cold cruel over that mommy and daughter think. I may
appreciate all the faith. Yeah me, Eric, please give us a chance.
Christie and me. I know you got more than you bargained for when
you married me. Two for the price of one, wasn't it. But
we'll do anything to make you happy, both of us. Dye. I'm
sorry, Daddy if I need you mad, It's all right, Christy,
it's all Daddy's thought. Okay. So Bobby, you dear. My name
is Kaki Kina, and I love you very much. Now, if you
ask someone what this episode is about, they might tell you it's about to
kill a doll. But I think, really, this is what it's about.
And I like how the episode waste no time in Plunging goes into it.
It's about the struggles that this family is having, and as we find
out, Eric isn't Christie's natural father, and it seems that him and his
wife can't conceive to have a child themselves. Now, I don't want to
get into those relationship ships too much yet, but we will definitely come back
to it. But this is an episode with four cast members. Now,
normally I don't like to put too many bios into the podcast, maybe two
paer episodes three if I have to, But in this case, I just
think all four of them are legitimately equally as important to the episode, and
it just wouldn't be fair to leave anyone out. So while Eric and Annabel's
squabble, let's meet our leading man. I think you know the drill by
now for what happens when we meet a future big star like Robert Redford or
Charles Bronson or indeed Telly Savalis in the Twilight Zone. There's probably not much
point seeing where they went because we all kind of know that story. But
I find it more interesting to see where they are at this point in their
careers, because for the most part, when they are in the twilight zone.
It's usually when they are still hard working actors of the day on the
cusp of playing a part that will send them to the next level, and
Telly Savalis is no exception. Now. Telly is short for Aristotellus and he
was born in New York in nineteen twenty two to Greek parents, and in
nineteen forty one he was drafted into the military, serving in the Medical Corps
for he was discharged after being in a car accident which gave him a broken
pelvis and he spent a year in hospital recuperating. After that, he attended
the Armed Forces Institute, where he studied radio and television production. And while
he was being educated prepping to go to medical school, he was also dipping
into the broadcasting world, mainly as a radio presenter, and in nineteen fifty
he presented a show called The Coffee House in New York City. But when
he started to wake in television, it was in the field of producing sports
broadcasting shows, so he never really consider himself an actor. But when a
friend dropped out of an audition for an episode of armstrong Sacle Theater, Savalas
stepped in and got the part and then he got the acting bug from there
on in, and thankfully the business seemed to get the bug for him,
because he became a very much in demand TV guest star and quickly made his
jump to the big screen in the nineteen sixty one movie Matt Dog McCall alongside
Beer at Lancaster, and a year later he got a Golden Globe and an
Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in The Birdman of Alcatraz. So by the
time he hit the twilight Zone, Savalis had already had a decent amount of
success, and this was a period where he was jumping back and forth between
the big and small screens all the time. For example, in nineteen sixty
seven he appeared in TV hits like The Man from Uncle, but also big
screen hits like The Date He Dozen't. So this is just a small taste
of a career that was able to spann TV shows, TV movies and big
screen movies without missing a beat. And that's not to mention his singing career
or something that we remember him dearly for in the UK his work for the
UK Taurus Board. I spent hours in the beautiful one hundred and fifty year
old botanical gardens and there are ten acres of it sat ed Burghers and the
old grammar school. It's like looking into the past, and it's hard to
realize that all this is so near to the hustle and bustle of a really
great metropolis. I can't sing it like again, but I can assure you
this is my kind of town. I was told to get there before it
all blew away. It was spectacular cherry blossom time in Birmingham's Bourneville, writing
the express elevator to the tap of one of the cities highest buildings. This
is the view that nearly took my breath away. Sadly, Savalis died at
the hotel where he lived in Universal City after suffering with cancer. And he'd
actually lived at the hotel for twenty years and had become such a fixture in
the bar that when he passed away they renamed it Telly's. So how is
he in this? I think Telly Savalie screen presence was such that he could
go toe to toe with any movie tough guy and not back down. So
when you're seeing him use that presence where he has all of this the stain
and aggressive energy towards his wife and daughter. I think you really feel that.
So he fits very well into this role as a kind of abusive spouse.
And we'll talk a bit more about that topic a bit more before we're
dawn. But I also think Telly Savalas brings different lays to it, which
I'll come to as well later on. My name is Talkie Tina can I'm
beginning to hate you. My name is Zerath Straighter, and I'm going to
get rid of you. You wouldn't Dare, wouldn't be Yennada. I would
hate you, Christie would hate you, and I would hate you. To
see how it works, So while Eric sees how it works, let's do
the same. As I said at the beginning of the episode. Talkie Tea
is a kind of amalgam of two dolls from the time, but mainly it's
that Briquette doll from the Vogue Doll Company which was put on the markers in
nineteen fifty nine. Now, the original doll looks quite different to Torquie Tina,
and Martin Graham's junior says in Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic.
After contacting the manufacturing company Cayuga Production, secured permission proposing that the doll be
altered with a different dress and equipped to talk when wound up. Naturally,
the voice of the doll was looped in after production, so the gimmick doll
on the show contained a fake wind up key in the back. So the
second aspect of Torquie Tina is of course that she can talk now. The
briquette doll couldn't talk, but another doll at the time, Chatty Cathy could,
and Chatty Cathy was voiced by the legendary voice actress June for A,
who also voiced Talkie Tina in this very episode. I think it's safe to
say that we will have all hair June for Ray's voice numerous times in numerous
things over the years, even if we didn't know it now. She was
born in nineteen seventeen and we only lost her in twenty seventeen at the age
of ninety nine, and from a young age she had a talent for voices,
and at twelve years old she had a knack for putting on the voice
of an old lady. Now Lucky for Hair, one of her teachers was
part of a radio show in Springfield, Massachusetts, and they added June to
the cast, and by the age of fifteen, Hair and her family had
moved to Los Angeles, where she continued to work in radio and she even
wrote her own show for children called Lady Make Believe. And from then on
her talent for voices and accents took her into the world of animation, where
she became hugely prolific. She played Lucifer the Cat in Walt Disney Cinderella in
nineteen fifty and one of her most famous credits is voicing Rocky the Flying Squirrel
in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, as well as one of the villain's Natasha
Fatal and with a massive three hundred and eighty seven credits to her name,
probably more, June Faray was definitely a hard working actor for the Ages and
her contribution to voice work cannot be overstated. And we'll come to June Faray
again when we cover the final episode of the Twilight Tone, The Bewitching Pool,
because controversially she ended up revoicing one of the child actors in that episode.
But how is she in this? I think Fay does an amazing job
of putting menace behind the sweet voice of Torquie Tina. She doesn't take the
easy root of simply giving the doll an evil voice, like say Chucky from
the Child's Play movie These Tina still has this very sweet tone to her voice,
but the menace and the threat is laced throughout what she's saying. And
I think it's a wonderful portrayal and talkie Tina has become an icon for good
reason. Ask Daddy, I wouldn't know you had her, Daddy. I'm
gonna go ask your mother. She's already asked me, hm, and what
did you tell her that? I don't know where she is? Do you?
Eric? Where is she? Daddy? Well, now, if your
mother can't tell you, then neither can I. Tina must be somewhere about
Christy. Let's see if we can find her. Yes, hello, Hello,
my name time pointing too, So let's tick another buy off the list,
because, as regular listeners may know, it's always a point of interest
to me to see where the child actors of the Twilight Zone go next after
the appear on the show. Now, Christi is played by Tracy Stratford,
and she was born in nineteen fifty five, so would have been about eight
years old at this point, and there isn't a great deal out there about
her, perhaps because her acting career was actually quite short. Her face credits
is a film called The Miracle of the Hills in nineteen fifty nine, and
her last credit is ten years later in the comedy show My Three Sons,
So it seems that by the time she reached about fourteen years old, she'd
moved on from acting. But in her short career she clocked up a few
notable credits. She had a recurring role in the Loretta Young Show, she
was in the Hammer horror movie The Evil of Frankenstein, and she voiced Lucy
in a Charlie Brown Christmas But of note to Twilight Zone fans, we have
already seen her in the Twilight Zone in the episode Little Girl Lost, and
you'll remember that the Miller family lost their daughter Tina Miller, when she slipped
through a dimensional portal underneath her bed and as she wandered around that other dimension.
Adult voice actress Rhoda Williams provided the voice for the young Tina, but
it was Tracy Stratford who played the part physically. Where is she? She's
still looking? I don't mean Christie, we haven't found the doll. That's
what you mean. That's exactly what I mean. You know, I put
her in the trash can? What she's not there? Now, Harry Cow,
could you listen. I've had another the snack said about as a joke.
It's a joke, but I carried it too far me you and Christie
the two years stime. So while Eric looks for the doll, let's just
ponder for a moment what all this is about. I think seems like the
one we've just seen work to put a certain amount of ambiguity in there,
that perhaps Eric is imagining this, that his resentment of Christie has taken form
in his mind, the form of the voice from this doll when nobody is
around, Because Eric sees Annabelle and Christie as this kind of united front against
him, and one theory is that Tina is a representation of that. Another
is that Tina is a kind of representation of Christie. That when annabel is
around, Christie is all sweetness and light, but when she isn't, then
Christie is a lot meaner to Eric, which is what's breeding this resentment in
him, and Tina is a kind of representation of that. Now, I
don't personally subscribe to that one, but it is an interesting conversation I think.
Personally, I take this one pretty much on face value. The episode
is slipping in a bit of ambiguity about whether he is imagining this, but
I tend to think while Tina is definitely suggestive of this animosity that he feels
is coming his way from Christie, this is actually happening. Whatever Tina is,
she is doing these things now. Mark Zcrete in The Twilight Zone Companion
has a slightly odds take on this one. He's very complimentary of it,
but what he seems to get from it is probably the exact opposite of what
I'm getting, And he says, based on an idea by Charles Beaumont and
written in One Day by Jerry Saul, living doll set up a diabolical situation.
Eric street Or is trying desperately not to alienate his wife and her young
daughter when the child brings home a doll that makes clear it's madorous intentions,
but only when it's alone with him. Eric is in one hell of a
bind. If he tries to tell his wife of it, he sounds like
a lunatic. And if he tries to protect himself by attempting to destroy the
doll. His actions seem those of a twisted mind, striking out resentfully to
her to helpless little girl. Poor Eric, it is clear early on that
he hasn't much of a chance against this ruthless doll. So Zichary seems to
be putting Eric as the kind of sympathetic character in this But do we sympathize
with him? Well? I think early on in the scene where Christie comes
to apologize to him, Tellys of Alice does a good job of putting some
humanity into Eric. He's not just an out and out villain. This is
clearly a family who have some issues going on, and they are getting worse
and worse. So is he acting out in a way that he doesn't particularly
like himself. I don't know, because all that seems to go away quite
quickly, and in other scenes he seems to take a perverse pleasure in causing
distress to Annabel, especially. This is a woman who said to him,
will do whatever it takes to make it work, but he just doesn't seem
to want to budge on anything. Now, one of our friends over in
the after hours club, whose comment I will read later on said that they
couldn't understand why Annabel was with Eric in the first place, because he is
such a detestable character. And I wonder whether the revelation that he and Annabel
couldn't have kids is the thing that turned this relationship sour. That in the
beginning, he was willing to take on Christie when he thought that down the
line he would have a child or children of his own with Annabel, But
when that didn't happen, he started to resent Christie, and that's when he
started to see Annabel and Christie as working against him. But whether that's the
thing that soured the relationship or not, I think for a nineteen sixties TV
show, it's not a bad representation of a domestic abuse situation, because relationships
with an abusive partner never appear that way in the beginning. In the beginning,
everything is usually fine, which is why bonds grow stronger, lives become
more and more entwined, people moving in with each other, and so on.
But then usually one of two things happen. Either there is an event,
perhaps an instance of violence during an argument, and then the abusive partner
apologizes, I'm so sorry, I've never done that before it won't happen again,
but it does and it becomes more usual, or there is a gradual
changing of mood, often including elements of control. And I think this is
what we're seeing here with Eric. Everyone can sympathize that sometimes taken on someone
else's child can be difficult, and it's the standardle that Eric could be stuck
in her rut because of that, But he is exhibiting that controlling behavior.
Annabelle and Christie walk on eggshells around him because they don't know whether the next
interaction will result in an explosion of temper. Annabelle especially is over nicer times,
trying to make sure that the next interaction is a good one. So
the control has waked you end up with a scared and docile partner. And
in this case, that partner is played by Mary Laroche. And we've already
come across here in the season one episode A World of his Own. And
she was born in nineteen twenty and as a child trained at the Eastman School
of Music in Rochester, New York. Like her co star June for a
Mary was acting in radio plays at a very young age, and then by
the time she was eighteen she was singing and acting on and off Broadway.
Then the fifties saw her career move on to the big and small screen,
usually as a guest player on shows like Mike Hammer or The Detectives, and
one of her most famous roles is in the Sandra d movie Gidget in nineteen
fifty nine. So she was very much an actress who had turned up in
a show for one or two episodes here and there, and then move on
to the next thing. And this was the way until she seemingly retired from
screen acting in nineteen seventy seven. But how is she in this? You
know? I think she does a fine job portraying what is essentially a woman
who is the victim of this kind of controlling, abusive behavior. Eric Street
may not put his hands on her that we know of, but that's not
the only way that these abusive situations can manifest. This is a case where
words and control are Eric's weapons, and Annabelle is constantly walking on eggshells around
him, wondering whether each interaction will be a good one or a bad one.
And I think Laroach does a fine job here. I told you you'd
be sorry. Christie, Christie Wake up, Christie, go back my tall.
I'm going to borrow tinful world. What's happening? But that was in
her bed. She's the one who's been doing it. Daddy, Daddy,
please, I'm not yet, daddy. So now Eric takes Tina to the
basement to try to destroy your Tina is made of tougher stuff. Now,
if Tina isn't some delusion by Eric, if she is indeed alive, then
what exactly is she? I tend to just go with the usual explanation the
Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone has seen fit to put her here for some
reason. Now you could say that this is because this is a family in
need of intervention, because of Eric and how this situation is building. She
seems to be possibly a protector for Christie and Rod. Sailing even mentions this
in his closing narration, But then later on after the conclusion, after Eric
meets his fate, we see that Tina might not limit her aggression to Eric.
Perhaps he was just a faced in line, an easy person to hate
because he is so hateful. Or maybe she will protect Christie and sees everyone
as a threat to her, even a mother. So I'm not quite sure,
but it's certainly an interesting conversation Fina and I don't forgive you. So,
after being unable to destroy Tina, Eric gives her back to Christie.
But then that night, after hearing some noise on the landing, Eric goes
to check and ends up stumbling over Tina, falling down the stairs to his
death. Now, when I was polling this episode over in the Afterhours Club,
which I'll come to in a moment, I said to the members there
that I found it a bit one note, and yes it was a bit
of a hot take, but I put it in the mid tier. But
after working through it and viewing it multiple times as I put this together,
I think I've warmed to it a lot more. Tina is a great creation,
but she's the icing on the cake to what is really going on here.
It's the characters, the interactions. That's what it's really about. It's
one of those times that the show really nails a truthful, if unfortunate family
situation, the difficulty of taken on someone else's child, the resentment that can
build, throw in an obviously very flawed man whose only way of dealing with
it is to become abusive and tellis of Alice, especially brings all of these
layers to Eric. I still leave the episode thinking he's generally a bad guy,
but you can at least see some conflict in him, even if his
waste tendencies pretty much always win out. So I will retract my mid tier
grading and gently push this one into the top tier, because, of course
there's a certain someone who I'd better be nice to. You'd better be nat
of course, we all know dolls can't really talk, and they certainly can't
commit murder, But to a child caught in the middle of trum will and
conflict, a doll can become many things, friend, defender, guardian,
especially a doll like talkie Tina, who did talk and did commit murder in
the Mystery region of the Twilight Zone. So that was living doll. So
let's go to our after hours club pole to see how the members graded this
one. So in our vote, seventy seven percent put it in the top
tier, twenty one percent in the middle tier, and two percent in the
bottom tier. Now, there's a lot of comments on this one, which
I think is wonderful, but it means that I can't read the more,
but I will. I'll read a few so at first I said, I
thought it was a bit of a mid tier one note episode. I think
I've worn to it a bit more as I said in the episode. But
our friend Chad says, it is one note, but when that note has
played really well, you sometimes don't need another one, and that's a fair
point. Our friend uncommon Nasa says, tell he plays it so straight that
there is a dark humor to this. This isn't what I come to the
TZ four, but it's still a classic to me. After watching a few
dozen times, I started to pick up its subtle tones of critique against bad
stepfathers. There's a lot said about his past actions, that build out of
the world that these three people live in, and why they needed this daughter
come along. Pretty remarkable for an episode staged in one location. Yeah.
Absolutely. Our friend Jen said this episode is top tier for me, but
likely because I grew up with it. My family quotes it to this day.
It also instilled to meet a fascination with vintage dolls. I'm not coming
around to your house, then, Jen, my co host over there in
the Afterhours Club, Emi says, I'm with you on this one. Tom.
I watched it and had read so many opinions on how it was people's
favorites that I was a little disappointed. It's still a very good episode,
but absolutely mid tier for me. I like the concept, but never really
felt it was truly menacing. So I wonder whether you will warm to it
like I did. Emmy. That'd be interesting to see. Our friend Jordan
says, I'm sure I'll send in some comments later, but this is possibly
my favorite episode. It's a little hard to say it's emblematic of Twilight Zone,
though, since it's so heavily wasted towards the horror end of the spectrum.
Maxwell says, it's really interesting as one goes through the whole span of
TZ to realize how the famous episodes don't reflect what your average t Z episode
tends to be like, and so the public's perception of the show, shaped
by the popular ones, ends up looking somewhat different than a fan who has
seen every episode. To Save Man, It's a Good Life and this one
are synonymous with the t Z and pop culture, yet they're each very different
from an actual standard Teasy episode narratively automatically. I think that's a great point.
Absolutely. Now this is the comment that I was referencing before, Michael
says, I guess when a face RANI packed a punch, especially when we
find out the doll didn't just kill the bad stepdad who wanted to get rid
of her, but also threatens a good mom at the end. I know
there are marriagers and second marriagers like this in real life, but it's hard
for me to get past why unearthed this woman is married to such a nasty
guy and puts her daughter in that situation. Don't want to read too much
into it, and I'm sure there are many factors why that can happen.
And maybe he was nice at some point in the beginning of the relationship.
Maybe it's even referenced in the show, but I don't recall the moment,
So for me middle tier, I don't need to see it again these days.
But I can see why it's well regarded. Well, you know,
we talked about that point for a little bit there, Michael, so thank
you for bringing that up. And then finally Joe says, we see that
Eric Street or has obviously not bought into that I got married than a kid
came with its scenario. Young Christie senses this and is fearful when Eric is
around, so much of that when she receives a new doll, This doll
channels Christie's inner feelings and becomes protective of Christie and her voice. We also
noticed that at the end of the episode, following Eric's death, Talkie Tina
reminds the mother of a future fate that you'd better be nice to me now.
Could this mean that Christie is channeling thoughts that a mother could turn against
her because of Eric's death, and Tina is now the vehicle to keep Christie
safe and well protected. I think there's a lot to digest here. Why
does this doll come to life? Why does the Twilight Zone provide assistance to
Christie? Is cosmic justice saved here? I think, yes, you know,
it's all good talking points. I think, you know, there is
this possibility that Christie is sort of unknowingly channel and this. You know,
I've read some supernatural stuff about poultergeists and things, and we all have different
thoughts on whether we believe that stuff or not. But one school of thought
is that when there is like a poltergeist in the house, it's usually in
a house with quite often a teenage girl and this is thought to be some
sort of phenomenon brought on by there in a tamoil. You know. I
guess everyone's got different mileage on that, or you can kind of apply that
here possibly as well. So all good talking points over there in the after
hours club. Now we've had some good news that the statue of Rod Sailing
to be put up in Binghamton was funded on Kickstarter, which is amazing news,
and it's not going to be put up this year, but it is
going to be put up next year. There isn't a date for that yet.
Now there will be a sailing fast this year, I have heard that
from the foundation. I think they're just getting things finalized and then they will
make an announcement when that is. Now I would dearly love to go.
My only problem is that I think last year, possibly it was put on
the last weekend in August, and that is a date that I will never
usually be able to make. So it's very unfortunate because if it was a
week later, I'd have no problem, or even a week earlier sometimes,
but if it is on that weekend, and unfortunately, that means I can't
go, and it's not something I can really change which I'm very sad about
because I haven't been there since twenty nineteen and I really am dying to get
back. Hopefully, if I can't make it this year, then when that
statue goes up, I really want to be there. I absolutely do.
So. Hopefully that won't be that weekend in August next year. Hopefully they
will bring it forward a bit and maybe I can be there for that statue
unveiling, because you know, that's a once in a lifetime thing, isn't
it, And I really want to be at that. So fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed. So have a couple of pieces of audio feedback from people talking
about both Living Doll and Last Night of a Jockey, And if you want
to get your thoughts onto the show, then send me a clip of about
five minutes or less to Tom at the Twilight Zone podcast dot com. So
I will play those for you now and then we'll go over to Rod Sailing
to find out what's coming up next. Hi Tom gus here, it's been
a while, but I would like to offer up a defense for Last Night
of a Jockey. Eight years ago, I wrote into your show in response
to a nervous man in a four dollar Room, and I made the case
that of these two similar installments, nervous Man was the superior of the two.
Now, I'm not going to retract that assessment, but I would like
to make a new case for Jockey, because, frankly, I just keep
coming back to it, and the reason is Mickey Rooney. Now, obviously,
Rooney's a legend, as you've pointed out, and he's great here,
but the thing that keeps me coming back to this one time and time again
is the fact that he's nailing not just one, but two performances. The
character in the Mirror is just as engrossing as the dirty man in the Cheap
Room, and the older I get, the more I deeply appreciate those great
performers of the past. As you know, I even started my own podcast
devoted to Jeremy Brett's brilliant portrayal of Sherlock Holmes, a podcast, by the
way, which owes a sincere dead of inspiration to your show, Tom.
But I digress. The Twilight Zone clearly had a ton of unforgettable actors purchased
Meredith, Jack Klugman, too many to name, but to me, Mickey
Rooney is just in a league of his own, and even though all the
elements of Nervous Man are superb, when it comes to acting, Rooney is
simply a force of nature. Last time I mentioned The Comedian, which was
Serling's third Playhouse ninety and how Rooney's performance and it just blew me against the
wall. It actually might be my favorite Rod Serling creation of them all,
which, by the way, if any of your listeners haven't seen it,
it's got a wonderful script, a mind blowing cast Edmund O'Brien, Kim Hunter,
Meltourmet, It's directed by John Frankenheimer, it's live television. It's just
astounding, and you can watch it on archive dot org or in the Criterion
Golden Age of TV box set if you want to see it. However,
it is worth saying that if you didn't like Mickey Rooney and Last Night of
a Jockey, you're probably not gonna like him in The Comedian either. He's
even more brash, more over the top, loud, hateful. But I
just don't I don't think there was ever a part better written for him,
and the screenplay won Serling his third Emmy, So it just can't recommend it
highly enough. But coming back to jockey. Even with the performances aside,
I'm a sucker for twisted tales of dark fate, and I do think Grady's
desserts here are just in a very short amount of time, we really do
get to know this little man, and I think it's just twenty three minutes
he manages to treat four people like complete garbage. He really is a little
runt, But to me, the very best part is how happy he actually
is when he gets his wish. Serling could have turned the tables moments after
his transformation, but he gives Grady six whole minutes of reveling in his newfound
bigness before pulling the rug out from under him, which just really lands the
gut punch of this twist. Yeah, you can see it coming a mile
away, but it doesn't matter because the impact is just so real, and
Rooney completely sells it to me. Perhaps in eight more years I'll change my
mind again. But that's the great thing about The Twilight Zone. You can
watch it over and over and constantly find new things to love and new ways
to view it. And I will always take Surling's words over just about anything
that's coming out of television in the past fifty years. I'm so glad you've
stuck with it, Tom. The end is in sight, my friend.
Thanks for so many years of entertainment, education and inspiration. Take care of
me, Hi, Tom, I'd like to share some thoughts about Living Dull.
I grew up exposed to a whole lot of twilights and episodes, and
some of them had a notable effect on me. When that stuck with me
the most was Living Doll. Living Doll is one of the only street horror
episodes of Twilight Zone, along with a few of the classic ones like Nightmare
at twenty Thousand Feet, Hitchhiker, After Hours twenty two, and It's a
Good Life. To its credit, Living Doll has aged really well. A
big part of this is that creepy dolls are just as creepy as they always
were. Mostly, my impression of the episode has changed over time. When
I was younger, the creepiness of Takie Tina was the focus, and I
was just focused between the father and Takie Tina. But as I grew over
olier, I became more focused on Telly Savalis's performance and the relationship between him
and the rest of the family, and that relationship is what made the episode
age so well. The conflict between them is timeless. Tina's just catalyst that
serves as the breaking point. Twilin Zone has a lot of really cruel characters,
like the ones in Piano in the House or the Little People, but
usually the cruel people in Twiled Zone are kind of childish and they are written
to be kind of caricatures. A great example of that is actually in the
upcoming episode Uncle Simon, but tell usvals, please this part with this real
brutality. What might come across as a little silly to some people, please
really scary reality to others. The episode doesn't really treat him with any sense
of pity either. After he realizes that his approach to things might have cost
him his relationship with both his wife and daughter, he tries to apologize.
Tina doesn't forgive him, and it's really hard to think that the audience would
either. The episode has one real failing, and it's right at the very
end. Tina's line is that you'd better be nice to me. I don't
think that Tina should be there to threaten the entire family, and I think
she's intended to be more of a protector to the daughter. Her threat really
doesn't seem right. I think that the line would have been better if it
was just you'd better be nice the implication that she will punish cruel people.
Another thing though the episode has going for it is just how accessible it is.
It's really straightforward, moves really quickly, and it grabs and holds your
attention. It's a great entry point for anyone who's completely new to the Twilight
Zone. Keep up the good work, Tom, you're a hard working podcaster
of the day. Rod Serling, creator of the Twilights on We'll tell you
about next week's story after this message. This month in the after Hours club
discussions on the eighties and two thousand's twilight Zone kind of gives you a bit
of backstrough between, you know, the relationship between him and the doctor as
well, which I think was kind of helpful too. So I think maybe
we could have used a bit of that, because I think once the disease
starts to spread, it is a bit just like people running around, you
know, and people passing out and oh look I've got it now, And
I do think it gets a little bit chaotic. Discussions on rods Sailing's night
gallery. Eventually she throws the doll in the fireplace, doesn't she, and
it begins to you think it's beginning to burn. And he's screaming in pain.
It's quite horrifying actually that. Yeah, they don't pull their punches.
Yeah, they don't pull their punches. You hear this man screaming in pain.
And and even then she does have I guess, just a little bit
of empathy where she's like, just die. She doesn't want him to suffer,
she just wants him to go. An audio commentary on a previously covered
Twilight Zone episode. Then she starts to act so weird that even this kind
of horny sailor, it's just like, Okay, no, that's not for
me. I'll see you later. And at the Board of Directors level,
I introduce a newcomer to the Twilight Zone to an episode of the show.
I think it's a great episode. I've got nothing to complain about here.
I thought it was really effective in portraying the tension of what it would be
like to be in that scenario where you sort of realize that the world as
you know it is coming to an end and there's nothing you can do.
About it, the hopelessness of it. For these episodes and a back catalog
of over one hundred bonus podcasts, go to Patreon dot com slash twilight Zone
podcast and become a member of the after hours club All Mister Serling. Next
on Twilight Zone, A Journey into a future Moment, a nightmarish, frightening
moment in time when man sits in his own rubble and surveys the legacy he's
left to himself. James Colburn and John Anderson star in The Old Man in
the Cave. Recommended viewing for the more imaginative amongst you. On the Twilight
Zone b see see