You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension,
a dimension of sun, and 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. I spoke earlier in
the show about how when season five of The Twilight Zone comes around, it
is a time of transition. Many of the directors who have helped to shape
the show have moved on at this point and new ones come in. And
the same can also be said of writers. And also the great Buck Houghton,
who produced the show for many years, had moved on at this point,
and that producer's post became a revolving door. Now Mark zickre in the
Twilight's own companion rights, including ninety Years Without Slumbering, six episodes produced by
William frug fully one fourths output were written by newcomers to the series. As
the results demonstrate, most of them just did not understand the form in previous
seasons. Virtually all the better episodes had running through them a sense of cosmic
justice, of people getting their justice heights, often with a full helping of
irony. The fantastic element that was the Twilight Zone was there for a reason.
If the main character was a rotter, it would give him his comeuppance.
If he was a decent sort, it would give him a second chance,
a magical opportunity to set his life right on the rare occasion that someone
in offensive ended up badly, as in time enough at last, there was
a deliberate sense of tragedy. A moral code was being applied in the six
episodes by the newcomers. Such is not the case. Instead, there is
a feeling of things gone tilt. Consequences are often unfairly meted out. Rather
than a cosmos in which every action brings about an equal reaction, this is
a universe ruled by chaos. Now, these are things that I've always tried
to keep an eye on through the years on the Twilight Zone, how this
justice is meted out. But these are strong words from Mark Zickrey. It's
always been my belief that when someone says the Twilight Zone doesn't do that,
there's usually an example of when it does. The scope is actually broader than
what a lot of people give a credit for, but there is still a
general feel and a way of doing things that does organize itself into a loose
formula. And I do think that Mark Zickrey has a point here that some
of the Twilight Zone episodes in season five so far, even ones written by
Sailing, have felt like they have strayed a bit from that loose formula.
Now, is this necessarily a bad thing or is it just that the show
is naturally evolving. Let's keep that in mind when we meet Sam Forcetman.
My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf, so it stood ninety years
on the floor, like the man in the song that he sings about.
Although we don't know it yet, Sam Forceman believes that his own life is
linked to the life of his clock. If it's true, then as long
as the clock keeps ticking, he has nothing to worry about. But as
we know, a clock will always stop sooner or later, and this is
something that in his advanced years, does start to worry Sam to the point
where he suffers from terrible insomnia and it makes him feel that he spent the
last ninety years without slumbering. Each man measures his time, some with hopes
and with choice, and with fear. Forstman measures his aladder time where a
grandfather's claque a unique mechanism was pendulum swings between life and death, a very
special claque that keeps a special kind of time in the Twilights on first broadcast
on December twentieth, nineteen sixty three, written by Richard Deroy but based on
a story by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Roger Kay. So a pretty
standard Whippanta sail in giving his opening narration and a generally expository one which is
fine but not a great deal more to say about dar Now, usually I
talk about the writer fairs, but I'm going to flip things around and talk
about our director tonight, Roger Kay. Like the last episode, this one
is directed by one of those Twilight Zone one time as a director who came,
made his episode and never returned again. And Roger Kay was born in
Egypt in nineteen twenty one, and his directing career wasn't massively prolific, with
only twenty five credits to his name between nineteen fifty and nineteen eighty one.
And generally it's made up of episodes of TV shows like Perry Mason, The
Untouchables, Black Saddle, but the credit that sticks out to me most of
all is that in nineteen sixty two he produced and directed the film The Cabinet
of Doctor Klagari. But by the time he arrives here in the Twilight Zone,
his career actually more or less ends. He directed an episode of a
TV show called Then Came Bronson in nineteen seventy, and then in nineteen eighty
one he wrote and directed the French film lapouse e le Privet. I guess
maybe he had other things going on in life to take up his time,
as he didn't direct again up to his death in two thousand and one.
As we heard at the beginning, Markzick rementions this one as one of those
episodes caught up in the chaos of newcomers coming to write for the show that
didn't fit into the usual order of things. But the thing is it actually
started out as being an episode of the show that was written by someone who
very much knew how things worked in the Twilight Turn, and that was George
Clayton Johnson. And in Unlocking the Door to a television Classic by Martin Graham's
Junior, he says, I was at dinner with Bake Granitt and Rod and
they were discussing how to do a few hour long episodes. I met with
Bake Granitt one morning with some people where he told me that the show was
going to make a return to a half hour. By then, I had
submitted the script to the show and Bill frug had replaced Bake Granitt. Bill
had purchased the story and hired a writer of his, Richard Deroy, to
write the script. It broke my heart that Bill wouldn't let me write the
script as an exercise. It was disappointing the storyline in many ways. Well,
I would have found a more clever way to do that. The actors
were perfect. I was tempted to have my name removed from the credits,
but I never did. I was tempted for them to use a pseudonym I
use instead, but I thought, oh what the hell, let it go
up there now. The pseudonym that he uses was Johnson Smith, and that's
what I actually saw credited on my version here. So I'm not quite sure
what George Clayton Johnson was referring to. But a nice bit of trivia is
that originally he called this episode tick of Time, a nice throwback to the
matheson episode Nick of Time Now. Richard De Roy was a waking TV writer
at the time and had been so for about a decade, with episodes of
things like Studio One and Craft Television Theater, and he came to the Twilight
Zone, wrote this episode, and then moved on. And there's nothing in
the rest of his career that particularly stands out to me. Generally, a
lot of episodes are television shows that aren't really in the consciousness much anymore,
a couple of soap operas. But the effect of his rewrite was actually quite
significant, and we'll break that down further later on. Was it an improvement
or wasn't it so? Just to set the scene here Before the opening narration,
we met Sam Forstman, a man of advancing years who spends a lot
of his time tending to a grandfather clock that's in the house where he lives
with his granddaughter and her husband. Even early on, we get the impression
that there is a link between Sam and this clock that goes beyond him just
being its owner. And I think we can tell that the episode is suggesting
a link between the clock and Sam's mortality. And if you know the song
that he's singing when the episode opens. Then you definitely know that's what they
are suggesting. What more on that later on? Is that all you're having?
I'm not hungry. What about the baby? I'm sure you don't have
to worry, Doug. Now, let's not start fighting again. But you're
gonna have to face the fact your grandfather is just not a well man.
Why don't we at least let mel Avery talk to him. You think I'm
crazy, don't you. Mel Avery is a psychiatrist. He's a headshrinker.
You don't have to tell me. I know Meel's been a friend of ours
for years. He and Doug went to college together. You've met him.
Oh, I've met lots of people. But I don't let them take her
with my head, Sam, No one's gonna tinker with your head. All
we're suggesting is that you see mel and talk to him. Well, why
do I need to see a psychiatrist? Well? Your preoccupation with the clock,
For instance, I'm fond of my clock, and that makes me crazy.
My, what a strange world we live in. You have to ad
Mitchell spend a lot of time with it, sometimes half the night, haha,
just because I haven't samily yet and working on the clock relaxes me.
That makes me a candidate for the looney Bin. I think this scene,
whether by accident or design, highlights something that is quite genuine, that once
we reach a certain age, any interests that we have there or maybe a
little different, a little out of the ordinary, are now seen as eccentricities
or, as Sam says, signs of losing one's marbles, as if once
a person reaches old age, their interests shouldn't go beyond gardening. And in
this case, just because Sam is very fond of his clock, they think
he's losing his mind. Now, granted he does hold a satan belief about
what will happen when the clock stops, but still, I think the point
is still here. Other people's perceptions of what you should or shouldn't do with
your time when you get older become very, very narrow. So while Sam,
Marney and Doug sit at the breakfast table, let's meet the young couple
whose house Sam lives in. Marnie Cake is played by Carolyn Keeney, and
she was born in Detroit in nineteen thirty but grew up in New Orleans and
she got a start in the theater before hitting television screens in the mid fifties.
And I think the thing that sticks out to me on her television resume
is that although she was only in one Twilight Zone, she was in that
very important episode of Desilu Playhouse, the Time Element, which was written by
Rod Sailing and is considered to be essentially the pilot for the Twilight Zone.
And although she's still only a young woman in this episode of the Twilight Zone
and she's only been on TV and movie screens for a decade, this is
actually one of the last TV appearances she would ever make. She was in
an episode of a show called Channing in nineteen sixty four, and then an
episode of The Bill Dana Show also in nineteen sixty four, and then an
episode of Vacation Playhouse in nineteen sixty five, and then four episodes of Lassie
in nineteen seventy and that's it. But she has done a lot of good
in her life as well, because after two and a half years of being
addicted to painkillers due to her physician's error, she kicked the habit herself and
then helped to found a program for other recovering addicts and In an interview with
Tom Weavers, she talks about her co star Ed Wynn and how he was
starting to become more freil with age. She said he would lean on me
and then he would say, oh, but you're pregnant. I don't want
to hate you. I said, but mister Wynne, I'm really not pregnant.
I'm playing pregnant. You can lean on me anytime you want to.
Oh, that's right, that's right, he laughed. He liked that I
had a big old pad on my tummy to make me look pregnant. I
had actually just had a baby, so I knew how it felt. So
I do remember he had a hard time going up and down the stairs.
The director had him do it quite often, and he was getting very winded,
and I said, well, let's take a little time out and take
a breath, and so we did. I remember that he was very eager.
He had to be pushing eighty, but he was eager and he was
interested. I think that's what kept him going, his eagerness and his interest.
And Marnie's husband, Doug is played by James Teak Callahan, and there's
not a massive amount of information about him out there. He was born in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, in nineteen thirty and saved in the Army between fifty
one and fifty three and then worked for the United States Postal Service. And
then when he was in school, a teacher suggested he try acting and the
rest is history. Now, when I watched this, I actually got and
confused with the actor Richard Haird, who I remember from the TV show V
from when I was a kid. But then when I looked up Richard haired
I discovered that it wasn't actually him. But Richard Head's IMDb bio says that
he gets mistaken for the actor Carl Malden, and they do look very much
alike. So you have these three actors who are the spitting image of each
other, all working in the business at around the same time. So back
in the episode, Sam goes to see the psychiatrist his granddaughter and her husband
suggests for him, and what follows is quite a nice scene where Sam really
dispels all these suspicions that people have about him, that he feels like the
clock is a living thing, and he even gets the doctor to admit that
he too has a grandfather clock that is very fond of therefore proving that that
is quite normal. So everything goes well until oh there is one thing,
doctor, Yes, when my clock stops ticking, I'll die. I really
believe that. Oh, there's no doubt about it. Does that make me
crazy? Crazy is a big word, but it is a rather strange idea.
If I had a clock like that, I get rid of it.
Oh, either the clock goes or I go that's what you're telling I didn't
say that. I'd think you did. Good day, doctor. Now,
because psychotherapy featured in this episode, an actual psychotherapist wrote a sailing afterwards,
and they said, my objections are not serious, and I submit them in
the hope that psychiatrists could be consulted in such programs to present a better image
of the psychiatrist and at the same time avoid misleading the population about psychological phenomena.
And he goes on to say, first of all, as a psychiatrist,
I would have guessed the patient's obsessional fantasy almost from the outset. Then
I would never have recommended to his family that he take the eyeing cure and
treat his harmless obsession by urging him to give up the clock. I might
have told him it was a crazy notion, but that he could have it
if he wished, and would have then aged the family to temper their judgment
of this lifelong obsession. And he goes on to say that to remove this
lifelong obsession from a person of his age is pretty much impossible. So it's
all very interesting, and the ability to let go of one's lifelong beliefs in
a nanosecond will certainly figure in the summing up of this episode. So let's
put that to one side for now and we'll return to it later. Now,
in that meeting, we hear that Sam's parents got the clock the day
that he was born, and that he believes when the clock stops ticking,
he will die. Now, one of the things that I often neglect here
on the Twilight Term podcast is talking about the music in the episodes. But
this is an episode where music is very important for two reasons, and both
of those reasons deserve to have some time spent on them. The first reason
is that this is the final episode with a great Bernard Heyman creates the score.
Now, I'm not sure I ever did a bio on Bernard Herman back
in the day, so let's do it here. He was born in nineteen
eleven to Russian Jewish parents, and the beginning of his musical story is a
pretty simple one. His father natured an interest in music from a young age
by taking him to the opera and encouraging him to learn the violin, and
Bernard studied at the Juilliard School and had his own orchestra by the age of
twenty. But it was a decision he made at twenty three that put him
on the path to being a composer and conductor whose work would forever be closely
tied to radio, television and film. He became a staff conductor at CBS
and specifically the music director at Columbia Workshop, a CBS radio show which was
famous for its experimental format, so he was not only able to consolidate his
working methods, but to be experimental in them too, and within nine years
he was the head of the CBS Symphony Orchestra, and as well as creating
hours of music for radio and television shows, his work in movies too,
has made him one of the composers that the likes of Martin Scorsese and Steven
Spielberg will always quote as being one of the greatest, and Bernard Herman worked
with Orson Wells, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese. He created the music for
classics like The Dads Stood Still, Psycho Cape Fear, and many many other
movies, and even now after his death in nineteen seventy five, pieces of
his music are still used and repaposed for modern projects. But what about his
work for our beloved show. Well, Apart from creating the original twilight Zone
theme, which went on to be replaced by the Marius Constant theme, he
also created the Outer Space Suite, a series of short, versatile pieces that
could be used over and over in different productions. So it wasn't specifically created
for the twilight Zone, but the Twilight Zone certainly got its use out of
it. But in terms of Twilight Zone episodes, Hayman directly scored seven of
them, and they were Where Is Everybody Walking Distance? And The Lonely in
season one, then I have The Beholder in season two, Little Girl Lost
in season three, and Living Tall and ninety Years Without Slumbering in season five.
So this is the final score that he did for the twilight Zone,
and let's have a listen to a small piece of it. So Herman is
using as a basis for his music the song My Grandfather's Clock, which was
written in eighteen seventy six by Henry Clay Wake and the song is from the
viewpoint of a grandchild who sings about his grandfather's clock, which was bought on
the day that his grandfather was born. But in the song, the clock
also had a kind of symbiotic relationship with the grandfather. It chimes when he
brings his new bride to the house, it sounds an alarm when he's about
to die, so that all of his family can gather around, and then
when he does die, the clock stops, never to go again. So
we can see how this song is closely tied to this episode. And the
earliest known recording of Grandfather's Clock is by a group called the Edison Quartet from
nineteen oh five. But this is a song that has been recorded over and
over by numerous artists over the years, more than I can possibly mention.
So let's have a listen to a sampling of some of them, beginning with
the Edison Quartet from nineteen oh five, then Larry Hooper in nineteen fifty six,
Tennessee Anie Ford in nineteen fifty nine, Cliff Richard and the Peter Crawford
Trio in nineteen sixty, and then versions by the Everly Brothers Bare Lives and
Johnny Cash real father Clark by the other Dawnal forter My grandfather's club was solde
forgot ninety years. It was taller by habit than the old man himself.
Go with ways, not of any ways more. It was bord from the
bole of the day that he was born, and was always his treasure and
crime. But it's done short, never to go again. When the old
old man died ninety years without slumbering his life second's numbering, it stopped short,
never to go again. Wend the old man. It was born on
the deal, and it was always his rejoy from it. Shot short point
by ninety years without slumbering. Jipp Jicks talk his life second snumbering Jick top
Jicks top to stop short never thought his twentyal man. In watching the pendulum
swing to and fro many hours he had spent as a boy in childhood and
manhood, the clock seemed to know, and it shared with his and his
joint, for it struck twenty four when he entered at the door with a
blooming and beautiful bride. But it stopped short, never to go again.
When the man it rang an alarm, and the dated off the iron and
alarm that four years had been gone, and we knew that his spirit was
bloaming for flight, that is, our forward departure had gone. Still the
clock kept the tie with the saw and muffled chime as we solidly stood by
his side. But it sh short, never to go again. When the
old bad big haty years without slumbering his life's second sumbery, it star short,
never to go again. When the old man and I guess that they
didn't have movies in the eighteen hundreds to make sequels of so in this case,
the original writer, Henry clay Work, wrote a sequel where a grandson
from the original song laments the fact that his grandfather's clock was sold and then
scrapped, and in its place is a wall clock, which he despises.
Once again, I have wron drew the old edtion the house where my grandfather
spent his ninety There are strangers in charge in the change. They have brought.
Cowen sends me even jeans year old club. When they bled you your
speechless fevery the name when we swapped you up case or their bane stuck out
ding, Oh, their bane stuck out thing, the bin stuck out ding
long brand the sleeve Sinny Stray Strange deves. So this episode is clearly an
adaptation of that song made into a television episode. And I can see why
George Clayton Johnson was the man to write this episode because he's always been the
Twilight Zone writer who seemed to be pondering life and death, trying to reframe
it, take us away from our usual fears of death and presenting it as
just another part of life, as he did in Nothing in the Dark.
But speaking of getting the clock, or at least move an it for now,
back in our episode, Sam Forceman has two delivery men bring the clock
downstairs, and you may notice that one of them is played by Chuck Hicks,
who played the boxing robot Maynard Flash in the episode Steel. But when
the clock is put in place, it momentarily stops. And when it stops,
Sam stops passing out on the stairs until the pendulum on the clock begins
to swing again. But why exactly is Sam wanting to move the clock?
Hello, Grandpa, I thought we'd give a try there, you know,
just to see how it looks. What do you think? I don't know,
Sam, take a look for yourself. It sticks out like a sore
thumb. I guess it does, Sam. We might as well be honest.
The doctor says the clock should go. The doctor said that. He
says, through being obsessed by the clock. He says, it's bad for
you, senile. That's what I really said, isn't it, no grandpa?
Yeah, tell me what you're to pump me away? Doesn't it?
No Grandpa? He didn't say that. Well, I'm not going to any
loony bin. I'll tell you what I am going to do. I'm going
to sell a clop. I think one of the things that I don't really
get in this episode is something that the psychiatrist pointed out earlier on Why does
everyone treat Sam's love of this clock as such a big deal. He does
seem to love it. He spends hours waking on it. It gives them
something to do, it gives them papers, and it gives them pleasure.
So what's wrong with that? Just let the man enjoy his clock. And
if his granddaughter and her husband's concern was that this is a kind of unhealthy
preoccupation. Then I don't think the episode really does a good job of explain
and why they think it's unhealthy. Yes, they send them to see a
psychiatrist, but you never really get the sense that they have a major concern
around Sam and the clock. It's more that this is an episode based on
a song and there needs to be some kind of conflict here that the song
just doesn't have. So there's all of this fuss around the clock, and
it just seems to be kind of manufactured to me. But now the decision
has been made to sell it. So while Sam arranges to sell his beloved
clock, let's meet the man who played him. It was probably about thirteen
or fourteen years ago now when I last spoke about Tonight's star ed Wynn,
when we spoke about the second Twilight Zone episode One for the Angels. Now,
I'm not sure what I said about and back then, so let's just
go over a few things. Now. He would have been about seventy three
years old when he filmed that one, so he's about seventy seven years old
when he made this one. So what's he been doing in the meantime?
Well, One for the Angels was released in nineteen fifty nine, and in
that same year he starred as Chris Kringle in the television version of Miracle at
thirty Fourth Street. He played a fairy godfather in the Jerry Lewis comedy cinder
Feller, a gender swapped reytelling of Cinderella. He was in an episode of
Rawhide, a couple of anthology shows, so he was still chugging along,
and following this he still had a couple more years of working them, which
included one of his most beloved roles when he played Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins.
And he also played Old Aram in the Bible movie The Greatest Story Ever
Told. And on June nineteenth, nineteen sixty six, at the age of
seventy nine, ed left us when he died of a sophogo councer and the
marker on his grave reads the year God thanks ed Wynn, and the entertainer
read Skelton said that his death is the first time that he made anyone sad.
Now. His co star Carol and Keaney said that Rod Sailing was on
set because he was also the producer, and she said he was there and
he was very protective of ed Wynne. He wanted to make sure that ed
Wynn had his chair and wanted to make sure that ed Winn was well taken
care of and they didn't wake him too hard. Roger Kay didn't do any
of that, but Rod Sailing was very instrumental in making sure that he was
well taken care of. Keenan Wynn, Edwin's son, was also there to
support his dad. I think he was worried about his father because his father
was in ill health, and Keenan Wynn was like, now, Dad,
I'm going to be right here. So I'm glad Edwin came back to the
Twilight tone. I only wish that this episode was later in the season,
considering his first episode was the second episode overall, although they didn't know her
at the time, the show was winding down at this point, heading to
its end, So I do think this is a nice book end with One
for the Angels, and there is a kind of nice mirror effect with the
two of them. In his first episode One for the Angels, he died
at the end and in this episode he lived, and there is a slightly
different flavor to his performance here. He plays her a little bit straighter than
in One for the angels, and there is a bit of melancholy about it
too. And months after the episode was filmed, Edwin sent Rod Sailing a
letter thanking him for the opportunity, and Rod Sailing replied, the wind legacy
to Sailing has been an incredible talent of longevity and the dignity and grace that
are in most short supply these days. So to Edwin, the kindly neighbor
that we wish we all had, we thank you for your services to the
twilight zone. Rest well, sir. So Sam passes on the clock to
his granddaughter's neighbor, which seems to be a compromise that everyone can be happy
with until the neighbor goes away and Sam is unable to get access to wind
up the clock. And we all know what will happen when the clock stops.
Don't worry morning it It's better this way, can I Gampa? Good
night? Sweet? Seemingly resigned to his fate, Sam falls asleep, and
when the clock stops, a spiritual version of him leaves his body. But
just as you think he's going to go quietly into the night, Sam,
old friend, it's been a good line, but now it's time to go.
Oh, don't let me detain you. How the heck did you get
in my bedroom? I don't believe we've been introduced. Your face is familiar.
I'm your spirit. Your time has come sail after all, you are
seventy six. Don't give me that spirit at seventy six? Step and who
says it's my time to go? Have you forgotten what your father told you
and your grandfather about what? Didn't they always tell you that when the cloque
winds down, you'll die. Yes, you know something. I used to
believe that stuff. Well you should have. They told you often that.
But that's silly, don't you know? There I do. I've been doing
psychiatrist so what So he told me he didn't think I needed the clock,
and he didn't think I was crazy, And you know what, he was
right and we are wrong. So the physical version of Sam decides that he
doesn't want to go. He wants to live, and he won't have his
life decided by a clock. In the Twilight Zone, companion Mark Zick's adamant
that George Clayton Johnson's original story was much better than what we got, and
he describes it like this. In the sensitively written original Johnson once again returned
to the themes of old age and fear of death. An old man who
lives with his pregnant granddaughter and her husband, believes he will die if his
clock ever stops. Pressured by the young people to get rid of the clock,
the old man gives it to an antique dealer, but later he changes
his mind and tries to struggle the huge clock home in a child's wagon with
the assistance of a neighborhood boy. It is an exhausting and hazardous ordeal,
made doubly so by the knowledge that a grandfather clock, in order to keep
ticking, must remain absolutely upright. When the old man tries to lift the
clock out of the wagon, it falls on top of him, it stops
ticking, and he dies. Several bystanders set the clock upright. At the
same moment that it begins to tick again. The man's granddaughter gives birth to
her baby, The cycle begins anew, and then Zichary goes on to say,
imagine, samforceman has staunchly held to his belief in the face of all
logic to the contrary, trumpeted it to a psychiatrist, even attempted breaking and
entering in order to keep the clock ticking, and what does he do at
the last possible moment, bladly talk himself out of his most strongly held belief
of over seventy years As forced men, Edwin is about as disarming and lovable
as one could hope for. But not even he can sell this bill of
goods, and George Clayton Johnson said it makes the plot trivial. If you're
going to get involved in his problems, you've got to believe his problems,
and if he doesn't believe in them, you feel cheated. And I have
to say I do agree with them on this one. I don't dislike the
episode as much as Mark Zickry does. In fact, I do like it,
but from the sounds of it, the original was just a much better
idea, and his observation that Sam just talks himself out of his belief with
with no real reason is accurate too. I think it might play better if
there was some actual trigger for it, like his niece was in the hospital
having the baby and he wanted to be around to see it. That stuff
is in the background, and he does say that he wants to see the
baby, but it just doesn't have any drama to it, and I think
from the sounds of it, the original has a real kind of poetry to
it. It's a meditation on life and death and how we face that transition.
The symbiotic relationship between the old man and the clock is kind of the
point. And as the song said, it stopped short, never to go
again when the old man died. But then George Clayton Johnson adds this wonderful
extra layer to it, rebase the cycle of life continues. The clock begins
again with a new life. I think that's beautiful, But in this one
Sam just decided that he's not going to die, So it does kind of
render the story a little pointless because the connection between the clock and Sam was
the point. But now we learn that there wasn't a connection after all,
or if there was one, Sam can quite easily break it. But I
guess to play devil's advocate and maybe give it some benefit of the doubt.
Maybe it can be looked at in a different angle. Is this story and
meditation on life and that we are all subject to the ticking of the clock.
But if you look after your clock, you can live a good,
long life. But don't get too preoccupied with it, or you'll miss the
life that is passing you by as you do. Or is it about a
boy who had an idea put in his head by his father and grandfather,
which essentially gave him this unhealthy fixation that stuck with him until he's able to
finally break it in the end. I think there is value in a story
like that, but I do feel that there is more groundwork that needed to
be done if that's the way they were going with it. So I think
I'm always going to prefer the sound of George Clayton Johnson's original story. But
I don't dislike what we've got here. It's probably bottom of the mid tier
for me. If nothing else, I think ed Wynn raised up what is
a flowed story, but flowed or not the story about such a likable man
who decides that he wants to live his remaining years on his own terms.
You know that is nice and sometimes maybe that's enough. Its heart is in
the right place, even if it's journey to the screen took some wrong turns.
Clocks are made by men. God creates time. No men can prolong
his allotted hours. He can only live them. To the fullest in this
world or in the Twilight Zone ninety years without Slumber. You know, as
someone who is discovering some of these episodes for the first time in season five,
it's certainly interesting to come across some quite unusual ones. But as you
know, my friend's over in the after Hours club over a Patreon dot com
slash Twilight's own podcast vote on every episode to say whether it is a top,
middle, or bottom episode. I don't think these results are too surprising.
Five percent said it is a top tier episode, fifty six percent said
it was a middle tier episode, and forty percent said it was a bottom
tier episode. You know, I kind of thought it'd be more or less
split between middle and bottom, so I'm not surprised by that at all.
Our friend uncommon Nasa says he hasn't seen it that many times, but ed
Wynn he alone carries it to mid tier. I like the obsessiveness about mortality
angle as a story line. It's different in theme than other episodes for so
late in the series. Our friend and author of the Twilight Zone Haiq,
says, good solid middle tier. We are conditioned in the series to the
idea of objects that have magical powers, So the swave is that this clock
doesn't have magic powers. It's all an obsession on the part of the protagonist,
the suspense of not knowing which it'll be as well done. Will we
watch this pace and die or is he in the grip of madness Alan Knightmare
of twenty thousand Feet or will the officer shoot him to death as he tries
to break into the neighbor's house while he went dark there at the end chat
okay. Our friend Jordan Dollock says, it's nice to see Ed's win.
He does a good job and is pretty engaging. But something about this episode
feels dull to me, like it drags more than usual. It has a
hard time holding my attention. I think I can see that point of view
for sure. Brian from Phoenix says middle Tier. I was initially impressed by
this episode until the end. I like how the grandfather let go of the
superstition that was keeping him from being present and in the moment. I compare
this similar theme to the episode Nick of Time, which also deals with allowing
superstitious beliefs to stand in the way of living your best life. That's an
interesting observation. Maybe that's why it was initially going to be called tick of
Time. Our old friend Steve Badger says, middle tier this one due to
the unexpected ending where the grandfather doesn't die. A nice story which follows the
theme of the song it's based on, but it drags a bit. Edwin
elevates the episode as the Old Man, but he's better in the season one
one for the Angel's episode, as it's a better story in my opinion,
Thank you, Steve. Brian Griffin says, no astronauts or end of the
world scenarios. At least there were not any genies in the bottle or a
genie in the clock middle it is Our old friend All Sharedesman says this is
possibly the waste episode of the series. To me, okay, I dream
of genius waste, but it's a close second. It's as if someone took
an intriguing George Clayton Johnson's story and handed it to Jack Laird for a rewrite,
only without the vampires the bottom of the bottom. All come on,
man, don't make me invoke the Bard here. I really don't want to
go there. Okay, thank you, al Our friend Ben Carkem says,
I sort of agree with Zickary's opinion on this one. The original idea sounds
so much better. The ending really let it down. Fortunately, Edwin makes
it worth watching Bottom of the Middle tier for me, You and me both
ben Our friend Joe Brown says, the episode begins with what looks to be
a solid idea. A clock gifted a bath clicking time away can cause death
of the receiver if it stops working. The idea made me wonder would the
clock stop waking if the receiver dies first Interesting. I thought the episode could
be a race of sorts see which one outlasts the other, but that's not
what we get. We get a story about aging, and the clock is
just a device for the protagonist to wager against the threat of death. And
Joe says the episode lost it for me when his inner self rises from the
bed and confronts himself and then proceeds to fade away as Sam tells him he's
not ready. I wonder if the director wanted to try this camera trick,
as it is filmed well for the scene, it just doesn't work for the
story. The supporting characters are uninteresting. The daughter is too doting, the
son in law is the voice of reason, and the baby is coming,
so the clock has to go. I don't get that. Me neither.
I would love a grandfather clock, you know. I think they're wonderful.
You know, I'm not quite sure what everyone has against them. Oh when
the next door neighbor just happens to love antiques and the clock now has a
new home, Well, everyone loves her grandfather clock. Joe, you know,
apart from apart from the husband, of course, and Joe goes on.
Everything sets up nicely. This is a good example of why people like
Season five the least. Stories like this that have poor dialogue and rush conclusions
make us yearn for when the Twilight Zone was good. Thank you, Joe.
Okay, so here's a take that I like. I like it when
you know someone champions the underdog a bit sometimes, and our friend Ben Harg
does that. He says ninety years without slumbering his top tier for me.
Although I consider this episode to be a straightforward drama where nothing supernatural or otherwise
twilight zonly a cares. As a boy, Edwin's character was teased by his
father and grandfather into believing that his life was tied to the continued operation of
the clock. When the clock eventually stops, he is forced to recognize that
his beliefs have been rejected by his lived experience. In other words, he
still has a bit of growing up to do. The conversation with his soul
occurs in a dream like state and symbolizes the process of grieving, of internal
negotiation and separation from beliefs he can no longer hold. He is, in
a sense reborn. He is newly able to explore life without an eight foot
tall grandfather clock weighing him down. As for why I consider this a top
tier episode, I just really enjoy the story and the ed Wing character I
can identify with him taking longer than average to shed unexamined childlike beliefs and grow
up. As it slowly dawns on him that his dependence on the clock is
threatening his most important relationships, he makes incremental compromises in favor of those relationships
by moving the clock downstairs and eventually out of the house altogether. He goes
to heroic lengths to keep the clock going. When he is ultimately thwarted,
he calmly lays down and accepts his fate in an act of inspiring courage.
Saying good night to his granddaughter while believing that his death will occur that night
is one of the most beautiful and poignant moments in the entire series. You
know, I really like your take, Ben. I think all it needed
was maybe a little detail for me to kind of go with that more.
I just think that his about face was a bit quick, you know.
I think it needed maybe a bit more drama or a catalyst there, like
maybe his granddaughter is rushed to the hospital to have the baby or something like
that, you know, something that makes them kind of say, okay,
all right, I'm going to stay alive. I just don't think he had
that, But I'm glad that you do, and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I always think it's nice when someone has a really good take on something,
even if it's not what my take generally is. Okay, Roger Moore
says, I'll make a short and sweete bottom tier Twilight Zone for me.
Thank you, Roger, and our friend Josh Chambers says, I too,
will be brief on this entry. While I'm not exactly a cheerleader for this
episode, I'm just happy to see Edwin make a return to the twilight Zone.
It would have been fascinating to see him play more roles on the show,
and I wonder how he would have fared and kick the can you know
that would have made a nice trilogy, you know, the Aging trilogy.
I guess see him. Yeah, have these kind of three different fates.
I absolutely agree. Good call, Josh, Thank you. So if you
want to take part in these polls, maybe get your thoughts read out on
the show like that, then go over to patreon dot com slash twilight Zone
podcast where there's a whole load of things things I can add free version of
the show. Podcasts about Night Gallery, the eighties twilight Zone, the two
thousands twilight Zone, and we are currently going through again Jordan Peel's twilight Zone
and all manner of things. And also a quick reminder that the twilight Zone
Hiku by our friend Chad Ellis Boykin is out in the shops. Pay Perfect
stocking filler for your friends for Christmas, and the audio book will be following
along soon read by yours truly. Now, speaking of the after Hours Club,
I usually give a role call of the new members. There's a few
more this time around because Patreon has changed where you can now become a member
for free. So I'm not quite sure how it works, but I don't
think you get any access to the paid content, but you can kind of
see what's going on. I think maybe comment on things. I'm not too
sure on that, but anyway, you can become a member of the After
Hours Club for free. So there are a lot of new members. I'm
just gonna run through them real quick, and maybe there might be a bit
of crossover. So we have Trevor, dobbyn David Hill, bud garza Oski,
Whoski, d Jenny L. Scott, Melton sih P, Matt Hickey,
I Am not sleepy, very good, Renee Genevekia, Jeffrey Flam,
Jason V. Brock, good friends of the show from back in the day.
I believe he's doing a new Twilight Zone book as well, so maybe
we'll speak to him again in the future. Rosemary Armstrong, kl Pearson,
h Jimmy Titus, mister Tspoon, Tony David Trimbowli, Matt Helm, Slay
Girls from the House of Seven Joys, Okay Kyle Davis, Lucas Malone,
Raven Peterson, Brittna, Jeff Russell, Adam Scriven, Aaron Lawrence, and
Joe Mayer. Welcome one and all to the After Hours Club. Now,
normally I would go over to Road Sailing at this point to tell you what's
coming up next. But things are going to be a little bit different because,
as you know, the twilight Zone podcast, it tends to come out
maybe about once a month, and that is because it takes a lot of
way to go into that. Now leading up to the Christmas period because of
various professional commitments and so on, it's just a very very busy time for
me. So it's going to be difficult to get another twilight Zone podcast out
in November or December. However, that doesn't mean that there's not going to
be any twilight Zone podcast because in December, there's actually going to be twenty
four of them, and what that's going to be is a twilight Zone Podcast
adven calendar. So there's going to be twenty four short twilight Zone podcasts about
questions or discussion points that the members of the After Hours Club have suggested.
So these are going to be like five minutes maybe ten of the most podcasts
that I will put out every day in December, so it all goes to
plan, which I think it is. I've got some great questions. Then
that's what it'll be. Twenty four Twilight Zone podcasts, one every day leading
up to Christmas Day. Now, I do have a plan to hopefully put
something out on Christmas Day, but that's going to depend on time. I'll
really have to see how that goes. But it would be nice to give
you this Christmas present on Christmas Day. We will see how it goes though,
So no road sailing to tell you what's coming up next. But there
will be lots of content leading up to Christmas and I hope you enjoy you
and then it will be business as usual again in January. So that's all
for me. I'll speak to you soon. By for now, Fi