WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:11.800 You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension, 2 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:17.920 a dimension of sun, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. 3 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:23.440 You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas. 4 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:38.679 You've just crossed over into the twilight zone. At certain times in history, 5 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:45.719 there are inventions that revolutionize the way we live our lives. At the 6 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:52.039 moment of this recording, the topic on everybody's lips is one that some belief 7 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:57.079 will be the downfall of humanity, but others believe it will be our savior. 8 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.560 Either way, it will certainly shape how we do things in the future, 9 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.680 for better or for wares. And the subject is, of course artificial 10 00:01:07.719 --> 00:01:12.640 intelligence or AI. But while it feels like something relatively new to us in 11 00:01:12.680 --> 00:01:18.719 its current form, fiction has been reaching towards it for over a hundred years. 12 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:23.079 Even if it didn't always have the language to hand that we use now, 13 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:32.079 it was still reaching towards those concepts even as far back as eighteen sixteen, 14 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:37.840 stories were being told of automatons. The Sandman by E. T. 15 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:45.799 A. Hoffman features an automaton called Olympia who appears humanlike but lacks true consciousness. 16 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:53.519 In nineteen twenty. The story Rossum's Universal Robots by Carol Kpeck introduced the 17 00:01:53.719 --> 00:02:00.040 term robot to the world, derived from the check word robota mean forced labor. 18 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:07.960 The robots in this play are artificial creations with human like qualities, raising 19 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:15.719 questions about their sentience and the consequences of their existence, and there are numerous 20 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:24.439 fascinating explorations on the relationship between human beings and artificial beings, a rich philosophical 21 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:31.120 vein to be mined. So what does all of that have to do with 22 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:36.960 this? Where are my wilking blossom? What's on your mind? Your hot 23 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:42.240 chocolate is ready. You told me you were going to take a nap sometime. 24 00:02:42.400 --> 00:02:45.960 Try extending yourself, uncle, just sufficiently to let me know where you 25 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.400 are on occasion. Well, now, Barber of my love, I think 26 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:53.639 I'm an arrow that downfoil. If I'm not upstairs in my bedroom or in 27 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:57.759 the study, that I'm downstairs in my laboratory. Any kids, wherever I 28 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:00.080 am, you can ring the hot chocolate. And if I'm not, he 29 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:04.680 means I've dropped it on route. You can bring me a bottle for malde 30 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:08.000 hide and a rose. He was such a humorous to uncle you should have 31 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:13.360 gone into burlesque. Well, there's you ought to been more comfortable than you 32 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:21.479 tonight will ponder whether Tonight's Twilight Zone is a rich examination of the relationships between 33 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:28.400 life and artificial life or just an exercise in colorful insults. When we meet 34 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:34.159 Simon Polk and his niece Barbara Polk him an elderly man in need of care. 35 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:38.840 Here a younger woman giving it. But a harmonious household. This is 36 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:46.719 not and we'll find out why when we meet Uncle Simon dramatist persona Mister Simon 37 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.680 Pulk, a gentleman who has lived out his life in a gleeful rage, 38 00:03:52.199 --> 00:03:54.599 and the young lady who's just beat the hasty retreat. As mister Polk's niece, 39 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:59.639 Barbara, she has lived her life as if during each ensuing hour she 40 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:02.400 had a dentist appointment. There's had a third member of the company soon to 41 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:06.680 be seen. He now resides in the laboratory, and he is the kind 42 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:14.639 of character to be found only in the Twilight Zone. First broadcast on November 43 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:19.600 fifteenth, nineteen sixty three, written by Rodd Sailing and directed by Don Siegel, 44 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:27.439 so a Pretty by the Numbers open a narration from Sailing quite ordinarily staged, 45 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:32.720 and I think the episode as a whole is quite a stagy episode, 46 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:39.600 where it does have that feeling of being very set bound, but we'll come 47 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:44.720 back to that later. It is also a Rodd Sailing penned episode and not 48 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:48.839 based on anything that I can find, and none of our main Twilight Zone 49 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:56.160 commentators offer up any inspiration that Sailing might have had for this one either. 50 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:01.959 And while I spoke briefly about the relationship between beings and artificial beings in the 51 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:09.319 opening of tonight's show, our initial focus is on the relationship between Simon Polk 52 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:15.560 and his niece Barbara. Barbara question go on, why do you stay here? 53 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:21.560 I was under the impression that I was needed. You are and explains 54 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:27.279 why I keep you here, And it doesn't even remotely suggest why you stay. 55 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.959 You would like me to be quite honest, I presume indeed you may 56 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.839 be mature on beauty, and a lack of Canada has never been one of 57 00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:43.240 your deficiencies. I stay. I live for the moment when I can see 58 00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:47.680 you buried, when I come back from your funeral, I'm going to open 59 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:55.160 a bottle of wine. I want to be compensated Uncle Simon, for twenty 60 00:05:55.240 --> 00:06:02.800 five years of being shrieked at, insulted, be rated, humiliated, and 61 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:11.240 stepped on like an old rug. Is that sufficiently honest for you? Well? 62 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:15.600 I wish you well, my good and faithful Barbara, and I'm asked 63 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:19.959 I offer you this observation. If you had an ounce of gristle or an 64 00:06:19.959 --> 00:06:25.639 inch of intestines, you have murdered me years ago. And as for your 65 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:30.800 twenty five years of abject misery nounspeakable indignation, you deserve it. Kid. 66 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:36.360 I mentioned that this is quite a stagey feeling episode. The set feels quite 67 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:42.040 close, not quite claustrophobic, but you never get the impression that you're in 68 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:46.879 anything but a set. The entire thing was filmed on Stage eighteen at MGM 69 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:53.839 Studios, but I do think occasionally with some of the movements of the camera 70 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:58.959 you get the impression. At least it has a director who is trying to 71 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:02.600 put a little bit of most and not just have the camera bolted down in 72 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:08.480 this quite small space. So the man who is making the best of what 73 00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:14.680 he has is the director Don Siegel. In a season that has already seen 74 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:19.319 the Twilight's earned debut of one superstar director, Richard Donner. We now have 75 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:24.680 another, the great Don Siegel, and he was born in nineteen twelve in 76 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:30.600 Chicago, Illinois, and studied at Cambridge University in England and also in Paris. 77 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:35.120 He began his career as an editor and a second unit director at Warner 78 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:41.720 Brothers, where he directed two Oscar winning shorts, Starr in the Night and 79 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.560 Hitler Lives in nineteen forty five, and his first feature film as a director 80 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:53.639 was The Verdict in nineteen forty six, and come the nineteen fifties he made 81 00:07:53.720 --> 00:07:59.920 a series of well crafted and influential B movies such as Riot and Cell by 82 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:05.399 Eleven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Lineup. And he also directed 83 00:08:05.399 --> 00:08:13.160 Elvis Presley in Flamingo Star in nineteen sixty and then in nineteen sixty two he 84 00:08:13.279 --> 00:08:18.480 made the Steve McQueen movie Hell Is for Heroes. Now, quite often when 85 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:24.600 we come across these superstar directors or even actors who go on to great things, 86 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:30.439 the twilight zone is one of the early entries in their career, or 87 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:35.159 perhaps they've been in the business for a decade or more but not really had 88 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:39.840 their big break, but with Don Siegel. He had already had some notable 89 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:45.120 success in the movie business, so I was quite surprised to see him directing 90 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.320 The Twilight Zone at this point in his career. He'd already learned his trade 91 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:56.320 as an editor and second unit director in the late thirties and early forties, 92 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:01.399 so by the time the late forties arrived, he was already directing mainly features, 93 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:07.080 although he did direct three episodes of a TV series called The Doctor in 94 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:13.399 the early fifties, and one of the episodes had the suitably sailing esque title 95 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.320 No Gods to Serve and another was called Those Who Wait, and both of 96 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:26.600 them were written by Rod Sailing, which may explain why he eventually ended up 97 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.840 on The Twilight Zone. So when I think of Don Siegel, my mind 98 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:37.519 generally goes to his more tough, cynical kind of action adventure films that he 99 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:43.679 made in the seventies. He had a long and fruitful collaboration with Clint Eastwood, 100 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:50.399 who considered him his mentor and dedicated his film Unforgiven to Don Siegel, 101 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:56.919 and they worked together on five films, including Coogan's Bluff, Dirty Harry, 102 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:03.759 Two Mules for Sister Sarah, Guild an Escape from Alcatraz and Don Siegel also 103 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:11.960 directed John Wayne's final film, The Shooterest in nineteen seventy six, and Siegel 104 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:16.559 died on April twentieth, nineteen ninety one, in California at the age of 105 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:20.759 seventy eight. And while I don't think this is the best look and Twilight 106 00:10:20.840 --> 00:10:24.759 Zone episode you're ever going to see, the occasional movements of the camera maybe 107 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:30.039 give us a clue that this is a director who is more than just a 108 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:35.080 journeyman picking up his next paycheck. Now in our story, one of the 109 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:41.840 threads that runs through the start of the episode is just what is in Uncle 110 00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:50.720 Simon's laboratory? Well? What have we here? I was looking for looking 111 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:58.480 for what I But perhaps you might show me what you were building. I'd 112 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:03.399 like to know. And John, that's the only character trade you share with 113 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:09.200 normal women. Curiosity, He never will curiosity. Well, one day you'll 114 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:15.279 know what I'm building, But until then, you'll night crawling imitation of a 115 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:20.240 female gender. I can't you see? He rights my door? Break ahead, 116 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:26.399 Now gone upstairs and engage yourself in a nerve wrecking game of dominoes. 117 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:33.559 We spend a large portion of this episode listening to the insults that Uncle Simon 118 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:41.120 directs towards Barbara, what we notice is that they aren't just a direct attack 119 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:48.679 on hair, but a lot of his insults are attacks on hair femininity. 120 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:52.600 More often than not, they aren't just about her as a person boy hair 121 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:56.639 as a woman, and early on, she very much has that look of 122 00:11:56.679 --> 00:12:03.480 someone who has gradually had all of the confidence stripped away from her. She 123 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:07.240 has this very dowdy, plain look about her, and sure she is clean 124 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:11.639 and well kept, but there's no hint of her doing anything to make herself 125 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:18.200 feel good or glamorous. She dresses for function because when is the last time 126 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:24.399 someone told her that she looked nice? That part of her life just doesn't 127 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:31.559 exist. So while she receives yet another onslaught from Uncle Simon, let's meet 128 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:37.000 the woman who played her. Barbara is played by Constance Ford and she was 129 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:39.639 born in nineteen twenty three in the Bronx, New York City, and she 130 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:46.000 first came to prominence as a model, becoming the face of Elizabeth Arden lipstick 131 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:50.879 in nineteen forty one. And Ford's journey into acting began in the world of 132 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:56.000 theater, where she honed her skills and This led to her breakthrough role on 133 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:03.399 Broadway in the play The Innocent Voyage in nineteen forty three, and this early 134 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:09.120 success laid the foundation for what would become quite a long career. Her television 135 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:15.519 career began in nineteen fifty with a string of roles in the anthology series of 136 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:22.519 the Day like The Inner Sanctum, The Pepsicolla Playhouse, and also Craft Television 137 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:28.759 Theater, where she first worked with Rod Sailing on a nineteen fifty three episode 138 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:33.879 called The Blues for Joey Manotti, which he wrote. Now, I was 139 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:37.840 unable to track that one down, so I'm not quite sure if it still 140 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:45.200 exists, but the one line IMDb description says it's about a sad but talented 141 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:50.159 honky Tonk piano player who reflects his mood in his music. Now, knowing 142 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:56.200 how Sailing would revisit certain characters and rewake them down the line, I do 143 00:13:56.360 --> 00:14:01.080 wonder whether that's a proto passage for trump it. So by the time she 144 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:07.519 hit the Twilight Zone, Constance Ford was a thirteen year veteran of television, 145 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:11.879 and apparently she had wanted to be on the Twilight Zone for some time, 146 00:14:11.279 --> 00:14:16.679 and Martin Graham's junior documents in Unlocking the Door to a television classic that on 147 00:14:16.720 --> 00:14:24.000 September twenty seventh, nineteen sixty she sent a telegram to Sailing asking him to 148 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:28.120 watch Thriller that evening, and it's this that then prompted Rodd Sailing to cast 149 00:14:28.360 --> 00:14:35.399 in this episode. Now, strangely, Constance Ford only had six credits to 150 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:41.159 her name after The Twilight Zone, five of them beginning in the nineteen sixties 151 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:46.120 and then a one off in nineteen seventy four. But this wasn't because she 152 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:52.600 quit acting, but because she became the hardest working type of TV actor of 153 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:58.240 them all, a soap opera actor, and she joined the show Another World 154 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:03.000 in nineteen sixty seven, where she played the character of Ada Hobson, who 155 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:09.559 would go through various name changes through the years, as she was presumably married 156 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:13.480 on the show. But once she was on the show, that became her 157 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:20.919 primary work between the years of nineteen sixty seven to nineteen ninety two, for 158 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:26.960 a staggering two thousand, three hundred and ninety nine episodes, and it was 159 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:31.279 a role that would take her almost to the end of her life, because 160 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:37.600 she died on February twenty sixth nineteen ninety three when she passed away at the 161 00:15:37.639 --> 00:15:41.080 age of sixty nine in Los Angeles. But how is she in this? 162 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:48.799 I think it is worth noting the evolution of the viewer sentiment towards her character. 163 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:56.480 Initially we find her to be quite sympathetic as she endured the Verbel abuse 164 00:15:56.039 --> 00:16:00.720 while she cared for Uncle Simon, But then as the true motives behind her 165 00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:08.919 presence are revealed, that sympathy starts to wane. So Fords skillfully portrays Barbara 166 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:18.519 as emotionally norm having chosen to sacrifice any semblance of personal happiness for the allure 167 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:22.639 of wealth. But at times you see that the armor that she's built up 168 00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:30.360 only protects her so much. Some of Uncle Simon's barbs still gets through, 169 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.519 and in the scene outside his lab at about seven minutes into the episode, 170 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:40.879 you can see that as words really do still hate a times. So it's 171 00:16:40.919 --> 00:16:47.519 a character who pays a high price for her decisions, which renders her hauntingly 172 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:53.200 devoid of inner life. Who came here twenty five years ago when you were 173 00:16:53.279 --> 00:17:00.360 crippled and sick and couldn't move? Who came here and Nurse do keept you 174 00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:07.160 alive? You? Did you did you scouting female ape? No, let's 175 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:11.680 get down the cases. Why did you come? Was it that a love, 176 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:17.720 Barbara? Was he that helpitating a passion or a flag boast of loyalty? 177 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:22.039 I'll tell you why you came. You stayed on month after month, 178 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:26.319 year after year, because every prayer that came out of your mouth was a 179 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:30.720 supplication that I die before the next morning. So don't go maun to your 180 00:17:30.720 --> 00:17:37.079 sweetness is of me, you thin lipped toothpig nigged tonither. Everything you did 181 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:44.000 for me you did for greed. Greed greathe so big, so thick, 182 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:48.119 so heavy that it brought it out even the hatred inside you. Well, 183 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:51.839 let me tell you something. You money seek drone. You get paid off 184 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:56.160 in you course, but before that payoff, you pay through every pot in 185 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:11.599 your body. You pay you are the harby you. So here's the point 186 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:17.079 in the episode where the crux of the relationship is revealed. Barbara came to 187 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:22.200 care for her sake uncle all of those years ago, but he seems to 188 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:27.119 have gotten the impression that this wasn't a truly altruistic act. She did it 189 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:32.880 because she knew one day he would die, and if she cared for him, 190 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:37.119 his fortune would likely come to hair, so he is hanging on for 191 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:41.759 as long as he can. But now the gloves are off, and after 192 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:48.440 a particularly vicious verbal assault from Uncle Simon, he raises his cane as if 193 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:53.720 to hit her, and when Barbara stops it with her hand, Uncle Simon 194 00:18:53.839 --> 00:19:02.200 takes a fatal fall down the stairs. Now, as originally scripted and originally 195 00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:07.680 filmed, there was an extra scene here that didn't make the cut. After 196 00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:11.319 Uncle Simon falls down the stairs, we cut to a scene in the study 197 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:18.119 upstairs where a plane closed police officer is asking Barbara questions about what's happened. 198 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:23.440 She says that she heard a crash, went to open the basement door and 199 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:30.559 found Uncle Simon dead, and Martin Graham's junior documents in Unlocking the Door to 200 00:19:30.640 --> 00:19:36.039 a television classic that the officer says, I can imagine how close you two 201 00:19:36.079 --> 00:19:40.920 were, and she looks up as if searching for another meaning, then, 202 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:47.440 seeing the sympathetic face, remarks, you have no ideal, lieutenant, And 203 00:19:47.559 --> 00:19:53.359 after the officer leaves, Barbara smashes up Uncle Simon's ashtrays and pipes. And 204 00:19:53.480 --> 00:19:59.559 the actor who played the officer was John mcleam and this would have been his 205 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:04.279 second and twilight own episode after playing one of the neighbors in the episode The 206 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.279 Shelter. But there is also a rather strange bit of business that would have 207 00:20:10.359 --> 00:20:15.279 featured in this part of the episode two that didn't seem to make the cut. 208 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:22.480 Because this episode was sponsored by the American Tobacco Company and because there was 209 00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:29.000 this scene where Barbara smashes up Uncle Simon's pipes. The company wrote to the 210 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:33.759 producer, Bake Granite, and they were saying that the episode had scenes which 211 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:40.400 make tobacco and pipe smoking appear on savory and at times Barbara says the lines 212 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:45.000 get rid of your ugly smelling pipe ashes and other things to do with smoking, 213 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:49.000 And they go on to say, we hope you will make every effort 214 00:20:49.440 --> 00:20:55.759 to alter these so that the American Tobacco will have no objection. Now, 215 00:20:55.799 --> 00:21:00.359 Bare Granite responded dramatically, speaking, it seems to me that there is a 216 00:21:00.400 --> 00:21:06.519 misinterpretation of the meaning of the pipe and tobacco in the story. First, 217 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:11.680 I would like to point out that the prototypes of the character are many nuclear 218 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:18.319 physicists and scientists who are preoccupied pipe smokers. What untidiness accrued in their nature 219 00:21:19.039 --> 00:21:26.200 was and is a preoccupation with the more important things in their lives. It 220 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:30.640 is Barbara, his niece, a partial psychotic who objects to his smoking, 221 00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:36.480 which is obviously a joy to him since there are so many pipes present. 222 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.599 Barbara then, of course, is adverse to a symbol that gives him constant 223 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:48.440 happiness. The pipe serve as a positive reminder of what he loved and she 224 00:21:48.640 --> 00:21:56.680 hated. Now, irrespective of Granite's explanations, it seems that these things would 225 00:21:56.720 --> 00:22:00.599 either never filmed or hit the cutting room floor because they aren't really present in 226 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:07.079 the episode. So, after Uncle Simon dies, Barbara proclaims to the world 227 00:22:07.359 --> 00:22:11.799 that she's back. But now it's time to see where the hair plan to 228 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:18.319 inherit. Uncle Simon's fortune comes to fruition, but she's faced with some quite 229 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:25.599 strict conditions for hair. Uncle's well will very explicitly requires that you throw away 230 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:30.200 nothing. You keep everything intact. I see the house, it's furnishings. 231 00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:36.240 Everything goes to you in perpetuity. The proviso is, of course that you 232 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:41.319 remain here. Where would I go? This is my home, of course, 233 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:48.480 of course, But the document is quite clear and it's intent everything will 234 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:52.559 remain in your name so long as you're on the premises. The same thing 235 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:56.079 applies to the various securities and the cash, which is quite siteable. It's 236 00:22:56.119 --> 00:23:00.839 been set up in trust for you. You to draw all the interest accruing 237 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:06.160 so long as you remain in the house. Entertainment over the years has made 238 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:11.960 great use of this device, the device of a will having some kind of 239 00:23:11.440 --> 00:23:18.640 condition attached to it that a character has to follow to the letter, otherwise 240 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:23.640 they won't be able to keep their inheritance. A couple of prime examples or 241 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:32.160 the films Brewster's Millions, the nineteen forty five original starring Denis O'Keefe and the 242 00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:38.640 nineteen eighty five remake starring Richard Pryor. In each version, Monty Brewster has 243 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:45.039 to spend a particular amount of money in a short time in order to get 244 00:23:45.119 --> 00:23:49.920 his main inheritance. But do these type of conditions hold water? Do the 245 00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:56.640 conditions imposed on Barbara by Uncle Simon hold water? Are they actually enforceable? 246 00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:02.599 So I of course embarked on some light research, but please, if there 247 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:06.880 are any lawyers out there who can shed more light on it, then do 248 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:11.559 let me know. There are certain rules in British law, and I'm assuming 249 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:17.880 in US law as well, to govern what kind of conditions you can and 250 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:23.400 can't put on a will. For example, a universal one is that you 251 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:29.559 can't put a condition on that a person must commit a crime in order to 252 00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:34.839 get inheritance, which sounds reasonable enough. So there are conditions that are classified 253 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:41.400 as uncertain conditions, and these are conditions that may be void if they are 254 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:48.160 too uncertain to be enforced, if the wedding of the condition is too vague, 255 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:53.640 or a court would actually have difficulty in applying the condition. And one 256 00:24:53.680 --> 00:25:00.640 of these uncertain conditions is that you can't apply a condition to a will terminating 257 00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:07.680 a beneficiary's interest in a house if the beneficiary is not residing there personally. 258 00:25:08.400 --> 00:25:12.559 So not to spoil the party here, but these conditions that Barbara must live 259 00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:18.839 by, from the sounds of it, might not necessarily be enforceable. But 260 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:22.079 again that's me with my limited knowledge of the law, and perhaps at this 261 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:26.400 time the law was different, who knows. But just for any of you 262 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:30.759 out there in this kind of situation, take heart, because there may be 263 00:25:30.839 --> 00:25:34.839 a way out, unless, of course, you're being forced to care for 264 00:25:34.880 --> 00:25:40.119 your robost uncle. I'm not quite sure where the law sits on that one, 265 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:44.880 but in the Twilight turne it seems to be just fine, because one 266 00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:48.079 of the stipulations of the will is that Barbara needs to care for one of 267 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:53.359 her uncle's experiments, and this will be checked upon each week to make sure 268 00:25:53.400 --> 00:26:04.079 that she is doing it. Mechanical man built by your late uncle, Simon 269 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:14.240 Pope. Your opening the door has activated all of my upper rating relays. 270 00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:22.200 Be patient with me, because according to plant, according to plant, according 271 00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:30.000 to plant, according to it will be several days before I can function at 272 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:47.920 maximum capacity. I bid you greeting Hello, barbar Rock. Now, of 273 00:26:47.960 --> 00:26:52.759 course we all recognize the distinctive shape of this robot as Robbie, the robot, 274 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:59.480 famous for being in Forbidden Planets, The Invisible Boy, and several other 275 00:26:59.559 --> 00:27:04.160 movies and TV shows where he was generally voiced by an actor called Marvin Miller, 276 00:27:04.759 --> 00:27:10.240 But on this occasion he's voiced by the actor Vic Perron, who has 277 00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:15.559 appeared in the Twilight Zone before in People Are Alike All Over and The Trade 278 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:21.079 Ins, but also voice to control voice for that other famous anthology, The 279 00:27:21.200 --> 00:27:26.799 Outer Limits. But for this episode, Robbie has some other alterations too, 280 00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:30.640 his chess place has been changed from the one who wore in Forbidden Planet, 281 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:37.400 but he also no longer has all of those wonderful moving parts within the dome 282 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:42.759 that forms his head. For this appearance, the internal wakings were replaced with 283 00:27:42.799 --> 00:27:51.000 this book at like headpiece within the dome, possibly to differentiate him from his 284 00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:55.799 Forbidden Planet look, but I also think it has the effect of making him 285 00:27:55.799 --> 00:28:02.720 look like a blank canvas, a canvas waiting to be imprinted on. So 286 00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:07.440 notice the change in Barbara now that Uncle Simon is dead. She wears make 287 00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:12.240 up, Her hair is made up nicely. She wears this glamorous outfit which 288 00:28:12.359 --> 00:28:17.160 does look a little like the drapes that she's standing in front of in the 289 00:28:17.319 --> 00:28:22.599 scene. But still she has transformed, no longer subject to the abuse of 290 00:28:22.680 --> 00:28:26.640 Uncle Simon, and with a healthy bank account, she has started to become 291 00:28:27.079 --> 00:28:30.960 the woman that she wanted to be. But while Robbie the Robot tries to 292 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.759 gain his faculties, lets meet the man whose faculties he's gaining. Uncle Simon 293 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.319 is played by Cedric Hardwick in one of the final roles he ever played, 294 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:48.000 as he would sadly pass away a year after this episode was released, and 295 00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:53.039 he only played three roles after this one, and this episode has yet another 296 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:57.359 link to the Outer Limit because one of those roles was in the episode The 297 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:03.279 Form of Things Unknown, which has a curious kind of history to it that 298 00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:07.440 had come back to in a moment. So Hardwick was born in Lye, 299 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:11.400 England, in eighteen ninety three, so would have been about seventy years old 300 00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:17.480 at this point. In his younger years in England, after failing to achieve 301 00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:22.680 the necessary grades to become a doctor, he attended the Royal School for Dramatic 302 00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:26.480 Art, but the outbreak of World War One halted his acting career for many 303 00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:33.640 years when he saved King and Country between nineteen fourteen and nineteen twenty one. 304 00:29:34.079 --> 00:29:40.519 But when he retained and began his acting career on stage, he received acclaim 305 00:29:40.599 --> 00:29:45.039 for playing Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra, and it was this success that opened 306 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:49.839 the door for him to tread the boards in London, where he became successful 307 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:56.599 both on stage and in films, and he was knighted by King George the 308 00:29:56.640 --> 00:30:02.160 Fifth for his acting career in nineteen thirty four, before he had even scratched 309 00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:06.960 the surface of what he would end up doing on screen, and his early 310 00:30:07.039 --> 00:30:11.759 screen career is a glorious mix of genres, with films like nineteen thirty five, 311 00:30:11.880 --> 00:30:18.160 Slemiser Arb and universal horror movies like The Invisible Man, Retains, The 312 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:23.640 Ghost of Frankenstein and The Invisible Agent. And apparently he faced hit the American 313 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:30.039 stage in the mid thirties and eventually decided to move there permanently in the late 314 00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:36.640 nineteen forties, and he continued to work steadily throughout the rest of his career, 315 00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:41.799 with parts in films around the world in Eighty Days and The Ten Commandments. 316 00:30:42.519 --> 00:30:48.440 If you wanted someone with an aristocratic, snooty presence, he was your 317 00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:52.920 man. And when television started to become the thing in the fifties and sixties, 318 00:30:53.359 --> 00:30:57.319 he didn't shy away from it, and he clocked up appearances and shows 319 00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:04.359 like Alfred hitch Hook Presents and Climax, even becoming a regular on The Gertrude 320 00:31:04.359 --> 00:31:11.000 bag Show, a one season wonder about a middle aged widow who enrolls in 321 00:31:11.079 --> 00:31:15.880 college. So it's interesting to see an old British actor like this in the 322 00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:22.599 Twilight Zone. Maybe he was attracted to it because of certain things and Martin 323 00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:27.599 Graham's junior quotes them as saying, it's increasingly difficult if you've got a name 324 00:31:29.079 --> 00:31:34.759 to find character parts that are sufficiently important. The older dramatists wrote plays that 325 00:31:34.839 --> 00:31:40.680 made demands on actors. Today they don't. The idiot to write to day 326 00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:45.279 would be very happy to do without actors. I have trouble finding plays that 327 00:31:45.319 --> 00:31:51.640 are even readable, let alone actable. I think more playwrights have been saved 328 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:56.839 by inarticulate actors than you can imagine. In the movies, you hear everything 329 00:31:56.920 --> 00:32:01.079 they say. Now. Sadly, Hardwick had been a heavy smoker for his 330 00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:06.400 whole life, which began to catch up with him. So by the time 331 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:12.079 we meet him in the Twilight Zone, his health was deteriorating. But following 332 00:32:12.119 --> 00:32:16.279 his appearance in the Twilight Zone, his next role was in a TV movie 333 00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:22.279 called The Unknown, where I believe he played a doctor who invented a time 334 00:32:22.319 --> 00:32:27.880 machine. Now, this was intended to be a pilot for an anthology show 335 00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:34.240 from the writer Joseph Stefano, but when that didn't fly, it was repairposed 336 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:39.279 into an episode of The Outer Limits called The Form of Things Unknown, which 337 00:32:39.319 --> 00:32:45.480 I mentioned earlier. But how is he in this? I think Hardwick is 338 00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:51.039 clearly ailing. At this point in his life. It seems quite difficult for 339 00:32:51.119 --> 00:32:54.480 him to say these words sometimes, and I think a few years prior he 340 00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:59.960 would have been able to spit out these insults with a razor sharp tongue. 341 00:33:00.640 --> 00:33:02.680 But he doesn't do too badly. Consider him because at the end of the 342 00:33:02.759 --> 00:33:07.519 day, he's a sick old man playing a sick old man. And if 343 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:13.799 they wanted a cantankerous, unlikable old man to be believably cruel to his niece 344 00:33:13.839 --> 00:33:19.160 on screen, then they certainly got their man. So Robbie the Robot begins 345 00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:24.079 to take on the characteristics of Uncle Simon, first by asking for his favorite 346 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:30.160 drink or chocolates, but then in a more obvious way, after you bring 347 00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:37.240 me my hot chocolate, would you please close all the windows and all the 348 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:45.480 drapes. I don't like the light, I don't like the draft. What 349 00:33:45.799 --> 00:33:52.440 is the matter? Barbara? Tell me? Please? What is the matter? 350 00:33:52.039 --> 00:33:58.720 What is the matter? What is the matter? You've been up Avery, 351 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:22.119 sample of nature's carelessness, Barbara, Barbara, help me, help me. 352 00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:28.119 And after Barbara gets mad and shoves him over, Robbie even gets Uncle 353 00:34:28.159 --> 00:34:32.800 Simon's limp, bringing things full circle. Barbara now has to care for a 354 00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:39.039 robot which has the voice and cruelty of Uncle Simon, but also his disability, 355 00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:44.920 And it's very telling that by the end of the episode she's now returned 356 00:34:44.960 --> 00:34:50.320 to the plain, unglamorous look that she had earlier, resigned to the fact 357 00:34:50.760 --> 00:34:55.159 that this is her life now now. Mark Zikry in The Twilight Zone Companion 358 00:34:55.239 --> 00:35:01.679 says, although directed by Don Siegel, Uncle Si remains talky, badly acted, 359 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:07.679 and badly staged. It's a sordid story about two sordid people, both 360 00:35:07.679 --> 00:35:12.679 of whom make it a point to say everything that's on their minds to the 361 00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:20.159 point of simple minded absurdity. Neither character is terribly likable. Consequently, the 362 00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:25.320 fact that Barbara never escapes the clutches of her uncle doesn't seem very important. 363 00:35:25.880 --> 00:35:31.199 Now. I don't necessarily disagree with all of that, but I don't necessarily 364 00:35:31.239 --> 00:35:36.840 agree that it's badly acted. I do think it suffers from the staging of 365 00:35:36.960 --> 00:35:39.400 it. Like I said, it is very set like and boxed in, 366 00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:45.280 but I suppose it is set in one house, so unless they used a 367 00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:49.639 real house, what else was it going to be. But at times this 368 00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:57.400 stagey atmosphere does make the performances seem a bit bigger against this backdrop, and 369 00:35:57.480 --> 00:36:02.639 constance forward especially does get at quite bigger times. But I don't necessarily agree 370 00:36:02.679 --> 00:36:08.840 that it's bad acting, neither character being very likable. Sure, I can 371 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:15.039 get behind now, But after finishing Uncle Simon, which I had seen many 372 00:36:15.119 --> 00:36:20.159 years ago, I took a moment, as I always do, to gather 373 00:36:20.239 --> 00:36:25.880 my thoughts on the episode. Some people find amusement in the insults that are 374 00:36:25.960 --> 00:36:30.920 exchanged between the two main characters, which is fine, but it wasn't really 375 00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:37.360 enough to carry the episode for me at its core. I think I can 376 00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:43.519 grasp what Rod Sailing was trying to convey. It's a portrait of a person 377 00:36:43.559 --> 00:36:49.559 who finds herself in this situation not out of any genuine sense of duty to 378 00:36:49.679 --> 00:36:54.760 care for a sick uncle, but rather because you would ultimately benefit financially from 379 00:36:54.760 --> 00:37:00.800 it. And you wonder whether this was evident to Uncle Simon from the beginning, 380 00:37:00.440 --> 00:37:06.280 thus leading him to become the cantankerous old man that he was. If 381 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:10.079 she had approached him with genuine warmth and a sincere desire to take care of 382 00:37:10.159 --> 00:37:15.000 him, would he have treated her differently? Will never really know the answer 383 00:37:15.039 --> 00:37:22.599 to that, but regardless, she chose to remain enduring her uncle's constant erosion 384 00:37:22.239 --> 00:37:28.199 of her humanity when she could have left and built a life for herself, 385 00:37:29.199 --> 00:37:34.039 a life without the prospect of inheritance, where she would have needed to wear 386 00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:38.239 a regular job, but at least it would have been a life. Now 387 00:37:38.280 --> 00:37:45.719 she's trapped like a robot herself, just going through the motions every day, 388 00:37:45.920 --> 00:37:52.960 devoid of happiness, devoid of emotion, and without any foreseeable end. So 389 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:58.800 Sailing does have something meaningful to say here, and I appreciate it. However, 390 00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:05.000 when the story hinges on two leads who are thoroughly unlikable, constantly spewing 391 00:38:05.159 --> 00:38:09.920 rotten words at each other, the question arises is it enjoyable to watch? 392 00:38:10.880 --> 00:38:15.840 Ultimately that became the crux of the matter for me. Did I enjoy watching 393 00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:21.880 it? While I could depreciate saying aspect of it on an academical level, 394 00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:27.719 it wasn't really enough to make it an enjoyable experience. I don't actually have 395 00:38:28.039 --> 00:38:34.480 that many complaints about its quality. It had a message to convey and it 396 00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:40.840 was pretty well written. However, it almost became too successful in presenting such 397 00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:47.280 unlikable lead characters because it makes it challenging to find anything enjoyable about it. 398 00:38:47.960 --> 00:38:53.559 I've often said I don't need to like characters to enjoy a story, but 399 00:38:53.679 --> 00:38:58.920 I do need to be interested in them, and I'm just not sure that 400 00:38:59.039 --> 00:39:06.800 I was really interest stood in these ones. Dramatis personi A metal men will 401 00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:09.400 go by the name of Simon, whose life as well as his body has 402 00:39:09.400 --> 00:39:13.519 been stamped out for him, and the woman who tends to him, the 403 00:39:13.599 --> 00:39:17.159 Lady Barbara, who's discovered belatedly that all bad things don't come to an end 404 00:39:17.719 --> 00:39:21.880 and that once a bed is made, it's quite necessary that you sleep in 405 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:28.320 it. Tonight's uncomfortable little exercise in avarice and automatons from the Twilight Zone. 406 00:39:31.239 --> 00:39:35.360 So, as you know, I throw it out to the patrons over in 407 00:39:35.360 --> 00:39:42.800 the afterhours claud Patreon dot com Slice Twilight Zone podcast to let them vote as 408 00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:46.360 to whether this is a top, middle, or bottom tier Twilight Zone episode. 409 00:39:47.159 --> 00:39:51.880 Now the patrons voted, and nine percent said it was a top, 410 00:39:52.639 --> 00:39:58.159 thirty seven percent said middle. I'm fifty three percent said bottom. So not 411 00:39:58.239 --> 00:40:00.719 a particularly popular episode of the while I turned this one, but I do 412 00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:07.559 appreciate the comments from the patrons because there's some great food for thoughty here. 413 00:40:07.559 --> 00:40:10.519 You know. I pondered this one a lot because it was like, you 414 00:40:10.599 --> 00:40:15.880 know, there's some interesting stuff here, but they're just such horrible characters that 415 00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:21.280 really where do I sit on it? And I think reading the thought of 416 00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:23.639 the members of the after Hours club really helped me out on that one. 417 00:40:24.239 --> 00:40:29.599 Brian Cake says, I usually love any story that includes a robot as part 418 00:40:29.599 --> 00:40:32.320 of the plot, but in this case, the two league characters are both 419 00:40:32.360 --> 00:40:37.000 so irritating and unlikable that I couldn't root for either of them. Thank you, 420 00:40:37.039 --> 00:40:40.039 Brian, I think I agree with you on that. One. Great 421 00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:44.079 friend of the show, Brian from Phoenix said, it's always good to see 422 00:40:44.159 --> 00:40:50.559 Robbie the robot. Constance Ford's performance is fantastic. She easily goes from jaded 423 00:40:50.679 --> 00:40:55.639 zombiesque from peecaretaker to angry, gorgeous, spiteful minx ready for a night out 424 00:40:55.679 --> 00:41:00.360 on the town said, your Hardwick is no slouch either, with him spewing 425 00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:06.880 sailings piercing insults as if they were his own vitriol, you forget how great 426 00:41:06.880 --> 00:41:10.360 TV actors used to be. Michael Fainback says, I'll admit that some of 427 00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:14.559 the insults are amusing, but not enough to lift it up out of the 428 00:41:14.599 --> 00:41:19.280 bottom tier. And it's not really tragic. Sure, she already spent twenty 429 00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:22.639 five years there. One can argue she should have left a lot sooner. 430 00:41:23.280 --> 00:41:28.320 No amount of money is worth that kind of living hell. But now she 431 00:41:28.440 --> 00:41:31.079 doesn't have to spend the rest of her life there. She's free to leave 432 00:41:31.159 --> 00:41:36.119 and start over. And that's it, isn't it. It's about that kind 433 00:41:36.159 --> 00:41:42.039 of balance. Is it better to be wealthy but trapped in that hellish environment, 434 00:41:42.280 --> 00:41:45.400 or is it better to go and be poor somewhere but at least be 435 00:41:45.559 --> 00:41:50.880 free. Our French Chad Boykin says, I can see the argument for bottom 436 00:41:50.920 --> 00:41:54.199 Tea, but expores a very real human issue, the depths of abuse we 437 00:41:54.239 --> 00:42:00.280 will allow ourselves to be subjected to for various complex reasons. It's not something 438 00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:06.239 I've seen in other shows. It was bold and dark, it was uncomfortable, 439 00:42:06.639 --> 00:42:09.280 but real, and I'll go out on a limb and call it top 440 00:42:09.320 --> 00:42:14.800 tier, bottom of the top, but top The robot was a stretch, 441 00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:19.199 but it's part of the charm, and the prison of our own mind is 442 00:42:19.239 --> 00:42:22.559 the real hell. Our friend al Shadesma says, how can you not love 443 00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:29.760 the robot's transition into Uncle Simon. It's both amusing and creepy, sometimes downright 444 00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:35.760 chilling. Unfortunately, the characters are too broad and too dimensional. I think 445 00:42:35.840 --> 00:42:38.960 Rod rushed this one to make it a top tier episode, but it's a 446 00:42:39.039 --> 00:42:45.719 solid middle tier. Our friend Steve Badger says, an episode occupied by miserable 447 00:42:45.800 --> 00:42:50.960 humans and a miserable robot. I see the parallel it's making with many people 448 00:42:51.039 --> 00:42:54.400 living awful lives just for some money to gain, but what we put up 449 00:42:54.440 --> 00:42:59.920 with on a daily basis brings us down and makes life a pointless, uninspe 450 00:43:00.039 --> 00:43:04.760 hiring journey. This episode could be a lesson to most, but for me, 451 00:43:04.880 --> 00:43:07.800 it's dull, unpredictable. It's a long time since I've seen this one, 452 00:43:08.239 --> 00:43:13.639 but maybe a better ending would have been some change in behavior, some 453 00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:16.480 hope that we don't have to be on the treadmill. She should have walked 454 00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:22.920 away into a financially poorer but mentally and physically brighter future. Bottom tea for 455 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:27.960 me. Our friend Zach Moore says, one of the worst episodes of the 456 00:43:28.039 --> 00:43:31.760 series, Short and Sweet. Our friend Joe Brown says, when I cast 457 00:43:31.840 --> 00:43:37.639 my vote I based her upon my memory of this episode versus a recent viewing 458 00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:43.039 while I watched it tonight, and my vote hasn't changed. It's basically two 459 00:43:43.119 --> 00:43:49.840 Don Rickles insulting each other in sailing speak. Both characters are not likable people, 460 00:43:50.239 --> 00:43:53.440 and each way they speak spews more ugliness. I couldn't figure out why 461 00:43:53.480 --> 00:43:59.079 Barbara would wait all this time to get the fortune her stays in the most 462 00:43:59.079 --> 00:44:04.760 degrading atmosphere. Sailing is better than this, and so am I. I 463 00:44:04.800 --> 00:44:07.480 sat through all twenty six minutes and could have shut it off, but I 464 00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:13.320 didn't. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment too. Thank you. Joe 465 00:44:14.320 --> 00:44:17.039 Roger Moore says, I believe it was Harold that left feedback on the last 466 00:44:17.039 --> 00:44:22.280 episodes, comparing Goldsmith to Moses in The Old Man in the Cave. I 467 00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:28.199 can't remember if Harold mentioned the Ten Commandments or no, but Cedric Hardwick played 468 00:44:28.239 --> 00:44:31.360 Setti in the Ten Commandments, and I just thought that was a cool connection 469 00:44:31.400 --> 00:44:37.320 and ware to mention. As far as Uncle Simon goes, this episode is 470 00:44:37.360 --> 00:44:40.880 just two family members in a chess match while being mean and hateful to each 471 00:44:40.880 --> 00:44:45.639 other while we the audience watch it unfold. I can rarely sit down and 472 00:44:45.719 --> 00:44:51.039 watch this one all the way through. There's not many Twilight Own episodes I 473 00:44:51.079 --> 00:44:54.039 will place in the bottom tier. I'm sad to say, just like the 474 00:44:54.039 --> 00:45:00.599 bottom of the stairs, this is where I think Uncle Simon belongs. Our 475 00:45:00.599 --> 00:45:04.480 friend Champagne Drum says, love seeing the robots, but all in all a 476 00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:08.519 bit overdone in terms of acting. Our friend Jay Howard says, I enjoyed 477 00:45:08.559 --> 00:45:14.400 the over the top performances. Joseph Lacino says, I know this episode is 478 00:45:14.480 --> 00:45:17.559 cheesy, but the sailing insults and genuine love my family has for this episode 479 00:45:19.199 --> 00:45:22.960 elevates it for me. And then finally, my good friend Uncommon Naser says, 480 00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:27.440 So there are two ways to look at this one. If you watch 481 00:45:27.519 --> 00:45:31.239 it to be a serious Tez episode, it's bottom tier and pretty awful, 482 00:45:31.800 --> 00:45:36.320 and I've viewed it that way for a long time. But if you look 483 00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:39.840 at it as a comedy episode, a dark comedy in this case, it's 484 00:45:39.880 --> 00:45:44.440 at least closer to mid tier, if not in the lower mid tier. 485 00:45:45.199 --> 00:45:47.719 I view it that way now as I've seen it a law and I will 486 00:45:47.719 --> 00:45:52.440 give them credit for tackling elder care in an abstract way. It's something most 487 00:45:52.440 --> 00:45:58.239 of us will face but is never talked about a media. So some great 488 00:45:58.400 --> 00:46:02.840 thoughts from our friends over in the Afterhours Club. And speaking of the After 489 00:46:02.880 --> 00:46:08.239 Hours Club, I want to thank new members Squatch arch Stanton, Look for 490 00:46:08.280 --> 00:46:14.480 the Grave Marked arch Stanton and David Trimbolie. Thank you for joining over at 491 00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:16.320 the Afterhours Club. Now if you want to join the Afterhours Club, it 492 00:46:16.480 --> 00:46:22.639 so patreon dot com slash twilight Zone podcast. Now. One of the shows 493 00:46:22.679 --> 00:46:28.440 I do over there is talking about the eighties twilight Zone and then that moved 494 00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:32.039 onto the two thousands twilight Zone, and we are at the end of the 495 00:46:32.119 --> 00:46:37.679 two thousand's twilight Zone. Next month it will be the last episode looking at 496 00:46:37.719 --> 00:46:43.280 that. So all of the eighties and two thousand show is there to hear 497 00:46:43.960 --> 00:46:50.159 the thoughts of me and my co host Emmy on those episodes. So just 498 00:46:50.239 --> 00:46:54.440 to cap things off, we decided that we are going to return to Jordan 499 00:46:54.519 --> 00:47:00.599 Peel's twilight Zone and go through those two seasons. Well, now that we're 500 00:47:00.679 --> 00:47:05.079 not really in the either storm anymore, I thought it would be an interest 501 00:47:05.079 --> 00:47:07.599 and exercise to revisit those so if you want to, So, if you 502 00:47:07.599 --> 00:47:12.000 want to hear our thoughts on those, then head over to Patreon dot com 503 00:47:12.039 --> 00:47:15.119 slash Twilighttone podcast. I just want to give a quick plug as well to 504 00:47:15.280 --> 00:47:19.480 Law give up a Planet of the Apes podcast, which is now live. 505 00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:23.800 You can look at it on iTunes or any of your other podcatchers. And 506 00:47:23.960 --> 00:47:28.639 at the moment it's only going to be occasional while I finish up the Twilight 507 00:47:28.760 --> 00:47:32.400 Zone, but I'm starting to build it up so that when the twilightone podcast 508 00:47:32.519 --> 00:47:37.159 ends, that podcast will be in full flow. Rod Serling, creator of 509 00:47:37.199 --> 00:47:44.079 the Twilights On We'll tell you about next week's story after this message. If 510 00:47:44.079 --> 00:47:46.159 you want to get your thoughts onto the show, then email Tom at the 511 00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:51.840 Twilight Zone podcast dot com with a clip of about five minutes or less on 512 00:47:51.880 --> 00:47:55.159 an upcoming episode, on an episode that we've discussed already, and I will 513 00:47:55.199 --> 00:48:00.719 play your clip. So let's go over to Rod Sailing to find out what's 514 00:48:00.719 --> 00:48:05.880 coming up next now, mister Surling. Next on Twilight Zone an eminent performer 515 00:48:05.920 --> 00:48:08.800 of stage in screen, mister Richard Bayside in an otball excursion that we call 516 00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:13.840 Probe seven over and out. On occasion, we'll come up with a wild 517 00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:16.719 and Willie danim Wile. But this particular opus has an unpredictable ending that we 518 00:48:16.840 --> 00:48:21.280 doubt if even the most seasoned TZ fans will be able to pick up before 519 00:48:21.280 --> 00:48:24.800 it happens on your screen. Next on Twilight Zone, Probe seven over and out.