Speaker 1: Way wait.
Speaker 2: A welcome back to Midnight Viewing, the Horror Anthology font
Speaker 2: the Horror Anthology podcast where we're this season, we're talking
Speaker 2: about George A. Romero's nineteen eighties television series Tales from
Speaker 2: the Dark Side. I'm Father Malone sharing the Midnight of
Speaker 2: you with me? Are the projection Boots, Mike White.
Speaker 3: I say good riddance to them, the Dames, We're better
Speaker 3: off without them.
Speaker 2: And the culture cast Chris Statue.
Speaker 1: Do you guys tried the gray stuff? It's delicious? Tone
Speaker 1: ask the dishes?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, no, that's true. Tonight we are taking
Speaker 2: a look at two episodes from season three. Those are
Speaker 2: Everybody Needs a Little Love and Old con Old Acquaintances,
Speaker 2: Old Acquaintances. Everybody Needs a Little Love Season three, episode
Speaker 2: number seventeen. This originally aired on February the twenty second,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven. Clearly they intended it as there a
Speaker 2: Valentine's episode. They missed the mark. This one is written
Speaker 2: by John Harrison, credited to John Sutherland, from a story
Speaker 2: by Robert Block and directed by John Harrison, credited to
Speaker 2: John Sutherland, again starring Jerry Orbach, Richard Port now Phil
Speaker 2: and Kowski and as estelle Teresa Jones. This is a
Speaker 2: film noir account of a lonely divorced man who's a
Speaker 2: millionaire today as the creator of the real Doll. What
Speaker 2: did you think of this one?
Speaker 3: Mike, Oh, boy, mannequin's coming to life, but not really
Speaker 3: but kind of but yes, but no, but I'm talking
Speaker 3: to the camera. Feels very what was that? Just crazy
Speaker 3: as a soup sandwich? Yeah, my god, I love Jerry Orbach.
Speaker 3: I really like Richard Port. Now what the fuck are
Speaker 3: they doing in this episode? This was? This was something.
Speaker 3: This felt like a very old tale, maybe because of
Speaker 3: Block's influence. Block's original short story just felt very old,
Speaker 3: obviously setting it in film noir times. I don't know why.
Speaker 3: I honestly don't know why than maybe the show guys
Speaker 3: wearing socks and suspenders.
Speaker 1: This was.
Speaker 3: I was not happy with this episode whatsoever, especially because
Speaker 3: I could see everything coming a mile before it actually happened.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it just didn't do it for me. How
Speaker 3: about you, Chris, what'd you think of this one?
Speaker 1: Has ever look at Jerry Orbach and think he just
Speaker 1: looks like an anthropomorphized candle.
Speaker 2: On occasion?
Speaker 1: On occasion, It's really hard for me to see Jerry
Speaker 1: Orbach now and not see his like half profile and
Speaker 1: not just be like that's the candle for Beauty and
Speaker 1: the Beast.
Speaker 2: God damn it, it's been years and we're obsessed.
Speaker 1: I think this episode is fine. I don't know, two
Speaker 1: dudes hanging out with the mannequin. Just what, Like, what
Speaker 1: the fucking what?
Speaker 2: It? Just okay, reminder Sunday nights at seven, this is
Speaker 2: family hour.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, great, Oh it's a family hour, all right
Speaker 1: if your family is fucked in the head. I just
Speaker 1: I don't know what the intention behind this episode was,
Speaker 1: because by the end of it, I'm just like, ah, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, so she murdered him and he got framed
Speaker 1: for it, Like to what end? And who fucking cares?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Like it's for me. We've seen episodes
Speaker 1: like this before, in both this show and other shows
Speaker 1: going as far back as Tales from the Crypt, and
Speaker 1: they haven't worked anytime they've done them. And this is
Speaker 1: yet another example of don't talk to the camera and
Speaker 1: don't try to mix tones in a way that just
Speaker 1: doesn't work. I also would like to point out how
Speaker 1: many of these goddamn noir episodes have we seen of
Speaker 1: these shows that have not worked. Also, and also, weirdly enough,
Speaker 1: we've not only had noir episodes, but we've had weird
Speaker 1: fiction and noir mixed together in some of these episodes.
Speaker 1: Because one of those things wasn't enough to fucking ruin,
Speaker 1: they to ruin two or three things at once. This
Speaker 1: is It's a shame that this is Jerry Orbach's only
Speaker 1: time on the show, because he's a great actor. I
Speaker 1: can sing really well too, but I found this episode
Speaker 1: to be just meandering, even for twenty three minutes.
Speaker 3: But they did mannequins wright in the after hours the
Speaker 3: old Twilight Zone episode because it was a twist we
Speaker 3: weren't expecting. Oh, she was a mannequin the whole time. Great,
Speaker 3: but this sorry didn't mean to interrupt your father alone.
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: And look, we've seen mannequins in every anthology series we've covered.
Speaker 2: In fact, it's curious to me now that we're this
Speaker 2: far into the third season of Tails from the Dark Side,
Speaker 2: that in each of the series that we've covered up
Speaker 2: until now, by season three we've all seen the same
Speaker 2: couple of episodes. It seems by season three, you're now
Speaker 2: is when we're going to start really just hitting the
Speaker 2: same tropes as all of the other series. Because now
Speaker 2: we've got our mannequin episode. The next one is in
Speaker 2: the next few episodes. Anyway, it's gonna, i think, become
Speaker 2: even more evident. This is set in the fifties because
Speaker 2: John Harrison wanted to do a noir episode, clearly, and
Speaker 2: it is shot well. He went to great pains to
Speaker 2: light this whole thing, and it's good. It feels like
Speaker 2: a nice little short film. However, you know what, I
Speaker 2: was with it for a while because it's so weird.
Speaker 2: It's so weird for these two guys meeting in a
Speaker 2: bar and hey, I want to go have a good
Speaker 2: time with a dame. Come with me. Now, I don't
Speaker 2: feel like doing that. No, no, no, it's not like that.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be different. And then so Jerry Orbach is
Speaker 2: basically saying at the beginning of the episode, I don't
Speaker 2: want to go have a sex with a prostitute with you,
Speaker 2: and he's like, no, it's not gonna be like that. Instead,
Speaker 2: we're gonna go break into my store and we're gonna
Speaker 2: steal the Mannikin and go back to that and like
Speaker 2: at no point does he bail before they get to
Speaker 2: the apartment. In fact, he seems to have a really
Speaker 2: good time in the apartment with the mannequin. I don't know.
Speaker 2: These two guys are interesting characters to begin with, but
Speaker 2: then where do we go from there? Yeah, it's like
Speaker 2: he comes back and the guy's weirder and he seems
Speaker 2: more are attached to the fucking thing and then eventually
Speaker 2: a thing kills him and runs away. Uh okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm no fan of over explaining. But what did the
Speaker 2: mannequin want? Why is it even alive? Did he imbue
Speaker 2: it with life? We get zero here?
Speaker 3: Well, and then isn't there a twist that? What's the
Speaker 3: twist at the end?
Speaker 2: The twist is that she comes in is the witness
Speaker 2: basically that's going to frame him. But that's there is
Speaker 2: no twist. It's not like we understand something that some
Speaker 2: piece of a puzzle that hadn't revealed itself up until now.
Speaker 2: It's just like she's shadowy silhouette girl, she's the witness.
Speaker 2: Oh it's the mannequin that was supposed to be the twist.
Speaker 3: I guess.
Speaker 2: Wow, it's not a.
Speaker 1: Bad twist, it's just completely unearned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we don't know who she is or what
Speaker 2: she wants.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and we're just meant to look at that those
Speaker 1: couple of shots at the end of the episode and
Speaker 1: be like, oh, that's the mannequin. Okay, we just had.
Speaker 3: That mannequin episode. Wasn't a mannequin episode.
Speaker 1: Where retelling of that Twilight Zone episode?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like that thing. It was that really
Speaker 3: super said ending where the guy was like, dull, you
Speaker 3: remember which one I'm.
Speaker 1: Talking about with the Medusa, Yes, thank you. It wasn't
Speaker 1: kind of was, Yeah, she's treated with the conventions of
Speaker 1: a mannequin.
Speaker 2: We and recently we had a fucking noir episode. We
Speaker 2: had the guy who created that, John Hurd, creates the
Speaker 2: portal and pulls the girl through, but he's in prison
Speaker 2: on trial for murder. Look, they lost the showrunner this year.
Speaker 2: That's kind of evident because nobody's comparing the stories and going,
Speaker 2: aren't these the same? Is this not too close? In? Like,
Speaker 2: why are we having a second guy on trial recounting
Speaker 2: the events of that the strange events that led him
Speaker 2: to this place? Like we shifted to a further season,
Speaker 2: right please?
Speaker 3: It feels like we fell off a cliff between the
Speaker 3: last episode and this episode. I honestly thought that we
Speaker 3: were headed in a really good direction this season. I
Speaker 3: was pretty happy, and then it just feels like, whoa,
Speaker 3: somebody pulled the rug out.
Speaker 2: It was you, Chris.
Speaker 1: Oh what did I do?
Speaker 2: You know what you did it?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Your fault.
Speaker 1: It's always my fault. I mean, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I was the one who got the ball
Speaker 1: rolling so long ago and wanting to watch Tales from
Speaker 1: the Crypt, So I'll take credit for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, we saw a mannequin episode there. We saw
Speaker 2: a mannequin episode in the New Twilight'swe in fact, we
Speaker 2: saw a remake of The After Hours on New Twilight
Speaker 2: Zone written by Rock Neobannon, friend of the podcast.
Speaker 1: Friend of the podcast. He's name dropping Folks.
Speaker 2: Night Gallery that had a mannequin episode two. I had
Speaker 2: enough robots anyway that they qualified as mannequins, enough statuaries,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I did not enjoy this one, even
Speaker 2: though I love seeing Jerry Arbaka, I love seeing Richard
Speaker 2: Port now a man who was made to be in
Speaker 2: period pieces like he should just he should be chained
Speaker 2: up in those clothes because nobody does the nobody does,
Speaker 2: like fifties or six. He's better than him? Was that
Speaker 2: not him and Barton Fink? But you know with the
Speaker 2: head on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's a killer. He's amazing and Orbach amazing.
Speaker 3: I love watching that guy. He's just so talented, Chris,
Speaker 3: you're talking about the Singney talent and everything. Yes, he's great.
Speaker 3: And when this started, like I was like, all right,
Speaker 3: craze is soup sandwich. I don't need this whole directly
Speaker 3: addressing the camera thing, But I'll go with it. I'll
Speaker 3: stick with it. Sure, why not? Yeah, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: go ahead.
Speaker 2: One thing that bugged me because they don't make it
Speaker 2: evident that it's a confession or an interview with the
Speaker 2: police that's going on.
Speaker 3: No, not at all. It's him directly addressing the camera.
Speaker 3: I thought. I did not think at any point he
Speaker 3: was talking to anybody other.
Speaker 2: Than me, right, And so maybe they thought that was
Speaker 2: gonna be the choice. But to that point, yes, I
Speaker 2: believe he was talking to me as well, because at
Speaker 2: one point he has a cup of coffee in the frame,
Speaker 2: and it's a ceramic cup of coffee. We might be
Speaker 2: in a diner, we're definitely in somebody's kid. Anyway, where
Speaker 2: we are not is in the interview room of a
Speaker 2: police station. So that's like.
Speaker 3: They're not giving away at ceramic mugs in a police station.
Speaker 2: Just makes no sense at all. So that's dirty pool.
Speaker 3: Yeah, is he is Portner Noy also the guy that
Speaker 3: says you want to see helicopters? Or am I mixing
Speaker 3: them up with a different guy from Goodfellas? I think
Speaker 3: I'm mixing them up with a different guy.
Speaker 2: Maybe I know he's Howard Stone's dad in Private Parts.
Speaker 3: Oh he's so good at that.
Speaker 2: He ordered that guy back on the microphone.
Speaker 3: Don't be stupid, the idiot.
Speaker 2: Shut ups it up? Anything else on this one, guys.
Speaker 3: No, I just wish it was better. He squandered all
Speaker 3: this talent and the mannequin effect was okay, I just
Speaker 3: kept getting vibes of Sean Young when I was looking
Speaker 3: at a Stell. But yeah, I just what a disappointment.
Speaker 2: The mannequin did look a tremendous amount like a Stell,
Speaker 2: but then no mannequin would have looked like a Stell,
Speaker 2: so it didn't make any sense, all right. Our next
Speaker 2: episode is Old Acquaintances, and that's like old lang Zion Acquaintances.
Speaker 2: Season three, episode number eighteen, aired originally on March the first,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven, Written by Edith Swinson, directed by Richard Friedman,
Speaker 2: starring Sally Gracie and Linda Thorson, It's a witch fight
Speaker 2: to which his vie for control of a talisman over
Speaker 2: the century's taking turns, taking turns, wielding it a year
Speaker 2: at a time. What did you think of this one, Chris?
Speaker 1: Is that what was going on? Yes, Jesus fucking Christ
Speaker 1: talk about unintelligible nonsense.
Speaker 3: Oh they didn't say that fifty times sixty times for
Speaker 3: you to figure that one out.
Speaker 1: Aw Yeah, when the episode wasn't getting in the way
Speaker 1: of itself reminding us of what was going on constantly,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that they were like, let's write a bottle episode.
Speaker 1: You have to go very far. They don't have to
Speaker 1: do much, they don't have to go anywhere. It's just
Speaker 1: the two of these women beating the shit out of
Speaker 1: each other for twenty three minutes. Okay, I'm on board
Speaker 1: with that. It just not that entertaining unfortunately for me anyways, However,
Speaker 1: I'm curious where y'all come into this, because for me,
Speaker 1: I mean, it kind of lost Steve. About halfway through,
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, I don't know. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: it well enough. It's better than last episode, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: I really didn't need it to do the flashback to
Speaker 3: the first time that they met and had all of
Speaker 3: their stuff. I've already figured all that stuff out through dialogue.
Speaker 3: And there's so much freaking dialogue in this episode. This
Speaker 3: felt like a radio drama, and I'm like, I don't
Speaker 3: need to see the live action of this. I just
Speaker 3: need to hear these ladies' voices because all they're doing
Speaker 3: is talking at each other. I will tell you that
Speaker 3: Linda Thorson very easy on the eyes, but Sally Gracie's
Speaker 3: voice reminded me a lot of Maureene's Stapleton. I think
Speaker 3: definitely a little bit of sand in the voice there.
Speaker 3: But I thought it was really good, especially for a
Speaker 3: Witch character. Kind of gave Witch's bad name. So, you know,
Speaker 3: this whole thing. I think this is a very anti
Speaker 3: Witch episode, and I would like to file a report
Speaker 3: with the FCC.
Speaker 2: Please you can take it up with the old Man himself, the.
Speaker 3: Old old Scratch, Old Scratch.
Speaker 1: There we are, Mike, Hey, Oh, you owe me a
Speaker 1: Coke Old scratch himself.
Speaker 2: Baby Linda Thorson not her first time on Telson Dark
Speaker 2: sent She showed up in season one and she got
Speaker 2: strangled by a telephone. That's right, Yeah, yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2: Good to see her back. She was good there, she's
Speaker 2: good here. Both actors are good. This is obviously a
Speaker 2: New York episode, just like the last one, drawn on
Speaker 2: that talent of New York. I'm trying to think of
Speaker 2: some good things to say about this particular segment. It's
Speaker 2: a little stage play. Two witches fighting over a fucking ambulant.
Speaker 2: One is worse than the other. I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I didn't really care who one, not at all.
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't invested in one one or the other.
Speaker 2: They were both equally fucked and they both were enthrall
Speaker 2: to satan. They both get what they want. I will
Speaker 2: here's the one thing I will point out, and I'll
Speaker 2: point this out just because on the over on the
Speaker 2: other show, I was talking to HP and we were
Speaker 2: talking about Massachusetts colloquialism. So one of my favorites is
Speaker 2: Light Dawns on marble Head, which is Marblehead as a
Speaker 2: town and messages. One of my best friends. Gretchen lives there,
Speaker 2: and at the end of this episode, as she hefts
Speaker 2: the cat up, she says, I think you're going to
Speaker 2: like it at Marblehead, and I thought, wow, that's coincidental
Speaker 2: and weird, and obviously Edith Swinton has spent some time
Speaker 2: in the northeast. Marblehead butts up against Salem, Massachusets, which
Speaker 2: is probably the connection because they're supposed to be from
Speaker 2: Salem when the flashback. When we go to the flashback,
Speaker 2: by the way, oh my god, the effects in this
Speaker 2: episode are so good, with the snap in cuffs and
Speaker 2: then the twist and talisman and all the best that
Speaker 2: that fishing line can buy.
Speaker 1: About to say you you, I feel like if our
Speaker 1: audience could see you, they would realize you were lying
Speaker 1: because you're a very convincing liar.
Speaker 3: Sir. Yes, yes, if this was a radio drama, you
Speaker 3: would have just everybody have been like really good special effect.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, they're terrible, I'm sorry effects, very special yeah.
Speaker 1: And very special end being cheap.
Speaker 3: They were special, really needed that much.
Speaker 2: This is I don't even I don't really know what
Speaker 2: this was.
Speaker 1: This was.
Speaker 2: Look, we maybe we didn't need a flashback if we
Speaker 2: could have just started in Salem and then ended up
Speaker 2: here at the museum, it could have been something. And ultimately,
Speaker 2: don't fucking I guess the last thing is, don't try
Speaker 2: and take an ambulant two weeks early, because Satan will
Speaker 2: fuck you up.
Speaker 3: I guess. So yeah, yeah, again, I was having a
Speaker 3: good time at this season. What happened? I don't know.
Speaker 3: And even these Edith Swinson episodes, some of them have
Speaker 3: been particularly good, and I'm just like, what happened again?
Speaker 2: They're overtaxing poor Edith Swinson. She's always given so much
Speaker 2: to this season and now now and to your point, Chris, yeah,
Speaker 2: this is probably we need a bottle episode. And we've
Speaker 2: spent this much on a budget. We've only got this
Speaker 2: much left. Can we recycle some of our locations here
Speaker 2: and maybe one location redress it.
Speaker 1: Redress it four different times?
Speaker 2: Trying to be nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're careening towards the end of the season, so
Speaker 1: it feels like they're just like, yeah, whatever, is anybody
Speaker 1: even paying attention anymore? Is anybody watching? Who cares? We'll
Speaker 1: just throw some bullshit at the long and see what sticks.
Speaker 1: And yeah, boy, these two episodes are just prime examples
Speaker 1: of bullshit being thrown at the wall that not only
Speaker 1: does it stick, leaves a stinky residue. It's like Mike said,
Speaker 1: what the fuck are you doing taking away all this
Speaker 1: good will that you fostered with us show? Like I
Speaker 1: would say, in a lot of ways, this might be
Speaker 1: the best show we've watched in terms of consistent quality
Speaker 1: over like time over quality or quality over time. It
Speaker 1: feels rather consistent, But all of a sudden it's is like, Nah,
Speaker 1: third season of the show just a fucking bath.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's cratering, but keep in mind we do have
Speaker 2: another season coming off, so it might redeem itself. That's
Speaker 2: usually what happens, right, Is it limps along or no?
Speaker 1: No, no, no.
Speaker 2: Lies that has not been our experience.
Speaker 1: No. Sometimes it's twice as fucking long, and it's like
Speaker 1: the night season is where it limbs through?
Speaker 3: How dare you shoot it in Canada? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I was to say, where was this shot? Fucking Tangiers? No.
Speaker 2: Mercifully, this show remains in New York and Los Angeles
Speaker 2: for the entirety of its runs, so they don't cut
Speaker 2: those corners at least if it dips in quality, it's
Speaker 2: because talented people are fleeing for higher paying jobs and
Speaker 2: other areas of the entertainment industry.
Speaker 1: Well, they're fleeing, all right, a fucking top speed. They
Speaker 1: can't run enough, fucking fast enough away from the show.
Speaker 1: These anthology shows. I don't understand why they outstay their
Speaker 1: welcome so hard.
Speaker 2: Everyone loves money, Yeah, I I like money too. We
Speaker 2: should be friends, all right. On the next episode of
Speaker 2: Midnight Viewing, we'll be taking a look at the next
Speaker 2: two episodes of season three. Those are The Social Climber
Speaker 2: and The Swap. Midnight Viewing is a proud member of
Speaker 2: a weirding way media group. Our theme song was composed
Speaker 2: by HP with an assist by Donald Rubinstein. Until next time?
Speaker 2: Where are you? Where can people find you?
Speaker 3: And what are you working on?
Speaker 2: And all that shit?
Speaker 3: Mike, I wish I knew where I was. I feel
Speaker 3: I feel lost. It feels like I'm in a void,
Speaker 3: like I walk through a wall and them in some
Speaker 3: sort of other dimension. Yeah, kind of like you Waitingwaymedia
Speaker 3: dot Com. I wish I had other stuff that I
Speaker 3: could plug, but yeah, Waitingwaymedia dot Com. That's the thing
Speaker 3: other than the one show that Chris and I do
Speaker 3: with Richard had them and occasionally father them alone. We're
Speaker 3: having him back for you darn soon here and that
Speaker 3: is ranking on Bond, which is our Patreon exclusive at
Speaker 3: the ten dollars level. End up. Come on over to
Speaker 3: patreon dot com slash Projection booth or patreon dot com
Speaker 3: slash Culturecast. That's Culturecast with a K and sign on
Speaker 3: up and you can listen to quite a bit of
Speaker 3: us talking about James Bond films. It came in handy
Speaker 3: last night, Chris. I was at trivia and they had
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of anagrams, and I'm horrible at anagrams.
Speaker 3: They were all James Bond titles. So I just sat
Speaker 3: down and I wrote down every single James Bond title
Speaker 3: that we have covered so far and was able to
Speaker 3: provide that to some smarter people who were able to
Speaker 3: do those anagrams. But I played my part, so I
Speaker 3: felt pretty happy about that.
Speaker 1: Tom Hanks Autumn Shank. That's all I could think of
Speaker 1: with the anagrams.
Speaker 3: Rhyme with.
Speaker 1: Your ass or a hole in the ground.
Speaker 3: How about you, Chris.
Speaker 1: You can find me in all of what I do
Speaker 1: over weirding Way Media as well. Then Patreon and going
Speaker 1: over to Father Malone's Patreon because he's posting two episodes
Speaker 1: a week. Jesus putting the rest of us to shame.
Speaker 1: What happened? What happened? Man? You used to have free time,
Speaker 1: don't anymore?
Speaker 2: I would love some free time. It's all speaking of
Speaker 2: Speaking of which, mondays here you can hear Father Malone's
Speaker 2: weekly round up or I take a look at all
Speaker 2: the new releases in streaming episodes and every Friday, if
Speaker 2: it's not going to be from the Dark Side, it's
Speaker 2: most likely going to be Fusco Fest HP and I
Speaker 2: are taking look at the works of John Fusco, screenwriter
Speaker 2: or his list of films. So by the time you
Speaker 2: hear this one, our next one is going to be
Speaker 2: probably lockedness off to Scotland we go. All right, let's
Speaker 2: see you guys already covered all the Patreon and all
Speaker 2: that shit. So everybody subscribe and like and give us
Speaker 2: five stars, and thank you for joining us here at
Speaker 2: midnight viewing. Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight