Yo…
There are just under 300 episodes of My Summer Lair.
There are some episodes I record because I believe the conversation has value…perhaps a new book or a compelling documentary. Like: check this out! I enjoy sharing those. And I hope you benefit from that exchange.
Then there are some episodes I record that are just for me! If you wanna push play on them; that’s cool. But I selfishly engineered the situation to get into a topic near and dear to my brown heart.
Attached is a selfish episode. Ha!
Yesterday; May 11 was Twilight Zone day. Typically I send out My Pal Sammys on Thursdays but I was struggling to articulate all of my Twilight Zone thoughts and emotions.
(I wrote then deleted much of what I wrote. If this was the 80s there would be lots of crumped up yellow legal papers in and around my waste basket. That’s what yesterday was like. Today…is not much smoother.)
You ever hang out with a creative kid who gets so excited about an idea and in trying to express it ends up stuttering? He’s got too much going on and there’s so much he wants to express and the human machinery just can’t keep up. That was me yesterday.
So let’s keep this small because what I want to share is so big.
The Twilight Zone was a massive sci-fi/nerd Big Bang; it birthed so much.
It’s up their with other science-fiction Big Bangs like Action Comics #1 (1938), Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek (1969) and a couple of others. Good job creator Rod Serling.
To quote Anne Serling (daughter of the creator) in 2022: “Sixty three years ago in October 1959, The Twilight Zone premiered. As my dad said: The writer’s role is to menace the public’s conscience. He must have a position, a point of view. He must see the arts as a vehicle of social criticism and he must focus on the issues of his time.”
That’s exactly it; why I connected with the TV show. It bothered me and I was not alone, it persistently “menaced the public’s conscience.”
Time Enough at Last hurts my heart.
Broadcast on November 20, 1959 I still watch it about once or twice a year.
The premise is simple: a bank clerk who loves to read but could never find the time is left alone after an H-bomb attack so he can now read to his heart’s content, or so he thinks.
As the episode nears the end; bookworm Henry Bemis is fed up with people and their insistent demands. He works in a bank so he retreats to the bank’s vault, where his reading cannot be disturbed.
His obnoxious wife nags him and his obtuse boss is always making demands…so happily he’s alone in the bank vault with his books. Only an H-Bomb is dropped. When he emerges from the vault…Bemis discovers the bank…the city has been destroyed. Nuclear war has devastated the Earth. And while that means everyone is gone…he now has Time Enough at Last to read. Yessss.
I relate to this dude; I’m not a fan of people but I dig books.
Only one slight setback…as he leans forward to gather books…all the books he can and wants to read his glasses slip off his nose and shatter. He can’t see without them…he has all the time to read and no way to read. Oh that’s dark.
I typically don’t get verklempt with endings (Terminator 2 when Arnold "died" that hit me right in the guts and nuts) however this Twilight Zone ending utterly breaks me.
It’s harrowing.
When he cries out: “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” Good gravy. Single Tear...
The closing narration is:
“The best-laid plans of mice and men...and Henry Bemis, the small man in the glasses who wanted nothing but time. Henry Bemis, now just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself. Mr. Henry Bemis, in the Twilight Zone.” Yo, son.
I’m so grateful this TV show exists: with every passing day so much of it has become relevant. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street are us these days. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street hurts my soul.
The suburban calm of Maple Street is shattered as the neighbours slowly turn on each other; suspecting each other…turning on each other. You’ve seen this in just about every Simpsons episode that features an unruly mob.
And of course Nightmare at 20,000 Feet...man I forgot how darkly grim and solid the opening narration is...that’s tight: “the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.” Yo...smell ya later William Shatner.
I’m trying to say too much and it’s not coming out properly. The enflamed passions of a nerd who is struggling to write his own vows.
Thank you for tolerating me. I’ll do better next time.
For now here is a My Summer Lair trip to the Dimensions of Imagination! Writer Nicholas Parisi has written Rod Serling: His Life, Work and Imagination.
Oh yo: I was ecstatic to get into the friendship zone with Nicholas on this Twilight Zone related episode.
It was jaw-dropping-mind-blowing to grow up and see The A-Team guy Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith is in Breakfast at Tiffany’s! WHAT! A-Team and Breakfast are both George Peppard?!
Careers are linear; pop culture introductions are not.
I did that with William Shatner; as a kid, Little Sammy thoroughly enjoyed Twilight Zone so I was surprised the terrroized dude from Nightmare at 20,000 Feet wanted to get onto another airplane/ship. At least he was a Captain this time and more in control on his Star Trek.
Another one? The Penguin is Rocky’s manager??! And the guy in Time Enough at Last?! What kinda wild carer is that Burgess Meredith?!
Careers are linear; pop culture introductions are not. Amazing.
Clearly Not In The Zone Writing This Dispatch…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
