Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-03-30 (Saturday)

On 3/31/2024 11:40 AM, Arthur Lipscomb wrote:

On 3/31/2024 9:52 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

The Twilight Zone S5E13 'Ring-A-Ding Girl' - DVR
Movie star Bunny Blake receives an opal ring from her hometown fan club which enables her to see images of her friends and family.  (Comcast)
Movie star Bunny Blake receives a ring from her hometown which is giving her warnings to come home while she flies cross country.   (IMDb)
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Trivia:
The headline of Bud's newspaper, the Daily Bulletin Sports, reads "Jockey Banned from All U.S. Tracks." This newspaper was a prop created for the earlier episode The Last Night of a Jockey (1963).
The house set was previously used in Living Doll (1963).
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Quotes:
[opening narration]
Narrator: Introduction to Bunny Blake. Occupation: film actress. Residence: Hollywood, California, or anywhere in the world that cameras happen to be grinding. Bunny Blake is a public figure; what she wears, eats, thinks, says is news. But underneath the glamour, the makeup, the publicity, the buildup, the costuming, is a flesh-and-blood person, a beautiful girl about to take a long and bizarre journey into The Twilight Zone.
[closing narration]
Narrator: We are all travelers. The trip starts in a place called birth, and ends in that lonely town called death. And that's the end of the journey, unless you happen to exist for a few hours, like Bunny Blake, in the misty regions of The Twilight Zone.
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ROTten Twist: Ohaal Oynxr vf npghnyyl ba n cynar gung penfurf va ure ubzr gbja va gur zvqqyr bs gur Sbhaqre'f Qnl Cvpavp.  Ure tubfg(?) gevrf gb xrrc crbcyr njnl sebz gur cvpavp orsber gur penfu.
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 Wow, I have *no* memory of this episode and the twist definitely doesn't help me remember.
 

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The Twilight Zone S5E14 'You Drive' - DVR
Oliver Pope kills a bicyclist in a hit-and-run, but a business rival is identified as the driver.  (Comcast)
After being involved with a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of a child, Oliver Pope is haunted by his car.  (IMDb)
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Trivia
The title refers to an old Hertz Car Rental ad campaign which called their cars "U Drives". Bud Abbott and Lou Costello turned the U-Drive theme into a famous comedy sketch similar to their "Who's on first?" sketch.
The house that was used as the exterior of the Pope's home still stands at 4183 Keystone Avenue in Culver City, CA. It is still very recognizable from the 1964 episode.
When Pope goes into his garage to check on the car and the radio comes on, the instrumental that it is heard playing is the same one as in the " The Encounter ", on the radio that Neville Brand's character is listening to.
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 I'm not sure if I remember this one.  It's vaguely familiar.
Does someone at least say, "Thanks for the ride lady." ;-)
 

Nope.

 

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Quotes:
     [opening narration]
     Narrator: Portrait of a nervous man: Oliver Pope by name, office manager by profession. A man beset by life's problems: his job, his salary, the competition to get ahead. Obviously, Mr. Pope's mind is not on his driving... Oliver Pope, businessman-turned killer, on a rain-soaked street in the early evening of just another day during just another drive home from the office. The victim, a kid on a bicycle, lying injured, near death. But Mr. Pope hasn't time for the victim, his only concern is for himself. Oliver Pope, hit-and-run driver, just arrived at a crossroad in his life, and he's chosen the wrong turn. The hit occurred in the world he knows, but the run will lead him straight into - the Twilight Zone.
     [closing narration]
     Narrator: All persons attempting to conceal criminal acts involving their cars are hereby warned: check first to see that underneath that chrome there does not lie a conscience, especially if you're driving along a rain-soaked highway in the Twilight Zone.
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The Twilight Zone S5E15 'The Long Morrow' - DVR
An astronaut returns from a 30-year mission to find that his girlfriend hasn't aged at all.  (Comcast)
Before leaving on a decades-long solo mission, astronaut Douglas Stansfield meets a woman and falls in love.  (IMDb)
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 I remember this one.  However the plot is a little too similar to the old couple that could only afford to purchase one young body.
 

You probably remember it for Mariette Hartley.  :D  I suspect both the earlier body swap episode and this are based on 'The Magi's Gift' so not surprising they would feel similar.

 

Trivia
Actress Mariette Hartley was a teenager when she first met Serling. "I was head of the drama club at Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut," recalled Hartley. "Around the mid-1950s, I saw the 'Playhouse 90' episode 'Requiem for a Heavyweight,' written by a man called Rod Serling. I was very courageous and gutsy in those days and called him to see if he would speak to our class. He actually answered the phone and said, 'I'd be delighted.' I can still see him sitting in the teacher's desk, with his pipe, at the front of the classroom talking to us. He was so handsome I thought my heart would jump out of my skin! We asked questions and I remember his charm and capacity to include all of us in the discussion." Years later, after she began working in Hollywood, Hartley met Serling again. "His limousine pulled up as I was walking out the studio," she said. "He remembered coming to my class. I told him I was looking for work and within a couple of months he gave me the wonderful gift of working in 'The Long Morrow' episode.'
According to co-writers of Night Gallery (1969), Rod Serling based the script on the classic story, The Gift of the Magi, about a couple's self-sacrifice to satisfy their partner's longing.
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Quotes:
     Narrator: [Opening Narration] It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears. Case in point: the scene you're watching. This is not a hospital, not a morgue, not a mausoleum, not an undertaker's parlor of the future. What it is is the belly of a spaceship. It is en route to another planetary system an incredible distance from the Earth. This is the crux of our story, a flight into space. It is also the story of the things that might happen to human beings who take a step beyond, unable to anticipate everything that might await them out there.
     [narration continues subsequent to character dialogue]
     Narrator: Commander Douglas Stansfield, astronaut, a man about to embark on one of history's longest journeys - forty years out into endless space and hopefully back again. This is the beginning, the first step towards man's longest leap into the unknown. Science has solved the mechanical details, and now it's up to one human being to breathe life into blueprints and computers, to prove once and for all that man can live half a lifetime in the total void of outer space, forty years alone in the unknown. This is Earth. Ahead lies a planetary system. The vast region in between is the Twilight Zone.
     [closing narration]
     Narrator: Commander Douglas Stansfield, one of the forgotten pioneers of the space age. He's been pushed aside by the flow of progress and the passage of years - and the ferocious travesty of fate. Tonight's tale of the ionosphere and irony, delivered from - the Twilight Zone.
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The Twilight Zone S5E16 'The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross' - DVR
Salvadore Ross trades physical characteristics with others to win the affection of Leah Maitland.  (Comcast)
Salvadore Ross has a unique talent where he can trade physical characteristics with other people and will do anything to get the love of Leah Maitland.
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Switching to Trivia:
Salvadore's apartment set was previously used in A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain (1963).
Based upon a short story of the same name, written by Henry Slesar and first published in the May 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction by Mercury Press, Inc.
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Quotes
Narrator: [opening narration] Confidential personnel file on Salvadore Ross. Personality: a volatile mixture of fury and frustration. Distinguishing physical characteristic: a badly-broken hand, which will require emergency treatment at the nearest hospital. Ambition: shows great determination toward self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Who's Who - in The Twilight Zone.
     [closing narration]
     Narrator: The Salvadore Ross program for self-improvement. The all-in-one, surefire success course that lets you lick the bully, learn the language, dance the tango, and anything else you want to do - or think you want to do. Money-back guarantee. Offer limited to - The Twilight Zone.
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The Twilight Zone S5E17 'Number 12 Looks Just Like You' - DVR
An ugly duckling can be stunning in a world of beautiful people.  (Comcast)
In a future society, everyone must undergo an operation at age 19 to become beautiful and conform to society. One young woman desperately wants to hold onto her own identity.  (IMDb)
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 This one is really dark.  In my mind they took that poor girl away kicking and screaming and performed the operation on her.  And who knows what else to affect her thinking.
 

As stated in the trivia it was clearly inspired by 'Brave New World'. And yes, they basically forced her into the Transformation.

 

Beautiful Trivia
All the characters are named after conventionally beautiful film stars of the day: Lana for Lana Turner, Marilyn for Marilyn Monroe, Grace for Grace Kelly, Rex for Rex Harrison, Eva for Eva Marie Saint, Valerie for Valerie Allen.
Three separate characters - Uncle Rick, Dr. Rex, and Dr. Sigmund Friend - were identical in appearance, but were distinctly different as portrayed by Richard Long. Uncle Rick was kindly and down-to-earth; Dr. Rex was eerily good-natured, with some peculiar mannerisms; and "Sigmund Friend" was a Freud-like, ominous and shadowy character with a thick German accent.
This episode is reported to be the inspiration for "Uglies", a 21st Century series of young adult science fiction novels by Scott Westerfeld.
This episode takes place in 2000.  ("For want of a better estimate call it the year 2000.")
This episode is based on Charles Beaumont's short story, "The Beautiful People", which first appeared in the September 1952 issue of the science fiction magazine "If".
The famous "pinkie finger to the lips" signature gesture of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and subsequent movies is based on a similar mannerism of Dr. Rex from this episode.
Mainly inspired by Aldous Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World.
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Quotes
Narrator: [Opening Narration] Given the chance, what young girl wouldn't happily exchange a plain face for a lovely one? What girl could refuse the opportunity to be beautiful? For want of a better estimate, let's call it the year 2000. At any rate, imagine a time in the future where science has developed the means of giving everyone the face and body he dreams of. It may not happen tomorrow, but it happens now, in The Twilight Zone.
Narrator: [Closing Narration] Portrait of a young lady in love - with herself. Improbable? Perhaps. But in an age of plastic surgery, body building and an infinity of cosmetics, let us hesitate to say impossible. These, and other strange blessings, may be waiting in the future, which, after all, is The Twilight Zone.
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What Did You Watch?
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I will say season 5 has a lot less memorable episodes than 1 thru 3. May have something to do with why season 5 was the last season for some reason....
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I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.