Re: What Did You Watch? 2024-04-03 (Wednesday)

The Twilight Zone S5E29 'The Jeopardy Room' - DVR
An assassin plots a unique death for a defector (Martin Landau)  (Comcast)
A defector is trapped in a hotel room and given three hours to find a hidden bomb.  (IMDb)
Trivia:
One of a handful of TZ episodes that, notably, contains no science fiction or fantasy elements. Others include Dust (1961), The Shelter (1961), and The Silence (1961).
Quotes:
[opening narration]
Narrator: The cast of characters: a cat and a mouse. This is the latter. The intended victim who may or may not know that he is to die, be it by butchery or ballet. His name is Major Ivan Kuchenko. He has, if events go according to certain plans, perhaps three or four more hours of living. But an ignorance shared by both himself and his executioner is of the fact that both of them have taken a first step - into The Twilight Zone.
     [Vassiloff and Boris are in Kuchenko's room cleaning up evidence]
     Boris - Vassiloff's Assistant: [holding up his gun] Commissar? It would've been better, wouldn't it?
     Commissar Vassiloff: It's alright. I'll get him in the next city. Now that I know that he is a most resourceful adversary.
     [the phone rings, Boris unthinkingly picks it up]
     Commissar Vassiloff: NO, BORIS!
     [an explosion triggered by the phone goes off, Vassiloff and Boris are killed. The screen cuts to Major Kuchenko on a phone booth at an airport]
     Phone operator: I'm sorry, sir. The line seems to be disconnected. I'm unable to reach your party.
     Major Ivan Kuchenko: It's alright, operator. I... I have reached them.
     [hangs up the phone as his flight to New York City is called for boarding]
[closing narration]
Narrator: Major Ivan Kuchenko, on his way west, on his way to freedom. A freedom bought and paid for by a most stunning ingenuity. And exit one Commissar Vassiloff, who forgot that there are two sides to an argument and two parties on the line. This has been - The Twilight Zone.
The Twilight Zone S5E30 'Stopover in a Quiet Town' - DVR
The morning after a wild party, a couple wakes up in a totally unfamiliar and artificial place.  (Comcast)
A hung-over couple awaken to find themselves not only in a strange house, but in a deserted town, where nothing is as it should be.  (IMDb)
Trivia
This is the second episode that shows two people sharing the same bed together on television, something unusual at the time. The first was Person or Persons Unknown (1962). Due to censorship regulations from the networks, TV shows at the time would portray married couples sleeping on separate beds. In both of these cases, the couples were still fully dressed and had gone to sleep while drunk, thus making it clear to the viewer they hadn't "slept" together.
The abandoned town in which the Frazers find themselves is the same location used for The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (1960) among countless other episodes. As the actors move through the 'town,' they traverse some of the old themed 'street' sets which were then standing on the old MGM backlot, including the New England Street (aka Andy Hardy Street), the Small Town Street that connects to it, and the small train depot that faces it. During the closing credits the whole section can been seen as an L-shape in the background.
Nancy Malone, who plays the wife, Millie, went on to become the first female vice-president of Television at 20 Century Fox.
Quotes:
[opening narration]
Narrator: Bob and Millie Frazier, average young New Yorkers who attended a party in the country last night, and on the way home, took a detour. Most of us on waking in the morning know exactly where we are. The rooster or the alarm clock brings us out of sleep into the familiar sights, sounds, aromas of home and the comfort of a routine day ahead. Not so with our young friends. This will be a day like none they've ever spent, and they'll spend it - in The Twilight Zone.
[closing narration]
Narrator: The moral of what you've just seen is clear. If you drink, don't drive. And if your wife has had a couple, she shouldn't drive, either. You might both just wake up with a whale of a headache in a deserted village - in The Twilight Zone.
The Twilight Zone S5E31 'The Encounter' - DVR
A World War II veteran and a Japanese-American are trapped in the veteran's attic.  (Comcast)
Post-WWII Hawaii. Two men of once-opposing races are stuck in an attic full of war trophies, including a samurai sword waiting to dutifully avenge its slain master.  (IMDb)
Trivia
This episode was finally rerun in the United States, on the Syfy channel, during a complete Twilight Zone marathon on January 3rd, 2016.
Taro "Arthur" Takamori says he was four years old when the Pearl Harbor attack happened, just like George Takei who plays him.
One of only four The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes to exclusively use, aside from Rod Serling, only 2 onscreen actors. The others are Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room (1960) starring Joe Mantell and William D. Gordon, Two (1961) starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Charles Bronson, and A Game of Pool (1961) starring Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters.
Quotes
[opening narration]
Narrator: Two men alone in an attic. A young Japanese-American and a seasoned veteran of yesterday's war. It's twenty-odd years since Pearl Harbor, but two ancient opponents are moving into position for a battle in an attic crammed with skeletons, souvenirs, mementos, old uniforms, and rusted medals. Ghosts from the dim reaches of the past that will lead us - into The Twilight Zone.
[Closing Narration]
Narrator: Two men in an attic locked in mortal embrace. Their common bond and their common enemy: Guilt - a disease all too prevalent amongst men, both in and out - of The Twilight Zone.
What Did You Watch?
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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.