Season 5, Episode 13, “Ring A Ding Girl”
This episode first aired December 27, 1963.
The house set was previously used in “Living Doll” (1963)
At one point in the episode, Bunny says to her sister: “Remember when we used to lie in bed on rainy nights and call to each other when we were kids?”. The writer of this episode, Earl Hammer Jr., was inspired here by his own upbringing when he and his seven siblings would call out to each other every night at bedtime. And this would become the iconic closing of The Waltons (1972), a show Hamner would later create.
Maggie McNamara, who played Bunny Blake, wanted to be a fashion designer. She was offered a movie contract by David O’Selznick but turned it down in favor of taking acting classes and doing plays. She landed on Broadway and was eventually offered a lead role in The Moon is Blue (1963) by director Otto Preminger. The role earned her rave reviews and an Oscar nomination. She signed a contract with 20th Century Fox but angered the studio by refusing to do cheesecake publicity photos. Following an affair with Richard Burton, her marriage fell apart and she suffered a nervous background. Unable to find steady work onscreen, she worked as a typist and wrote a film script that was optioned by a studio. McNamara suffered from depression, however, and took her own life at the age of 48.
David Macklin, who played Bud, was quite vocal about how much he disliked working on this episode: “First of all I didn’t care for the script or my character. I was getting much bigger parts. But it was slow and I went for the money. My first experience was make-up where some old hack gave me the worst make-up I have ever experienced. It seemed he didn’t think I was important enough to give the kind of make-up he did on Maggie and Mary. Maybe he didn’t have time after doing them and thought he would catch up not he kid. Anyway, he simply smeared pancake all over my face including my mouth, eyelashes, and brows. I had the sense to remove the make[up from those areas but I still looked lousy. It was that show that taught me to bring my own make[up to the set.” Macklin continued: “Then I went to wardrobe and they dressed me in the worst shirt ever seen on television. That was also taught me to be more discriminating about wardrobe. Mr. Grossland was aloof and gave no help or encouragement. In fact I think his coverage of the final scene stinks. I didn’t get a reaction shot and should have. On the positive side, Maggie and Mary were a delight to work with and I loved that car. Poor Maggie, she had to wear that one dress through the whole show and they never cleaned it. It was getting a little ripe bear the end. I had no idea, at the time that I was working on a classic TV show that a lot of people would like the segment. I certainly had no idea it would rerun so much. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the most run TV show ever… And I receive no residuals, bah! Ironically, I didn’t know at the time that I would get more mail for this program than any other.”
Bing Russell, who played Ben Braden, was the father of Kurt Russell.
Betty Lou Gerson, who played Cici, was the voice of Cruella DeVille in 101 Dalmations (1961).
Bill Hickman, who played the pilot, was a stunt driver known for his work on Bullitt (1968) and The French Connection (1971).
Hank Patterson, who played Mr. Gentry, portrayed the character of Fred Ziffel in three different series: The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Green Acres (1965). While shooting the latter, he was already in his 70’s and hard of hearing, but the production worked around his impairment by having the someone lie on the floor, out of camera frame, and tap Hank’s leg with a yardstick as a cue to deliver his line.
This one didn’t really make a whole lot of sense and yet I really liked the Bunny Blake character and the fact that she hadn’t allowed fame to change her. The moment when she hurries out into the rain is haunting and the twist very effective BUT, as I said, the logic doesn’t really track. Presumably she was a time-traveling ghost receiving communications from alternate versions of the people she knew? Wut? I mean, I did enjoy it…yet remain very confused.
Season 5, Episode 14, “You Drive”
This episode first aired January 3, 1964.
Writer Earl Hammer Jr. reflected back on the inspiration for this script: “I believe the genesis of this story came from reading about a child who had been killed by a hit-and-run driver. I guess it was an expression of my anger and a way for me, in fantasy, to bring the guilty party to justice.”
“You Drive” is one of those rare episodes where production ventured off the lot to shoot on actual city streets.
Oliver Pope’s car is a 1956 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan.
To achieve the shot in which the car almost runs over Pope, director George T. Clemens filmed it in reverse, starting with the car parked behind actor Edward Andrews’s head and then backing up. The scene was then reversed and edited into the episode.
This one was kind of weird. It didn’t really feel like a Twilight Zone episode, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. The cinematography was crisp and the street scenes surprisingly more filmic than previous episodes. I also spent much of the episode trying to place actor Edward Andrews, picking up echoes of a much more nefarious performance – and it wasn’t until I checked imdb that I realized he had played the treacherous Carling in season 1’s “Third from the Sun”.
The killer car thing had been done before, much better in a much worse episode (season 2’s “A Thing About Machines”), but there’s something about this episode, despite it’s straightforward simplicity, that I quite liked. I was initially dubious about Earl Hammer Jr.’s contributions to the show but have to admit I’ve generally enjoyed his episodes.
Season 5, Episode 15, “The Long Morrow”
This episode first aired January 10, 1964.
Serling based his script on “The Gift of the Magi”, a short story by O’Henry in which two poor lovers sacrifice to give each other the perfect give. She cuts off her long hair in order to buy him a chain for his beloved watch while he sells his watch to buy her combs for her beautiful long hair.
This first draft of the script contained a scene in which Stansfield is awakened from his cryo-sleep to perform one of the 131 scheduled interval maintenance checks. Rather than re-enter the stasis pod, he contacts Earth and informs them of his decision not to go back into suspended animation.
Actor Robert Lansing, who played Commander Douglas Stansfield, played Gary Seven in the original Star Trek’s “Assignment Earth”. It was intended to be a pilot for a spinoff series that never got off the ground.
Mariette Hartley, who played Sandra Horn, also guested on class Star Trek as Spock’s love interest Zarabeth in ” All Our Yesterdays”. 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. “There was an afternoon I was on the back lot. I cannot recall if Rod Serling was riding in a limousine or in a golf cart between sound stages, but I waved and caught hi s attention. I got him to stop for a moment and introduce myself, and he remembered me. I was bold enough to ask him for a part in a Twilight Zone and he said there might be an opening and get back to me. A few friends were with me at the time and I remember them laughing at me for the stunt I pulled, but I showed them, didn’t I?”
This one was…alright. Another case of the idea being far better than the execution. The idea of these two falling in love over a three hour dinner is preposterous enough and certainly wasn’t helped by Hartley’s emotionally numbing performance. And as soon as they announced she’d been in suspended animation the whole time, my first thought was “Surely he would have known that technology was possible.” She’s the same age as when he left, so it couldn’t have been something developed and launched shortly after his departure. I mean, what a maroon! The best part was at the end when he essentially tells her to go live her life without him and she’s like “Okie doke. See ya later, gramps!”.
This episode landed with a thud for me.
Season 5, Episode 16, “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross”
This episode first aired January 17, 1964.
This was writer Jerry McNeely’s first and only script for the show, an adaptation of a short story by Henry Slesar first published in the May 1961 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
Salvadore’s apartment set was previously used in “A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain”.
A scene that ended up on the cutting room floor had Salvadore visit a bar and trading drinks for a full head of hair for the bald bartender.
Actress Gail Kobe, who played Leah Maitland, recalled: “Director Don Siegel was fast and he was kind. And he would say, “It’s not brain surgery, just relax, Gail.” because I had a tendency to get pretty intense. The cadence of his voice would make you relax, and it just made you better.”
Director Don Siegel, who also directed “Uncle Simon”, had previously directed Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and would go on to direct such notable features as The Killers (1964), Dirty Harry (1971), The Shootist (1976), and Escape from Alcatraz (1979).
It thought this was a pretty good episode until the ending. Like the character in the previous episode, our female lead falls in love with a guy in less than 24 hours. Given Mr. Maitland’s character, I’m not sure what could have convinced him to relinquish his compassion (and, conveniently enough, we never do find out). And why would Salvadore appeal to Maitland’s compassion if he already knows he took it from him? A rather messy end to an otherwise intriguing episode.
And our 13 Days of Halloween countdown continues with,,..
Oddity
Writer-Director Damian Mc Carthy’s first feature, Caveat, was a diabolical descent into Irish horror, and his second feature, Oddity, proves an equally unnerving offering. Calculated and creepy in its slow burn suspense-filledl unfurling.
4/5 Jack o’ Lanterns
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