The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 35 (The Mighty Casey)

Being the last in the league can make you do desperate things.  You want to do well, but there comes a point where it would take a miracle to make any sort of progress.  "Mouth" McGarry is the manager of  the Hoboken Zephyrs, a baseball team in dead last.  If they’ve played five games, they’ve lost six of them.  That’s how bad they’re doing.  They could really use that miracle.

The good news is that it comes in the form of a great pitcher named Casey.  He can throw a really fast fastball or a really screwy curveball.  The one thing every pitch has in common is that no one can hit them.  The catch is that Casey is actually a robot.  (I think he’d technically be called an android.)  Since the team needs Casey, no one needs to know what he is.

He’s signed immediately and the team does well.  All good things must come to an end, as they say.  When Casey is hit during a game, the physician discovers that he has no heartbeat.  It comes out that Casey isn’t human and is banned from playing.

A deal is made with the commissioner that Casey will only be suspended until he can be given a heart.  This proves fatal to Casey’s baseball career, as he can’t bring himself to strike out the opposing players.  He doesn’t want to ruin their careers.  Casey leaves the team to pursue social work.

Casey is, without a doubt, mighty.  The episode?  Not so much.  I’m not saying it was bad.  It’s just one of the few Twilight Zone episodes that seemed out of place.  The twist was ironic, but not as much as other episodes.  You can sort of see it coming and it just didn’t have the same impact that I would have expected.

It could be that times have changed.  I’ve grown up in a time where human-looking androids were commonplace in fiction.  They’re almost a reality.  (We may actually get an actual Casey within my lifetime.)  The episode first aired almost 60 years ago.  I would imagine that the audience was different.

To me, it seems like a script they bought just in case they needed one more episode to round out the season.  (There was one more after this.)  It was a little weak.  For instance, Casey feels that he’d ruin the careers of the opposing players.  No attempt is made to dissuade him of this notion.  Losing to one pitcher, especially one as good as Casey, probably wouldn’t cause a player to get dropped from a team.  There are plenty of other games for the opposing teams to do well in.

If you’re binging the series, it’s not a horrible episode.  It’s worth at least one viewing.  However, I wouldn’t expect a lot from it.  The Twilight Zone is like any other series; sometimes an episode is a home run and sometimes it‘s not.   I just have to wonder: Why is Casey left-handed?

IMDb page

The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 29 (Nightmare as a Child)

Helen Foley doesn’t remember much about her childhood.  This is why it’s odd when she comes home one day to find a little girl sitting outside her door.  What’s so odd about that?  The girl, who identifies herself only as Markie, seems to know a lot about Helen’s youth.  Markie questions Helen about the scar she has on her arm and about the strange man she saw stopped at a red light.

Markie runs out the back door just before another visitor arrives.  Funny thing is that it’s the strange man, one Peter Selden.  Peter worked for Helen’s mother.  He saw Helen outside of the school where she works.  He decided to look her up and ask some questions about what she remembers from her childhood.  Helen doesn’t recall much during the conversation, but the memories do come back to her.  It also becomes evident just who Markie is.

This episode is unusual in that it’s probably the least supernatural of the series, at least so far.  The only exception to this would be the pilot episode.  Everything could be explained by normal psychological conditions.  Loss of memories pertaining to a traumatic event is understandable.  At least one element of the story could be attributed to hallucinations.  I’d say that this is the most forthright episode so far.

If this episode is serving as your introduction to the series, you’ll probably find other episodes to be more otherworldy.  The episode is probably not for children, which could be said of most Twilight Zone episodes.  Helen’s memory loss is due to the death of her mother, which is shown briefly.  I’d say for most adults, though, it’s a good introduction to The Twilight Zone.


IMDb page

The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 16 (The Hitch-Hiker)

An antagonist is generally defined as someone who stands in opposition to the protagonist.  You have someone who’s trying to accomplish something and someone that’s actively trying to thwart them.   Nan Adams definitely fit’s the profile of a protagonist.  She’s on vacation, driving from New York to Los Angeles.  It’s fairly simple, except that one of her tires blows out.  The mechanic tells her that it should have killed her.  She’s lucky that she got out of it so easily.

She seems to have drawn the attention of a hitchhiker.  Nan doesn’t know how, but he keeps getting ahead of her.  She’s driving, but he has no apparent means of going faster than her.  She doesn’t know why, but the Hitchhiker makes her increasingly afraid.  Every time she sees him, she feels more compelled to get away from him.

This is where the label of antagonist seems inappropriate, as he hasn’t done anything overtly threatening.  He hasn’t approached the car or yelled at her.  He‘s not a particularly intimidating person, yet she’s overcome with emotion at each encounter.  She can’t explain why.  It’s not until she calls her mother that everything becomes clear.

The episode is unusual in that the main character also narrates in addition to Rod Serling.  The may be because the episode was based on a radio play by Louise Fletcher.  It’s not at all distracting.  I just found it a little odd.  I don’t recall many other Twilight Zone episodes doing this.

I could see a writing class using this episode as an example of good writing.  As I said, the Hitchhiker doesn’t present as much of a threat.  Antagonists don’t necessarily have to be menacing to be effective.  In fact, the Hitchhiker doesn’t even say that much.

I’m curious how much has changed culturally over the last 50 years.  It’s understandable in today’s context to understand why a woman driving alone would be afraid of someone like the Hitchhiker.  However, she’s trusting enough to pick up a sailor who helped her out.  Certain things may have been lost on me.

I’d say that it’s generally safe for teenagers and above.  The only thing I’d consider is talking to them about talking to strangers.  As I said, Nan exhibits two extreme reactions to dealing with people she doesn’t know.  She trusts one person without question, yet fears another without much reason.  As for younger children, Nan does show a good deal of fear, which could be scary.  (IMDb shows a rating of TV-PG.)

If you have Netflix and they still have this streaming, I’d say watch it.  It’s definitely one of those episodes that will leave you wondering what really happened.


IMDb page

The Twilight Zone (1959) -- Season 1 Episode 12 (What You Need)

As The Rolling Stones said, you can’t always get what you want.  Sometimes, fate gives you want you need.  If you’re lucky enough to meet a street vendor named Mr. Pedott, he may have just the item you need to get you out of a tight spot.  For instance, he gives an ex-baseball player a bus ticket to Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Moments later, the baseball player gets a call to go to Scranton.  If only he had a way to get there…

It isn’t long before Fred Renard picks up on Pedott’s skill.  Whereas Pedott is happy to give people what they need, Renard has no problem taking what he wants.  This means using strong-arm to get items out of Pedott.  At first, it’s a pair of scissors that he can use to cut off a scarf.  The second item is a pen that can predict the winner of a horse race.  The third time is it for Renard, though, as Pedott gives him a pair of slippery shoes.

Not much is said about Pedott’s gift.  He claims that he can see a probable future and give assistance based on that.  It’s not specified exactly how Pedott gets his information or how much he’s given.  It’s also not clear where the items come from.  Is the case magical or is Pedott smart enough to have items that would be of great use to a great number of people?  The bus ticket seems rather specific, but a pair of scissors has a great many potential uses.  Also, why would a street vendor have a pair of shoes?

It’s an interesting episode in that the two men are opposites.  Renard is ambitious to the point of it being his undoing.  Pedott is a nice person who you would think might be taken advantage of.  Renard certainly thought so.  However, there’s nothing about Pedott’s ability that precludes him from using it for his own benefit.  It’s just that he’s usually happy to help other people.  Perhaps we could take a lesson from Mr. Pedott.


IMDb page