May 13, 2022 • 26 mins
Welcome to the Twilight Zone, J. Michael Straczynski! The new head writer starts off the third season with an episode directed by René Bonnière, The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon, in which Harry Morgan keeps the universe running. After that we discuss Extra Innings in which Marc Singer becomes an all-star baseball player.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:29):
Hello there. I'm Chris Stashew,I'm Mike White, and this is Father
Malone and we are the host ofDreams for Sale, a podcast where we
talk about The Twilight Zone nineteen eightyfive and sometimes the other shows, but
mostly nineteen eighty five. On thisepisode, we are going to be talking
about the first two episodes of thethird season of the show. We are
(00:50):
here quickly. The second season washalf as long as every other season of
the show, so we are herequicker than we would be otherwise. But
we are going to be talking abouttwo episodes of the show at once,
because now they don't do segments anymore. They only do twenty minute episodes.
They changed it up on us.I don't know why. Realistically, they
(01:10):
changed it in the second season tosomething else, and then they didn't unchange
it, and then they changed itagain. Yeah, I think I found
them alone. Weren't you saying thatit was to get to one hundred episodes
so they could syndicate faster exactly.I think they thought, let's split that
hour up into half hour segments andthat will get us to syndication faster.
(01:32):
And then when they realized that,like halfway through this season, they were
just going to sort of cut itoff and shuffle everything to the next season.
They ended up putting a couple ofepisodes together just to get rid of
them, just to burn them offbefore the next season began. So that's
why it kind of went to halfhour, than to hour, than a
half hour hour, And now we'reback to half hour, and we will
(01:53):
stay at half hour through the endof the show. So there you go.
So yeah, from here on out, it is going to be two
episodes of the show on every episodeof our show, because they're only twenty
minutes long. So there you go. So on this episode, we're gonna
be looking at the Curious Case ofEdgar Witherspoon and extra innings, one old
(02:21):
man in a private world of irrationalurgencies. For doctor Jeremy Saint Clair,
we're all too common sight, butEdgar Witherspoon is a most uncommon old man
with a secret that reaches out tothe full corners of the earth, as
the good doctor is about to discover. So the Curious Case of Edgar Winterspoon,
(02:43):
Witherspoon, Jay Giles Band, Edgarwinter Band. I don't know what
they're going for here. I justkept saying the Edgar Winter Band. The
Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon is directedby Renee Bonnier. It is written once
again by Jay Michael Strazinski and HaskellBarkin. It stars Harry Morgan as Edgar
Witherspoon and Cedric Smith as the doctorcalled upon to take care of a crazy
(03:07):
old man. Welcome to Canada,y'all. Yeah, it's a bottle episode
inside of a shitty set filled withthings. Yeah. I think I think
this is a gentle one. Ithink, you know. I wasn't offended
by it at all. I dowant to mention one thing that, as
(03:27):
bad as any of the American oneswere, I never saw the crew in
the door. The door, whichis the first thing I noticed in this,
and I was like, oh wait, we're in Canada an hour,
right, aren't we? And thenlike he closes that door and there's the
career. I'm like, oh boy, are we in Canada? Oh yeah.
I was so happy to see HarryMorgan. I was just like,
whatever, just do whatever you want. Just give me, Harry Morgan.
(03:52):
I'm fine with this. It remindedme of something else and I can't really
put my finger on it, butthis whole idea of like, well,
I guess it's very much like thebutterfly effect, you know, and not
the shitty Ashley Kutcher film. I'mtalking about the actual effect as far as
like, if I don't put thisbaby head in this particular place, then
a tornado's going to come and wipeout Kansas City. So I'm like,
(04:15):
okay, yeah, and yeah it'scrazy and he hears voices, but yeah,
it kind of worked for me.I kind of enjoyed this one.
I agree. I Harry Morgan's great. I didn't mind Cedric Smith. I
felt the frustration of the daughter andthe landlady and all these other people.
They're just like, this guy's gota whole bunch of junk in his apartment.
(04:38):
I'm like, okay, really hoarder. Yeah, you're right. And
I did like this concept. Ilike this Rube Goldberg machine that's keeping the
world together and someone tasked with doingthat and you know, trying to find
his replacement, which is kind ofwhat the whole episode ends up being,
which is very Twilight Zony. Soyeah, I mean, you know,
(04:58):
look, it didn't reinvent wheel,but it wasn't. It wasn't God I
can't even think of the name ofthe episode, the last one, so
bad, the girl I married.Yeah, man, it's leagues and bounds
above that. You know, JayMichael Strezinski is a good writer, and
I you know, he's always comeup with interesting concepts. You know,
he went on to do that showBabbylon five, which I think is kind
of wildly underrated as far as televisedscience fiction goes. So, yeah,
(05:23):
I liked this episode quite a bit. Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting.
I think it's fun. I don'tyeah, I don't think it like
y'all have echoed. I don't thinkit reinvents the wheel. It does have
a nice little twist. I mean, you could probably see the twist coming
from ten miles away up in space. But but it's it's it's inelegantly shot.
I mean, it's it's not welldirected like this all feels like,
(05:45):
uh, not necessarily sense, butit's lit like television, whereas I think
in previous seasons they were trying togo for like at least a movie like
quality in most of the episodes.Um So that's my only you know,
real uh sort of criticism of thisparticular episode is that you know, it
just felt like, you know,it's a TV show, folks, it
feels like they're filming in Toronto,which they are. I feel like I
(06:10):
could see James Woods walking by onthe set of Video Drome in the background.
I mean, it's that's I meanagain, you know, it's when
I think of Toronto, I thinkof David Cronenberg filming a lot in Toronto,
and that's this has that kind ofgrungy, dirty, cheap I guess
look to it. So, yeah, there's not much to it. There's
really not Like, yeah, Idon't have much good to say or bad
(06:31):
to say about it, right,I mean, ultimately it's my experience with
this one has been positive, soyou know, thumbs up, I guess,
But you know, it didn't.It's not going to stay with me.
No, I do like it.No, I do like the idea
that there's just some dude who's keepingthe world together with like all this shit
in his house, though the conceptand of course nobody believes him. That's
(06:55):
like always, this whole thing ispredicated on the lack of belief, and
we're going to talk about that inthe next segment big time. But you
know, it's it's fun enough.It's not offensively stupid like the last one.
I think I do think we wouldlike this less if we hadn't seen
such duds in the last episode.Yeah, well, that's true. That's
(07:16):
you know, we're always comparing oneto another, like we did that over
on the Chronicles of script as well. It's like this one sucked because the
last one was so good, right, I do agree that having watched the
Girl I Married and then this one, I was like, oh, well,
this is a breath of fresh air. I don't I don't know that
I would have rated it worse havingseen that one. It's just kind of
there. It's you know, Ido the concept is solid. I love
(07:40):
the idea of this guy, like, you know, putting little you got
a business card on you like theidea of him running around asking for bizarre
things like it's a It's interesting,but not so well constructed. I guess.
Yeah. We want to move on, all yeah, yeah, yeah,
all right, So let's talk aboutthe next episode Extra Innings two with
(08:03):
water. It's been said that thebody is the means through which an athlete
can best reveal the dynamic potential ofthe human spirit. But what happens when
the means to that expression is injuredbeyond repair. Meet Ed Hamler, a
once prominent player in the big leagues, a man who's never resolved himself to
(08:24):
his fate as a non participant,but who will soon be forced to bat
in the Twilight Zone. So ExtraInnings is directed by Douglas Jackson, written
by Tom Palmer. It stars MarkSinger as Ed Hamner, a baseball player
who has been injured who wants toplay baseball, a children's game that people
don't make millions of dollars playing.I'm glad that an episode like this gives
(08:50):
us the most like vile, venalwife in television Twilight Zone that we've seen
in a long time. Oh boy, boy, you like I like how
I like how unrealistic she is.Okay, she does not exist on a
plane of reality that is humanity.Let's just put three notes for this episode,
and one of them is this hasone of my least favorite tropes,
(09:11):
which is the nagging, shrewish wifewho's just there to drive our hero to
his destination. Baseball is a children'sgame, served children's game. I actually
don't disagree with her sentiment, butpeople can still get paid millions of dollars
to do childish things. They absolutelycan. But if you've been sidelined and
(09:31):
you're sitting on the couch and she'spaying all the bills, yeah, I
think, yeah, the obsessive nature. I'm just like, dude, get
a fucking grip, would you.Yeah, you know, like, go
work at a fucking like a sportsmemorabilius. Job's full of O. J.
Simpson. Don't let him. Yeah. Yeah. I think the concept
for this episode makes no sense onthe face of it, because he's an
(09:52):
injured baseball player who has no moneywith an indiscriminate injury that he got while
playing baseball, which means the teamwould have cut you. I guess it's
been two years since he got injured, but he got injured in such a
way that he's forever unable to playbaseball, right, I think we all
need to point out here baseball isnot the kind of sport where you get
(10:13):
injured permanently unless you're a pitcher,or you get hit in the face with
a baseball, or something happens toyour leg right, which is what Maybe
he slid into home too hard,his leg inured like bird bones. It's
just it was unrealistic to me becausethe entire conceit is this man is so
(10:35):
injured he can't do anything. Okay, sure, but then he takes a
baseball to the face later in theepisode, like why, Hey, remember
when Mark Singer fought a bunch oflizard people on television every week? Mike,
Yeah, I wasn't that great.I remember when he traveled through time.
Even I kept waiting for that tohappen. I was just like,
(10:56):
where Podo and Podo? Where areyou? Yes? Exactly, Malone,
And I'd like to point out toyou, I have seen v I'm not
that young, sir. Did youwatch it weekly? No? I wasn't.
We're hanging on every plot twist.No, right there, Fetis he
called me a fetis. He's notwrong. He iss fans right in this
(11:20):
episode? Yeah, that was interesting. When when they broke out the tigers,
I was like, oh, okay, all right. I didn't mind
this episode. I it was kindof like the one that we talked about
last time. Well that I maymention of the whole Piano episode, um
(11:41):
like identical to it in a way. Yeah, kind of yeah, especially
like, okay, how is hein that one? It was how is
he going to what get to staythere? And this one is how is
he going to get to stay there? Mike, Yeah, at least in
the other one though, which isa superior episode in Ere. And I
(12:03):
just kept thinking about it the entiretime and thinking like, this is a
poor imitation of it. Like,at least in that one he had to
figure out a way to stay there. This one was about this guy who
has no possible way of continuing hiscareer in our world. He has the
worst wife in history. Sure thatkid likes him, but come on,
here's a chance to actually stay forever. Where is there even a question?
(12:26):
Right? And it was very convenientfor him to go back to this other
time and suddenly be in uniform.And then even the girl that he brings
back, she's in period appropriate dress. I was like, Okay, I'm
surprised that, you know, theydidn't have her go back, and they're
just like, well, young man, yeah, exactly. This is what
(12:48):
I was talking about when it whenit comes to these the sort of writers
later in this series where you knowthey have the idea and they want to
kind of explore it, but theydon't really they're not steeped in speculative fiction.
So it like the twist is enough, and there might not necessarily like
a Twilight Zony twist, but asfar as the mcguffin to get the plot
(13:09):
in motion, they're just like andthen you know, because you know fantasy
stuff, right, that's what youguys like. It's like, you know,
at one point, you know,Superman was able to do every thing
that they would just to go like, well, because he's Superman. Yeah,
now he can run through time anddo all that, you know,
during the fifties and sixties. Asfar as the right, that's what this
feels like to me. I don'tagain, this is not an episode.
(13:31):
There's not much to dislike other thanthe fact that it's called the Twilight Zone.
And we've seen some greatness recently ornot at all recently, but definitely
in the past on this show.And I don't know. Mark Singer was
good. That's that's the positive thingI'll say. Mark Singer plays a very
convincing and believable man who's down onhis look. Oh yeah, and anybody
(13:56):
checked in with him lately, Asmart singer up due these days. Yeah,
I wonder there's got to be aconvention signing somewhere. Well with COVID.
I mean, these guys can't goto the conventions. They mess jammeo
baby, Oh there you go.He's just like, you know, call
up the Beast Master here. Iam twenty five dollars. How much you
(14:16):
think Mark Singer would go for inCameo? Oh he's got to be at
least thirty five five boy, I'llsay fifteen if he's on there. Yeah,
he might be. I don't know. My wife yesterday was like,
hey, check out Jojos. Hewas on Cameo and I was like,
how much is sha five hundred dollars? Jesus Christ. Fuck dude, just
(14:37):
to be like, hey, happybirthday. What's their name again, Barbara?
Apparently he was in A Beauty andthe Beast TV series, not the
one with Ron Perlman, but ABeauty and the Beast. He was in
Arrow, which I don't watch,and he was in the rebooted V And
(14:58):
apparently he's supposed to be a onecoming out in twenty twenty one, probably
in theaters only called The Undertaker's Wife. Oh definitely. Yeah. Well,
if you if you want to bea true film fan, you have to
go watch movies in the theater.Yeah, why not risk your life for
(15:18):
that? Well, at the endof the day, I'd rather watch Arrow
on my TV than go to themovie. I went to the movies last
night. Really, what you seeScott Pilgrim Versus the World? Oh I'm
sorry? Yeah, me too?No, No, okay out here.
I love that movie anyway, butgood for you. The only reason I
bring it up on this one,bro, No, that's fine. You
(15:39):
both could be wrong, but we'renot. What I wanted to point out,
far wrong, sir. We wereone of two couples in the theater,
so I felt pretty secure. Ohwow, okay, because now you
know Pilgrim, which, yeah,I'd be less secure. Who else would
go see Scott Pilgrim in theaters?That movie is terrible. I disagree on
clubs on uh like uh as faras a bizarro movie that it kind of
(16:06):
exists in its own universe. I'mI like the movie more once I realized
Scott Pilgrim is actually the villain ofthe piece. Um. But you know,
I don't know. I just Ithink that movie's got style to burn.
And I love the soundtrack. Ilove the whole cast so and I
love the concept of having to battleyour your significant others exes. Like,
I think it's really solid. Yeah, I'd like to watch again with that
(16:30):
idea of him being the villain,because he truly is. Yeah, I
mean he's such a piece of shit. Yeah, I would like to watch
that movie without Michael Sarah in it. I mean, well mine Michael Sarah
as an actor, especially what wasthat the end or this is the end?
Immediately? Yeah, that his bestrole is the one where he's in
for three minutes. Yes, butyou know that. And speaking of Toronto,
(16:55):
I mean that movie is just alove letter to Toronto, that is.
I mean, look, I loveEdgar Wright, as I'm sure the
three of us do, but thatis the one movie of Edgar Wrights where
the first time I saw it,I liked it every other time since i've
been that's okay whatever, um,yeah, okay, Yeah, I mean,
look, I don't really like HotFuzz or World's End, Like those
(17:18):
movies do nothing for me. Butwell, yeah, I love Sean of
the de Huh. Yeah, Ilove Hot Fuzz, but I do not
like World's End. And I'm nota big fan of Baby Driver either.
I like Baby Driver then I likedwhat he was doing with some of the
music and Baby Driver, but Iwas just like, I don't know,
I was just like kind of donewith it after about half an hour.
I'm it kind of falls apart.But to be fair, Mike, on
(17:41):
my suggestion, I would say youshould rewatch World's End. I think it's
right you and I were talking aboutthat. Yeah, it is not good.
I actually thought about a year ago, Okay, well that's it,
and it was a like, Ineed to reevaluate this because maybe I was
in a mood or whatever. AndI like, I like a lot of
(18:02):
it, but I don't think ithangs together ultimately. I mean I get
it. Yeah, I mean Ididn't like it the first time I saw
it, but I subsequent watchings Ienjoy it a lot more. Kind of
the reverse with Shaun of the Dead. I liked Sean of the Dead for
a long time, and then it'sokay, it's not the strongest. Hot
Fuzz is the strongest, without adoubt. I still have much doubt there.
(18:23):
I quote both of those movies HotFuzz and Sean of the Dead all
the time. I mean we're constantly, especially saying sorry, Sean, I
love catching them. Killer is ait's just the one killer actually, But
you know, coming back to TwilightZone, must we Must we? What
(18:47):
is what is this show's obsession withtelling these kinds of stories, this version
of the show, because I don'tthink this is number two? Isn't this
number three? Now? Wasn't thereone other episode that was in this kind
of fantasy fulfillment vein? There wasright in the first one, wasn't there
Wasn't there a Peter Regard episode wherehe goes and visits himself. That's what
(19:08):
I'm thinking of. Yeah, thiswas the Harlan Ellison one. Yeah,
like I don't know, every writer'sgot this. I want to go back
to the past and live in agolden age kind of thing, like you
know. Unfortunately they came Greenland.That was that Good Lord written by our
good friend Alan Brennert. Yeah.By the way, I don't see Mark
(19:33):
Singer. I'm cameo, but Ido see Mark mcgraff. So if you
want Mark Graf, But could wejust ask Mark mcgraff to clarify if it's
Sugar Ray or Sugar Gay. Ohmy god, have you guys ever seen
that? I saw that video?Yeah, it never goes on. There's
this guy heckling Mark McGrath outside ofa club, calling him sugar gay over
and over again, and I thinkhe just says it once. Actually well
(19:56):
but yeah, but he I meanhe and then Mark, Yeah, oh
god, can say it in myfucking face. Say it to me,
like, say it to my face. Oh Jesus, dude, like sugar
wow, sugar gay, bro,sugar gay. Yeah, that's a long
video too. He excoriates that kidfor a while, and it's like it's
a straight up like teenager who justwas fucking with Mark McGrath, all right,
(20:22):
as you do. But yeah,we should just be like, hey,
Markgraf, could you say sugar gay? Do you know Mark Sing?
Do you know Mark Singer's number?Can you go on cameo and get somebody
to like like surreptitiously like be interviewedyou for your podcast, like send them
like a list of questions, likehere's my cameo I want, right,
that's a good question. Would theydo that? They'd probably be like,
(20:44):
no, you have to pay memore and be like I'm not gonna pay
you. Kevin from the office,I just page Mark McGrath say the funny
thing, shut the fuck up andjust send me my video. Cameo blows
my mind though, like the factthat anyone is willing to pay, like
mic Foley, three hundred dollars towish their friend a happy birthday is ingeniously
idiotic at the heart of it.Oh yeah, Mark Singers should get into
(21:07):
it. Yeah you should. Youshould you make fifteen dollars. Yeah,
we should get into it. Weshould just post ourselves on cameo. Yeah,
someone would take one of us upon the offer, and the person
they would take the up on theoffers Mike quite not us. Hi,
I'm here from my movie basement.This is me wishing you a happy birthday.
Who you are I do not know, but you you guess you have
(21:30):
a happy birthday? You all ofyou? Which one of you have a
happy birthday? You know? Thisis making me really want to finally sit
down and watch a man called Sarge, because that's like the one cameo or
not cameo like parody movie from thenineties that I haven't seen, and I
(21:52):
really just need to sit down andwatch it and Mark Singers in it.
Yeah, and Gary Croaker, ohmy god, yeah, an iluminary.
Yes, his name is Needelman.He's an oral Surgeon. Don't worry,
Lois, I'll protect you. Yeah, he was on a show for three
(22:14):
years. Oh yes, and yeah. Can we hope that this season is
going to be better than last one? Or is that hope going to be
misguided? You think we can hope? Yeah, I'm hoping as well.
I'm gonna do not want to hope. It is forbidden in these lands.
You have crossed over into a landof sitan sound and terrible episodes. That
(22:36):
is season three of the Twilights.We'll see. I mean, they've got
some good guest stars in this season, you know, I see like Eddie
Albert, Louise Fletcher, Peter Scalari, who you know. I think we
all agree that he should have beenthe one that got famous, not Tom
Hanks. You know, totally.He was carrying that show. Yeah,
(23:00):
exactly. Whenever anyone says Scolario,I can think, is this is Scalary
brothers tried him for murder, gavehim the chair. There you go.
It came back though they did.Look, I think with this show,
like Chronicles from the Crypt, whenwe talk about Twilight Zone, people do
remember these shows a lot more fondlythan they actually exist. Oh yeah,
because the good episodes are that good, like shatter Day wordplay. A lot
(23:25):
of the good episodes are that good. But man, everybody conveniently forgets about
a lot of the really bad stuff. But they can't. You can't exist
one without the other. You justcan't. I mean yeah, I mean
we've said this before, Like yougo, mackn't watch the original Twilight Zone.
It's rife with terrible episodes. Ohyeah, but they were, you
know, putting out like forty episodesa season or something, so they at
(23:45):
least have that excuse, you know, of just over exertion here that you
know, you've got, you knowwhat, the ten twelve, thirteen episodes
the last season, you know,maybe a twenty something here, like come
on, and you know, Iwas just looking ahead at some of the
episodes coming up. It would seemI remember quite a few of them,
but just as many I don't.But it does seem like it's kind of
(24:07):
be more of this. It's gonnabe less about shocking you or scaring you
or making you think, and moreabout what if you wished for this and
this came true? Like come on, man, I don't have time for
Schmaltz in my life better makes sometime. Yeah, I'm going to talk
about some more Schmaltz next month.Stitched my wagon to the Schmaltz trains.
(24:34):
So speaking of the next episode,on the next episode of Dreams for Sale,
we're going to be taking a lookat The Crossing and The Hunters,
both directed by Paul Lynch. Surewe'll see. Could be good, could
be bad, probably bad, maybenot, who knows until then, Father
Malone, where can people find you? You can find me over at father
Malone dot com. I got linksto all the stuff I do there,
(24:57):
but you will find my podcast DarkDestinations, which is a half hour radio
drama I put out almost monthly.What about you, Mike White. As
always, you can find me overat the Projection Both podcast, which is
available at Projection Both podcast dot com. And you can find me on Twitter
at Christmas Clause and on the Internetat cstash dot com. That's where you
(25:18):
can find me. You can findthis podcast on the internet at twilight Zone
eighty five and at I Forgot Yeah, you can find it in the twilight
Zone exactly. And as always,big thanks to Roxy Drive and Neutron Dreams
for the awesome music for this podcast. You can find them on the internet.
Can you find them? Do weknow? I'm sure you can't.
(25:40):
Sure, but who knows? Whateveryou want, it's boy, can't you.
Yeah, let's go to that darkweb. Yeah boy, And as
always, make sure to join uson the next episode.
Hello there. I'm Chris Stashew,I'm Mike White, and this is Father
Malone and we are the host ofDreams for Sale, a podcast where we
talk about The Twilight Zone nineteen eightyfive and sometimes the other shows, but
mostly nineteen eighty five. On thisepisode, we are going to be talking
about the first two episodes of thethird season of the show. We are
(00:50):
here quickly. The second season washalf as long as every other season of
the show, so we are herequicker than we would be otherwise. But
we are going to be talking abouttwo episodes of the show at once,
because now they don't do segments anymore. They only do twenty minute episodes.
They changed it up on us.I don't know why. Realistically, they
(01:10):
changed it in the second season tosomething else, and then they didn't unchange
it, and then they changed itagain. Yeah, I think I found
them alone. Weren't you saying thatit was to get to one hundred episodes
so they could syndicate faster exactly.I think they thought, let's split that
hour up into half hour segments andthat will get us to syndication faster.
(01:32):
And then when they realized that,like halfway through this season, they were
just going to sort of cut itoff and shuffle everything to the next season.
They ended up putting a couple ofepisodes together just to get rid of
them, just to burn them offbefore the next season began. So that's
why it kind of went to halfhour, than to hour, than a
half hour hour, And now we'reback to half hour, and we will
(01:53):
stay at half hour through the endof the show. So there you go.
So yeah, from here on out, it is going to be two
episodes of the show on every episodeof our show, because they're only twenty
minutes long. So there you go. So on this episode, we're gonna
be looking at the Curious Case ofEdgar Witherspoon and extra innings, one old
(02:21):
man in a private world of irrationalurgencies. For doctor Jeremy Saint Clair,
we're all too common sight, butEdgar Witherspoon is a most uncommon old man
with a secret that reaches out tothe full corners of the earth, as
the good doctor is about to discover. So the Curious Case of Edgar Winterspoon,
(02:43):
Witherspoon, Jay Giles Band, Edgarwinter Band. I don't know what
they're going for here. I justkept saying the Edgar Winter Band. The
Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon is directedby Renee Bonnier. It is written once
again by Jay Michael Strazinski and HaskellBarkin. It stars Harry Morgan as Edgar
Witherspoon and Cedric Smith as the doctorcalled upon to take care of a crazy
(03:07):
old man. Welcome to Canada,y'all. Yeah, it's a bottle episode
inside of a shitty set filled withthings. Yeah. I think I think
this is a gentle one. Ithink, you know. I wasn't offended
by it at all. I dowant to mention one thing that, as
(03:27):
bad as any of the American oneswere, I never saw the crew in
the door. The door, whichis the first thing I noticed in this,
and I was like, oh wait, we're in Canada an hour,
right, aren't we? And thenlike he closes that door and there's the
career. I'm like, oh boy, are we in Canada? Oh yeah.
I was so happy to see HarryMorgan. I was just like,
whatever, just do whatever you want. Just give me, Harry Morgan.
(03:52):
I'm fine with this. It remindedme of something else and I can't really
put my finger on it, butthis whole idea of like, well,
I guess it's very much like thebutterfly effect, you know, and not
the shitty Ashley Kutcher film. I'mtalking about the actual effect as far as
like, if I don't put thisbaby head in this particular place, then
a tornado's going to come and wipeout Kansas City. So I'm like,
(04:15):
okay, yeah, and yeah it'scrazy and he hears voices, but yeah,
it kind of worked for me.I kind of enjoyed this one.
I agree. I Harry Morgan's great. I didn't mind Cedric Smith. I
felt the frustration of the daughter andthe landlady and all these other people.
They're just like, this guy's gota whole bunch of junk in his apartment.
(04:38):
I'm like, okay, really hoarder. Yeah, you're right. And
I did like this concept. Ilike this Rube Goldberg machine that's keeping the
world together and someone tasked with doingthat and you know, trying to find
his replacement, which is kind ofwhat the whole episode ends up being,
which is very Twilight Zony. Soyeah, I mean, you know,
(04:58):
look, it didn't reinvent wheel,but it wasn't. It wasn't God I
can't even think of the name ofthe episode, the last one, so
bad, the girl I married.Yeah, man, it's leagues and bounds
above that. You know, JayMichael Strezinski is a good writer, and
I you know, he's always comeup with interesting concepts. You know,
he went on to do that showBabbylon five, which I think is kind
of wildly underrated as far as televisedscience fiction goes. So, yeah,
(05:23):
I liked this episode quite a bit. Yeah, I think it's pretty interesting.
I think it's fun. I don'tyeah, I don't think it like
y'all have echoed. I don't thinkit reinvents the wheel. It does have
a nice little twist. I mean, you could probably see the twist coming
from ten miles away up in space. But but it's it's it's inelegantly shot.
I mean, it's it's not welldirected like this all feels like,
(05:45):
uh, not necessarily sense, butit's lit like television, whereas I think
in previous seasons they were trying togo for like at least a movie like
quality in most of the episodes.Um So that's my only you know,
real uh sort of criticism of thisparticular episode is that you know, it
just felt like, you know,it's a TV show, folks, it
feels like they're filming in Toronto,which they are. I feel like I
(06:10):
could see James Woods walking by onthe set of Video Drome in the background.
I mean, it's that's I meanagain, you know, it's when
I think of Toronto, I thinkof David Cronenberg filming a lot in Toronto,
and that's this has that kind ofgrungy, dirty, cheap I guess
look to it. So, yeah, there's not much to it. There's
really not Like, yeah, Idon't have much good to say or bad
(06:31):
to say about it, right,I mean, ultimately it's my experience with
this one has been positive, soyou know, thumbs up, I guess,
But you know, it didn't.It's not going to stay with me.
No, I do like it.No, I do like the idea
that there's just some dude who's keepingthe world together with like all this shit
in his house, though the conceptand of course nobody believes him. That's
(06:55):
like always, this whole thing ispredicated on the lack of belief, and
we're going to talk about that inthe next segment big time. But you
know, it's it's fun enough.It's not offensively stupid like the last one.
I think I do think we wouldlike this less if we hadn't seen
such duds in the last episode.Yeah, well, that's true. That's
(07:16):
you know, we're always comparing oneto another, like we did that over
on the Chronicles of script as well. It's like this one sucked because the
last one was so good, right, I do agree that having watched the
Girl I Married and then this one, I was like, oh, well,
this is a breath of fresh air. I don't I don't know that
I would have rated it worse havingseen that one. It's just kind of
there. It's you know, Ido the concept is solid. I love
(07:40):
the idea of this guy, like, you know, putting little you got
a business card on you like theidea of him running around asking for bizarre
things like it's a It's interesting,but not so well constructed. I guess.
Yeah. We want to move on, all yeah, yeah, yeah,
all right, So let's talk aboutthe next episode Extra Innings two with
(08:03):
water. It's been said that thebody is the means through which an athlete
can best reveal the dynamic potential ofthe human spirit. But what happens when
the means to that expression is injuredbeyond repair. Meet Ed Hamler, a
once prominent player in the big leagues, a man who's never resolved himself to
(08:24):
his fate as a non participant,but who will soon be forced to bat
in the Twilight Zone. So ExtraInnings is directed by Douglas Jackson, written
by Tom Palmer. It stars MarkSinger as Ed Hamner, a baseball player
who has been injured who wants toplay baseball, a children's game that people
don't make millions of dollars playing.I'm glad that an episode like this gives
(08:50):
us the most like vile, venalwife in television Twilight Zone that we've seen
in a long time. Oh boy, boy, you like I like how
I like how unrealistic she is.Okay, she does not exist on a
plane of reality that is humanity.Let's just put three notes for this episode,
and one of them is this hasone of my least favorite tropes,
(09:11):
which is the nagging, shrewish wifewho's just there to drive our hero to
his destination. Baseball is a children'sgame, served children's game. I actually
don't disagree with her sentiment, butpeople can still get paid millions of dollars
to do childish things. They absolutelycan. But if you've been sidelined and
(09:31):
you're sitting on the couch and she'spaying all the bills, yeah, I
think, yeah, the obsessive nature. I'm just like, dude, get
a fucking grip, would you.Yeah, you know, like, go
work at a fucking like a sportsmemorabilius. Job's full of O. J.
Simpson. Don't let him. Yeah. Yeah. I think the concept
for this episode makes no sense onthe face of it, because he's an
(09:52):
injured baseball player who has no moneywith an indiscriminate injury that he got while
playing baseball, which means the teamwould have cut you. I guess it's
been two years since he got injured, but he got injured in such a
way that he's forever unable to playbaseball, right, I think we all
need to point out here baseball isnot the kind of sport where you get
(10:13):
injured permanently unless you're a pitcher,or you get hit in the face with
a baseball, or something happens toyour leg right, which is what Maybe
he slid into home too hard,his leg inured like bird bones. It's
just it was unrealistic to me becausethe entire conceit is this man is so
(10:35):
injured he can't do anything. Okay, sure, but then he takes a
baseball to the face later in theepisode, like why, Hey, remember
when Mark Singer fought a bunch oflizard people on television every week? Mike,
Yeah, I wasn't that great.I remember when he traveled through time.
Even I kept waiting for that tohappen. I was just like,
(10:56):
where Podo and Podo? Where areyou? Yes? Exactly, Malone,
And I'd like to point out toyou, I have seen v I'm not
that young, sir. Did youwatch it weekly? No? I wasn't.
We're hanging on every plot twist.No, right there, Fetis he
called me a fetis. He's notwrong. He iss fans right in this
(11:20):
episode? Yeah, that was interesting. When when they broke out the tigers,
I was like, oh, okay, all right. I didn't mind
this episode. I it was kindof like the one that we talked about
last time. Well that I maymention of the whole Piano episode, um
(11:41):
like identical to it in a way. Yeah, kind of yeah, especially
like, okay, how is hein that one? It was how is
he going to what get to staythere? And this one is how is
he going to get to stay there? Mike, Yeah, at least in
the other one though, which isa superior episode in Ere. And I
(12:03):
just kept thinking about it the entiretime and thinking like, this is a
poor imitation of it. Like,at least in that one he had to
figure out a way to stay there. This one was about this guy who
has no possible way of continuing hiscareer in our world. He has the
worst wife in history. Sure thatkid likes him, but come on,
here's a chance to actually stay forever. Where is there even a question?
(12:26):
Right? And it was very convenientfor him to go back to this other
time and suddenly be in uniform.And then even the girl that he brings
back, she's in period appropriate dress. I was like, Okay, I'm
surprised that, you know, theydidn't have her go back, and they're
just like, well, young man, yeah, exactly. This is what
(12:48):
I was talking about when it whenit comes to these the sort of writers
later in this series where you knowthey have the idea and they want to
kind of explore it, but theydon't really they're not steeped in speculative fiction.
So it like the twist is enough, and there might not necessarily like
a Twilight Zony twist, but asfar as the mcguffin to get the plot
(13:09):
in motion, they're just like andthen you know, because you know fantasy
stuff, right, that's what youguys like. It's like, you know,
at one point, you know,Superman was able to do every thing
that they would just to go like, well, because he's Superman. Yeah,
now he can run through time anddo all that, you know,
during the fifties and sixties. Asfar as the right, that's what this
feels like to me. I don'tagain, this is not an episode.
(13:31):
There's not much to dislike other thanthe fact that it's called the Twilight Zone.
And we've seen some greatness recently ornot at all recently, but definitely
in the past on this show.And I don't know. Mark Singer was
good. That's that's the positive thingI'll say. Mark Singer plays a very
convincing and believable man who's down onhis look. Oh yeah, and anybody
(13:56):
checked in with him lately, Asmart singer up due these days. Yeah,
I wonder there's got to be aconvention signing somewhere. Well with COVID.
I mean, these guys can't goto the conventions. They mess jammeo
baby, Oh there you go.He's just like, you know, call
up the Beast Master here. Iam twenty five dollars. How much you
(14:16):
think Mark Singer would go for inCameo? Oh he's got to be at
least thirty five five boy, I'llsay fifteen if he's on there. Yeah,
he might be. I don't know. My wife yesterday was like,
hey, check out Jojos. Hewas on Cameo and I was like,
how much is sha five hundred dollars? Jesus Christ. Fuck dude, just
(14:37):
to be like, hey, happybirthday. What's their name again, Barbara?
Apparently he was in A Beauty andthe Beast TV series, not the
one with Ron Perlman, but ABeauty and the Beast. He was in
Arrow, which I don't watch,and he was in the rebooted V And
(14:58):
apparently he's supposed to be a onecoming out in twenty twenty one, probably
in theaters only called The Undertaker's Wife. Oh definitely. Yeah. Well,
if you if you want to bea true film fan, you have to
go watch movies in the theater.Yeah, why not risk your life for
(15:18):
that? Well, at the endof the day, I'd rather watch Arrow
on my TV than go to themovie. I went to the movies last
night. Really, what you seeScott Pilgrim Versus the World? Oh I'm
sorry? Yeah, me too?No, No, okay out here.
I love that movie anyway, butgood for you. The only reason I
bring it up on this one,bro, No, that's fine. You
(15:39):
both could be wrong, but we'renot. What I wanted to point out,
far wrong, sir. We wereone of two couples in the theater,
so I felt pretty secure. Ohwow, okay, because now you
know Pilgrim, which, yeah,I'd be less secure. Who else would
go see Scott Pilgrim in theaters?That movie is terrible. I disagree on
clubs on uh like uh as faras a bizarro movie that it kind of
(16:06):
exists in its own universe. I'mI like the movie more once I realized
Scott Pilgrim is actually the villain ofthe piece. Um. But you know,
I don't know. I just Ithink that movie's got style to burn.
And I love the soundtrack. Ilove the whole cast so and I
love the concept of having to battleyour your significant others exes. Like,
I think it's really solid. Yeah, I'd like to watch again with that
(16:30):
idea of him being the villain,because he truly is. Yeah, I
mean he's such a piece of shit. Yeah, I would like to watch
that movie without Michael Sarah in it. I mean, well mine Michael Sarah
as an actor, especially what wasthat the end or this is the end?
Immediately? Yeah, that his bestrole is the one where he's in
for three minutes. Yes, butyou know that. And speaking of Toronto,
(16:55):
I mean that movie is just alove letter to Toronto, that is.
I mean, look, I loveEdgar Wright, as I'm sure the
three of us do, but thatis the one movie of Edgar Wrights where
the first time I saw it,I liked it every other time since i've
been that's okay whatever, um,yeah, okay, Yeah, I mean,
look, I don't really like HotFuzz or World's End, Like those
(17:18):
movies do nothing for me. Butwell, yeah, I love Sean of
the de Huh. Yeah, Ilove Hot Fuzz, but I do not
like World's End. And I'm nota big fan of Baby Driver either.
I like Baby Driver then I likedwhat he was doing with some of the
music and Baby Driver, but Iwas just like, I don't know,
I was just like kind of donewith it after about half an hour.
I'm it kind of falls apart.But to be fair, Mike, on
(17:41):
my suggestion, I would say youshould rewatch World's End. I think it's
right you and I were talking aboutthat. Yeah, it is not good.
I actually thought about a year ago, Okay, well that's it,
and it was a like, Ineed to reevaluate this because maybe I was
in a mood or whatever. AndI like, I like a lot of
(18:02):
it, but I don't think ithangs together ultimately. I mean I get
it. Yeah, I mean Ididn't like it the first time I saw
it, but I subsequent watchings Ienjoy it a lot more. Kind of
the reverse with Shaun of the Dead. I liked Sean of the Dead for
a long time, and then it'sokay, it's not the strongest. Hot
Fuzz is the strongest, without adoubt. I still have much doubt there.
(18:23):
I quote both of those movies HotFuzz and Sean of the Dead all
the time. I mean we're constantly, especially saying sorry, Sean, I
love catching them. Killer is ait's just the one killer actually, But
you know, coming back to TwilightZone, must we Must we? What
(18:47):
is what is this show's obsession withtelling these kinds of stories, this version
of the show, because I don'tthink this is number two? Isn't this
number three? Now? Wasn't thereone other episode that was in this kind
of fantasy fulfillment vein? There wasright in the first one, wasn't there
Wasn't there a Peter Regard episode wherehe goes and visits himself. That's what
(19:08):
I'm thinking of. Yeah, thiswas the Harlan Ellison one. Yeah,
like I don't know, every writer'sgot this. I want to go back
to the past and live in agolden age kind of thing, like you
know. Unfortunately they came Greenland.That was that Good Lord written by our
good friend Alan Brennert. Yeah.By the way, I don't see Mark
(19:33):
Singer. I'm cameo, but Ido see Mark mcgraff. So if you
want Mark Graf, But could wejust ask Mark mcgraff to clarify if it's
Sugar Ray or Sugar Gay. Ohmy god, have you guys ever seen
that? I saw that video?Yeah, it never goes on. There's
this guy heckling Mark McGrath outside ofa club, calling him sugar gay over
and over again, and I thinkhe just says it once. Actually well
(19:56):
but yeah, but he I meanhe and then Mark, Yeah, oh
god, can say it in myfucking face. Say it to me,
like, say it to my face. Oh Jesus, dude, like sugar
wow, sugar gay, bro,sugar gay. Yeah, that's a long
video too. He excoriates that kidfor a while, and it's like it's
a straight up like teenager who justwas fucking with Mark McGrath, all right,
(20:22):
as you do. But yeah,we should just be like, hey,
Markgraf, could you say sugar gay? Do you know Mark Sing?
Do you know Mark Singer's number?Can you go on cameo and get somebody
to like like surreptitiously like be interviewedyou for your podcast, like send them
like a list of questions, likehere's my cameo I want, right,
that's a good question. Would theydo that? They'd probably be like,
(20:44):
no, you have to pay memore and be like I'm not gonna pay
you. Kevin from the office,I just page Mark McGrath say the funny
thing, shut the fuck up andjust send me my video. Cameo blows
my mind though, like the factthat anyone is willing to pay, like
mic Foley, three hundred dollars towish their friend a happy birthday is ingeniously
idiotic at the heart of it.Oh yeah, Mark Singers should get into
(21:07):
it. Yeah you should. Youshould you make fifteen dollars. Yeah,
we should get into it. Weshould just post ourselves on cameo. Yeah,
someone would take one of us upon the offer, and the person
they would take the up on theoffers Mike quite not us. Hi,
I'm here from my movie basement.This is me wishing you a happy birthday.
Who you are I do not know, but you you guess you have
(21:30):
a happy birthday? You all ofyou? Which one of you have a
happy birthday? You know? Thisis making me really want to finally sit
down and watch a man called Sarge, because that's like the one cameo or
not cameo like parody movie from thenineties that I haven't seen, and I
(21:52):
really just need to sit down andwatch it and Mark Singers in it.
Yeah, and Gary Croaker, ohmy god, yeah, an iluminary.
Yes, his name is Needelman.He's an oral Surgeon. Don't worry,
Lois, I'll protect you. Yeah, he was on a show for three
(22:14):
years. Oh yes, and yeah. Can we hope that this season is
going to be better than last one? Or is that hope going to be
misguided? You think we can hope? Yeah, I'm hoping as well.
I'm gonna do not want to hope. It is forbidden in these lands.
You have crossed over into a landof sitan sound and terrible episodes. That
(22:36):
is season three of the Twilights.We'll see. I mean, they've got
some good guest stars in this season, you know, I see like Eddie
Albert, Louise Fletcher, Peter Scalari, who you know. I think we
all agree that he should have beenthe one that got famous, not Tom
Hanks. You know, totally.He was carrying that show. Yeah,
(23:00):
exactly. Whenever anyone says Scolario,I can think, is this is Scalary
brothers tried him for murder, gavehim the chair. There you go.
It came back though they did.Look, I think with this show,
like Chronicles from the Crypt, whenwe talk about Twilight Zone, people do
remember these shows a lot more fondlythan they actually exist. Oh yeah,
because the good episodes are that good, like shatter Day wordplay. A lot
(23:25):
of the good episodes are that good. But man, everybody conveniently forgets about
a lot of the really bad stuff. But they can't. You can't exist
one without the other. You justcan't. I mean yeah, I mean
we've said this before, Like yougo, mackn't watch the original Twilight Zone.
It's rife with terrible episodes. Ohyeah, but they were, you
know, putting out like forty episodesa season or something, so they at
(23:45):
least have that excuse, you know, of just over exertion here that you
know, you've got, you knowwhat, the ten twelve, thirteen episodes
the last season, you know,maybe a twenty something here, like come
on, and you know, Iwas just looking ahead at some of the
episodes coming up. It would seemI remember quite a few of them,
but just as many I don't.But it does seem like it's kind of
(24:07):
be more of this. It's gonnabe less about shocking you or scaring you
or making you think, and moreabout what if you wished for this and
this came true? Like come on, man, I don't have time for
Schmaltz in my life better makes sometime. Yeah, I'm going to talk
about some more Schmaltz next month.Stitched my wagon to the Schmaltz trains.
(24:34):
So speaking of the next episode,on the next episode of Dreams for Sale,
we're going to be taking a lookat The Crossing and The Hunters,
both directed by Paul Lynch. Surewe'll see. Could be good, could
be bad, probably bad, maybenot, who knows until then, Father
Malone, where can people find you? You can find me over at father
Malone dot com. I got linksto all the stuff I do there,
(24:57):
but you will find my podcast DarkDestinations, which is a half hour radio
drama I put out almost monthly.What about you, Mike White. As
always, you can find me overat the Projection Both podcast, which is
available at Projection Both podcast dot com. And you can find me on Twitter
at Christmas Clause and on the Internetat cstash dot com. That's where you
(25:18):
can find me. You can findthis podcast on the internet at twilight Zone
eighty five and at I Forgot Yeah, you can find it in the twilight
Zone exactly. And as always,big thanks to Roxy Drive and Neutron Dreams
for the awesome music for this podcast. You can find them on the internet.
Can you find them? Do weknow? I'm sure you can't.
(25:40):
Sure, but who knows? Whateveryou want, it's boy, can't you.
Yeah, let's go to that darkweb. Yeah boy, And as
always, make sure to join uson the next episode.
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