Episode 36: Dream Me a Life / Memories

We continue the slog of the third season with two episodes about memories and dreams: In "Dream Me a Life" (written by J. Michael Straczynski), Eddie Albert dreams about a catatonic widow. Meanwhile in "Memories" (written by Bob Underwood), a specialist in past life regression enters an alternate reality where everyone remembers their previous incarnations.

Episode Transcript

(00:29):
Hi there, I'm Chris Stashu,I'm Mike White, and this is fund
Them Alone, and we're the hostsof Dreams for Sale once a month.
Look at the Twilight Zone nineteen eightyfive, otherwise known as that show that
we all wish would have gotten betterbefore it got worse. But boy,
maybe this is the dip. Maybethere's a maybe, there's a maybe there's
a climb. Who knows. We'llfind out though on this episode when we're

(00:50):
talking about two episodes from the show, the fifth and sixth episodes of the
third season. Actually, those twoepisodes are titled dream Me a Life and
Memories portrait of a man having abad dream. His name Roger Simpson leads.
Place of residence a retirement home.Roger Simpson leads who, since the

(01:12):
death of his wife three years ago, has dedicated himself to living a life
in which he touches no one andno one touches him. But now contact
has been made and mister Leeds isabout to find himself touched by the Twilight
Zone. So dream meal Life isdirected by Alan King, written once again

(01:34):
by Jay Michael Straczynski, it starsEddie Albert as a man a man who
lives in an The fuck? Whocares? God damn it? Like this
show is doing a really good jobof giving us no reason to care by
these episodes that are once again nebulousin what are there trying to tell us?
And it takes twenty three minutes toget there. I don't want to

(01:55):
be mister negative, but I likethis one. Didn't mind this one.
I was especially glad that Barrymore showedup. I thought that was really nice.
I like him a lot. Yeah, I liked him in the Changeling.
I mean I remember him all theway back from the original Twilight Zone.
It was was he in space inn eighteen ninety nine? Yes,

(02:17):
he was okay, and I likedthe relationship between him and Eddie Albert.
Eddie Albert probably took him a littlewhile to wash the taste of scenery out
of his mouth from like at leastone of those scenes where he's just moaning
so hard. But that's Eddie Albert. Yeah, it is Eddie Albert.
That's this thing. Man, ifhe's not yelling at his gorgeous Hungarian wife

(02:40):
for no good reason, because youknow, that really good in the sack.
Yeah, but yeah, now he'sscreaming about how he wants to help
this lady and how his wife diedand now her husband's dead, and then
he gets to live in her dreamsbut then helps her out. I guess

(03:02):
so he was summoned by her deadhusband. That's what it sounds like.
Yeah, who the fuck knows.It's it's this kind of like very lazy
storytelling that is just become beyond pervasive. The show is like traf Like the
show is now trafficking in it,like exclusively trafficking and lazy storytelling. And

(03:25):
while to your point, Father Malone, I kind of like this segment more
than the last two. That isso saying that is saying so little that
to say that much is almost morethan this episode deserves. Well, I
actually thought at the end it waskind of a sweet little, you know,
rumination on it is on grief.You know, like at least for

(03:46):
the first time in a long timethat we've had an episode take a stand
on something that that grief can becrippling and you know, we all need
to sort of help each other throughit. So I liked that. I
liked that, like Nightmare Sequences,which is shot in black and white,
sort of on a on a stageobviously, like I thought that was at
least visually interesting, which is thefirst time I could say that this season.

(04:09):
Um and uh oh. I willsay, however, that seeing any
Albert running around in a dream screamingand then waking up screaming, like all
I could think about was the movieDreamscape. Yes, yeah, like even
like I'm watching him in the nightmareand I'm thinking, my god, this
is a lot like Dreamscape, andthen when he woke up, like I

(04:30):
was like, oh my god,it's exactly like dreams Scape. Maybe one
wats Dreamscape. I didn't hate thisone, ultimately, I just think it's
you know, it's it was slight, but at least it was something.
It's okay, Yeah it was allright, But yeah, you're right.
I really loved Dreamscape. Yeah.I wanted David Patrick Kelly, David Patrick
Kelly snake Man. Yeah, orlike even one of my favorite part is

(04:55):
when they're they're on a trolley togetherand he's like he's got nun Chucks and
he's just like a ninja. LikeI walked into the Dragon one hundred and
fifty three times, so I havenever seen what's four Jesus christ Hey,
man, what do you want togo see these movies? Man? Yeah,
let me just add them during theday. Let yo, yeah?

(05:16):
Or is there now? Oh?Please tell me? Oh yes, all
of this time, you magically allof a sudden, don't have anymore.
Right, It's not like I'm doingcorrect. If I were doing something other
than going and fucking myself on adaily basis, I would have time to
watch films like Dreamscape, along withthe other multitude of films that I have

(05:39):
yet to see, including Elvis films. Oh come on, Matt, hmm,
well you're gonna have the watch.That's true. But I will say
this story versus the last two,it does have somewhat of a point to
Father Malone's point, which is reallysad that that's something kind of worth mentioning
that it actually takes a stance andsomething. Because this is a show that,

(06:00):
like, this show regularly has somethingto say. It was almost expected
that the show has, I mean, like the Monsters are Due on Maple
Street has a lot to say.Sure, and yet this show is just
like what storytelling with a purpose?You know, homilies and you know stories
that people can learn from. Nostories where you spin your Wheels for twenty

(06:21):
minutes about a dead lover on theradio, much more important. Yeah,
you know night flight or night driveor night song or whatever the hell that
one was called nights on Night Song. Yeah. I mean a lot of
a lot of these episodes have alot of like grief. They're talking about
grief. Yeah right, these writers, they watched a lot of people die,

(06:42):
many especially I was not on thezay for you in the Nang.
I mean that's this show. Thisshow is like it oscillates between I lost
my wife, I lost a kidor I lost it all in Vietnam or
all at one. Ye oh boy, dream me a life something, yeah,

(07:09):
dreat me to sale man. Youknow, uh, this is a
weird coincidence. Barry Morris and RobinAidman, who's now the narrator for this
season of the Twilight Zone, we'reboth in a series called The Star Lost.
You guys ever seen that show?Harlan Ellison created the show right now,
That is not surprising that you haveseen it? Yeah? Oh wait,

(07:30):
yes I did, because oh god, Doug Trumble did the special facts,
wasn't He's sure dead? And thenand if you go back and watch
it, which is really hard tofind. It's I managed to track it
down and yeah, yeah, butit's rough because it looked like it was
shot on video. Yes, andI believe it was. And the series
was created by Cordwayne or Bird.Yeah, which was Harlan Ellison's numb to

(07:54):
plume when when when things weren't goinghis way and like, evidently whatever the
plot of it is. Basically like, right before they started shooting and he
had written every episode, they werelike, why don't they get to the
end of this season plot point atthe end of the first episode, and
he was like, the whole seriesis about that thing, Like if we

(08:15):
do that in that pilot, thenthere's nothing. And then then he took
his name off there. Anyway,this episode made me think about a lot
better entertainment, I guess, andlesser. Yeah. So on that note,
let's talk about the next episode.Memories. Mary McNeill dealer in dreams
and memories, to whom the uncoveringof past lives is the greatest good she

(08:35):
can render to a forgetful humanity.Your name is Mary McNeill, that you've
had other names before this eight fiftyseven The Piano and Mary McNeil makes another
attempt to discover a previous life.However, the journey she is about to
take is to a different place,a land whose borders are defined by the

(08:58):
region we call the Twilight Zone.Some Memories is the sixth episode of the
third season. It is directed byRisgard Bujaski and it stars I don't know
if I feel like I got close. Um. It stars barbara's Stock as
Mary McNeil, a woman, adealer in dreams and memories. As the
show likes to say, I believeshe's a hypnotherapist, and she's she helps

(09:22):
people do dream or a past liferegressions is what it would be called.
And she helps she gets so soexplain to me what un she passed life
regresses herself. She unregresses herself,she unregresses herself into another timeline. Yes,
and all these things. Shirley mcclean'sbook came out because that was the

(09:45):
first time, um that I rememberanybody talking about past lives. And it
was just like I remember, everybodywas just like Sharley McClain, she's a
kook, right nine and the threeright there, and this is eighty eight,
which is when as far as likemy perception of things. New Age

(10:05):
started to become a real thing,just not not just for burned out hippies
anymore or disease. Man. Yeah, people in the suburbs started started playing
DONU, We're all going I gotlike crystals in my hand. Yeah exactly.
Yeah. I mean this was aroundwhen like new age music started really

(10:26):
taken off. And you've got yourGeorge Winston's and your Yannies and all these
people. Don't forget Johnson. Howcould I ever forget? Yeah, So
my take on it is that somehowshe slips out of our universe into another
universe where everybody knows their past livesexcept for her. And I was very

(10:52):
happy to see Nigel Bennett show upas the agent that she's talking to.
I know him as Michelle O'Shea fromthe film Top of the Food Chain,
where he is a banjo and banjoaccessory salesman. I love that guy,
and he shows up all the time. He's got tons of credits, but

(11:13):
he plays dastardly and sinister really well. I love his voice. Yeah,
I remember him from Forever Night,that vampire cop television Sarah. Yeah,
that's ridiculous premise of all time,Like you can only go to night Cord
to get these guys convicted. Hejust showed up in Jupiter's Legacy, that

(11:33):
one and done show from Netflix,which I think, Chris, I think
Netflix loves your podcast, the oneSeason Show, because they are just about
doing shows and canceling them after oneseason. Just for you, buddy.
You know what the funny thing is, I don't want to cover any Netflix
shows. You know why because ifI ever go to my Netflix app,
I'm like, play something for me. It's like you like Netflix content,

(11:56):
right, maybe something else? No? No, no, no, Netflix
Hunted. Maybe something else for achange. No no, no, see
we have this movie that we made. It's a Netflix exclusive, but maybe
I'd like to No Netflix, Wellhave you seen MANK yet? Well?
Why didn't you watch it again?Do you're telling me you see The House
of Cards three times? Already?Watching here? It is? What is

(12:18):
your favorite Netflix category for the malon? Oh watch again? Watch oh oh?
Watch MANK again? Yeah? Yeah, there's like, you know,
an entire list of things I've alreadywatched, like watch this again? Are
you Pauline Kale? Would you liketo watch MANK again? It's it's it's
funny that this like, look Ihave my own feelings on past life regression.

(12:41):
I frankly kind of put a lotof stock in it. Don't laugh
me out of the room for that. It's fine, it's whatever. It's
my beliefs. I like this episode'streatment of it because this episode's treatment is
not what I was expecting. However, it's still kind of spun its wheels.
Yeah, I thought that. Iactually think the episode was too ambitious
for its own good. Yeah.I think like there was a world here
that was clearly well thought out,but they do not have time in twenty

(13:05):
two minutes to to sort of getto that. So I mean, oh,
this is an hour long episode,it shouldn't Yeah, yeah, exactly,
Like right, you know, twoambitious is better than no ambition,
So like I appreciated it on thatlevel, but uh, you know it,
it wheel spinning is a good sortof description, like nothing really happens,

(13:26):
like they only kind of focus onthis premise. This woman who believes
in past lives and nobody else doesends up in a world we already remember.
We did this with the There wasan episode with them was a woman
was like an account an accountant orsomething or no a secretary and everyone's like,
oh, why you're a secretary episode? Yeah, he does the Reiker

(13:46):
maneuver in that one. Oh yeah, yeah that was Pam Dauber, Right,
that's the secretary. Yeah yeah,but can she but can she type?
But she can shee? Yeah,there we go. It's look this
show. What's weird about this showis it like it's repeated itself so many
times now with like the same themes, and it's gotten to the point now

(14:11):
where they've repeated it so many timesthat there's no way that this is going
to land. There's no way thatthis is going to be entertaining. There's
no way that we're going to watchthis segment and go, man, this
is really good. We're just gonnago, man, I wish it was
this or I wish it was that. And if it's a show that's not
this one, that's one thing theshow can't control that. But the fact

(14:31):
that we're talking about literal episodes ofthis own show about how it did it
better, that's a problem. That'sactually a real problem. Yeah. You
know, you look back at thewriters in the first two seasons, and
if you look at their credits,it always seems like the Twilight Zone was
the exception to their career, Likeyou know, they just like, let
me do I can do some TwilightZones, whereas this season feels a lot

(14:54):
like journeyman typewriters who like, ifyou go look at their credits, they
did one episode of this, inone episode of that episode of this other
thing. They're just like you know, television people. So they're probably not
the best people to bring to theTwilight Zone. You know, like if
they're ready to write an episode offull House and Baretta and this like men,
maybe they don't. Maybe they're notthis ain't there genre. Well that

(15:16):
was the thing I think we talkedabout, even when we talked about the
Jordan Peel version of the Twilight Zone, was like you guys had all this
time to like call great short storiesand you know, get really good sci
fi writers, maybe people that havewritten for television before. Maybe not.
Maybe stories that you want to adapt, maybe not. But like you know,

(15:41):
we started off with Harlan Allison.We had some real luminaries. We
had luminaries behind the camera, infront of the camera, behind the typewriter.
And I'm not seeing those this season. I'm not seeing adaptations of stuff.
Even I want to say. Thelast episode that we really liked the
the one with Shelley duval. Imean that was an adaptation for loneliness.

(16:03):
Yeah, that was a short storyadaptation serves. So yeah it was you
and you go back to the originalTwins on plenty of those episodes are based
on previously written work. A lotof the times by this, you know
the author like adapted it, butbut you know there was a wellspring that
they recognized and went to as opposedto this and like the Jordan Peel one,

(16:25):
like, well, now we gota series, we got to write
some episodes. Let's think of someTwilight Zony type stuff. What's weird is
who directed this episode? Two haslike a pedigree of working on like really
well known stuff too. Like Iwas curious because like Raizard Boujaski is the
last name you expect to see involvedin a Twilight Zone product, given how

(16:45):
I don't know polish his name sounds, and given that you know this is
an American made product and Canadian MaideKeen directed A Bunch of Stuff is one
of his films was nominated for thePalm Door, Like why are you working
on this show? And why isit this episode, Like, why bizarre

(17:06):
episode? This does seem the firstepisode in a while where I noticed the
direction and that there was some thoughtbehind it. Yeah. Yeah, although
although when they finally like grab herand her like in barrogating her stuff,
like I kept noticing the camera wouldjust sort of slowly moved to in between
slats to look at this this onebespectacled actor, Like they just did that
same shot over and over again fromdifferent angles out of Palm Door nominated.

(17:29):
Yeah, right, shoot your subjectthrough a mish, right, And meanwhile
the writer like, to you,guys, point one episode of the Facts
of Life, one episode of Charlesand Charge, and then he goes onto
the Twilight Zone, and then hegoes to night Court for I don't know
how I'm at thirteen episodes, soit's like you found his niche. Yeah,
second time we mentioned night Court andnot in the same context. Yeah,

(17:52):
I think he was even a producerat night Court, So you really
got into that. And then thatshow GeV Good Versus Evil, which I
like, I tried doing the rewatchof it. The version that I have
is so shitty looking at I thinkthat's the same version I got. It's
just dreadful when it was airing,I really liked yeah. Yeah, oh

(18:14):
yeah, Well I love the actorsand that I really love. Um,
why am I blanking on Brooks?Thank you? He's so good. Yeah.
Even Clayton Rohner, who was oneof those guys who was in everything
in the eighties. Uh yeah andthen just sort of disappeared. Who an
actor who has completely changed the wayI look at the word lauper and Cindy
Lauper because of his pronunciation, andjust one of the guys, Cindy,

(18:37):
Yeah, I'm Cindy Lauber. Sonow every time I see Cindy Lauber,
I think Cindy Lauber and I justcalled the Lauber I have never seen.
It's pretty good. It's pretty good. Well that or guy, Yeah,
no, you should see both.They're both good. Yeah. Added to
the list, buddy, just oneof the guys will be an episode out
of the projection, both in December. Maybe by the time this episode comes

(19:00):
out. One GDE has Marshall Bellin it, yea yes, and everyone
knows what Marshall Bell's ass looks like. If you've seen Yo, man,
that's the coaches. The Coach's Ballscene and then he gets whipped on the
ass with a towel A bunch.I still haven't seen that one. It's

(19:23):
a documentary. It's a good one. It's a homo erotic. It's a
homo it's a it's a homo eroticdream slash nightmare. It's it is.
It is one of those films whereI don't understand how anyone didn't know it
was gay, because they all knewit was fucking gay. So yeah,

(19:44):
yeah, stop pretending, guys.Come on, you watched the documentary about
the guy I'm black. I havenot screamed, and I have not scream
Mark. Yeah, it's really goodwith It's again one of those things where
it's like it's on the list.I'll watch it before I die. How's
that? Okay? Sounds good?Well I can ask Mark that. So
I'll just tell people from no one. I'll just watch it before I die.

(20:07):
Yeah, I got a little while. I don't know who knows.
Actually, you're committed without any weekand a half, I better get going.
If my calendar is correct, it'sless than that, but maybe the
leap years were off. I youknow, I think these two episodes are
better than the last two but man, we're really far in one direction from

(20:30):
where we were. It's unfortunate,you know, I don't want to let
me join them. Yeah. Yeah, it's just at the end of the
day. With a show like this, similarly to Tales from the Crypt,
the good stuff is remembered so positivelythat everybody just kind of forgets the bad
stuff. And honestly, that's kindof okay in a way. Like I'm
not sure a lay person would goback and watch the show all the way

(20:53):
through. They would go and watchShatter Day or word Play and be like,
yeah, that's good, and thenyou're like, I don't need to
watch anything else, or just watchthe things that interest Like, I don't
think anyone if they were reading thesynopsises of the episodes and read this when
they would be like, yeah,this is when I want to watch,
they'd probably watch something like Shatter Dayor even the Elvis episode, like those

(21:14):
I think are more inherently interesting thanthis one, just based on the what
the episode is talking about to beginwith. And I think that Elvis one
was based on a short story aswell. Are You Lonesome Tonight? The
short story? But what's what's themovie called breefights the Bowl again. Uh,
staywayo, stayway, Joe. Isthat what it's based off of?
Yah? Wanted to say, Ohboy, so are we done talking about

(21:40):
these two episodes? Yeah, I'masking you, guys. I don't have
anything to add. No, allright, So the next one is the
next one has a great name.So that's all I know. So that's
right. On the next episode ofDreams for Sale, we're gonna be taking
a look at the seventh and eighthepisodes of the third season. Those episodes
are titled The Hell Grow My Method. That's a good good Actually, that's

(22:02):
a good one. Yeah, Andour Selena is Dying, which I assume
is about Selena, the singer fromOis Christy. Yes has to be Yes.
It's a remake remake of an originalTwilight Soon episode. Oh good,
it can only disappoint. Yeah.It's also written by Jay Michael Strazinski.
Right, who's the you know,who's the only one this season? I

(22:22):
think any with any sort of pedigreewho I kind of respect as a as
a writer. Yeah. It's kindof unfortunate, isn't it? But until
then, where can people find you? Father Malone? You can check me
out over at father Malone dot com. I get links to all the crazy
should I engage in, including mymonthly radio drama Dark Destination, so you

(22:44):
can check me out over there.What about you, Mike? Where can
people find you when you're not here? You can find me at the Projection
Booth which is available at Projection moothpodcast dot com. And as for me,
you can find me on the Internetat Christmas Clause on Twitter. This
podcast you can find it on Twitterat Dreams for Sale and twilight Zone eighty
five. Big thanks as always toRoxy Drive and Neutron Dreams for the music

(23:07):
for the show. I will catchon the next episode.