Episode 38: The Trance / Acts of Terror

The Trance stars Peter Scolari as a spiritual con man whose specious connection to the Astral plane becomes all too real. Acts of Terror features Melanie Mayron as an abused wife seeking escape with some supernatural assistance.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good evening and welcome to Night's Gallery. Thank you, Rod, and I
want to welcome everyone to Midnight Viewing, where once a month we talk all
about your follow up to The TwilightZone, Rod Serling's Night Gallery. They
say it's Rod through Ling's Night Gallery, and it isn't really Rod through Las
Night Gallery. It's somebody else's.Oh we know, we talk about it
a lot. Your curators at MidnightViewing are the projection booths. Mike White,

(00:22):
What can happen to human beings whentrust is wife dog by Suspicion and
culture casts Chris Stashue, small boyincased in the Crystal Ball, and I'm
Father Malone, the kind of thingthat usually infest nightmares joined us monthly at
Midnight Viewing. The Night Gallery podcastat weird Ingwaymedia dot Com doesn't remotely belong
to me. I have no proprietaryinterest in that at all. Weird Oh

(01:21):
there, I'm Kristache, I'm MikeWhite, and this is Father Malone and
we are the host of Dreams forSale once a month. Look at the
Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five, otherwiseknown as the best reboot of this show
question Mark. Yeah, I wasabout to say, we may be getting
into some territory that's not that.I'm now starting to appreciate the Jordan Peele

(01:41):
reboot. Okay, that's a lot. There's no way that that's possible,
right, I don't know after thisrun starting to think it. I mean
that's fairy. Well not overall.I mean, well, yeah, well,
you know, topicality does hurt theshow overall. I think that was
kind of I think that's the generalconsensus among everyone is Trump episodes are cool,

(02:06):
but like ten years from now,I hope to god nobody cares so.
Right on this episode, though,we're not talking about Jordan Peel's Twilight
Zone. We're talking about the tenthand eleventh episodes of the third season of
The Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five.Those episodes are The Trance and Acts of
Terror, Lights a crowd, aproper atmosphere, and the Common Coin of

(02:29):
desperate belief commodities necessary to the lifeand times of Leonard Randall, who may
or may not be someone else aswell. The Trance aired November twenty sixth,
nineteen eighty eight. It is directedby Randy Bradshaw, written once again
by Father Malone's favorite Jay Michael Strazinski. Everyone. I love him, He's

(02:51):
so good and on this show.Yeah, and this episode talks all about
a man named Leonard who may ormay not be able to chat end or
challenge Channel Delos, a creature fromBeyond the Stars or the company in West
World. You take your pick.Well, now it is. I suppose
that's all I could think of.Yeah, I think it was in the

(03:14):
original too. Oh yeah, yeah, it definitely was. The sort of
mid to late eighties seem to meto be the rise of and I think
we've talked about this in other episodes, sort of new ages um, sort
of like permeating the culture where suddenlyShirley McClain is talking about her past lives
and crystals or a thing and we'recleansing our chakras and whatever. And so

(03:37):
obviously this episode is a clear notattack on it, but comment on it,
and kind of a Twilight Zony twistwhere the guy is faking it and
then the biter gets bit he hasthe real deal show up. I think
this, like most of the episodeswe're gonna be talking about today, are
sort of gentle Twilight Zone episodes.It doesn't seem to be any stinks whatsoever.

(04:00):
Um, I didn't. There's nothinginherently wrong with this one. And
I really like Peter Scolari. Um, it's always good to see him.
What's funny is you know, backin the Bosom Buddy days, I was
sure he was going to be thestar and Tom Hanks was always just going
to be like a second banana goofball. How wrong I was? Now?
Yeah? Right, Um, butuh, I mean this one, this

(04:25):
one's okay. You know, Ican't really speak against it, but um,
it didn't feel like it went anywhere, did anything. It's not like
we learned anything about this guy andand why he does what he does.
And you know what the consequences arenow that he has a real spirit within
um and it it it's it doesn'treally take a savage attack on it,

(04:47):
and it doesn't take a measured Idon't know, it's just kind of there,
just right. What's like, hedoesn't as this new spirit, the
real spirit. Let's say he does, don't come out and give people really
good advice, doesn't look into theirfuture, doesn't call out all of their

(05:08):
foibles and flaws. He's he's neitherdevil nor angel. He just yeah,
kind of spouts a lot of NewAge claptrap, and I'm like, Okay,
I don't know if I care aboutthis real spirit as much as I
did about Dalo sub Atlantis. Itjust came from thousands of years ago to
tell me to quit smoking, likeeveryone is telling me to quit smoking.

(05:30):
I mean, as far as I'mconcerned to the fact that the spirit is
just a Snyde dick is all itis. Like the spirit only talks when
like someone's walking away. He's like, what did he say? You want
to start something? Yeah, Ididn't say anything, like you know,
like you were talking about Father Malone, Like this is I don't know if

(05:51):
this is a condemnation of people likeSylvia Brown, these like mediums or channels
or like ome steady stuff like that, but it kind of feels like it.
And I bet if you were oneof those people you would find it
an attack. But again, ifyou don't believe that those people are honest
to begin with, what does itmatter. So if you know you don't

(06:12):
believe it, this is giving thema hard time. They kind of deserve
it if you don't think they're beinghonest. Anyways, It's just I don't
feel like it goes far enough?Should it should have gone a little farther
like And in the first season wehad an episode called Healer with Ericagoshen,
which is sort of the exact samekind of plot, like you know,
where he misuses it and he losesthe power and it goes on to somebody

(06:33):
else. Like that at least hada beginning of middle and an end to
it and had some stakes to it. This is just like what he liked
lost his endorsement deal, and youknow who cares? Like what penance is
he doing for scamming these people whoare well, I don't what I don't
understand is he's not really being punishedbecause he is going to learn the wisdom
of the universe. So like that'snot a bad thing in a lot of

(06:57):
ways, yeah right, like yeah, yeah, you know, it should
only take twenty or thirty years,which would put him in like his forties
or I guess his fifties or sixties. But like, again, then he
will be able to speak to thewisdom of the universe. So like,
is this a bad thing? Itsounds like he's been actually chosen to do
some good in the world, right, right, Maybe we're missing the point.
I don't think there is one.I think these are just very,

(07:20):
like you said, very low stakes, soft episodes of the show. Yeah,
I mean, I don't know.I'm sure we'll talk about it more
in the next one, because thenext one I'm actually angry at. Yeah,
this one's bad. I was readingthe blog Postcards from the Twilight Zone,
which is a pretty good blog.Talks a lot about old episodes,

(07:40):
including these eight eight these episodes,and they're talking a lot about how Strazinski
was just recycling old Twilight Zone ideasand just kind of calling them his own,
like it's there is a created byRod Sterling credit on here, but
I don't think the original authors werecredited. I don't know. The one

(08:01):
thing I found the most hilarious isthat I think he goes onto a TV
show and insults the host and thewoman that's who show kiss on. I
believe her character name is Daphne Blake, So I was very happy that Daphne,
you know, because Daphne ends upgetting a TV series and Fred's her
camera. Man, I can't rememberthat's just in the comic books, or

(08:22):
if that's in the year, ifthat's Cannon to the actual show of Scooby
Doo is anything actually cannon, Yeah, I guess it all kinds of flip
flops. You know, once namedScooby Doo came in right once whatever show
you're watching, that's what it is. Yes, I love exactly loves traps.
That's all I know. He doeslove his traps, of course,

(08:43):
fan of traps. I wanted morefrom this episode. I like the shuma
semoria, Like I like that sortof like wacky nonsense because again, as
someone who's into this stuff, likeI love how it just bullshit this gets.
It reminded me of those like IndianaJones in the Face of Atlantis comics
books, slash video games, likeI love that Atlantean stuff, but they

(09:05):
don't really go into it enough andit doesn't fall flat. It's just not
much of anything. And that EricBogosian episode is way better, way better.
Yeah, it has given time.There's no teeth at all. Like,
you know, if this if someonefrom the first season had written this
episode, it would have been bitterand angry and we could have gotten mind
something from it. As it is, it's just like here's another gentle tale

(09:28):
of a little bit paranormal, andhere's the Twilight Zone, everybody. It's
ironic to me that Jay Michael Strazinskiis the executive Harlan Ellison's estate, because
if Harlan Ellison wrote this episode,it would have had god, oh yeah,
anyone, I mean yeah, GeorgeR. Martin if he had written
this episode either, yeah, thatspirit that takes over Scolari would be such

(09:50):
an asshole and just completely tear everyonea new one. Yeah, instead of
just being like like stop talking underyour breath, s it like, well,
the whole thing too, I mean, just the pacing of it where
it's just like when he goes underin those trances and he wakes up,
he's just like he doesn't know anythinghappened that he even went under in a

(10:13):
trance, and it's like you wererecorded. You know, there's a videotape
of you doing this, So whydon't we show you the videotape and figure
it out a lot faster? Andthen do you know, it's like that
whole figuring out of the power thing. I think we talked about this either
last month or the month before,but it's just like, come on,
you know, get to know itvery quickly, and then off you go

(10:35):
and we'll talk about that. Ithink what in the next episode twenty twenty
vision doesn't take you a long timeto figure out what's going on with stuff?
Yeah, and we're as the viewers, we've already figured it out.
You don't. Why why are wesmarter than the lead? Like? Right,
do that? And again, nowwe're backed into a corner with the
show's episodes only being twenty two minutes. So if you're not, if you're

(10:58):
not going to just get to thepoint of imediately, you are wasting our
time, in your time because youhave twenty two minutes, and that is
a choice of the people who madethe show, and you need to play
inside of that box substantively. AndI think I don't think this does.
Yeah, I mean not to bringup the other podcast we've done, or
did, the Chronicles from the Cryptabout the tales from the Crypt show,

(11:20):
Well, the last couple of seasonsfrom that show we felt were just like
the ideas that have been left overthat it was like, somebody pitches it's
something it sounds enough like a talisfrom the Crypt story, they go go
ahead and write it, and thenthere's that's where it ends. As far
as the creative process. They justgo, Okay, we'll film this as
is now, as opposed to rigorouslygoing through it and making it better.

(11:43):
It feels like the first draft isthe shooting draft here on every episode this
season, yeah, oh yeah,it's I just don't understand why more care
wasn't given to some of this stuff, because they really needed to pair the
writing down, focus it a littlebit more, maybe have something to say.
This is twilight Zone, like yeah, I mean it's not enough to

(12:03):
touch on a subject that's current,like no, take a stand some way.
I mean, even though we didn'tlike Kentucky Rye or Little Boy Lost,
at least they had something to say. Yeah, I didn't think anything
could make me appreciate those, butyou know, as muddle headed as they
were, like hey man, theyfucking went for it. Like here's my
point of view, deal with it. Yeah, tongue clucking and all.

(12:24):
Yeah. I mean, hey,that Kentucky Rye episode is hardcore anti anti
alcohol. But like again, Ican't fault it for having that opinion.
I can fault this episode for literallynot giving a shit enough either way to
say anything. So and yet likeyou know, again, it wasn't like
offensive It just kind of happened,washed over you and was done. So

(12:46):
let's go onto the next episode,Acts of Terror considered quite pretty once not
long ago, before the arguments andthe years and the stick took it out
of her. Louise Simmonson, likeso many broken on the wheel, with
one subtle difference, this wheel hasa name, So Acts of Terror air

(13:07):
December third, nineteen eighty eight.It is directed by Brad Turner and written
once again by J. Michael Strazinski. Boys, he's just everywhere and nowhere
at the same time. And washe not the story editor of the show
at this point? So at hewas, He's just rubber stamping his own
work. Here you go send itthrough. This one's a keeper. And

(13:30):
so in this episode, we havea woman played by Melanie Mayron who is
married to Kenneth Welsh, who isan abusive husband, and many, many,
many crazy things happened like a dogfigurine. How do we know we're
in Canada? Oh look, KennethWelsh. Kenneth Welsh. Yeah, Melanie
Mayron said sorry, over and overand over again. Yeah. Kenneth Welsh

(13:54):
is one of the great Canadian actorsand very few times as he crossed that
border. But yeah, he alwaysmakes an impression. Of course for me,
he's always going to be winning theMorrow from twenty Oh. Yeah,
he's fantastic in this episode. Yeah, the act, Yes, it's good.
And I like Melannie Mayor in alot, like she didn't really break

(14:15):
much out of that thirty something ghettothat she was in, But I think
she's good here. And you know, kudos for attempting to have a bit
of social relevance here. But likehere's here's a question, is it um?
Is it established that her sister senther that dog? Is that?
Yeah? Yeah? Okay, allright? And did and did they not

(14:37):
address it again? Right? Theynever say like I got it from ye
old curiosity shopper. No, She'slike, I got this mail from my
sister, right, okay, right, I sure would like to open that
mail. It's a gift from mysister. Why are you getting any letters?
Oh? My six? Where's dinner? Yeah? You burned my eggs,

(15:00):
bitch like Jesus Christ. Yeah,I mean, I don't know.
I don't want to step into aminefield there. But like you look at
his character, you just think,like, what what was the attraction ever?
Right, there's no older guy whoyou know, I don't want to
you know, I'm not trying toblaye blame with victims of abuse like that
it's their fold for making the wrongchoice. I'm not saying that at all.

(15:20):
But like you just look at thischaracter. He's so painted in the
evil with the evil brush that you'rejust like, what, what's unkempt,
unkempt tear, unkempt clothes, sharpeninghis knife in his garage? Like,
this guy is a scumbag. Thisguy's a scumbag. And they didn't even
her. He didn't even open hismath. If he didn't open his mouth,

(15:41):
I would still know he was ascumbag. That's how evil he's painted
with. There's no subtlety here.Ah uh. And I don't know.
I mean it's it's a twilight zone. I guess because the statute comes to
life. I guess kind of it'sthis. I don't know. It's very
ham handed and it's very poorly uhsort of delineated. What is going on

(16:07):
here? I mean, we knowbecause it's happening and we're seeing it.
But and you know, the thingis like the dog just keeps kind of
menacing him without actually doing anything formost of the episode, Like wouldn't it
immediately attack him? He's been readingon this woman for years. She's she's
she's a broken human, and thisthing is like the avatar of her rage,

(16:30):
and it just kind of growls athim a little bit, like like
the scene where he's where he's sharpeninghis knives in the in the garage and
he has time to not only reachover and get his hastily bolted to the
wall shotgun, but then fumble outthe shotgun shells and put it in Like
I'm just like, why aren't youripping his throat out? What? Well,

(16:52):
what I don't understand is why wasit just a dog? Why wasn't
it like the Shadow Man or likea monster or something? Right? Because
Twilight Zone, right, yeah?Why being go for it? Why be
bound by terrestrial creatures that actually exist? This is the Twilight Zone. We
have seen the Shadow Man already.Who is a you know, if you

(17:14):
have sleep paralysis, a real thingif you don't, not a real thing.
But this is a dog, aDoberman pincher. Like Jesus Christ,
you could have done anything, literallyanything, and it's just a dog.
During the eighties, Doberman's were veryfearsome just during the eighties, and then
it became rat wilders for a while, and then it became pit bulls.

(17:36):
Pit bulls. Yeah, pit bullsstill reigned to this day. But yeah,
yeah, yeah, back in theeighties, pit bulls were just like
selling beer. That's true, isit is? Okay? Was I the
only one who thought that when hewas like out sharpening his knives, he
was like a serial killer And itwasn't he was cheating on his wife.
I was like, is he likea serial killer? And that's what's going
on here? What were you doingmore work than the writers? Right right?

(18:06):
I was trying to make this episodeinteresting, which it wasn't. Yeah,
that's my and you just did thatis miles more interesting than what we
got. That's why my thom wasgoing on. He's like out there sharpening
his knives, and his friends likehe kind of stopped doing this. Man
like yeah, and he's like,well, you know, I have to
murder my wife eventually, but notright now. Yeah. Like then the
dog like yeah, but no,like it's just he's cheating up. If

(18:32):
he's okay, I have a question, why is he sharpening his knives.
What does that have to do withanything, because he's a bad, bad
man. It's bad people sharpen They'renot men sharpen knives. That's just that's
just science. Put that shit ona T shirt right there, bad men
sharpened knives. I guess. Iguess because he didn't go on a hunting

(18:52):
trip. He went on a fishingtrip. And again, well, you
got to got that fish with this. But you don't get the fish with
that kind of knife, with agiant knife, right, you gotta fish
with the filet knife that has ablade that's like that big, this giganto
knife that moms like he's a Idon't get it. Something tells me then
that the production designer was not ason the ball as they should have been.

(19:15):
How weird. You know what?He should have been out in his
garage doing that would have made perfectsense, and it would have led into
all of this. Should have beenout there like rapping flies or something like
fly fishing, like out there withthis thing nuanced. But it doesn't matter
what he's doing as long as he'stalking about the fact that he's cheating on
his Yeah, like loud and proudin the FXT Oh my god, yeah

(19:37):
so loud? Yeah, fuck someoneelse? Can't you not hear me?
Like you want to smell my fingers? Hold on, I gotta make sure
this door is open, right Andthen and then it does the laziest of
lazy tropes where she's like standing inthe doorway where everyone could see her,
and she's like like that's yeah,I mean, and you know what,

(20:02):
And in the end, does theguy really get anything done to him?
I mean, it gives her thegumption to leave, but like, what
is his punishment here? Just adog attack? Yeah, just a dog
attack. Like he's wearing a bandageover one hand. But I'm like,
man, you should be mauled toshit. It's the implication of a dog
attack. At the end, she'slike, don't right after me, or
the dog will get you, Likeokay, who cares? Like are we

(20:26):
also led to believe that the dogwill protect her in her sleep and at
all times, because this guy seemslike a complete looney tune and would track
her down like oh yeah, Imean, you know, they could have
just done anything, Like I wishshe had been the catalyst for this somehow,
like you know, like she foundthe thing and it appealed to her

(20:47):
in a shop, you know,like it's the character doesn't do anything at
all until the last moment when sheleaves, which is what she should have
done to begin with, but like, you know, there's no proactive motion
on her part. Like I wouldhave loved at the end, had like
that dog come and joined her,like like, yes, I've been doing

(21:07):
this the whole time. You fuckher, like, don't ever touch me
again something or or the other way, like had this guy like be completely
ostracized as a lunatic for seeing aphantom dog everywhere he goes. Yeah,
get locked up in the looney bin, right, some punishment like her leaving
was going to happen eventually anyway.And why does the dog still stick around

(21:29):
after the sculpture has been broken?Yeah, well you know who that dog
is? Chris Jesus Tom Scarrett.Oh wow, deep cut, I like
it. Yep, he's here.He's back all the way from colshit,
all the way ten fifteen years later, he comes back, still trapped in
dog form, and has to helpout this. Yes it was, and

(21:56):
he was like, yeah, I'mcoming, Melanie, I'm coming to save
you. Yeah, that's how he'spaying back the certainly. Yeah. And
then and then what we don't seeis the scene after this episode ends with
her driving off and he turns intoTom Scarrett, right, which is good
for her. That's good for everybody. Yeah, sounds Scarret's great. Oh
hell yeah, we just a betterepisode. Yeah, I think that's Drazinski

(22:18):
thirty five years ago. Let usgo, Let let father Malone manage Harlotte
Ellison's estate. You coward, Ishould Yeah, that's that's what you get
for not ever respond to my interviewrequests there. Jay Michael, really well,
he's too busy, too busy.I got he had that new book
out and I was like, comeon, let's do an interview. No,

(22:38):
too busy. I mean he's toobusy writing those Thor movies that they
had to then unwrite. So Imean they essentially unwrote the first Thor movie
in Thor three, So cool.Who cares? I didn't. I didn't
realize he wrote the Thor movie.He wrote the first one. Yeah,
really, yeah, he was alsoin the first movie. That one's bad.

(23:00):
Yeah, that's why they wrote it. Not as bad as the second
one, but it's still pretty bad. Well, the second one is expounding
on what the first one did soyeah, yeah, and I thought that
was bad. Here, let's amplifythat for you. Yeah, I mean
Jay Michael Strazinski is a fantastic comicbook writer. Certainly his runs on Spider

(23:21):
Man and Thor and Fantastic Four areamazing. He also wrote Superman Earth one,
which I would suggest anyone who isa fan of Superman and has never
read that go check out. AndI like bamble On five. I thought
that was a solid show for acouple of years that I watched it,
But this no, Well, youknow what, young writer working his way
up. I guess. Yeah,everybody's got to start somewhere. And I'm

(23:42):
sure he's written episodes of the showthat I can't think of right now that
we're good. Has he? Ithink every episode that we've talked about has
not been good. He wrote twelveepisodes of the show so all in this
season. Yeah, it feels likeat least anything else we want to say
about this episode, don't watch it. Father Malone is like an angry,

(24:07):
green haired FDR with those glasses on. Don't watch it. Also December seven,
ninety one, Infamy, my friend, Yes, don't ask what your
Twilight zone can do for you.Yeah, it's fair, Jay Michael Strainsky.

(24:27):
So on the next episode of Dreamsfor Sale, we're gonna be taking
a look at the twelfth and thirteenthepisodes of the third season twenty twenty vision
and there was an old woman.And guess what, guys, neither one
is written by Jay Michael Swazinski.Oh they must be good then, right,
and we'll find out on the nextepisode, now, won't we,

(24:48):
Or more aptlyte you'll find out onthe next episode because we already know we
got one up on you. Letwe let the sauce, We let how
the sausage is made out out intothe world. Yeah, already watched him,
yes, so I just looked himup. He did write one episode
in the second season. It wasthat horrible Imaginary Friend one with Tom Scarrett.

(25:10):
Oh funny, but hey, thatepisode is really bad Jesus Christ.
Wow, not thought with Lucas Hassas well? Yeah? Yeah, and
uh was that Fred Savage too?Yes? Yeah, Lucas hass is the
imaginary friend and and Fred Savage isthe real one, right? Fred Savage

(25:36):
is just a dickhead, isn't itright? Yeah? Son, Like it's
just a rude kid like punching outgirls and shit, oh boy. But
until we talk about the next episodeof the show. Where can people find
you, Father Malone? You cancheck me out over at father Malone dot
com. You can check out mypodcast. It is a half hour radio
drama called Dark Destinations. You canalso check out my YouTube channel, which

(26:00):
you can also access through phonamlone dotcom. What about you, Mike?
What's going on at the Projection Bogpodcast? We are talking about movies.
What movies? I can't tell you, but we're definitely talking about them.
Got some good stuff lined up,yep, definitely in depth. So got
an amazing complaint to day. Wewere talking about animal violence on one of

(26:22):
the movies that we were discussing,and had to make write and complain about
how silly we were talking about animalviolence when there's real violence in Tarantino films,
and I was like, well,that's not actual real violence. They
have stuntmen, whereas this movie hadpossible chicken death. So I just want
to warn people. People complain aboutthe weirdest things. What about is my

(26:47):
dudes, It's I guess I aageous. It's fantastic sweeping the niche, it's
a great time to be alive.Yeah, find me over at Projection Dashboot
dot com and yeah, come onalong. It's a fun time. And
as for me, you can findme at c stashu dot com, where
you find links to all the podcastsI work on, like Barty Miller with

(27:08):
Mike Father Malone and I. Westill have chronicles from the Crypt You can
still listen to it. It isa complete show from start to finish.
You could listen to that or theCulture Cast, my main show where we
talk about movies. Chris, I'dlike to suggest that you spell your name.
Yeah, people that interesting dot com. Yeah, nobody knows how to
spell stash you you might want tochange your name, not even me to

(27:30):
be fair. C. S STASHUNo, it's a c stacchiw dot com.
You guys are right, I shouldspell it out. I'm an idiot.
Thank you. We already knew that. Yeah, And as for this
show, twilight Zone eighty five dotcom, twilight Zone eighty five on Twitter
as well. Big thanks as alwaysto Roxy Drive and Neutron Dreams for the

(27:52):
music for the show. We'll catchyou on the next episode. U