Episode 46: Many, Many Monkeys / Love is Blind

Many, Many Monkeys concerns a nurse investigating an outbreak of blindness and the horrifying cause. Love is Blind is a tale of second chances when a jealous husband stops in the wrong bar to drown his sorrows.

Episode Transcript

(00:23):
Hello there. I'm Chris Dash,I'm Mike White, and this is Father
Maloone and we are the host ofDreams for Sale once a month look at
the Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five televisionseries. Yes, definitely, yeah,
Yeah, that's what we do.Yeah, that's what we do it.
We do it a lot. We'vebeen doing this for a few years now,
thank god, haven't we of course, Wow, we're all on dead

(00:44):
now, that's right of Perseus,of covid strain. Perseus has killed all
of the ladies and gentlemen. No, we're not a strain. We're talking
about the monkey strain. God,we're gonna be talking about two episodes of
the show. On the next episode, we're talking about three. So that's

(01:06):
how we're breaking up the five.So if you're wondering why we're just talking
about two here, that's why we'retalking about Many Many Monkeys and Love is
Blind. A city hospital, eightpm. An unexpected visitor has just arrived,
bearing unwelcome tidings, a disease sonew the textbooks haven't recorded it.

(01:26):
This then, is its first casehistory documented from the medical files of the
Twilight Zone. Many Many Monkeys aired. It's like really hard to say that
many many monkeys, not many.That's funny, Chris, I was going
to say that you seem to reallyenjoy saying many many. Yeah, yeah,
a lot, many many monkeys monkeys. It sounds more like I'm saying

(01:46):
many many monkeys like smallness, manymany monkeys. Aired March eighteenth, nineteen
eighty nine. It is once againdirected by our good friends mister Riizard Boujaski.
And that's not how you pronounce hisname. It only works once for

(02:08):
the It's a W written by BillFrog and it stars Karen Valentine Bill because
they're on first name basis. It'sall my old buddy Bill Bill. Those
people call him William, I callhim. I call him Billy Billy,
Billy Billy boy. It Carrie Valentine, al right, fine. It stars

(02:31):
Karen Valentine and Jackie Burrows and KenPoke and it's a yeah, what is
it about? Well, what isit about? Isn't it about give us
the give us the brass head?Yeah? Sure, So it's many many
monkeys. People start going blind,there's a there's an epidemic episode cataracts on
their never could never could happen.Yes, yeah, all the brand new

(02:53):
glass contact lenses that are that arepure white. They have a ride studio.
No, I think it was digital. Actually, sometimes they're there,
sometimes they're not. When Karen Valentinegets it, she's not wearing any contacts.
This is true. Why would shedon't know? Super ultra qe Karen

(03:13):
Valentine, we just talked about heron the North Avenue Irregulars episode of My
show, and my goodness, she'swell preserved in this. This is a
few years later and she's looking great. She reminds me of Deborah von Valkenburg.
I can see that. Yeah,I don't get this whole thing.
There's a pandemic, epidemic of peoplegoing blind. But they're trying to say

(03:37):
it has something to do with thesee no evil speak, no evil here,
no evil thing. So why aren'tpeople not able to speak or here
here? Seems like that would havegone on that triumorate I believe. Yeah,
of the trip tick, you canonly pick one. Oh, so
everybody's just going blind. Either youpick the Mother, Mary, Jesus or

(04:00):
God. One of the three.You don't get all three, they get
one. It's it's lazy. That'swhy I don't know, Because if you
have the characters not being able tosay anything. This show would completely shut
down because dialogue is clearly it's strongsuit at this point, and without that,
what would they do? Yeah?Boy, did I did? I
love these subtexts dialogue sequence where shetalks about her husband and growing apart,

(04:21):
and we've all grown apart and that'swhat we're being punished, And that's what
this is. That's what the storyis about. Folks, you would listen
to me. I don't understand howthis was too upsetting to be on the
original Twilight Zone, Like, really, I can't see that too grotesque?

(04:43):
What a grotesquery? Like I don'tI don't understand either, because, for
best I can tell, this storydoes nothing with what it's given and goes
nowhere and ultimately has nothing to sayat least not even substanti like what's going
on in the world, like globally, what's happening? Like these characters aren't
all that interesting like that What Iwas just decrying was a like last minute

(05:06):
ditch effort in order to like injectsome character into this thing, because there
was none. His characters doing things, but they want nothing was sort of
impactful, like there was no mysterynecessarily. I mean they were, like,
you know, trying to find outwhat was happening, but it wasn't
that big a deal, Like Idon't know it was. It's what's like

(05:28):
you mentioned, Mike, they don'tever mentioned they mentioned the outside world a
little bit. But like what thisseems like is that the steamed Hams bit
from The Simpsons where it's like stoneeye sickness in Los Angeles localized entirely inside
this hospital, like it there there'sno stakes, none, zero, Give
me some news reports, pandemic something, Yeah, exactly, it's just this

(05:53):
LA hospital where all these like richold bastards are getting their wise turned over
season two, the end of seasontwo of Millennium. That that's how you
scare people with a pandemic in twentytwo minutes, twenty three minutes, like
it easily could have been done here, Like I don't know what angle they

(06:13):
were sort of coming at other thanAnd this is my problem with all sort
of speculative fiction like fantasy and scifi and everything, like or the worst
parts of it are someone has agood idea and then has no story or
plot to back that idea up,and like this, I guess the ideas
that we were all sort of blindto each other as humans, so we're

(06:34):
being struck blind and it makes youeven meaner, like I get it,
but like and then one you know, like it doesn't it doesn't make any
sense, like you know, likeHart whoa sorry, Harlan Ellison's got one,
folks, Sorry, folks, we'rezooming. Literally, Harlan Elsons got

(06:56):
the story about urban dread called BleedingStones, where you know, all the
chemical and all the bitterness and allthe angriness like you know, sort of
has finally like you know, coalescedand like brings gargoyles to life on a
fucking slime. It's a slime.It starts killing everybody. But no,
like there's are you talking about?But it is what like you said,
Chris, like there's absolutely zero statesto any of this happening. It's just

(07:18):
like a comment like okay, great, like yeah, people suck. Good
you know who else sucks? Peoplewho waste my time on television programs while
they're burning out to the fucking onehundred episodes to get the syndication. Well,
I mean that is that is thething with this episode is it doesn't
have anything to say and what's reallysad is Bill frog Frog, the character

(07:42):
from Dark Star. That's where DanO'Bannon got the name. Um, he's
he's Dan O'Bannon's teacher. And lookwhat Dan O'Bannon writes. And I would
assume that the source material was muchbetter. I don't know, that's a
thing, Like it's like you said, it's too grotesque, but what is
Human beings are terrible, Like yeah, in the sixties, I know that,

(08:03):
right, Like anything gory or grosshappens, nothing happens. Yeah,
yeah, it just feels people sometimeshave normalized and then they have white eyes
and then they're angry. Some peopleare not angry when they're blind. They're
perfectly nice and they come to consoleyou. Who knows. I don't don't

(08:24):
get it. This is this isvery indicative of the late stage Twilight Zone
eighty five remake, the New TwilightZone. Yeah, there's no characters really
Like I really wanted to latch onto the Karen Valentine character. I'm wanted
to know more about Missus Reed ormaybe have doctor freedmen be somebody, but

(08:48):
they're just they're nothing. They're absolutelynothing. And like the Karen Valentine's character.
I thought she should have started offnice and then turned mean, but
she just seemed something all the waythrough and I didn't get it. I
didn't get it where they were tryingto do. I feel like maybe the
script and I would have liked tohave read the original script for this.

(09:11):
Yeah, I just can't see this. Um. I don't think it would
have passed muster in the original TwilightZone. I don't consider it too grotesque.
I think they would have been like, yeah, yeah, Bill,
that's real good. Thanks, it'stoo grotesque because it wasn't very good.
Okay, I don't know the history. This was written for the original Twilight

(09:31):
Zone. Rod Serling Twilight Zone,Yeah, yeah, okay, all right,
Yeah, well I could see forthe final season in sixty four,
so it might have been psyche anyway. Yeah, well I could see it
at the time then looking at justwhat we got him being like, this
is too disturb It is, truly, I am disturbed by this, but
not for sixty four. Yeah,well, twenty three years later. Yeah,

(09:54):
I don't know. Thank god wedidn't get it at Night Gallery.
O. What I really want Igot to talk about more blind people.
Please? Could we justified with oneblind person or many blind people. I
need to see yet another blind persontonight could get another blind Canadian. Yes,
Chris began, boy see' let's talkabout the next episode, Love is

(10:18):
Blind. The man behind the wheelis Jack Haynes, a long haul trucker.
On any other night, he'd beon the lookout for a good time.
But that's changed. A lot haschanged for Jack because of one overheard
telephone conversation. He learned that tonighthis wife is meeting another man here at

(10:39):
the Mustang Bar, his name unknown. The only thing Jack Haynes knows for
certain is it tonight There's going tobe murder at the Mustang, a little
place ten miles from town, deepin the heart of the Twilight Zone.
Love is Blind. That's a goodone. That's a deem good. Yeah.

(11:05):
This episode is directed by Gilbert M. Shilton, written by Cal Willingham,
and it stars Ben Murphy and SneezyWaters. That's the blind singer.
And what is this episode? Well, a man is going to find his
wife who's cheating on him. Possiblymaybe he has bad information, as they

(11:26):
tend to in these stories, andthere just happens to be a blind jazz
singer, blues guitarist playing the blues, playing the blues of love, and
all of a sudden, the song. It's like that Dave Chappelle's skit where
Tupac's supposed to be dead and Tupacstarts talking about stuff that's happening in the
in the skit, this guy's doingthe same thing. He's like playing his

(11:46):
guitar. He's like and looking tomy left, there's a guy drinking a
beer. WHOA, what the fuck? The main character ends up realizing that
the blind guy is singing a songabout him. Oh, hilarity ensues.
Each one felt more like the twentynineteen version of twilight Zone. And obviously
that's not a compliment. Oh wait, it is it. I don't understand

(12:13):
twenty nineteen wouldn't ave use the magicaldisabled person though that's true. That's true.
He has a name. It's Sneezy. Watch Sneezy. Jesus Christ,
don't say it again. Peter Hodgson. Yeah, it's a strange episode because
this feels like somehow, this feelslike Twilight Zone, even more watered down
to than normal. Like, oh, but I was talking to father Malone

(12:37):
last night when we when I watchedthis at two in the morning. I
was like, oh, boy,Tales from the Crypt did this better.
There is an episode of Tales fromthe Crypt that is eerily similar to the
moment in this episode where his wifesteps out in front and he shoots her,
and it's like, oh, he'sgoing to jail, and you didn't
learn your lesson in YadA yadaya andit was all a big mistake. There's

(12:58):
a Twilight Chilson the Crypt episode thatdoes the exact same thing and actually just
ends there where it's like, andit turns out that we were trying to
get you an anniversary gift. InTales from the Crypt, it he kills
his wife and she's fucking pregnant.She was planning a pregnancy thing, and
it's like, awful, it's horit's so wonderful. And this episode,
yeah, it was I think oursecond favorite episode of the entire show.

(13:22):
No, it's actually it's actually myfavorite favorite. Yeah yeah, over man,
it was death Yeah yeah, butthis episode has that same like moment
and then it decides to completely backout of it. I agree. I
thought the same thing all I waswatching it, like, here's the like,
the exact same plot of of ofa similarly themed anthology series that you

(13:43):
and I have talked about, andthat one did like literally everything right,
the Tales from the Crypt one,and this one does literally everything wrong.
It is it is the most state. This is a radio drama, is
what it feels like. There's nothingsort of cinematic or visual going on here.
It's the three people in a fuckingroom and it's this guy who like
like, okay, listen, I'mnot I'm really not the guy who needs

(14:07):
things explained when it comes to sortof genre entertainment. But what the fuck
was going on here? I meanthat guy was a ghost maybe and he
showed up to hear fucking like likewarn this guy, like is he from
the future or the past? Likeis he a ghost or an angel or

(14:31):
a devil? Like, yes,just showed up here a couple hours ago.
And he really takes that open mocknot the heart. He's been playing
for hours somewhere God. And apparentlyhe's on tour like turl turl Yeah,
yeah, he's the nose blowing tourwith Snazy Walters. Yeah, blow the

(14:54):
house. Now. There was therewas there was like a series of books
in the sixties. It was abouta I forget the fucking name of it
now, but it was like alike a guitar playing guy who like he
goes from town to town like likea series of novels. He would go
to town to town like solving likethe incredible whole kind of like, you
know, just solving a little rootsixty six type thing kind of thing.
Yeah, but it was always sortof supernatural ten And that's what this thing

(15:18):
like sort of felt like it was. It was yurning towards this particular episode.
Well, it feels like it feltlike a failed pot, like a
like a backdoor pilot for a series, like you know that at the end,
that's what it felt like to me, Like and now they're on the
road together, like, you know, just like take me to the next
town. We're going to the nextopen mic, not now, right exactly.

(15:41):
My friend seems weird, but butI'm telling you he's on the level.
Yeah, let him sing a songabout you. It'll be amazing.
Watch just watch what he does.Sounds like thunder and like a lot of
witty banter between them, right,because there was a bunch of witty banter
in this episode. Oh yeah,Yeah, the wittiest. Well, that's

(16:03):
the other thing about this episode.It it somehow feels like a watered down
Twilight Zone episode in and of itself, like what's the message here? What
is the point? Right? Andto by the Malone's point, there's no
bite to it. You know.It could be that sticking the knife between
your ribs and twisting, but insteadit's like, oh no, you avoided

(16:23):
that whole situation. Friend, It'slike, yeah, it's times for real
boy right, yeah? Yeah?And are they going to the next town
or is he just going to drivehim straight to hell? I mean yeah,
like, yeah, you might havegotten away with it, but you

(16:45):
had murdering your heart in your heartyou oh there it is Oh god,
wow, cowboy man. All rightand if you know what that's from,
good for you. At this pointthis show is completely devoid of anything that

(17:07):
makes it the Twilight Zone. Andit's just it feels like if someone showed
this to me without the bumpers andwas like, what is like what is
this? Is this? Like whatanthology is this? I would be like,
I don't know, fucking you know, science fiction power Hour down at
the local fucking you know, publicaccess studio, Like I don't know.
Not the Twilight Zone. Definitely notthe Twilight Zone. I mean maybe maybe

(17:32):
sixties Twilight Zone if Rod was likerunning on ideas, you know, like
he had to had to have likeanother seven hundred scripts written. Maybe,
but um, this one is likeprovocatively poor, like really bad. I
did not like it. I thinkyou do credit where credit is due,
and I really did like Sneezy's singing. And I read that he actually portrayed

(17:56):
Hank Williams. I think it wasboth junior and senior. Definitely, I
could see him doing one hell Ithink it's just senior. I could see
him doing one hell of a seniorbecause he could channel that. It sounded
very Hank william senior to me.Honestly, the worst part about this episode
is that this musician is in it, and it's a waste of his time

(18:18):
because he's clearly not bad. Frankly, neither is bad Murphy that not given
much to do, unfortunately, that'sI mean, that's kind of the issue
now is I think we keep reiteratinglike nobody has given anything to do?
Isn't that fun? No stakes,everybody zero? Hey, here's a whole
lot of plot and no story.At all, and then they backed and
then they backed out of it rightat the end. Just this whole thing

(18:41):
was a dream. The last fifteenminutes was a dream. Skip it.
Skip it so hard. It's unfortunatebut not surprising. Skip this blind episode.
Turn a blind eye to it ifyou will, double blindness. Is
there anything else we want to talkabout? Episode? I want to talk
about so on our next and finalepisode of Dreams for Sale, an idea

(19:04):
started many moons ago, We're gonnabe talking about three episodes, Crazy as
a Soup, Sandwich, Special Service, and Father and Son Game and wouldn't
you wouldn't you guess? At FatherMalone. We're gonna get to close out
the show with a Harlan Ellison episodelike Poetry at Rhymes, thank God,
damn right? And a J.Michael's Razinski episode, Oh thank God?

(19:26):
All right? Yay? So untilthen, Where can people find you?
Mike Waite? You can find meover at the Projection Booth podcast, which
is available at Projection Booth podcast dotcom. What you Father Malone? Where
can people find you? If theywere looking? If they're looking, check
out father Malone dot com that haslinks to all of the crazy shit I

(19:48):
do, but primarily Dark Destinations mypodcast. It's a half hour radio drama
that I write and produce about oncea month. He produces at folks I
do. We don't produce this.This is just us talking with some music.
Blade over it. Give the mana listen, would you? It's
good stuff. Yeah, man,you know how long it takes me to
find the right spooky laugh? Along time, A long time man.

(20:14):
Someone can listen to that spooky laugh. Man's busting his ass. Give me
a flavor, Give me a flavor. You've never heard that spooky laugh,
that's true, but you will ifyou go to dot com. You're gonna
that's gonna happen. Another plug.Come on, yeah, father Malone dot
com? Did you say? Yeah? What do you think I said?
I didn't hear what you said.I said. If you want to hear

(20:36):
it, go to father Malone dotcom. Score I got another one.
Look at that son of a bitch. He did it again. Yes,
for mec statue dot com, cstachiw dot com. That's my link tree,
all the things I work on.Been plugging it for like a year
now, so that's where it is. Go there and yeah, make sure
to join us for the final episodeof our trip into the Twilight zon