Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
There is a podcast that lies between the imagination of
two simple minded Earthlings. Travel with these two longtime friends,
Jimbo and eighties E as they attempt to explore the
fifth dimension. Follow along with them as they take the
key and unlock the door to the vast space between
shadow and substance. This podcast is one of trivia, of insight,
(00:28):
and of sounds and ideas from one of the greatest
television shows ever produced. You are embarking on a timeless journey.
There is your signpost up ahead. You are entering the
Tragedy of Cinema's Twilight Zone.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
In time the mid twenties, place the Midwest, the southernmost
section of the Midwest. We were just witnessing a funeral,
a funeral that didn't come off exactly as plain due
to a slight fallout from the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
All right, guys, welcome back to the Tragedy of cinema podcast,
the Twilight Zone series. I'm your host Jimbo, and I'm
your co host Ady z Eric. Here we are trudged
right along through season three of The Twilight Zone. We
finally made it to episode twenty three.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
That's right. How is your Easter holiday?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Great? Yours.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
It's really good, interesting enough, how apropos this episode is
on a certain level. A man rises again from the
grave in the Twilight Zone, of course, but the title
of the episode is called The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.
And I'll just go ahead launch right in if we will.
(01:43):
The Twilight Zone season number three, episode number twenty three.
This one comes in with an IMDb rating of seven
point one and this episode was directed by Montgomery Pittman
and it has featured music by Tommy Morgan in this
episode's original air date came in on February twenty third,
(02:05):
nineteen sixty two, and we all know what time it
is and this particular point in the episode, that's right,
it's our favorite segment in the episode, the segment that
we like to call on this day in History. Sounds
like we got some visitors outside. So on this day
(02:29):
in History, our episode, we start with February twenty third,
nineteen thirty nine. On this day, February twenty third, nineteen
thirty nine was the eleventh Academy Awards and the winner
for the Motion Picture of the Year was called you
Can't Take It with You. I ever heard of that one.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I never heard of it, and don't think I've ever
seen it.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, I haven't either. On this day, February twenty third,
nineteen forty, you've most likely heard of this. As a
matter of fact, I'm sure you have. Walt Disney's animated
movie Pinocchio was released, and I did a little digging
and adjusted for inflation, and the gross domestic comes in
at six hundred and sixteen million dollars if we adjust
(03:12):
that in today's dollars, So it was a big deal.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
That's just for the theater money. I'm not exactly sure
about because you know what's streaming.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Yeah, yeah, I believe that is just theater box office sales.
When we adjust that number, Yeah, it comes in at
six hundred and sixteen million. So I'll go on and
tell you that IMDb rated it at number four for
all time Disney movies. So I did research. Yeah, so
it came in at number four. I thought it would
(03:41):
have been higher.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Is that just Disney movies like animation? Yes, just because no,
Marvel alone probably just blew that out.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That was number one. End Game was number one. I
do remember that. It's yes, this was for Disney movies
only because of all the snow White controversy. I kind
of went down a rabbit hole and started, well, okay, well,
let's see.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Did you watch that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I haven't watched. I watched it. We'll save that for
another podcast. That bad, It's not that bad. It's taken
a lot of it's taking a beating, though, a real
bad beating. So with all that in mind, I kind
of got interested because, you know, the original Snow White
was like a theatrical masterpiece if you know any of
the history, Like they created a whole new division in
(04:22):
the Academy Awards for Animation because I mean, it was revolutionary, right,
the original snow White the nineteen thirty was it nineteen
thirty nine? So anyway, I believe it was nineteen thirty nine.
So Pinocchio followed it. It did really, really well in
nineteen forty. Kind of getting off track here, but that
was February the twenty third, nineteen forty the top grossing
(04:44):
Disney movie for that year. I want to say it
was one of the top grossing movies for that particular year,
and that would be Pinocchio. All right. Moving on February
twenty third, nineteen fifty six, we have the thirteenth Golden
Globe Awards, and the enter of the Best Picture for
that particular awards show was a movie that we've already
(05:05):
covered on the podcast, and that movie is called East
of Eden. James Dante Right, nineteen fifty six, February twenty third,
nineteen seventy four. One of your favorite actresses, Terry Garr.
She appeared on The Bob Newhart Show, not the second
version of The Bob Newhart Show, but the Rige. A
lot of people don't well, you know, they don't know
(05:26):
about the seventies Bob Newhart Show where he was like
a psychiatrist, right, I think he played like that, He
played a psychiatrist. And so Terry Garr she appears on
that And why that significant is well, I just have
the title of the episode that she appeared in was
Confessions of an Orthodontist. So I must have really went
really far down the rabbit hole for that.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
You're going way down the rabbit Trivia Plis.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
February twenty third, nineteen ninety seven. This is more commonly
known the NBC, the television network. They show the movie
Shindler's List completely uncensored and without commercial interruptions. So sixty
five million people tuned in to watch that on NBC
when it ran.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Have you watched and there's a list, Derek.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh many times. It's a great movie. I mean hard
to watch that it is, but it's a fantastic movie,
all right. February and finally, February twenty third, two thousand
and three, we have the British Academy Film Awarms Awards
excuse me or the BAF does, and the movie The
Pianist won the Best Film and uh, it's notorious director
(06:34):
Roman Polance.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Have you seen it?
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I have only seen portions of that movie. I have not,
But as bad as Roman Polanski is in real life,
he's certainly is great at his job. Yeah, so have you.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
I've seen it?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Seen it? Good, good movie. I haven't reviewed it on
the podcast trying.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
To No, probably won't. There is some scenes in it
that will make you go hmm, okay, that's might not
be safe for children to watch if I remember.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Okay, all right, so let's move on to birthdays. I
got a couple of birthdays here, some famous musician and composer.
February twenty third, sixteen eighty five. We're going way back
for this one. Frederick excuse me. George Frederick handle right,
(07:23):
German British composer or the handle handles Masaia. Yes, that's
the same handle, so classical music composer sixteen eighty five
and then a director February twenty third, excuse me, eighteen
eighty nine. Mark's the birth of one Victor Fleming, the
(07:44):
film director. He was noted for The Wizard of Oz
and Gone with the Wind. He was born in Pasadena, California,
in eighteen eighty nine. On February twenty thie, you.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Know, I believe it was The Wizard of Oz. It
had like four different directors going on all at one time, right, pass.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Off, He's the one that it landed with, right.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I don't remember. I know, I think was it George
Kukar was one of them, and then one of them
left to go do Gone with the Wind, But I
can't remember which one. That's been a long that's season
year one of this podcast on your sidecast, so that's
a long time time ago.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Yeah. So Victor Fleming two pretty important pieces of film
under his belt, The Wizard of Oz and Gone with
the Wind. Those are two epic movies.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
So you like you like Gone with the wind.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, I really like it. It's it was good long,
but it was good. All right. So back to our
episode at hand. Here, we already talked about the original
air date, and so let's talk about production costs. This
particular episode came in with a production cost of fifty thousand,
one and eight dollars and twenty three cents, so we're
(08:50):
coming in around our benchmark is around fifty thousand dollars
for the era, so this one hits the bullseye really
for money. Dates a rehearsal there were two of them,
July fourteenth and July seventeenth of nineteen sixty one, and
then the dates of filming there were three July eighteen,
nineteen and twentieth of nineteen sixty one. And I'm gonna
(09:12):
let Jimbo tell you about this cast, so take it away.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Well, Eric, once again we see the great James Best
playing the title character. Jeff Myrtlebank and Eric, we all
know what he's famous for, Roscoe p. Coletrane from the
Dukes of Hazzard.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
That's right, that's what he'll always be known for. What
he was on the Andy Griffith Show too. He's always
gonna he's.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Always gonna be Roscoe to me and what was his
dog's name?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Flash flash.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Then you had Sherry Jackson. She was Comfort Gatewood. She
was in the original Star Trek for one episode. A
lot of these actors, they've been in a ton of
TV shows. Some of them didn't even name because we'd
be here all day. But you had Edgar Buchanan as Bolton.
He was in the movie Shane, but he was also
(10:05):
probably well known as Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction. Did
you ever watch Petticoat Junction?
Speaker 1 (10:10):
There it is not by choice but my father's choice.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Then you had Lance Fuller as Orgram Gilwood or hard
name or don't want to misspell that.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
It's spelled like three different ways too when you do
research on right.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
He had Dub Taylor as mister Peters, Ralph Moody as
pah Myrtle Bank, Azelle Pole or poll p o u
l E as my Myrtle Bank, Helen Wallace as Ma Gatewood,
Vicky Barnes your mom not my mom, but yes, my
mom was Liz Myrtle Bank. John Lormar or Lorimer as Strauss.
(10:56):
He was in a do you remember the old like
creep show movies where it'd be like three different ones.
He was in one of those, one of those episodes.
James Houghton as Jerry. He was a writer for The
Young and the Restless as well as Notts Landing, So
this guy has some writing credits to his to his account.
(11:16):
And then you had William Fawcett as Reverend Sidon's or
sit Ins Reverend Sits And of course yeah Rod Serling
with his great monologue opening by that car. Yes, yeah,
I know Eric probably told you what make a model
that car was too. Yes, yes he does, and that
is your cast far.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I thank you, Jimbo. Let's go with the little plot
for this episode. Young Southerner Jeffrey Myrtlebank wakes up during
his own funeral and wants to know what's going on.
The townsfolk are glad to see him back, but they
begin to wonder if he's a man or something else.
So I'm gonna be so yeah, because you know, I
was gonna talk about that zombie lure lower excuse me.
(12:01):
It was not in full effect until Night of the
Living Dead, which I think was recorded at the end
of the decade, somewhere in that towards this sixty eight,
right sixty eight, which we've covered that on the podcast
as well. So this might be your og zombie. But
is he a zombie or is he a human? Well,
maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't. So Act one,
(12:24):
so we open the episode really with jeff Well it's
really a funeral service, and we meet our main character. Well, well,
way to go there, Eric, Well sorry about that. We
want to pull our up our episode here so we
can follow along with what's happening.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Well, I will throw this out there while you're fidattling
over there.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
I think I got it squared.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah, if I'm in the twilight Zone, I'm not going
anywhere near this cabin because this is the same cabin
that is used from you know.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
What the Hunt?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
The Hunt? Yeah, and what happened in the hunt, Well,
the guy was dead, that's right, Yeah, that occurs. So
I am staying. And if that's true, then why is
there two different reverend Is the same cabin? Is it
the same town, Is it the same fifth dimension? Yeah?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
This might be the same same place in the fifth dimension.
So we start off again with the funeral of Jeffrey
Myrtle Bank and there's two little boys who were peeking
through the window of the cabin slash church, and we
see a coffin in the center of the room and
(13:41):
he was pronounced dead. And he was just hours away
from a Christian quote unquote Christian burial.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, hang on, Jimbo's got a side story here, so
you might want to tell your story. I'm gonna tell
this story. Are you ready?
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I'm ready.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
So, my great grandpa died, right, and uh, being a
young lad that I was, you know, curious, right, me
and my uncle, uh, we were wondering around the funeral home,
if you will, and we went into this back room
and wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Hold on, why why would you be wandering around?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
We were just looking. We were just remember my cousin
was with me too, I don't remember. Yeah, just what
was just like, you know, they had all like these
caskets up in the air that you could look at.
And I guess it's where they take you to look
shop around, right.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
We're looking to buy one.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Well what was really weird was there was like three
of them like on the ground and there. So I'm
going around looking at it. This one had I thought
it was a dummy in it, right, so I'm looking
around and I went over to this casket and they
had like a like a parchment paper over this guy's face,
(14:53):
and I looked it up, like, man, that looks pretty real.
You know. By that time, the funeral director comes in
and he goes, what are you doing? I said, oh,
I said, we were just looking around, you know. And
I said, I said, that's pretty good. Uh, that's pretty good, dummy,
guayther He said, that's not a dummy. He said, that's
mister Johnson. He's getting to be wheeled over here in
the room too or whatever. And I was like, after that, dude,
(15:13):
I just went into the you know, the area, just
set out and I didn't say a word the rest
of the day. I was I don't think. Yeah, so
that's my little experience, so no will effects toward the
guy I saw. I just didn't know, you know, curiosity killed.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
The key old middle age.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Yeah, he was about middle age. I mean, you know,
it was just it's really weird.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
You don't it's.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Not an aft. It's like parchment like like the parchments
like when they do that. I guess when they do
the make they keep it like yeah, oh, never forget
it though, no, so all right, back to the episode.
But I just told that story before. I think I
did maybe on one of the episodes, but I don't
know about the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
So okay, yeah, wow, that was certainly even impression.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Well I was going to ask you, have you ever
done anything adventurous like that?
Speaker 1 (15:58):
I don't think so, not, not any funeral home. I
have done things adventurous in a graveyard. I mean, they're
they're they're unsettling places, right, you know, you know you're
in a Do you ever bodies?
Speaker 3 (16:09):
Do you like to go to a graveyard and just
walk around? No, and looking like old tombstone?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I mean I have I guess as long as during
the daytime, sure you.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Wouldn't do it at night? Well, I mean, are you chicken?
I guess we'll do a live tragedy of cinema podcast
from Crownhill Cemetery. We can sell tickets.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah. Well, these two boys, they were not like you.
They ran away quickly when they saw mister Jeffrey Myrtlebank
sit up from his coffin. But before that, the preacher
is giving his eulogy as such, and he is quoted saying,
brothers and sisters, we are congregated here to pay homage
(16:49):
to our dear brother, Jefferson Myrtle Bank. We all know
that Jeff Myrtlebank was a good boy. He didn't always
show up to Sunday school on Sunday, but we never
saw him at the Bootleggers on set night either. I
thought that that was a good line. So the coffin
lid raises and Jeff sets up to utter shock to
all of those in attendance. You know, it's just mad mayhem.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
What would you do?
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I don't know that would.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
I mean, especially if it's like let's say, you know,
we've all lost love of like let's say your grandma
or grandpa, whichever, and what you know, would you be
so scared that you wouldn't talk to him? Like this
guy gets shunned when he comes out. They're all scared
of him, right, or would you be like you're alive,
you know? You know?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
You know, sometimes it happens people have been putting caskets
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
We're gonna talk about that out, yeah, you know, well
we're going to talk about ancient Well I'm getting ahead
of myself. But to answer your original question, how would
I feel, I don't know, like there's always that in
the back of your mind when you go to a funeral,
like that could potentially happen, right, So I mean, I'm
sure that's where the idea derived from. And let me
give credit to the I don't think I even have
(18:00):
it on here. I don't remember the man's last name,
but the original I think I might have it in
my notes. The original writer of this rod bought the
story off of guy. His first name is Damon, and
I might have his last name in the notes. But
I'm sure that was something. Maybe that was, you know,
a seed in his mind, Like everybody just thinks, what
would happen if they sat up in the coffin when
(18:22):
you go to a funeral, So how do you think
about that?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
It's even that those people that would be buried would
have the bell attached to their grade.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
To get to that, you know, to get to that.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And I'm all over the place.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
So Jeff again, he sets up, and the church goes
into complete mayhem. Right, the men gasp, the women's scream.
Everyone runs to the back to the church and they
run out outside onto the lawn. Right, and then this
is where we get our whippand to Rod Shirling and
he gives us our wonderful monologue, and he is sitting
(18:54):
or standing sitting leaning, leaning on a Ford Model T right,
the original model T for And I didn't find any
trivia about where they got drive the cars or you know,
maybe they I don't know how they got ahold of them,
but you.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Think this was one that was reused from, like what's
the one where the electronics took over and ran over
the guy or something. I don't remember the car in
that one. But do you think this model T had
been in any other ones?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
I don't know, but it's exactly set for the time
that it's in right, the setting and errors in the
early nineteen hundred and nineteen twenties, so and it's got
a you know, later in the episode, we see Jeff
Crank starting in right, so it's it's pretty cool to
see that. So this all happens in act one, right,
and then Jeff and his family are apprehensive his girl,
(19:47):
we meet his wealth fyance comfort. They're all scared of him,
and he comments something to the effect of like, I'm
sure glad you guys didn't embalm me. Because he's making
the claim like I was never dead, Like I'm not dead.
I don't you know, I don't know why you guys
(20:10):
I thought I was dead. I feel fine.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Let me ask you a question. Did they ever say
I know the doctor could tell some stuff later on,
but did they ever actually say what he died from?
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I think it was the flu. I think the doc
what was the doc's name, Doc Bolton? Yeah, I got
my notes out of order here he's uh. He says
that he's had the worst, like the worst case of
flu that he's ever seen. Right, and later in the episode,
he even says he gave him the pen test because
he's well, we'll get to that here in the second.
So Jeff, going back to Jeffy staggers out onto the porch,
(20:45):
and this is a Roscoe Peico train line, if I've
ever heard of it. He says, who Intarnation put me
in that coffin? He sounded just like Rosky.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
He plays this part so well, the southern accent.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah he does. So you know he doesn't again just reiterating,
he doesn't understand why people thought he was dead. And
you know he's he's hungry now and he's he feels fine.
So here's my question to you this is, this is
the part that I wanted to get to. Have you
ever thought about what it would be like to be
(21:18):
buried alive? Because that's what they were about to do
to Jeff before before he said up. And that goes
into all of the the ancient practices of you know,
attaching a string that was on a bell right to
those people who were buried.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Well, I mean you hear about like serial killers or
murderers that do that to people, you know, and just
sometimes they get rescued, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Like suspending them between life and death.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Yeah. And can you imagine though, you know, just being
in that little cramp space under six feet of dirt, dark,
probably shallow breathing, running out of oxygen. I just it's
not for me.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Yeah, I'm super cloustropholk. Yeah, so you know, again, I
don't I looked this up and I always thought it
was an ancient Chinese tradition, you know, the bells and
everything to notify the grave digger. That I thought England,
Britain or Yeah, I'm not sure because I looked it
up a while ago and I can't remember, but I
remember learning about that tradition. But as I, you know,
(22:20):
researched a little bit about that. I found out that
widespread embalming didn't really start until around the time of
the Civil War, which would have been probably like fifty
years from this setting of this particular episode, fifty to
seventy years.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You know. And that's crazy too, because like, if you
look at some of the Egyptian mummies, right, they are
so well presented.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Notwithstanding, out of the Egyptian mummies, that would be one
of the first forms of embalming.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
That it's probably still better than today's.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
It possibly could be. But back to the Civil War,
they did it so that the Department of Transportation could
ship fallen soldier's bodies to other parts of the country,
and they, you know, they wanted to be preserved, so
they the widespread of embalming. The practice of that began
around the time of the Civil War. But Doc Bolton
(23:11):
says of Jeff's condition that he says he didn't have
a pulse, and Jeff replies, well, I'm sure glad you
didn't embalm me. And I thought that was an interesting
line that kind of went along with that trivia point.
So here the townspeople are, they're afraid of Jeff. We
talked about that a little bit, and Doc Bolton he
has an explanation of what happens because they're about to
(23:32):
turn on him, like you know, eventually, Jeff's parents are like, hey,
where are you about to bury this guy when he
wasn't dead, And they kind of shift the blame, and
so Doc Bolton comes up with an explanation. He calls
it ipso suspendo animation right.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Wow, Yeah, I was like, I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Remember, it's very rare. He said, there's only been thirty
cases in the past fifteen hundred years. None of them
happened in America.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
He was making that up?
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Or do you think he's save his own hide because
he doesn't want to get you know, yeah? Or worse?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So from that point we have a scene shift. We
go to the Myrtle Banks kitchen and it's about two
weeks later and Jeff he's expressed a strong desire to
work hard and his eating habits have changed. So here
we're starting to get a little inkling of like something
might be different with him. You know. That's the question
that looms heavy over the whole episode. Is this really Jeff?
(24:31):
Or is this someone else, and the conspiracy theories and
the rumors and the gossip begin to increase, right, so
the townspeople they begin to gossip. And then we have
a scene here I thought this was funny where there's
an I don't know if it's this little kid's grandma.
Everybody's on old style telephone and she tells him you
want a mouthful of.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
Black minutes, and I'm like yeah. So Eric brings me
to a question, did you ever get the old Bob
Bara soaper?
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I had that question for you too, Did you ever
get black pepper or anything like that?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I think I got the soap one time, so well.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
That's bad enough. I don't think I ever got soap. No,
I don't think. I don't think so. But pepper were
so gotta be terrible, terrible. So again, the the rumors
were flying, and then the next scene changed. We end
up down at the general store and all the fellows
are sitting around gossiping. Yeah, and the consensus is that
(25:33):
an evil spirit has possessed the dead body of Jeff,
causing the reanimation. Right, you know, when a body is
freshly dead, the spirits. One guy says, well, my grandma
used to tell me that the spirit would come in
and swoop up that body or something like that, and
so that's kind of the general consensus at that point
in the general store, and a dock Bolton again is
(25:56):
defending himself like, I would never bury a man who
was still alive. I gave him the pen test.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
He said, I even put up a mirror to his
mouth to check. You followed up the mirror or.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Whatever, and you know, no movement, nothing. So that kind
of wraps up act too. The general store. We I think,
we go to a commercial and then we come back
for act three in the Gatewood parlor, which is like
the front room of the Gatewood household where Jeff's fiance
is living, and we meet this Orgraam. Now, who who
(26:28):
is Orgham?
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Is that? Did you see that? Her brother?
Speaker 1 (26:31):
I don't. He's too young to be her dad. I
think possibly. I think it's her brother because he says
he's been whooping on Jeff since they were three years old,
so I'm assuming they're around the same age. But so
Orgrim appears to have bought into all the gossip right,
because he equips early in the conversation with comfort that
he says, I bet all your kids are born with horns. Yeah,
(26:54):
So there's like a devilish, demonic aspect to this. I
guess that's injective kind of into the episode. So a
few strange occurrences happen, right, So there's like, I don't
know if you call that lore or whatever. So the
wilting away of the freshly plucked roses that Jeff, you know,
he's like.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
To Comfort, I don't know. They said they must just
will really quickly, die really quickly. She's like, well, what'd
you pick up? He said, I basically ten minutes before
I came over here, right, They don't go that fast, buddy.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
The second one is Jeff besting Orgham in a fight
which has never happened up to this point, something that
he was never never able to do, which kind of
lends credence to the rumors that are going around that
this is not really Jeff, you know that has come back.
So when the town folks decide to take action, Comfort
(27:47):
races out to warn him more nearing the end of
the episode. Now, because she loves Jeff, right, she wants
to protect him. So a huge mob gathers and asks
Jeff to leave for other parts of the count tree,
and then Comfort turns a deaf ear to the mob
and stands behind her. Man, stand by your man.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Right, stand by you man.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
So Jeff insists that they are all mistaken, but he
kind of uses fear as a motive for his argument,
and he tells them that he's going to stay and
he's not leaving. And since they insist that they're evil,
that he's some sort of evil spirit of sorts, that
he threatens to dry all of their wells, kill their crops,
and burn down their barn. I know, if you're wrong,
(28:32):
then I'm just a poor old country boy. You know,
I'm not harm to anybody. I can't remember the exact lines,
so this, you know, the members are scared of the mob.
The scared members of the mob, they agree to leave
things as they are, and they drive back to town,
promising not to bother the two lovebirds again. And then
after the mob is gone, something else interesting happens. Jeff
(28:57):
lights a match without striking it and smokes his pipe.
So was that two or three things that kind of
throw you off? So is he or is he right? So, Jim,
anything that anything that you wanted to cover sticks out
that we didn't cover.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Well, I'm gonna throw this little bit of trivia here.
I guess James best. He wasn't claustrophobic, he said, but
when he was in the casket, he said, he left
a pencil in the lid. So he said, so just
so we could get cooled down a little bit. Yeah,
to sweltering in there for him or something. I mean,
(29:37):
you'd have to put a lot more than a pencil
in there for me.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
If you notice clearly. And this may be my trivia too,
but there are like holes drilled into the side of
the casket and when the opening scenes, if you look
really closely, you can see them. So nothing else. Let's
let's jump into some trivia while we're while we're talking
about it. So one trivia point a mailbox by the
side of the reads M. Pittman, and it pays homage
(30:03):
to the director and writer of this episode. That's that's
where the little girl comes out to talk about the
boys and.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Can I ask you? Yeah, boy, So here's your bullet
over throws the frog adder.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
So this particular episode, as we've mentioned earlier, it takes
place in the nineteen twenties. According to doc Bolton, Jeff
Myrtlebank died from influenza. The nineteen eighteen through nineteen twenty
a Spanish flu outbreak killed nearly fifty Well, this is
a wide arrangement, says, fifty to one hundred million people worldwide,
which would have been three to five percent of the
(30:37):
world's population. So we learned all about this during COVID
in twenty twenty. So it was a mass pandemic during
the nineteen twenties.
Speaker 3 (30:47):
It says.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Throughout the nineteen twenties, outbreaks of influenza continued to kill
thousands of people across America each year, so death from
an influenza would have been something both feared and not unusual.
So Sherry Jackson, who plays Comfort, was the stepdaughter of
the episode's director, Montgomery Pittman. Pittman had previously directed the
(31:10):
episode two if you remember, early in season three, and
Timbo was shaking his head like he appreciate that one,
and he had wanted Jackson to play the female soldier
in that episode, and she was deemed to be too
young for the role and it eventually went to Elizabeth Montgomery.
Of course, James Houghton, who was credited as Jim Houghton
(31:35):
in this episode also played the character Jerry. Now, I
could not figure out who Jerry was in this episode.
I don't know if he was one of the townspeople.
I'm not quite sure, but it's interesting to note that
he was the son of the producer Buck.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Houghton, and thought I was going to ask that.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I think you went on you talked about he wrote
for what was some soap.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Operating and No No Young of the Restless, so.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
He must have been a writer as well. But I
cannot pick out the character Jerry in this episode, but
he was in this episode. The song that the organists
played was entitled Abide with Me. It was a nineteenth
century hymn composed by Henry Francis Light. It was commonly
used in Protestant Christian funerals. The structure uses the exterior
(32:24):
for the country church in the opening scene we already
talked about. This is the same that serves as the
shack where the elderly Simpson couple dwells in the episode
The Hunt. It was also earlier in the season, albeit
with the front interests and awning changed and a small
steeple added. If you look closely, there's a steeple added
(32:44):
to the cabin. According to James Best and Jimbo talks
about this already, the castiket was never fully closed when
he was lying inside waiting for the resurrection scene. I'm
not known to being claustrophobic, but when they closed that lid,
I stuck a pencil or something small under the lid
and told them to leave it there. I didn't get
(33:06):
scared laying in there, but that pencil did keep the
box from getting a bit stuffy.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Can you imagine doing like thirty takes.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
That would be miserable? Would and so a couple of goofs.
It's actually two goofs for this episode. And I already
actually mentioned this. There are six air holes drilled at
the head of Jeff Myrtlebanks coffin if you look closely,
and this one's a little harder to catch. But in essence,
(33:34):
while'll just go ahead and read it. When Jeff's fiance
Comfort comes to warn him about the angry group of
men coming to threaten him, the line in the script was,
I wrote out to warn you that there's a group
of men coming out from town. They're going to ask
you to move out of the county. But Sherry Jackson
kept saying over and over, they're going to ask you
to move out of the country. I guess she just
(33:56):
could not get she had a mental block and kept saying,
they're gonna ask you to move out of the country,
and she had to keep doing it over and over
and over. So she was having a little trouble saying
the line. But apparently the line was left in by
Montgomery Pittman and the mistake mistaken word was actually included
in the final cut. I guess he just got tired
(34:18):
of doing it over and over and he just left
it in. So that concludes the trivia and goof's section. Here,
let's talk about questions and observations and overall takes, feelings, ratings. Jimba,
I'll let you start all right.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
First thing, James Best, he's just a born hillbilly.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
Of course, Kentucky.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
He did a really great job in this episode. Comfort.
She's just so cute. She's just very she plays the
part very well, a little humbled. But Eric, here's where
my thought process went. Is he dead? Because you know what,
(35:06):
there's something about comfort and death. Did you not see
the play on the words there? Her name's Comfort? Yeah, Okay,
so I thought that was very interesting. Okay, I didn't
know if you'd ever thought about that.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
No, I didn't. But that is an odd name and
the other.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
And the and the last names of what the one
people are the Gatewoods. Okay, so there's some symbolic. I
think there is some symbolic. You can draw easily draw
conclusions from this. I didn't hate this episode, but then again,
I didn't think it was great. I think it's gonna
run and right around a seven for me, seven five
kind of like average, a little bit above average then
(35:44):
some of the stuff we've seen recently in these episodes.
But yeah, that's my thoughts of feeling.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Okay, so let's circle back to that. Is he is
this a dream? Is he really dead but he's really
living his lobby? Is this episode suspendo? Like you know,
what are we what are we talking? I mean, that's
the whole point of the episode, right, we really don't
know it leaves the audience gets.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
It's almost like he's death himself because he kills he
kills the flowers.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Lights the match, He lights the match.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
If he knows he's wearing dark clothing when he gets
out of the casket to if I remember, I know
but I mean, you can be buried in black suit. Yeah,
i'd be very naked. Everybody could kiss my butt. Well,
just buried, be buried face down, cloth on when I'm
(36:35):
at the way. Okay. But but here's here's something else.
The title of this was the Last Rights of Jeff
Myrtle Bank, right, which would them to think that.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Alive. Well, but but it would also give your last
rights right before you're about to go.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Well, if you're Catholic, right, yeah, because like, oh, you
haven't read him as right. Okay, so you're doing that.
You don't see any sign of that here? You see
it's almost like a Protestant funeral.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Well it was a Protestant, right, the hymn that was played.
You talked about that.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
But when you say the last right, it's kind of
kind of threw me off. Okay, So that's just a
little I guess side for me.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Okay, So, oh, I see what you're saying that that
didn't mesh. Yeah, okay, So all right, I got a
couple of questions and a few observations. I'll hurl them
at you. Why are the townspeople so quick to fear
Jeff after he comes back? Some commentaries now you can
go really far with this if you want to, you
can go really far with this. Some commentaries have suggested
(37:41):
that this episode has a prejudice or racial component to it,
which I really didn't pick up on it at all,
But if you really dig deep, I guess there are
commentaries that state that, which wouldn't be completely out of
the realm of possibilities considering the episodes like the Monsters
are doing on Maple Street and others where I mean,
that was a consistent theme right with Rod, prejudice and
(38:04):
racial overtones and so forth. Even though Rod didn't write
this particular episode, he bought it off of someone else,
So I just thought I'd throw that out there. And
the next question I had is is Jeff different? Is
he truly different after returning to the people, or is
(38:25):
it the people's perception of him that has changed. That's
one thing to consider too.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Yeah, but you got to remember even his mom and dad,
you know, his mom and dad were like hesitant. He's
he's actually got up and went to work all this time,
and you know, his dad was worried about the next
Montgomery Board catalog coming in the mill. I hope it's
in the medal today. Yeah, you know, but so that
to me, that shows that they were kind of lazy
in and of themselves. And then I think it's one
of the town folks. He tells him, he says, he
(38:52):
talked to me for like twenty straight minutes or something.
He said, he's never talked to me that, or something
like along those lines.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
I remember, he's never he's never been one to really
hustle after work.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Right, And yeah, so I think, to me, I think
it's him that changed. But it's also the perspective of
the people changed.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Right. If you almost died and you come back like
you're gonna it's gonna change you.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Well, let's think about it. Does any of these town
people actually even care for this guy?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (39:19):
You mean beforehand? Beforehand, Oh, they said a lot of
nice things, but you know, it's a funeral, that's not
necessarily right.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
But I mean, all those people, all those men that
were sitting in that general store just throwing gossip around.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
Yeah, yeah, all right, let's uh one more question in
two observations, how did Jeff's calm and rational behavior contrast
with the town's paranoia.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
That's very apparent, right, he seems to be completely fine
with himself and you know, he doesn't have any problems
or parent mirror you're excuse me. Contrast with that the
paranoia of the people surrounding him. So that was one
thing that kind of stuck out.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Well, you know what else I get from this? Do
you ever like you ever been in a situation or
seen a situation or somebody accuses you of doing something
or being something, you know what I mean, and they're
harping on you, and.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
They just become that, Yeah, you want me to be
that this is what I'm gonna be, And I think
that might be a little bit of that. That's what
I think happened at the end of the episode. He
was like, look, you guys think I'm this.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
I'm going to become, you better be you better be
very better.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
Afraid of what I can do if if this is
when you think I am. Yeah. So the tone shift
was one observation that made this kind of episode balances
between the eerie and the humors. Right, you don't know,
because it's very eerie because it's dealing with death, but
it's almost has some comedic overtones to it, So that
that was kind of an interesting thing. A tone shift
(40:44):
and then Jeff. Again this goes back to the character
of Jeff is both kind and menacing. You don't really
know where you land with him, and that may be
be the case of what we just talked about. You know,
these towns people are harping on him, they're coming down
on him, and they they think he's a certain way,
and he's just finally like, all right, well, I'm gonna
leave you guys in suspense. You don't know who I am,
so I'm just gonna be that person and You're gonna
(41:05):
have to look over your shoulder.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
If you were Comfort, would you have stayed with him
after all this?
Speaker 1 (41:12):
I don't know, but I'm glad. I'm glad for Jeff
because Comfort's a little cutie, right, so you know he's
gonna hopefully well the tagline at the end, right, Rod
says that they have a child that he goes on.
He's a politician, right, and he's very shrewd or something
like that. And again I'll stick that in at the
end of the episode. And then finally one last observation
(41:32):
that this is just classic scene of mystery in the
Twilight Zone. We never really know is Jeff human or
something else? I have my own theory. I think it
might have just been swoon theory. What is it? Is
it called swoon theory where a person is in near
death and you know he was just I don't know,
unconscious or something, and then he really wasn't dead. But
(41:54):
I don't know, you don't you don't really know the episode.
That's what we're great about.
Speaker 3 (41:59):
The power from Eric.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Right, you light a match, right, so less comfortable. It
might be right, it's something outside of himself, right, it's supernatural,
if you will. But it's interesting to it's it's a
fun episode. If I'm going to rate it, I think
it's a little higher than seven to one. I would
put it about where you're at. I think we're in
agreement on the schoon probably like a mid sevens. It's
(42:22):
not terrible, but it's not a top tier.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Mark this down, folks. This doesn't happen very all.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Right, So I you know, it landed pretty good. So yeah,
that's that's kind of where I leave it. I would
watch it again. I've watched you know, it's it's fine.
I like the fact that it leaves you with the
mysterious ending, that it leaves the audience up to interpretation. Exactly.
That's what I like about those type of episodes. You
decide for yourself. Is he really dead? Did he die?
(42:51):
Did he come back? Was he never dead in the
first place? Is you know you can go? Is it
a drug? Is it ipso suspendo? We don't know, Like yeah,
it leaves it wide open.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Well, if you like this episode, wait till next week
when we record one of the all time classic episodes
of the Twilight Zone, and that is to serve man.
That's right, So stay tuned for that. So Eric, any
final thoughts.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
We hope to serve you as we delivered to serve man.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Oh boy, it's gonna be a long episode. Well, with
that being said, I think this episode's coming to a
close and that's.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
Wrap and cut.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Jeff and Comfort are still alive today and their only
son is United States Senator. He's noted as an uncommonly
shrewd politician, and some believe he must have gotten his
education in the Twilight Zone.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
In the contect the dictat p. Thirty