THE TWILIGHT ZONE - "Once Upon A Time" (1961)

Tonight's Weird Wednesday feature is Season 3, Episode 13 of "The Twilight Zone" from 1961, and it's a good one!

 

I just naturally assume that I've seen each and every episode of "The Twilight Zone" in my life at some point in time, but it might just be time to go back and watch all of them again starting at the beginning, because even if I've seen them, there are many like this one that I didn't remember until it was suggested to me by "The Perry White of Berlin."

This episode is titled "Once Upon A Time" and stars the fabulous star of the "Silent Screen Era," Mr. Buster Keaton.

This fascinating episode starts off as a silent movie that stars Buster Keaton as Woodrow Mulligan!

Disgruntled, what a great word! Yeah, he's a little grumpy, and dissatisfied with the prices he sees in store windows, and how expensive it is to live in 1890.

This is what sexy advertising looked like in 1890!

Woodrow Mulligan is a janitor in employ of these two bonehead scientists who have just finished their new invention, a "Time Helmet!"

The two scientists go off to have a champagne toast to their new project, and while they are gone, Woodrow Mulligan, who had overheard their conversation, decides to try the helmet on!

But as you can see, there's a catch, if you don't get back in 30 minutes, you're stuck wherever you land forever. Woodrow starts messing with the thing, and accidentally sets it for the 1960's.

The sparklers attached to the helmet are especially convincing!

So here he is, smack dab in the middle of the 1960's. He doesn't have any pants on because he was in the process of washing them when he put the helmet on.

Up to this point the show has been just like a silent movie, but as soon as he lands in the 60's, there's sound and dialogue.

Woodrow notices that there has been a moral decline in advertising, and what he thought were high prices before are now ten times higher! He's not too sure he likes this place in time or not!

This guy in a GMC pickup grabs the helmet off of Woodrow's head, and a chase ensues. The guy then tosses the helmet to the sidewalk, and a kid on a skateboard picks it up, and  Woodrow chases after him.

The kid runs into the portly Stanley Adams as Rollo, and Woodrow is able to retrieve the helmet, but it is now damaged! How will get back now? 

Stanley Adams was also in another episode of "The Twilight Zone," entitled "Mr. Garrity And The Graves." Stanley Adams' career included some 211 credits on everything from "The Addams Family," and "Batman," to "Star Trek," and "Lost In Space."

They take the helmet to Jack's Fix-It Shop, and Jack, who was played by the always entertaining Jesse White, tells them that sure, he can fix it, and to come back on Thursday, and he'll have it done. Woodrow explains to him that he's only got fifteen minutes, so Jack does an emergency fix on it

Jesse White was also in another episode of "The Twilight Zone," called "Cavender Is Coming." 

While he's waiting for the helmet to get fixed, Woodrow spots this TV, and thinks it's a guy looking through a window talking to him!

The helmet gets fixed, and Rollo shows that his true motivation in helping Woodrow was to steal the helmet, so he could return to the much more romantic 1800's.

Rollo runs back out into the street, and Woodrow jumps on him just in time to hitch a ride back to the past!

At first Rollo thinks 1890 is a true paradise without all the hustle and bustle!

But it only takes Rollo about a week to realize that the past is boring, and missing many essentials, and he now longs desperately to go back to the 60's.

And so Woodrow is happy to send him back to the time he came from, and as Rod Serling says in the epilogue, "To each his own."

"Once Upon A Time" is one of the few episodes of "The Twilight Zone" that is an outright comedy as far as I can remember. I guess I'll have to watch all the rest of them again to make sure!

ONE STEP BEYOND / "The Aerialist" - 1959

Just got a set of  ONE STEP BEYOND episodes and thought I'd check them out. I randomly picked a title and was thrilled to see two of my favorite monster movie actors starring in it, and who both worked on Roger Corman films around this time. Anyway, the story's about the Patruzzio family, trapeze artists in a circus. During a show in which the the safety net was removed, one of them falls and is paralyzed, causing the family's decline.

It stars Mike (DAY THE WORLD ENDED, VOODOO WOMAN) Connors, Yvette (ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN, ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES) Vickers, Robert (THE BLACK ORCHID) Carricart, Ruggero (THE LOST WORLD) Romor, Penny (MISTER PEEPERS) Santon and Charles (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) Watts.

And of course, that's John Newland as our host.

Before a show, papa Patruzzio is arguing with his son, Mario, about family stuff.

Mario's married to Carlotta, a member of the aerial team. He finds her flirting with some delivery guy (boy, talk about type casting for Yvette!). When he asks her what she was doing, she tells him basically to mind his own business!

Papa tells Mario that Carlotta is no good for him, and that it's effecting their act. Mario doesn't want to hear it and talks back to his dad...

And gets slapped in the face for his effort. Mario then says, it'd be a shame if I didn't catch you during the act, papa!!

So, it's time for the show, and there's a packed audience to watch the thrills.

The Patruzzios are up, and the safety net is taken down for added drama...

Then, Mario has to catch papa but their hands slip and the dad drops to the ground, and is totally paralyzed from the fall. But, no way in Hell did Mario drop him on purpose.

C. C. Higgins, the owner of the circus, wants Mario and his brother to continue with their act to help pay the medical bills, but Mario says that he's lost his nerve and will not get back on a trapeze again. This causes a huge rift between the two.

Mario goes to an employment agency to find a job. After talking with the representative for a few minutes, Mario gets up and walks out. He was being offered a job for $3 and hour, an insult to someone who was making $400 a week!!

Mario's lost, and kinda in La La Land. He's talking about Italian cigars for his dad and doesn't even notice Carlotta packing her bags! As she's leaving, Mario shouts to her that papa was right!.. You're no good!!

At this point, Mario has one last trick to do on the trapeze. He climbs up to the platform, grabs the trapeze bar and  swings a few times before doing a flip, hoping to drop to the floor and die there, a fitting end for what happened to his papa.

But, from nowhere, his dad grabs him and Mario gets safely back to the platform. 

Brother Paul walks in to see Mario shouting, papa saved me! And the other trapeze is still swinging, proof of the miracle.

The brothers race to the hospital to see their papa, and, he's not in his room. They think he has died until the nurse tells them that he went to surgery, the doctors were trying to figure out what had happened to him moments earlier. She says that all of a sudden their dad reached his arms out like he was holding something!

Papa is rolled back into his room where Mario gives him all his love...

Well, as happy an ending as possible I guess, John then explains in scientific terms what had happened, I don't remember the name of it but it basically means... Being in two places at once. Like Tabonga! and Eegah!!

THE PLOT THICKENS - "Pilot Episode" (1963)

Tonight I've got a real Saturday the 13th Special for you. It's the pilot for a crazy TV show called "The Plot Thickens" made in 1963, that never aired, and after I explain the concept, you'll probably understand why!

 

Let me see if I can explain this! "The Plot Thickens" was a game show with a panel of celebrities competing for $500.00 cash! The panel watches a special ten minute murder movie that was made specifically for the show, and afterwards, the suspects are brought into the studio and questioned. After a series of questions, the panel makes their choices of who they think the murderer is.

The wonderful Warrene (The Phantom Planet, Black Zoo, Rat Fink) Ott is the hostess/bailiff for the show. That's the black cat mascot of the show there with her!

The host of the show was Jack Linkletter, the son of the great Art Linkletter. Jack also hosted the great folk music show on TV called "Hootenanny" in 1963-1964.

The panel from left to right was Richard Halley who was an actual private detective, then Stanley Ralph Ross, Jan Sterling, and the always charming Groucho Marx.

Part of the deal was that if one of the panelists gets it right and the detective doesn't, then the prize money is doubled to a thousand dollars.

 

If you don't remember who Jan Sterling is, maybe this shot from "Women's Prison" will jog your memory!
 

The live audience seems to be enjoying the show!

Warrene wheels out the big screen TV so the panel can watch the ten minute production titled "Murder In The Crystal Ball."

This phony swami, his wife and his buddy have been ripping off a whole lot of people, and the swami is ready to call it quits, and get on out of town and retire, but his wife wants to do just one more seance for some high dollar big shots, so he begrudgingly agrees. His lovely wife Lois is played by Linda (Naked Flame) Bennett, and his pal Arnold is played by James T. Callahan, who was also in a "Twilight Zone" episode, "Ninety Years Without Slumbering."

The swami named Kazam was played by the remarkable Arthur Batanides, a staple of 60's and 70's TV. Besides shows like "Star Trek" and "Mission Impossible," Arthur was in two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "Mr. Denton On Doomsday," and "The Mirror," and also the "Outer Limits" episode called "Specimen: Unknown."

By the time the participants all get there, kazoom Kazam is already in a deep trance!

The floating trumpet blasts squeaky notes ala Ed Wood style..............

...............And freaks out one of the members of the group, the guy who brought a gun to the seance, Jay Adler as Mr. Lowe. Jay Adler was in "The Big Combo," "The Killing," and also two "Twilight Zone" episodes, "The Jungle," and "He's Alive."

Before the seance gets a chance to be over, Kazam is shot, and now it's time to figure out whodunnit!

Luckily there was a detective hiding in a closet who heard and saw the whole thing, now we just have to see if the panelists can figure it out!

Pretty much all Groucho can focus on is how beautiful both Linda and Warrene are! Everything else is just a moot point to him!

The actors try their darndest to stay in character, but it's difficult when Groucho Marx is asking you questions!

Panelist Stanley Ralph Ross gets an extra shout out here for his accomplishments in pop culture. Stanley. The big man who did it all stood 6'6" and wrote many episodes of "Batman," "The Man Fron U.N.C.L.E.," and "The Monkees," etc. He also is credited with the ultimate sports comment "The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat."

When's the last time you saw anybody smoking a cigarette on a TV game show? Stanley Ralph Ross died from lung cancer at the age of 64!

Groucho's the only one who correctly figures out who the murderer was, and wins the thousand dollars, but it's not exactly the prize he was seeking!

Personally, I think everybody should see this krazy show, it is truly one of a kind!

Here's a couple more nails in the coffin of why this had the potential to be a great show, the story was written by Robert (PSYCHO) Bloch..........

 

..........And it was a creation of Dungeon Superhero, and gimmick master supreme,

Mr. William Castle. I rest my case!