Episode 38: The Trance / Acts of Terror

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 Twilight Zone, 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 Midnight Viewing are the projection booths. Mike White, What can happen to human beings when trust is wife dog by Suspicion and culture casts Chris Stashue, small boy incased in the Crystal Ball, and I'm Father Malone, the kind of thing that usually infest nightmares joined us monthly at Midnight Viewing. The Night Gallery podcast at weird Ingwaymedia dot Com doesn't remotely belong to me. I have no proprietary interest in that at all. Weird Oh there, I'm Kristache, I'm Mike White, and this is Father Malone and we are the host of Dreams for Sale once a month.

Look at the Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five, otherwise known as the best reboot of this show question Mark. Yeah, I was about to say, we may be getting into some territory that's not that. I'm now starting to appreciate the Jordan Peele reboot. Okay, that's a lot. There's no way that that's possible, right, I don't know after this run starting to think it.

I mean that's fairy. Well not overall. I mean, well, yeah, well, you know, topicality does hurt the show overall. I think that was kind of I think that's the general consensus among everyone is Trump episodes are cool, 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 tenth and 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, a proper atmosphere, and the Common Coin of desperate belief commodities necessary to the life and times of Leonard Randall, who may or may not be someone else as well. The Trance aired November twenty sixth, nineteen eighty eight. It is directed by Randy Bradshaw, written once again by Father Malone's favorite Jay Michael Strazinski. Everyone.

I love him, He's so good and on this show. Yeah, and this episode talks all about a man named Leonard who may or may not be able to chat end or challenge Channel Delos, a creature from Beyond 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 original too. Oh yeah, yeah, it definitely was. The sort of mid to late eighties seem to me to 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 suddenly Shirley McClain is talking about her past lives and crystals or a thing and we're cleansing our chakras and whatever. And so obviously this episode is a clear not attack on it, but comment on it, and kind of a Twilight Zony twist where the guy is faking it and then the biter gets bit he has the real deal show up. I think this, like most of the episodes we're gonna be talking about today, are sort of gentle Twilight Zone episodes.

It doesn't seem to be any stinks whatsoever. Um, I didn't. There's nothing inherently wrong with this one. And I really like Peter Scolari. Um, it's always good to see him.

What's funny is you know, back in the Bosom Buddy days, I was sure he was going to be the star and Tom Hanks was always just going to be like a second banana goofball. How wrong I was? Now? Yeah? Right, Um, but uh, I mean this one, this one's okay.

You know, I can'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 and and why he does what he does. And you know what the consequences are now that he has a real spirit within um and it it it's it doesn't really take a savage attack on it, and it doesn't take a measured I don't know, it's just kind of there, just right. What's like, he doesn'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 their future, doesn't call out all of their foibles and flaws.

He's he's neither devil nor angel. He just yeah, kind of spouts a lot of New Age claptrap, and I'm like, Okay, I don't know if I care about this real spirit as much as I did about Dalo sub Atlantis. It just came from thousands of years ago to tell me to quit smoking, like everyone is telling me to quit smoking. I mean, as far as I'm concerned to the fact that the spirit is just a Snyde dick is all it is. Like the spirit only talks when like someone's walking away.

He's like, what did he say? You want to start something? Yeah, I didn't say anything, like you know, like you were talking about Father Malone, Like this is I don't know if this is a condemnation of people like Sylvia 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 one of those people you would find it an attack. But again, if you don't believe that those people are honest to begin with, what does it matter.

So if you know you don't believe it, this is giving them a hard time. They kind of deserve it if you don't think they're being honest. 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 we had an episode called Healer with Ericagoshen, which is sort of the exact same kind of plot, like you know, where he misuses it and he loses the power and it goes on to somebody else. Like that at least had a 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 you know who cares? Like what penance is he doing for scamming these people who are well, I don't what I don't understand is he's not really being punished because he is going to learn the wisdom of the universe. So like that's not a bad thing in a lot of 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 the wisdom of the universe. So like, is this a bad thing?

It sounds 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, 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 the next one I'm actually angry at.

Yeah, this one's bad. I was reading the blog Postcards from the Twilight Zone, which is a pretty good blog. Talks a lot about old episodes, including these eight eight these episodes, and they're talking a lot about how Strazinski was just recycling old Twilight Zone ideas and just kind of calling them his own, like it's there is a created by Rod Sterling credit on here, but I don't think the original authors were credited. I don't know. The one thing I found the most hilarious is that I think he goes onto a TV show and insults the host and the woman 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 up getting a TV series and Fred's her camera. Man, I can't remember that's just in the comic books, or if that's in the year, if that'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 named Scooby 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 does love his traps, of course, fan of traps. I wanted more from this episode. I like the shuma semoria, Like I like that sort of like wacky nonsense because again, as someone who's into this stuff, like I love how it just bullshit this gets. It reminded me of those like Indiana Jones in the Face of Atlantis comics books, slash video games, like I love that Atlantean stuff, but they don't really go into it enough and it doesn't fall flat. It's just not much of anything.

And that Eric Bogosian episode is way better, way better. Yeah, it has given time. There's no teeth at all. Like, you know, if this if someone from the first season had written this episode, it would have been bitter and angry and we could have gotten mind something from it. As it is, it's just like here's another gentle tale of a little bit paranormal, and here's the Twilight Zone, everybody.

It's ironic to me that Jay Michael Strazinski is the executive Harlan Ellison's estate, because if Harlan Ellison wrote this episode, it would have had god, oh yeah, anyone, I mean yeah, George R. Martin if he had written this episode either, yeah, that spirit that takes over Scolari would be such an asshole and just completely tear everyone a new one. Yeah, instead of just being like like stop talking under your breath, s it like, well, the whole thing too, I mean, just the pacing of it where it's just like when he goes under in those trances and he wakes up, he's just like he doesn't know anything happened that he even went under in a trance, and it's like you were recorded. You know, there's a videotape of you doing this, So why don't we show you the videotape and figure it out a lot faster?

And then 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 it very quickly, and then off you go and we'll talk about that. I think what in the next episode twenty twenty vision doesn't take you a long time to 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 we smarter than the lead? Like? Right, do that? And again, now we're backed into a corner with the show's episodes only being twenty two minutes. So if you're not, if you're not going to just get to the point of imediately, you are wasting our time, in your time because you have twenty two minutes, and that is a choice of the people who made the show, and you need to play inside of that box substantively.

And I think I don't think this does. Yeah, I mean not to bring up the other podcast we've done, or did, the Chronicles from the Crypt about the tales from the Crypt show, Well, the last couple of seasons from that show we felt were just like the ideas that have been left over that it was like, somebody pitches it's something it sounds enough like a talis from the Crypt story, they go go ahead and write it, and then there's that's where it ends. As far as the creative process. They just go, Okay, we'll film this as is now, as opposed to rigorously going through it and making it better. It feels like the first draft is the 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 little bit more, maybe have something to say.

This is twilight Zone, like yeah, I mean it's not enough to touch on a subject that's current, like no, take a stand some way. I mean, even though we didn't like Kentucky Rye or Little Boy Lost, at least they had something to say. Yeah, I didn't think anything could make me appreciate those, but you know, as muddle headed as they were, like hey man, they fucking went for it. Like here's my point of view, deal with it. Yeah, tongue clucking and all.

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

So let's go onto the next episode, Acts of Terror considered quite pretty once not long ago, before the arguments and the years and the stick took it out of her. Louise Simmonson, like so many broken on the wheel, with one subtle difference, this wheel has a name, So Acts of Terror air 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 was he not the story editor of the show at this point? So at he was, He's just rubber stamping his own work. Here you go send it through. This one's a keeper. And so in this episode, we have a woman played by Melanie Mayron who is married to Kenneth Welsh, who is an abusive husband, and many, many, many crazy things happened like a dog figurine.

How do we know we're in Canada? Oh look, Kenneth Welsh. Kenneth Welsh. Yeah, Melanie Mayron said sorry, over and over and over again. Yeah.

Kenneth Welsh is one of the great Canadian actors and very few times as he crossed that border. But yeah, he always makes an impression. Of course for me, he's always going to be winning the Morrow from twenty Oh. Yeah, he's fantastic in this episode. Yeah, the act, Yes, it's good.

And I like Melannie Mayor in a lot, like she didn't really break much out of that thirty something ghetto that 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 like here's here's a question, is it um? Is it established that her sister sent her that dog? Is that?

Yeah? Yeah? Okay, all right? And did and did they not address it again? Right?

They never say like I got it from ye old curiosity shopper. No, She's like, I got this mail from my sister, right, okay, right, I sure would like to open that mail. It's a gift from my sister. Why are you getting any letters? Oh?

My six? Where's dinner? Yeah? You burned my eggs, bitch like Jesus Christ. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I don't want to step into a minefield there. But like you look at his character, you just think, like, what what was the attraction ever? Right, there's no older guy who you know, I don't want to you know, I'm not trying to blaye blame with victims of abuse like that it's their fold for making the wrong choice. I'm not saying that at all. But like you just look at this character.

He's so painted in the evil with the evil brush that you're just like, what, what's unkempt, unkempt tear, unkempt clothes, sharpening his knife in his garage? Like, this guy is a scumbag. This guy's a scumbag. And they didn't even her. He didn't even open his math.

If he didn't open his mouth, I would still know he was a scumbag. 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's this. I don't know. It's very ham handed and it's very poorly uh sort of delineated.

What is going on here? I mean, we know because it's happening and we're seeing it. But and you know, the thing is like the dog just keeps kind of menacing him without actually doing anything for most of the episode, Like wouldn't it immediately attack him? He's been reading on this woman for years. She's she's she's a broken human, and this thing is like the avatar of her rage, and it just kind of growls at him a little bit, like like the scene where he's where he's sharpening his knives in the in the garage and he has time to not only reach over and get his hastily bolted to the wall shotgun, but then fumble out the shotgun shells and put it in Like I'm just like, why aren't you ripping his throat out?

What? Well, what I don't understand is why was it just a dog? Why wasn't it like the Shadow Man or like a 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 have sleep paralysis, a real thing if you don't, not a real thing.

But this is a dog, a Doberman pincher. Like Jesus Christ, you could have done anything, literally anything, and it's just a dog. During the eighties, Doberman's were very fearsome just during the eighties, and then it became rat wilders for a while, and then it became pit bulls. Pit bulls. Yeah, pit bulls still reigned to this day.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, back in the eighties, pit bulls were just like selling beer. That's true, is it is? Okay? Was I the only one who thought that when he was like out sharpening his knives, he was like a serial killer And it wasn't he was cheating on his wife. I was like, is he like a serial killer?

And that's what's going on here? What were you doing more work than the writers? Right right? I was trying to make this episode interesting, which it wasn't. Yeah, that's my and you just did that is miles more interesting than what we got.

That's why my thom was going on. He's like out there sharpening his knives, and his friends like he kind of stopped doing this. Man like yeah, and he's like, well, you know, I have to murder my wife eventually, but not right now. Yeah. Like then the dog like yeah, but no, like it's just he's cheating up.

If he's okay, I have a question, why is he sharpening his knives. What does that have to do with anything, because he's a bad, bad man. It's bad people sharpen They're not men sharpen knives. That's just that's just science. Put that shit on a T shirt right there, bad men sharpened knives.

I guess. I guess because he didn't go on a hunting trip. He went on a fishing trip. And again, well, you got to got that fish with this. But you don't get the fish with that kind of knife, with a giant knife, right, you gotta fish with the filet knife that has a blade that's like that big, this giganto knife that moms like he's a I don't get it.

Something tells me then that the production designer was not as on the ball as they should have been. How weird. You know what? He should have been out in his garage doing that would have made perfect sense, and it would have led into all of this. Should have been out there like rapping flies or something like fly fishing, like out there with this thing nuanced.

But it doesn't matter what he's doing as long as he's talking about the fact that he's cheating on his Yeah, like loud and proud in the FXT Oh my god, yeah so loud? Yeah, fuck someone else? Can't you not hear me? Like you want to smell my fingers? Hold on, I gotta make sure this door is open, right And then and then it does the laziest of lazy tropes where she's like standing in the doorway where everyone could see her, and she's like like that's yeah, I mean, and you know what, And in the end, does the guy really get anything done to him?

I mean, it gives her the gumption to leave, but like, what is his punishment here? Just a dog attack? Yeah, just a dog attack. Like he's wearing a bandage over one hand. But I'm like, man, you should be mauled to shit.

It's the implication of a dog attack. At the end, she's like, don't right after me, or the dog will get you, Like okay, who cares? Like are we also led to believe that the dog will protect her in her sleep and at all times, because this guy seems like a complete looney tune and would track her down like oh yeah, I mean, you know, they could have just done anything, Like I wish she had been the catalyst for this somehow, like you know, like she found the thing and it appealed to her in a shop, you know, like it's the character doesn't do anything at all until the last moment when she leaves, which is what she should have done to begin with, but like, you know, there's no proactive motion on her part.

Like I would have loved at the end, had like that dog come and joined her, like like, yes, I've been doing this the whole time. You fuck her, 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 a phantom 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 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 help out this. Yes it was, and he was like, yeah, I'm coming, Melanie, I'm coming to save you.

Yeah, that's how he's paying back the certainly. Yeah. And then and then what we don't see is the scene after this episode ends with her driving off and he turns into Tom Scarrett, right, which is good for her. That's good for everybody. Yeah, sounds Scarret's great.

Oh hell yeah, we just a better episode. Yeah, I think that's Drazinski thirty five years ago. Let us go, Let let father Malone manage Harlotte Ellison's estate. You coward, I should Yeah, that's that's what you get for not ever respond to my interview requests there. Jay Michael, really well, he's too busy, too busy.

I got he had that new book out and I was like, come on, let's do an interview. No, too busy. I mean he's too busy writing those Thor movies that they had to then unwrite. So I mean 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 also in the first movie. That one's bad.

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 so yeah, yeah, and I thought that was bad. Here, let's amplify that for you. Yeah, I mean Jay Michael Strazinski is a fantastic comic book writer.

Certainly his runs on Spider Man and Thor and Fantastic Four are amazing. He also wrote Superman Earth one, which I would suggest anyone who is a fan of Superman and has never read that go check out. And I like bamble On five. I thought that was a solid show for a couple of years that I watched it, But this no, Well, you know what, young writer working his way up. I guess.

Yeah, everybody's got to start somewhere. And I'm sure he's written episodes of the show that I can't think of right now that we're good. Has he? I think every episode that we've talked about has not been good. He wrote twelve episodes of the show so all in this season.

Yeah, it feels like at least anything else we want to say about this episode, don't watch it. Father Malone is like an angry, 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.

So on the next episode of Dreams for Sale, we're gonna be taking a look at the twelfth and thirteenth episodes 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 next episode, now, won't we, Or more aptlyte you'll find out on the next episode because we already know we got one up on you. Let we let the sauce, We let how the sausage is made out out into the world. Yeah, already watched him, yes, so I just looked him up.

He did write one episode in the second season. It was that horrible Imaginary Friend one with Tom Scarrett. Oh funny, but hey, that episode is really bad Jesus Christ. Wow, not thought with Lucas Hass as well? Yeah?

Yeah, and uh was that Fred Savage too? Yes? Yeah, Lucas hass is the imaginary friend and and Fred Savage is the real one, right? Fred Savage is just a dickhead, isn't it right? Yeah?

Son, Like it's just a rude kid like punching out girls and shit, oh boy. But until we talk about the next episode of the show. Where can people find you, Father Malone? You can check me out over at father Malone dot com. You can check out my podcast.

It is a half hour radio drama called Dark Destinations. You can also check out my YouTube channel, which you can also access through phonamlone dot com. What about you, Mike? What's going on at the Projection Bog podcast? 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. We were talking about animal violence on one of the movies that we were discussing, and had to make write and complain about how silly we were talking about animal violence 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 had possible chicken death. So I just want to warn people. People complain about the weirdest things. What about is my 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 on along. It's a fun time. And as for me, you can find me at c stashu dot com, where you find links to all the podcasts I work on, like Barty Miller with Mike Father Malone and I. We still have chronicles from the Crypt You can still listen to it. It is a complete show from start to finish.

You could listen to that or the Culture Cast, my main show where we talk about movies. Chris, I'd like to suggest that you spell your name. Yeah, people that interesting dot com. Yeah, nobody knows how to spell stash you you might want to change your name, not even me to be fair. C.

S STASHU No, it's a c stacchiw dot com. You guys are right, I should spell it out. I'm an idiot. Thank you. We already knew that.

Yeah, And as for this show, twilight Zone eighty five dot com, twilight Zone eighty five on Twitter as well. Big thanks as always to Roxy Drive and Neutron Dreams for the music for the show. We'll catch you on the next episode. U