Episode 45: Cat and Mouse / Rendezvous in a Dark Place

Hello there, I'm Cris Stash, I'm Mike White, and this is Father'm alone and goodbye. We enjoyed talking. I don't know how I haven't done that one yet, but what I said, Hello there, I'm Cristash. I looked out of Father Malone. He was trying not to corpse really hard.

So I was like, all right, well, this is the opportunity if you're still here through that nightmare of a cold open. We are the Dreams for Sale podcast taking a look at the nineteen eighty five reboot of The Twilight Zone. Well, we are near the end of the show, so if you want to check out the first couple of seasons, you can do that immediately. Yeah, over and over again, please, and then stick around from my mollifluous tones. But if you want to hear what we're talking about in this episode, we're talking about the twenty fourth and twenty fifth episodes of the third season.

Nearing the end here, I think we're one in the last in the last ten episodes. Not soon enough, Chris Statue, but we're gonna be talking about Cat and Mouse and Rendezvous in a Dark Place. One of these is really good. Andrea Moffett longs for true love, a man who is strong, handsome, and exotic, who desires her above all other women. She is about to learn the naivety has its price, and that the universe has a very curious sense of humor.

So let's talk about the Horny Cat. Episode first Cat and Mouse, aired March fourth, nineteen eighty nine. It stars Pamela Bellwood and Paige Fletcher Plage. Fletcher plays Guillaume, a cat, a horny cat who a man who got turned into a cat, who flocks women through the ages, and he he comes upon a woman who I think we all know that she's very bookish by the clothes that they had her wear, whoa looks like a Mormon housewife, a fucking schoolmarm from eighteen hinde. My god, don't show me any of that ankle love, please?

Hey, can you show us that you're shy? Yes, clutch your arms that way. That's it. That's the universal signal for I'm shy. But it turns out she's a she's kinky as fuck, because all are.

Because I don't know if you guys know this, but it would only take someone kinky to have sex with a cat, because it's a cat that she's having sex with and then she nuters him. In the end of the episode, she nuters the cat because it's the man. The man's ball fixes him. Yeah, she does. I believe the female version.

Yes, oh, sorry, you're right. Okay, no, no, no, spaying is the female Oh I guess fixed is just the overall term. Yeah, everyone will understand that. I was about to say, mister Bob Barker, would you like to let everyone knows a good ending? It was good ending of the episode.

Yeah, like the ending. I didn't like anything leading up to that, but I really like the ending. Yeah. I was reminded a little bit of like there was that was there like a two fairy episode that was kind of similar. Yes, yeah, Kenneth.

I liked when he was mad at her for trying to put a collar on him, and I was kind of hoping maybe we would have seen him transform and start choking or something, but instead it's all just implied that that's why he's mad. But then it also plays into that hole don't try to pin me down, baby, but Paige Fletcher, I'm sorry, but there's no appeal. Whoever Robo cop, he's a creep and he's just he's not that a track active, you know. I'm sorry. He's just better known for playing other characters other actors made famous before him.

He played, Oh he was the hitcher. Yeah, okay, I got it, Okay, Yeah, he was unappealing then when he was younger and better looking, and he was unappealing here. Yeah, there's something there's something very to me Billy Zane about him. I can't stand Billy Zane in the same way. Just look at him, and there's something off putting about him, you know.

I mean the fact that they have the cat's name be giome anything because the French no love, but there was never love involved. I had my fun, you had yours. Now I leave. Yeah, let me just give this character every fucking cliche known demand that comes out of his mouth. Like I gotta say, the construction of the plot with the Downers and the fucking you know, all the little things that sort of come together that allow her to drug him and then have him right Newter, that was good.

It was It's just so clumsily put together that you know, I enjoyed this more than I didn't this episode, even though I could not stand watching that guy. Yeah, it was decent, and it felt I mean, if anything, it felt a little too long. It's that suffering from having these episodes standalone. But yeah, and I kind of liked the jealous co worker, and now the jealous co worker immediately knew that Armine character was getting fucked. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah that works.

It could have been though, like I mean, you see, you bring that other character into it, because they did, Like if it had just been about these three characters, and maybe she's the hot one that gets all the guys and she's you know, like there could have been some sort of relationship thing instead of we work at a drug store and you're, you know, like who cares about everything that was happening there? That was That was my issue with the episode, is everything outside of her house is just so humdrum, like her co workers harassing her. Okay, and then that's I mean, that's it. It's just her being harassed by her co workers when we're not at her house, right, Yeah, basically in one form or another.

Yeah, here's this lingerie that you bought, let me open it. What in the fuck? Man? Yeah, what is going on here? Idea?

The eighties must have been a different time than now, guys, they sure were. We've got this as a document. This is how it. Every day was. Every day was people were taking your underwear out of bags and parading around in them, and men were turning into sexy catman.

That's right, that's still happening today. Yes, so okay, So I have a question though here, really I do. Maybe it's my drug adult brain. I don't know what was the intention of fixing him so he could no longer perform that's right. It's basically almost castrating the guy.

So when he turns back into human, he can't have sex with the next lady. People without balls can't have sex at all. They can. It's just it was just very it's very strange. Like I just I get what it was going for.

But like, if you just think about the joke, Chris, I know it's a joke, it's just not a funny one. I laughed. I laughed at the freeze frame, the eighties freeze frame at the end. Oh yeah, well, I gotta love a freeze frame. Yeah, and then things are moving in the background.

Frank dribb and walks and walks out looks at the camera. It was weird. The show hasn't ended on a freeze frame yet, and and here we are like we were due. I know, I guess. So I can't make it out of the eighties without a fucking freeze.

Yeah, it was, it was. I think it was all right. I will tell both of you that it was something different, which is nice. Yeah, and it wasn't J Michael Strezenski writing yet shocker, I know, right. The real shocker, though, I think, is the next episode we're gonna talk about.

Boy, oh boy, it is shocking. Alright. Let's talk about Rendezvous in a Dark Place. I changed my mind. Barbara LeMay, the woman in black, out of place, in a world of colors and sounds and life, A woman caught between fascination and something more profound and less earthly.

Barbara LeMay with one foot in the grave, the other firmly planted in the twilight zone. So Ronie Rue in a Dark Place is the twenty fifth episode of the third season of the show. It is once again written by Jay Michael Straczynski, directed by Renee Bonier, and it stars Janet Lee as a woman obsessed with death and Stephen McCatty as a man who then, now and forever looks the same, just looks the same. Stephen McCatty doesn't age convince me. He does show me a picture of him.

Now, you should probably see Pontole if you haven't. He's looking pretty rough in that one. Yeah, where I've seen him recently in something too. He's a stone faced giant now. But yeah, so, but he looks.

In fact, while watching this one, I thought, oh my god, he looks so young. So yeah, him recently then he played Hobo number one in Nightmare Alley apparently two Alley. Yeah, Hobo number one. Yeah, how the might he have fallen? But yeah, he was fantastic in this episode, and he's just fantastic overall.

And Chris, Actually, if you haven't seen Pontypool, go out and see it. Definitely a long time ago. That's why I don't. It's been when I probably saw when it came out, was like, oh right, it came out like oh wait or something waiter. It was two thousand and eight.

Counterpoint to Stephen mckenny's fantastic performance. I know that Janet Lee is Hollywood royalty. I love her to pieces, but she's terrible. She's a terrible actress. She's really bad.

At this, Am I wrong terrible actress or just in this? Maybe just in this. I've seen her be good obviously. She was great in Psycho and I liked her. I liked her in The Fog quite a bit.

She did a good job in that. He in this one woman show that they wrote to entice a fading Hollywood start to be on the show like I've forgotten lady as it were. Yeah, it's not not good. She's not good, like at the end when she's just sort of acting instead of like saying things like she's fantastic, uh in that in that in that final thing, no no no, and I'm not no, I'm not saying words are so puerile coming out of her mouth that like, and she doesn't believe it, clearly Janet Lee doesn't, So I don't know. I take it back saying she was bad actress.

If I said that, I'm not trying to give that impression. But there's no redeeming these words. She's not good in this. She's not capable of redeeming the words. My wife, who has barely seeing any Twilight Zone other than her suffering through this third season and partially enjoying the first and second, as we're watching this, she's like, haven't you seen this one before?

And I'm like no, and she's like, no, it's an old one. And I was like, wait a second. I was like Robert Redford and um, okay, why am I blanking on glad Gladys Cooper? Okay? Yeah?

And I was like, oh, yeah, you're right, and I started to describe it. She's like, yeah, exactly that. I'm like, yes, absolutely, very much the same thing. Though she's more afraid of death, right, and Janet Lee loves death. She loves him to pieces.

Oh yeah, she's got like an Alice Cooper fixation on death. Yeah, it's original. Is more like he's she's so afraid of death she won't leave, right, She's like locked in her house, won't go outside, has to wear a mask all the time. Yeah. Sorry, wow, wow, I just feel for her now, Yes, nothing.

Yeah, it's weird how close this is to the original show? Right? Oh yeah again tripping clumsily into Rod Serling territory here with a character piece with just espousing thoughts on this and that. As far as characters go, we've got a woman who, yes, I get it, she's watched many of her friends die but has a son and an extended family that she's not engaged in. Yeah, it wasn't all.

Wasn't that the lesson of the episode that should have been learned here instead of she gets to be Death's companion or make that where she has nothing that everyone has died and now she's completely obsessed with it and becomes Death's paramore or whatever. You know, Well, that's what I didn't understand about the episode. Why did death change his mind so quickly because she showed a deep commitment to the death lifestyle. Yeah, yeah, she remembered what high school she went to, unlike other people that tried for the same job. I just I didn't understand it at all because because it was really dumb.

That's why. Yeah, this is the episode you didn't like. I thought the Cat episode. Yeah no, And I sort of was that the I was being overly enthusiastic at the bening getting saying one of them was great. That was a lie just to get us through this episode.

Listeners have been tricks, you've been I will. I will recommend that the Cat one on some level, but this one I cannot at all. This one is garbage. I mean, you know, I'm not garbage. Steven mccatty's really good in it, but he's just charming motherfucker.

Like if he had been doing anything for twenty two minutes, I would have been like, that was a good episode. So I think that's the problem for me, is that everything else is not any is not any sum is not any better than Stephen McCatty on his own. She's so obsessed with death that the way she thinks to lure him is to grow old enough that someone breaks into her house and is wounded and is dying, and then she gets to see death like they didn't if her character is this death episode, it's first of all, it's just it reminded me of Harold and Mad drained of all the wit and h you know, like it's I mean, that's what mod does, right, but like I don't, I don't know. This was this one was tough. Yeah.

I think the other thing that I think is the most disappointing part of this episode for me is the fact that they have an episode like this on the original show that's very similar, and this episode thinks that somehow just subverting the ending is enough, and it's like, that's not mentioning the original at all, No, right, not saying based on the teleplay by whom Yeah, yeah, I wish Stephen McCatty was in a different episode. Yeah, first season, man, he could have could have done something. And the originals by George Clayton Johnson who wrote a ton of stuff. So yeah, there we go. Yeah.

Yeah, it's weird because this episode, you think is going in one direction, Death leaves, and then Death just comes back and he's like, all right, I guess you're my forever death companion. Yeah, my pro jay. Didn't Johnson do the Pool episode we just talked about a few episodes ago. Yeah, a game of Pool? Yeah right, okay, yeah, that's credit in that one, but not this one.

That's the thing about this episode. It did remind me of some of the other Devil episodes that we've seen, or kind of you know, a game of Pool. Um, what's the other one? Yeah, everyone's conception of death on this show is basically boring and stupid. I mean, their conception of the Devil isn't.

No, the conception of the Devil has been fantastic, playing just showing up at math lecture. What was the other I guess the other death. One of the other death episodes in this show was the one about like the Highway, the guy that drives all the souls through high Yeah, Steve Rail's back right, yes, yeah, what did you do? I'm a thief? Okay, you can go, man, remember those days, I do fondly, fondly, And we probably were like ripping out of that episode.

But now it's like, give me that. Oh my god, bring it all backs. Yeah, we're in the twilight zone because we're probably ripping on all these really good episodes and now were face was season three, and yeah, we're just the person out in the middle of the streets screaming up at the sky. No, no, please please, I was wrong. Yeah, I want to see the episode about Santa Claus again.

Show me that one with person yes, with the Leprechne Yes. Yeah, let's con artists. Yeah that was season one. Let's let's try that one again, shall I? I miss you Red Snow.

Yeah that wasn't season one, please. Yeah. Life furnished in early poverty in this Yeah. I was absent for the recording of that episode, but I had to watch it. I did not enjoy it.

I didn't know we ever recorded without you you did one time, okay, one time too many. That's why I know, because I was in fucking Duluth, Minnesota when it happened, and like up to my up to my shins in snow and just going like I'd rather be recording an episode right now, And then you watched the episode and you were like, maybe I wouldn't be well, I'd watched it anyway, that's fair it We are a far cry from there. And I will tell you though, we are in the last five episodes of the show. Record we can we record all of those at once? Yeah, I think that's one more, one more recording two and three and them we are done?

Ye on too better things. That's right. So on the next episode of the show, we are in the last five episodes of Twilight Ze nineteen eighty five, we're gonna be talking about many many monkeys and love is blind great, many many monkeys, many many monkeys. Until then, where can people find you, mister Mike White, would you say I have a plethora of monkeys? Oh?

Yes, barrel of them even possibly you can find me over at the Projection Booth podcast, which, strangely enough, is available at Projection Booth Podcast dot com. What about you, Father Malone? Where can people find you if they were looking? Check me out over at father Malone dot com. I've got links to all of my stuff, but uh specifically my podcast, Dark Destination's half hour radio drama, write and produce.

And as for me, you can find me at c STASHU dot com, cstac HW dot com. That's my link tree for all the other things I work on. So there you go. As always, big thanks to Roxy Driving Neutron Dreams for the music for the show, and we'll catch you on the next episode. The