Consider me caught off guard when I realized while scanning Facebook that today was designated Twilight Zone Day. May 11th has been its day for eleven years now, it seems. Well being the TZ fan that I am, and considering the fact it is my all time favorite show, I had to get on board and honor it. A lot of love from me to supply...
So I decided to watch the pilot with Earl Holliman as he finds himself curiously alone while stumbling upon a small town seemingly abandoned. The eerie silence of stores, diners, homes, and other establishments is ear-splitting in its oddness. Where is everyone?
A jukebox plays a tune in a cafe as hot coffee stews in the back kitchen. The church bell rings off with no visitors in or out the temple of worship. No cake-maker in the bakery. A curious female mannequin sitting in the passenger's seat of a little truck. A nearby entrance for a business has mannequins at the door for deliveries. A phone rings in a booth but only a repeated message from a robotic female voice talks from the other side. Holliman has to free himself from a suddenly locked door to the booth. In a sheriff's office, Holliman find a smoking cigar but no cops.
The loneliness becomes excruciating, and the quiet disquiet. Soon it will be unbearable. No people in the shops, an ice cream parlor has a long mirror allowing Holliman to speak to his reflection while he dotes on Ebeneezer Scrooge, and a book on "The Last Man on Earth" has him contemplating a most disconcerting horror. Soon tic-tac-toe with himself is startled out of complacency by lights from a movie theater emerging and the knowledge of him being from the Air force provides a nugget of truth about his identity, encouraging further curiosity regarding where he came from and who he is.
Running about in a frenzy of disorientation and right into a mirror in the theater, a movie projector coming on without an operator, and the eventual realization that the mind can produce a "grand delusion" when human companionship is in short supply, Holliman is coming unglued.
The Moon landing and space travel were topics of sincere worth in 1959, and the platform of a science fiction fantasy show which offered stories of various forms could provide a template to contemplate humankind's place in it all. "Where is Everybody?" was quite an experiment for the show's first episode, as writer / creator Rod Serling questions how an astronaut could fare all alone in an orbit or actual Moon mission. Air force space superiors tell us that two weeks in a booth alone eventually leads to a crack-up, a certain mental breakdown. Holliman is that human experiment, and his mind succumbing to the imaginations of delusion due to a length of no contact with his fellow man is Serling's way of saying that nothing perhaps could be as cruel as the prospect of a lunar mission all alone in a capsule by yourself.
It doesn't take grandeur or a modicum of special effects to tell a compelling story. Hell, it doesn't take a cast of many. Holliman, with his charm and wit, and eventual psychological deterioration, along with some clever visual cues tell a marvelous story. Add the music which layers the ominous mood of the story, as composed by the great Bernard Herrmann, and there's no wonder why Twilight Zone took off with the viewing audience, maintaining a fandom to this day.
On a personal note, this episode has a special place with me due to a wonderful memory recalling watching it with my grandmother. If syfy ever decides to forgo the TZ marathons, it will be a sad day. The channel has served as a method for new fans to catch the show, continuing its relevance, and I'd hate for that to ever end. Because of it, I watched an episode with my grandmother who has been gone now since 1995. I just hope others can have a similar experience.
So I decided to watch the pilot with Earl Holliman as he finds himself curiously alone while stumbling upon a small town seemingly abandoned. The eerie silence of stores, diners, homes, and other establishments is ear-splitting in its oddness. Where is everyone?
A jukebox plays a tune in a cafe as hot coffee stews in the back kitchen. The church bell rings off with no visitors in or out the temple of worship. No cake-maker in the bakery. A curious female mannequin sitting in the passenger's seat of a little truck. A nearby entrance for a business has mannequins at the door for deliveries. A phone rings in a booth but only a repeated message from a robotic female voice talks from the other side. Holliman has to free himself from a suddenly locked door to the booth. In a sheriff's office, Holliman find a smoking cigar but no cops.
The loneliness becomes excruciating, and the quiet disquiet. Soon it will be unbearable. No people in the shops, an ice cream parlor has a long mirror allowing Holliman to speak to his reflection while he dotes on Ebeneezer Scrooge, and a book on "The Last Man on Earth" has him contemplating a most disconcerting horror. Soon tic-tac-toe with himself is startled out of complacency by lights from a movie theater emerging and the knowledge of him being from the Air force provides a nugget of truth about his identity, encouraging further curiosity regarding where he came from and who he is.
Running about in a frenzy of disorientation and right into a mirror in the theater, a movie projector coming on without an operator, and the eventual realization that the mind can produce a "grand delusion" when human companionship is in short supply, Holliman is coming unglued.
The Moon landing and space travel were topics of sincere worth in 1959, and the platform of a science fiction fantasy show which offered stories of various forms could provide a template to contemplate humankind's place in it all. "Where is Everybody?" was quite an experiment for the show's first episode, as writer / creator Rod Serling questions how an astronaut could fare all alone in an orbit or actual Moon mission. Air force space superiors tell us that two weeks in a booth alone eventually leads to a crack-up, a certain mental breakdown. Holliman is that human experiment, and his mind succumbing to the imaginations of delusion due to a length of no contact with his fellow man is Serling's way of saying that nothing perhaps could be as cruel as the prospect of a lunar mission all alone in a capsule by yourself.
It doesn't take grandeur or a modicum of special effects to tell a compelling story. Hell, it doesn't take a cast of many. Holliman, with his charm and wit, and eventual psychological deterioration, along with some clever visual cues tell a marvelous story. Add the music which layers the ominous mood of the story, as composed by the great Bernard Herrmann, and there's no wonder why Twilight Zone took off with the viewing audience, maintaining a fandom to this day.
On a personal note, this episode has a special place with me due to a wonderful memory recalling watching it with my grandmother. If syfy ever decides to forgo the TZ marathons, it will be a sad day. The channel has served as a method for new fans to catch the show, continuing its relevance, and I'd hate for that to ever end. Because of it, I watched an episode with my grandmother who has been gone now since 1995. I just hope others can have a similar experience.
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