The Decades Twilight Zone 4th of July Marathon

While SYFY has ceased showing the Twilight Zone marathon during Independence Day Holiday, DECADES will be, so I thought it would be fun to follow their schedule. I will be doing so a little differently. While I will be off for a four day holiday, I won't be able to follow the marathon at its exact schedule. So over the vacation, I will have the schedule to go by just for fun. I had other plans for my own, but knowing some channel is keeping up the tradition is cool. Though DECADES will be kicking off with some episodes I have watched very recently, those on the schedule early still represent a recognizable holiday marathon familiarity. Not sure how I will go about remarks or write-ups, so this will be a work in progress.

Decades is among that group of nostalgia channels across the country you can find on cable, satellite, and formats customized primarily for older audiences. Granted, I am 42 so I am headed towards that demo. The Twilight Zone joined this channel's lineup a few years ago, gaining attention from some fans on Twitter when SYFY decided to remove the show from its Independence Day space. Since only two cities further south in my state have Decades, I am not fortunate enough to watch it. There will be a few I skip, as I would during the holiday anyway, not to mention, Jaws is essential this year.

Starting at 11:00 in the morning here, they kick off with episodes that are staples of marathon holidays. This is just day one of a two day marathon weekend. I will probably have a second post for Sunday.

I will be crossing out what I won't be watching (first and fourth season review series this year and last main reasons). My family is having a small gathering where I will be practicing social distancing and mask wearing, so there is also no way to follow this as each episode airs.

***Well, this weekend was the shits and didn't go according to plan. Last year was much better and more satisfying. Sunday a few episodes, four episodes last night. Just not exactly a winning 2020. Well, 2020 is the drizzling shits so marathons not going according to plan should have been expected.***

DECADES first day line-up (episodes watched in red)

Update: I kicked things off very late, starting with A HUNDRED YARDS OVER THE RIM

*I always loved watching this in the mid to late afternoon during marathons of the past, but this was a rare time I chose it in the lateness of 9:40PM. I had every intention of early viewings today but family 4th commitments...Robertson--as the haunted pioneer from Ohio 1847 winding up in New Mexico over 100 years later, seeing a diner and jukebox and tasting water easily from a glass while a couple from the 1960s observe him curiously--has all the perplexing, confused, drained, practically defeated qualities of a weary traveler needing to get Penicillin back to his son, dying in his mother's arms in their remaining covered wagon.

12:00PM- TIME ENOUGH AT LAST "A badgered bank teller dreams of being alone, until his wish comes true."

 12:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE HITCHHIKER "Alone on a cross-country trip, a woman continually sees the same hitch-hiker everywhere she looks."

 1:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - LIVING DOLL "Erich is displeased when his wife buys an expensive doll for his step-daughter. He becomes even more displeased when the doll tells him it doesn't like him!"

*Savalas as a snarky asshole stepfather insecure about his inability to have a child with his patient if treated-like-a-doormat wife with her daughter often hurt by his insensitivity gets more than he bargained for when doll Talky Tina is brought home from the store. He waffles between pariah and sorry, too mean and cutting with remarks while also regretful of them when his wife threatens to leave him. The doll giggles and threatens to kill him while antagonizing his ego with hateful comments no one else hears. I have always preferred this episode in the big primetime lineup. It has always been a marathon favorite. Oddly, or maybe not, this and The Dummy often appear close together in the evening marathon favorites slots.

 1:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE TRADE-INS "An elderly couple visit the New Life Corporation, hoping to transport their personalities into youthful artificial bodies." 

2:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - ON THURSDAY WE LEAVE FOR HOME "A man named Benteen leads a colony of Americans stranded on a desert planet for 30 years." 

3:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET "Paranoia strikes the residents of Maple Street when they believe human-looking aliens have invaded the neighborhood."

 3:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - TO SERVE MAN "When aliens arrive, scientists attempt to decipher their secret language to see if peace is really their objective."

*Even before I learned DECADES was showing a marathon, this episode was on my own shortlist for my own. I planned to watch it in an early lineup before any Independence Day activities, but that never would have worked out. So it was in this marathon early and fit nicely in my late night viewings. Kentucky windage cracked me up, I love this in the dialogue. The tall, robed protruding-head aliens looking to gain the trust of ignorant humans so they will be well fed, voluntary scale-weighed cattle for consumption...what a hoot.

 4:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - FIVE CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN EXIT "Four strangers awaken in a small room with no memory of who they are or how to escape."

*Windom as the never-say-die major while Matheson's clown mocks him for just refusing to find a way out of a cylinder prison with a sad-faced hobo, melancholic ballerina, and defeated bagpiper all given up but still willing to follow any advice for possible escape shows exact determination despite every reason to quit. I never seemed to notice the flower in the pot on the clown's head. While the ending with what the five actually are never has quite satisfied me, truth be told, but the build to the conclusion is quite gripping and the mystery of the prison, especially the first time you watch it, is compelling. The unique eclectic characters assembled are quite a bunch. Discarded dolls for adopted kids just wanting a home doesn't quite land after such absorbing storytelling twenty-two minutes prior to it.

 4:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY "Frustrated with his high pressure job, an executive contemplates living in his dream world, not realizing where it really leads." 

5:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - IT'S A GOOD LIFE "Little Anthony Fremont controls an entire town with his ability to read minds and make people do as he wishes. Which is a real good thing." 5:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE MASKS "A dying man demands his money-hungry family wear peculiar masks in order to recieve their just inheritance." 

*Be careful what you say around him. Be careful of how you act. Be careful how you talk to him. The words you say, the tone, making sure he is well pleased or you will be sent to the 'cornfield'. There's great power in having such ability to punish those who don't agree with you, don't speak as you so choose. In this episode's case, it's a little boy. But Rod, 60 years ago, wrote a story still very much relatable. Tiptoeing around the boy, having to be very careful not to upset him or else suffer...

6:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE OBSOLETE MAN "In a future state where religion and books have been banned, a librarian is judged obsolete and sentenced to death." 

Meredith's librarian/carpenter, Wordsworth, stood his ground when faced with execution, but Weaver's chancellor for The State wasn't ready to die when locked in the room, filled with "illegal books", with an obsolete dead man. Yes, this is very much laying on a theme about a totalitarian society and regime condemning religion and freedom to be an individual thinker. So it might irk those who don't believe the message. And The State is very much dictated as a collective hive mind who tower over those they condemn with very little room for debate. This was written in the 60s. This still exists.

6:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE AFTER HOURS "A woman searches for a department store floor which doesn't exist anymore."

 7:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE NEW EXHIBIT "The curator of a murderers' row in a soon-to-be-defunct wax museum persuades the owner to let him keep the figures of Jack the Ripper, Albert W. Hicks, Henri Désiré Landru, William Burke and William Hare for a while. When his wife attempts to destroy them, a new murderous rampage begins..." 

8:00PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - WHERE IS EVERYBODY? "A man with no memory awakes in a town that's completely empty."

 

11:30PM ET THE TWILIGHT ZONE - A HUNDRED YARDS OVER THE RIM "In 1847 a western settler sets out to find medicine for his dying son - and stumbles into modern-day New Mexico." 

*Watched this out of order.