The Twilight Zone - The Christmas Episodes

Serling introduces The Night of the Meek

 The eleventh episode of the second season provided the opportunity to see the great Art Carney as a depressed wino with a heart of gold yearning to give out gifts to the poor and needy in his area of the city, granted his own very special present: the chance to actually be Santa and pull from his bag exactly what kids and skid row occupants at a homeless shelter desire for Christmas. To be honest, the story isn't complicated. It is real simple, and the magic of the season given a special treatment as only The Twilight Zone could. Carney's performance stands the test of time: his ache for those hurting is felt, and when he's provided the chance to give to them, seeing him light up, watching him delighting in what the Santa bag (found in an alley, kicked on the street by an alley cat) has for so many with so little, it is a privilege I can't help but enjoy reliving each and every year. I just wish it was shot on film instead of on the horrible video tape quality. 

This episode deserves the finest treatment a studio could offer, but, instead, the shoddy quality of the video recording deprives us somewhat of a clear, clean picture. Just the same, the work of Carney and the idea that all can be gifted, not just those better off financially, remain such presents with a bow to all Zoners who give their hearts over to "The Night of the Meek". Still, that moment when Mr. Dundee of the department store rips into Corwin, dressing him down out of embarrassment is hard to stomach, and the bartender unsympathetic to him for the obvious heartache Corwin carries leaves much to be desired. So seeing Carney's wino given the chance to make a difference and take on a new lease on life, complete with an elf by his side, is quite a treasure I always appreciate.

"The Changing of the Guard" used to be an episode I liked, but it never moved me quite like it does now that I'm middle-aged and 44 years old. As I've gotten older and have teenagers of my own, I can so feel Professor Ellis Fowler's sense of existential dread, pondering in his years (he says to his last class that he had been teaching for 51 years, so I can't quite relate to him totally) if he actually has made an impact on lives at all. The Headmaster (Liam Sullivan of "The Silence") is stuck in the precarious position of telling Fowler he's to be discharged, "retired". I don't know what is worse than being told you are to be put out to pasture. To feel as if your services are no longer required. For Fowler, he put all his importance in his profession. This was his passion, what he dedicated his life to. That moment when he considers his life a failure, that he moved nothing and no one, was for me (and his maid) a painful scene. "They all come and go like ghosts" really leaves Fowler's mind as he tears into himself. He remembers students, recalls their faces, habits, personalities, and anecdotes from the past. And because this is The Twilight Zone, Fowler, out there on a walk, hears the bell and is visited by students from years gone by. Prior to that he visits the statue of a great educator, Fowler contemplates the shame with gun in hand, ready to commit suicide. 

I did wonder if these "ghosts" were merely specters of the mind or actual ghosts from sort of spiritual realm emerging briefly to tell Fowler that he wasn't a failure at all. That Fowler left an imprint on them, imbuing them with certain qualities from poetry and poets he taught them. His efforts weren't in vain. He gave to them much more than words from a book. Yes, you might say he needed to be told he meant something to someone. He was a pitiful mess with a gun in his hand ready to call it quits, but these specters let Fowler know that they were grateful to him for what he gave to them. The performance of Pleasence, it hit me a few years ago when I actually watched this episode on Christmas Eve. I regret not getting to watch this Christmas Eve this year but I have plans that interfere. Pleasence takes us on quite an emotional journey for 25 minutes. Hit with retirement, needing to come to terms with change, visited by those ghosts he felt he failed, taught a lesson of his own. He didn't necessarily die at Iwo Jima or at Pearl Harbor, wasn't there to contact radioactivity while working on a cure for cancer, or give his life to causes contributing to mankind, but he taught many others who grew up in his classrooms. But as the opening of the episode did show: the kids were bored, no longer attentive and listening. It was time for a changing of the guard. "Changing of the Guard" has become a Christmas season tradition now. And the episode will continue to be a tradition of great reward for as long as I live, until I'm some ghost perhaps visiting someone else who feels they didn't give to humanity as they so desired.