Old Shows

I'm watching a bunch of the old Twilight Zone episodes. I forgot how good these shows are. So many modern shows owe their plots to this old series. A whole generation of stars were in them too. There are a bunch of familiar faces in black and white.

Some of these shows are genuinely creepy. Some are quite apt for modern problems. The one that comes to mind is the episode where a couple aliens come down and isolate Elm Street. The people of Elm Street start attacking each other. The aliens know Earth will be easy pickings. This makes me think of the moder cultural invasion. People know that the US cannot be beaten in a conventional war so they attack us by turning us against ourselves. They use the media to start fights amongst Americans. It's easy in a world where any one can put videos on the internet and any one in the world can view it.

Many of the shows have moral endings. Several talk about following dreams. A couple talk about being lonely. They all seem to have twists. They are all at least interesting.

There is one on right now about a guy named Williams who is in advertising. The whole show he has a boss that is all about "Push push push Williams!!" It's all about ratings. It is all about country clubs and the Joneses. He takes meetings on speaker phones. I didn't know they used speaker phones in the fifties. Williams dreams about a small town named Willoughby where people are just happy to live and be free. There is no advertising or push push push. Williams asks the conductor where this town is. He needs to find his way there.

There is always some kind of twist. It is very interesting noticing the normal stuff that is just lying around. Rotary phones. Busy signals. Jet aircraft that leave huge filthy trails when they take off. Every one had cards to give out. Every one carried a pen. Men wore hats. Smart people read books.Cars were the size of a bus. No mobile phones. People had a hard time getting hold of each other.

Love potions are a $1, and over priced at that. Glove Cleaner (Unlove potion) is $1000. And worth it.

Several stories are about people selling their souls to the devil. That or paying too high a price for their dreams. Some people just don't find their dream. They might find a happy life if only the let themselves be happy where they are, when they are, who they are with.

There is a lot of time given over to death. People die and things happen to them to drive the morals home. The bad bad man who died and ended up getting everything he wanted. That is, he got everything except satisfaction. He thought he was in heaven, but it was hell. Nothing tasted sweet or gave him a thrill any more.

Sometimes people hang around after they die to learn some lesson. I'm not sure I get the benefit of that, but it seems to be entertaining. The saving angle plays a trumpet and has a goatee. Well, in one of the episodes anyway.