Category: Television
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The Obsolete Man
The Twilight Zone marathon is in progress at the SyFy channel. One of the best episodes of the series which ran from 1959-1964 is The Obsolete Man (1961). Rod Serling's opening narration is eerily prescient and eerily relevant to our present police-state predicament: You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads…
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Jeopardy! The TV Show
Starring Alex Trebek! One observes very bright people displaying their cleverness and mental agility via recall of isolated facts. Meanwhile the horrors of life continue unabated. Now surely there is nothing wrong with some escapist entertainment. Right? The other night the trivia questions were about the First World War. And the clever contestants had all…
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2016 Twilight Zone New Year’s Marathon
Could there be a better way to end such a surreal year? It starts tomorrow, New Year's Eve, at 6 AM and runs for three and one half days on the SyFy channel. Here is the schedule. Two I won't miss tomorrow morning: 9 am: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine 9:30am: Escape Clause Here is your chance…
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On Seinfeld
I confess to being a fan of this TV series many of whose episodes are now over 20 years old. I have seen every episode numerous times. I am not a student of the series as I am a student of the great Twilight Zone series, but then numerous episodes of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone,…
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Twilight Time Again
The semi-annual Twilight Zone marathon starts New Year's Eve morning and runs for two days on the SyFy Channel. My eyes glued to the set, my wife invariably asks, "Haven't you seen that episode before?" She doesn't get it. I've seen 'em all numerous times each. Hell, I've been watching 'em since 1959 when the…
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Semi-Annual Twilight Zone Marathon Starts Tomorrow!
Schedule here. The hard-driving Serling lived a short but intense life. Born in 1924, he was dead at age 50 in 1975. His four pack a day cigarette habit destroyed his heart. Imagine smoking 80 Lucky Strikes a day! Assuming 16 hours of smoking time per day, that averages to one cigarette every twelve minutes. …
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Our Garbage Culture
Last night, the first episode of Fargo, the TV series, which is loosely based on the 1996 Coen Brothers movie of the same name. Another cause and effect of the decline of a culture unravelling with each passing day? Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Wille zur Macht #585 (Kroener Ausgabe): Ein Nihilist ist der Mensch, welcher von der…
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Pessimism and Anti-Natalism in True Detective
True Detective is a new HBO series getting rave reviews. This bit, I am told by Karl White from whom I first learned about the series, is from the first episode. It's good. I'll leave it to you to sort through the sophistry of Rust's spiel. Here is some TD dialog about religion. I'll say…
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Jack Klugman and The Twilight Zone
I almost entitled this post, "Jack Klugman Enters the Twilight Zone," except that this is the vale of twilight. Be that as it may, Jack Klugman, who died yesterday, starred in four Twilight Zone episodes. The news accounts mention that fact but don't say which. "A Passage for Trumpet," "In Praise of Pip," "A Game of Pool," and…
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A Hitchcock-Serling Coincidence
I've been watching old Alfred Hitchcock re-runs from '63 and '64. I must have seen some of these as a kid, but I've forgotten them all. On the night of 10 August I saw "The Magic Shop." What struck me was how similar in theme this is to the Twilight Zone episode, "It's a Good…
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Two Hundred Channels of Dreck
It's not all dreck of course: there is the Hitler History Channel, the Hitler Military Channel, C-Span (especially its Book Notes), and a few others. An example of outstanding TV is Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959-1964. Comparing a series like TZ with trash like The Sopranos, Sex and the City, and recent…
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Confessions of a Former Anti-TV Elitist
When I lived with my parents, I watched a television, theirs. But when I got out on my own, I owned no TV, first for reasons of poverty, and later, after nailing down a philosophy teaching gig, for reasons of inertia and elitism. The life of the mind is a magnificent thing, but it can…
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Liberal Dreckmeisters and Their Decadent Drivel
How is that for a polemical title? The first decades of televison were comparatively wholesome compared to what came later. An example of outstanding TV was Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, which ran from 1959-1964. Comparing a series like TZ with trash like The Sopranos, one sees the extent of the decline. Serling knew how to entertain…