This is what Twilight Zone excelled at. A small, but talented cast creating magic on a simple set. Strong, but manageable stories with a haunting tone and powerful theme. All this with layered messages about what humanity is, what humanity could be, and what humanity should be. My favorite is possibly "The Obsolete Man" followed by "The Big Tall Wish" and "The Howling Man".
I watched the films The Hustler and Color of Money as a double feature recently, and I kept thinking about this exact episode across the viewing. All these work focus on what it means to be the greatest, the obsession with chasing legends, what this does to you and how it takes from others in your life as much as it hurts the persuer Thank you for contemplating this work with the intensity it deserves
I am right there with you on this episode. It is my all-time favorite and for all the reasons you mentioned. I've been looking forward to this since I saw it on the schedule. Thank you for doing it.
This is my favorite episode of all time for the series, and one of my top episodes of television. The acting is amazing, the script tight and well written and the atmosphere incredible.
I once saw Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams on The Tonight Show once. It was comedy gold. WInters just sat there feeding Williams, who couldn't stay still and just went to town with it. This was on of the shows where you even see the greatness of Johnny Carson as a host. He knew when to sit back and watch the show when the guests warranted it. He laughed along with the audience.
@carlrood4457: Jonathan Winters was so renowned as a Comedian that his appearances on "The Tonight Show" can be traced back to the Jack Paar era! And of course his Gas Station showdown with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" serves as one of the many high points of that brilliantly demented Movie!😂🤣😂🎤🌴💰🌴📺🎥B.W.
I really like the visible sweat on both actors. That's a little detail emphasizing how hard both men are playing-giving their all, that even a lot of shows nowadays wouldn't remember to get right.
I got into the Twilight Zone and a lot of the episodes through the SciFi marathons. There are some that are freaky and some that are great, but I do agree that this one is up there. Thanks for reviewing it!
By far, one of my favourite episodes, with two absolutely stellar performances from two of the greatest actors of the era, both of whom were pigeonholed as comedic actors for most of their careers. A rare chance for both of them to stretch their dramatic muscles, and they knocked it out of the park. They remade this one for the 80s version of the show, but they changed the ending, and without Winters and Klugman, it just didn't have the same impact.
Fun Fact: Few only got this but, Fats did not came back from the afterlife. Jack has already passed away the moment Fats showed up.. They were deciding in the game whether he'll go in peace or continue proving that he is the best.. This explains the final scene, where he woke up in the afterlife.. He did not die because he already is.. while Fats went to Willoughby.
Super interesting that Togashi does this in Hunter X Hunter with Komugi and Gungi, I wonder if it's just in the aether now or he was inspired by it, or just great minds think alike. But staking your entire life on *The Game* because that's what it takes to be the best, and that Komugi went into every game staking her life on it, and when a challenger appears and asks her for stakes and she *can't even think of anything to stake but her life* is really beautiful and sad at the same time. Thanks for sharing sfdebris, when tf are you gonna blow up like you deserve??!!
I've seen this one and the alternate ending in the first revival. I think the difference between them should've been discussed more to show how the message is changed by the rewrite.
There is a reason why The entirety of the original run of Twilight Zone is in the collection. Sometimes the most understated episodes are worth watching and others are around still for being so surreal. I don't have a singular favorite from the run because the title shifts around depending on my mood. A Game of Pool never made it to the laserdisk collections, because CBS at the time was highlighting the more speculative aspects of the show. A real pity, as shown in this review.
While I haven't seen this episode in years, it's always stuck with me. A favorite movie of mine is "The Gunfighter", starring Gregory Peck and I always think of this episode when I watch that movie. That tired look on Klugman's face at the end is exactly what Peck gave at the beginning when a young squirt picked a fight. He just walked in for a drink, but keeps having to prove himself. He's 35, exhausted and just wants to reconcile with his wife and son, but he can't escape the reputation he coveted in his 20's.
"George Clayton Johnson's script originally featured an ending in which Jesse loses the game and yet finds himself still alive. Seeing this, Fats explains that he will die "as all second-raters die: you'll be buried and forgotten without me touching you." From wikipedia. Holy~ shi~t, kinda sad we didn't get that ending. That would have been SUCH an emotional gut punch of a twist. The "new" one is still good, though.
Yeah, that was the better ending. As Serling's characters usually got some kind of second chance, the original ending would have left Jesse as a 2nd rate hack, forever destined to live in Fats' shadow.
Jack Klugman really nailed Jesse's obsession to the point where he's borderline unlikeable. Thus, with either ending, he would have been the ultimate loser. Once Jesse loses, which was the original ending, he would have continued to live under Fats' shadow for the rest of his life...and would always know that when he had the chance to bring Fats' legend down, Jesse couldn't deliver the goods. In the ending Rod Serling used, even in victory, Jesse would never have been able to enjoy winning. First, he'd never be able to prove that he beat Fats head to head. Second, his obsession with being the best probably cost him the ability to enjoy other parts of life, as Fats repeatedly tried to tell him. Finally, Jesse presumably did not have an enjoyable afterlife as he had to take on every challenger as obsessed as he was until he lost...if he ever did. As spot on as Klugman's performance was, Jonathan Winters was a perfect match as the experienced, nuanced, otherworldly voice of reason. That was an actor's masterclass run by two legends.
Here's the question I've always had: did Fats miss on purpose at the end, or did he just crack under the pressure himself? The rules of the game imply that he physically can't give it anything but his best, but... you can't help but wonder about it.
i think they deliberately left you wondering that, so you'd ponder it and ... hopefully come to a realization that puts another spin on this entire thing: _pool is not a 100% skill-based game._ you are stuck dealing with what the ricochets throw at you. the angles that are available.. which might be heavily stacked against one player just by chance. and even the parts that are skill-based are going to be a bit fuzzy, since the human eye is not a perfect triangulation machine.
@@KairuHakubi Well... the best pool players plan their ricochets and set up each shot based on the last one. That being said, they make mistakes. And they also have to deal with what their opponent is doing to stop them. I'm no expert myself, but I'd daresay the break is one of the only truly random factors in the game when it comes to pros. And pros can even control THAT to some degree.
If you remember Fats said to be a champion it takes equal part..work,luck,talent & nerve..The minute Jesse wont give his life to be the best..Fats was gonna walk away..I think Fats realized that Jesse has all 4 parts..and finally found his worthy replacement.
I reall once you mentioning this episode in a Trek review so I went and watched it and it quickly became my single most favorite piece of media produced before I was born. A strange metric, probably, but its the clearest one I got.
I grew up watching JW and then later, JK on the Odd Couple and Quincy. This episode is kind of the reverse of the next idea....JW here, acts in a dramatic role, not yet as well known for his comedy. JK in the dramatic and later to become comic in the OC. I had forgotten this TZ episode and was taken by how a comedian could be so convincingly dramatic. John Candy always struck me as on the edge of transition to dramatic roles. His part in JFK and Uncle Buck Were illustrations of that, JFK the stronger and more intense of the two. He died too damn early!.....
Also my favorite TZ episode. I was so happy when I saw this one on the list. Thank you. I wanted to add - I recall you use Fats' line about "playing it safe" during a Voyager review, am I correct there? Hearing Mr. Winters say the line made me remember that.
The 1980s version of this episode outdid the Rod Serling episode of A Game of Pool. In the 1980s version, Jesse Cardiff was a lot younger. The Jesse Cardiff character makes a lot more sense as a younger man. In the 1980s version, he loses, just like in the source material.
If you remember Fats said to be a champion it takes equal parts..work,luck,talent & nerve..The minute Jesse wont give his life to be the best..Fats was gonna walk away..I think Fats realized that Jesse has all 4 parts..and finally found his worthy replacement.
While a great ep, I don't know about calling it different from what The Twilight Zone usually did. The show loved doing episodes that were basically just half-hour conversations between two people: The Obsolete Man, Four O'Clock, Midnight Sun, Two, A World of His Own, Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, etc.
imagine going back and telling Serling that someday, people trying to do (glowing) reviews of his work are being prevented from using it.. not by law, law protects it.. not even really by any one human's decision, but by an uncontrolled black box AI algorithm that has been deliberately inflicted on the platform by people who, evidently, hate making money and aren't too keen on anyone else making it either... which frequently acts *counter* to the copyright holders' wishes.
I love this episode, great story and message I prefer this ending, it's has that good Faustian/Serlingesque twist to it The 80's remake went with the original and it falls kinda flat imo, but that could be due to what felt like weaker delivery and blocking by the actors imo
31.03.1999 it is time to re-watch your Matrix review :) ( From my HDD, yes Hdd :) ) Please re-upload Matrix and Madoka videos somewhere. Matrix videos are unable to play on your site... :(
Twilight Zone is an odd one. So mich is well done yet at the same time watching it for the first time last year was a little empty. So much has been refrenced, spoiled, parodied, run into the ground, or is just obvious genre convention after 60 years, some impact it lost if the performance isn't up to snuff. This was one of those: not mindblowing for the story told, but in how well it was told.
There should me an universal video splitter sign and a program that would remove it at the user end. Everyone should be able to download video and run it through the programt o make it whole again. It is sad that in the time of this level of technology we need to tear and massacre the flow of a piece because bot is not pleased.
You know, the story seem to indicate this is an ironic hell sort of ending...but if this game was his whole life, and he truly eschewed everything else for it, then isn't this what he wanted? Don't get me wrong, the fact that he has NO CHOICE but to play forever is a bad thing, but the story implies he went to the bad place because he was obsessed with the game, which is, in and of itself, not normally considered a sin. I mean, Pride is a possibility here, but if he was going there anyway, why would it be any worse otherwise? As Satan says, '1 Sin or 1,000,000 you're coming here anyway, so why not come down a rockstar'?
Jesse misses the last shot but is still alive, however he isn't really living because he spends the rest of his life practicing to beat Fats in a rematch that never happens.
@@PJSam1998 That is so much weaker than having already bet/lost his life before Fats even showed up, especially when Fats talks about how much living he did between games.
Twilight Zone makes me feel things that a 3 hour movie couldn't. One of the greatest TV shows of all time. True art
Jonathan Winters was best remembered as a comedian, but in this episode, he displayed his considerable skill as a dramatic actor.
This is what Twilight Zone excelled at. A small, but talented cast creating magic on a simple set. Strong, but manageable stories with a haunting tone and powerful theme. All this with layered messages about what humanity is, what humanity could be, and what humanity should be.
My favorite is possibly "The Obsolete Man" followed by "The Big Tall Wish" and "The Howling Man".
I watched the films The Hustler and Color of Money as a double feature recently, and I kept thinking about this exact episode across the viewing. All these work focus on what it means to be the greatest, the obsession with chasing legends, what this does to you and how it takes from others in your life as much as it hurts the persuer
Thank you for contemplating this work with the intensity it deserves
The original Twilight Zone. 30 minutes of pure TV magic and writing skills. They excelled at story telling.
I am right there with you on this episode. It is my all-time favorite and for all the reasons you mentioned. I've been looking forward to this since I saw it on the schedule. Thank you for doing it.
This has been my favorite episode since I watched the series in high school. Thanks so much for such a meaningful analysis
This is my favorite episode of all time for the series, and one of my top episodes of television. The acting is amazing, the script tight and well written and the atmosphere incredible.
A hell of an episode my dude. I'm glad you picked it.
I once saw Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams on The Tonight Show once. It was comedy gold. WInters just sat there feeding Williams, who couldn't stay still and just went to town with it. This was on of the shows where you even see the greatness of Johnny Carson as a host. He knew when to sit back and watch the show when the guests warranted it. He laughed along with the audience.
@carlrood4457: Jonathan Winters was so renowned as a Comedian that his appearances on "The Tonight Show" can be traced back to the Jack Paar era! And of course his Gas Station showdown with Arnold Stang and Marvin Kaplan in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World" serves as one of the many high points of that brilliantly demented Movie!😂🤣😂🎤🌴💰🌴📺🎥B.W.
I miss those Twilight Zone marathons on the SciFi channel. That was a huge part of my childhood, especially the annual Four of July one
I really like the visible sweat on both actors. That's a little detail emphasizing how hard both men are playing-giving their all, that even a lot of shows nowadays wouldn't remember to get right.
I went through the whole original series about two years ago. This was one of the best.
I got into the Twilight Zone and a lot of the episodes through the SciFi marathons. There are some that are freaky and some that are great, but I do agree that this one is up there. Thanks for reviewing it!
I never knew when it was on. But when it was, my day is over. I am in front of the television, watching it from beginning to end.
By far, one of my favourite episodes, with two absolutely stellar performances from two of the greatest actors of the era, both of whom were pigeonholed as comedic actors for most of their careers. A rare chance for both of them to stretch their dramatic muscles, and they knocked it out of the park.
They remade this one for the 80s version of the show, but they changed the ending, and without Winters and Klugman, it just didn't have the same impact.
Calling this a Must-See is somehow doing a disservice to this episode. This episode is a masterpiece, one of many from this series.
See It...Or Else
I never realized how good an actor Jonathan Winters really was until the first time I saw this episode.
Fun Fact: Few only got this but, Fats did not came back from the afterlife. Jack has already passed away the moment Fats showed up..
They were deciding in the game whether he'll go in peace or continue proving that he is the best.. This explains the final scene, where he woke up in the afterlife.. He did not die because he already is.. while Fats went to Willoughby.
Super interesting that Togashi does this in Hunter X Hunter with Komugi and Gungi, I wonder if it's just in the aether now or he was inspired by it, or just great minds think alike. But staking your entire life on *The Game* because that's what it takes to be the best, and that Komugi went into every game staking her life on it, and when a challenger appears and asks her for stakes and she *can't even think of anything to stake but her life* is really beautiful and sad at the same time.
Thanks for sharing sfdebris, when tf are you gonna blow up like you deserve??!!
I've seen this one and the alternate ending in the first revival. I think the difference between them should've been discussed more to show how the message is changed by the rewrite.
There is a reason why The entirety of the original run of Twilight Zone is in the collection. Sometimes the most understated episodes are worth watching and others are around still for being so surreal. I don't have a singular favorite from the run because the title shifts around depending on my mood. A Game of Pool never made it to the laserdisk collections, because CBS at the time was highlighting the more speculative aspects of the show. A real pity, as shown in this review.
While I haven't seen this episode in years, it's always stuck with me. A favorite movie of mine is "The Gunfighter", starring Gregory Peck and I always think of this episode when I watch that movie. That tired look on Klugman's face at the end is exactly what Peck gave at the beginning when a young squirt picked a fight. He just walked in for a drink, but keeps having to prove himself. He's 35, exhausted and just wants to reconcile with his wife and son, but he can't escape the reputation he coveted in his 20's.
This is one of the best episodes by far, always stuck with me
"George Clayton Johnson's script originally featured an ending in which Jesse loses the game and yet finds himself still alive. Seeing this, Fats explains that he will die "as all second-raters die: you'll be buried and forgotten without me touching you." From wikipedia.
Holy~ shi~t, kinda sad we didn't get that ending. That would have been SUCH an emotional gut punch of a twist. The "new" one is still good, though.
Yeah, that was the better ending. As Serling's characters usually got some kind of second chance, the original ending would have left Jesse as a 2nd rate hack, forever destined to live in Fats' shadow.
Jack Klugman really nailed Jesse's obsession to the point where he's borderline unlikeable. Thus, with either ending, he would have been the ultimate loser. Once Jesse loses, which was the original ending, he would have continued to live under Fats' shadow for the rest of his life...and would always know that when he had the chance to bring Fats' legend down, Jesse couldn't deliver the goods. In the ending Rod Serling used, even in victory, Jesse would never have been able to enjoy winning. First, he'd never be able to prove that he beat Fats head to head. Second, his obsession with being the best probably cost him the ability to enjoy other parts of life, as Fats repeatedly tried to tell him. Finally, Jesse presumably did not have an enjoyable afterlife as he had to take on every challenger as obsessed as he was until he lost...if he ever did.
As spot on as Klugman's performance was, Jonathan Winters was a perfect match as the experienced, nuanced, otherworldly voice of reason. That was an actor's masterclass run by two legends.
Here's the question I've always had: did Fats miss on purpose at the end, or did he just crack under the pressure himself? The rules of the game imply that he physically can't give it anything but his best, but... you can't help but wonder about it.
i think they deliberately left you wondering that, so you'd ponder it and ... hopefully come to a realization that puts another spin on this entire thing: _pool is not a 100% skill-based game._ you are stuck dealing with what the ricochets throw at you. the angles that are available.. which might be heavily stacked against one player just by chance. and even the parts that are skill-based are going to be a bit fuzzy, since the human eye is not a perfect triangulation machine.
@@KairuHakubi Well... the best pool players plan their ricochets and set up each shot based on the last one. That being said, they make mistakes. And they also have to deal with what their opponent is doing to stop them. I'm no expert myself, but I'd daresay the break is one of the only truly random factors in the game when it comes to pros. And pros can even control THAT to some degree.
@@Swiftbow Sure, it's never 100% chance, but as far as I can tell it's never 0% chance either.
If you remember Fats said to be a champion it takes equal part..work,luck,talent & nerve..The minute Jesse wont give his life to be the best..Fats was gonna walk away..I think Fats realized that Jesse has all 4 parts..and finally found his worthy replacement.
I reall once you mentioning this episode in a Trek review so I went and watched it and it quickly became my single most favorite piece of media produced before I was born. A strange metric, probably, but its the clearest one I got.
I grew up watching JW and then later, JK on the Odd Couple and Quincy.
This episode is kind of the reverse of the next idea....JW here, acts in a dramatic role, not yet as well known for his comedy. JK in the dramatic and later to become comic in the OC.
I had forgotten this TZ episode and was taken by how a comedian could be so convincingly dramatic.
John Candy always struck me as on the edge of transition to dramatic roles. His part in JFK and Uncle Buck
Were illustrations of that, JFK the stronger and more intense of the two. He died too damn early!.....
Also my favorite TZ episode. I was so happy when I saw this one on the list. Thank you.
I wanted to add - I recall you use Fats' line about "playing it safe" during a Voyager review, am I correct there? Hearing Mr. Winters say the line made me remember that.
My two favorite Episodes of TZ are of Season 4: "He's Alive"
and (a little more important) "On Thursday We Leave for Home"
The 1980s version of this episode outdid the Rod Serling episode of A Game of Pool. In the 1980s version, Jesse Cardiff was a lot younger. The Jesse Cardiff character makes a lot more sense as a younger man. In the 1980s version, he loses, just like in the source material.
Did you ever do "He's Alive" as a review? It's my personal favorite Twilight Zone episode.
Awesome episode! 👍
If you remember Fats said to be a champion it takes equal parts..work,luck,talent & nerve..The minute Jesse wont give his life to be the best..Fats was gonna walk away..I think Fats realized that Jesse has all 4 parts..and finally found his worthy replacement.
Great review, I can feel your enthusiasm.
Really good analysis bro
Aw yeah, we're talking Zone?!
Personally I remember and revere Winters for his perfomance in The Smurf series.
While a great ep, I don't know about calling it different from what The Twilight Zone usually did. The show loved doing episodes that were basically just half-hour conversations between two people: The Obsolete Man, Four O'Clock, Midnight Sun, Two, A World of His Own, Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, etc.
That's.... amazing.
A refutation of Kierkegaard's "purity of heart is to will one thing"? (Which was once used to describe Gene Roddenberry, of all people.)
imagine going back and telling Serling that someday, people trying to do (glowing) reviews of his work are being prevented from using it.. not by law, law protects it.. not even really by any one human's decision, but by an uncontrolled black box AI algorithm that has been deliberately inflicted on the platform by people who, evidently, hate making money and aren't too keen on anyone else making it either... which frequently acts *counter* to the copyright holders' wishes.
Love you Chuck.
Gone fishing.
How about a link to the full episode?
I watched a few years ago, but can't find it now.
there is SO Much talk that i Had to leave and see the real thing.
KLUGMAN!
I love this episode, great story and message
I prefer this ending, it's has that good Faustian/Serlingesque twist to it
The 80's remake went with the original and it falls kinda flat imo, but that could be due to what felt like weaker delivery and blocking by the actors imo
A Review of Voyager... *spooky fingers*
31.03.1999 it is time to re-watch your Matrix review :) ( From my HDD, yes Hdd :) ) Please re-upload Matrix and Madoka videos somewhere. Matrix videos are unable to play on your site... :(
Twilight Zone is an odd one. So mich is well done yet at the same time watching it for the first time last year was a little empty. So much has been refrenced, spoiled, parodied, run into the ground, or is just obvious genre convention after 60 years, some impact it lost if the performance isn't up to snuff. This was one of those: not mindblowing for the story told, but in how well it was told.
There should me an universal video splitter sign and a program that would remove it at the user end. Everyone should be able to download video and run it through the programt o make it whole again. It is sad that in the time of this level of technology we need to tear and massacre the flow of a piece because bot is not pleased.
You know, the story seem to indicate this is an ironic hell sort of ending...but if this game was his whole life, and he truly eschewed everything else for it, then isn't this what he wanted? Don't get me wrong, the fact that he has NO CHOICE but to play forever is a bad thing, but the story implies he went to the bad place because he was obsessed with the game, which is, in and of itself, not normally considered a sin. I mean, Pride is a possibility here, but if he was going there anyway, why would it be any worse otherwise?
As Satan says, '1 Sin or 1,000,000 you're coming here anyway, so why not come down a rockstar'?
What was the changed ending?
Jesse misses the last shot but is still alive, however he isn't really living because he spends the rest of his life practicing to beat Fats in a rematch that never happens.
@@PJSam1998 That is so much weaker than having already bet/lost his life before Fats even showed up, especially when Fats talks about how much living he did between games.
whats the name of the x file episode?
Jose Chung's From Outer Space.
@@MrGranten First time I heard of that episode I thought the apostrophe was a contraction, which would make it a completely different story.