The “debate” over just what the heck is going on isn’t complicated if you remember how Jesse Carter ended up at the end of “A Game Of Pool”. My take: Before the episode, Floyd went looking for a song, met Mary, killed Billy, and met a bad end. (Hence the gravestone..) The older mourning-cloaked Mary wrote a folk song about it, and now Floyd got what he always wanted…Now he’s a character IN the world of tragic folk songs, and, like Darling Clementine, is forced to relive his tragedy every time it’s sung. That’s how the tape recorder always had a verse ready, the song already existed.
There's also some potential Cosmic horror that really fits in with the Twilight Zone stuff if that's the case in a way. If you take that idea and expand it, if every story that is told is relived from the people it's told about consider the tragedy. Every time a horror movie with a tragic ending is watched a real version of all the people in it suffer the same fate over and over. Any song or story with a sad ending and suffering is in some reality experienced on endless repeat and the people who are inflicting the trauma on those who suffer have no idea they're doing so. Imagine the horror idea that such people are puppets on strings they can't control and they're doomed to repeat it simply because they're doomed story is popular among those who do have the power to make such realities real. Granted I'm sure there's an SCP story somewhere in the archives that does something like that too so I'm not going to claim I'm making up some unique new idea. I just think it's interesting that there's a lot more existential horror to the idea you're mentioning if you think about it!
There are later installments of the popular show (though inferior if you ask me), and other great suspenseful oldies to review for years to come: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Outer Limits, _a series I keep thinking is later TZ but it's not, and I can't find it but all I remember is Tunnel, weird things happen everytime the train goes through one_
He isn't going to do 80s Twilight Zone? He said on the last episode he doesn't like 2019 version (which, fair) but I would've thought the 80s, while nowhere near as good as the original, would still be worth covering.
@@Dendarang I could see that. If he does do that 80's revival, I want to hear him mention the saxophone music playing during the EP Dead Woman's shoes.
My theory ties in to Death Ship. Like how Ross makes Mason and Carter relive their deaths over and over again until they find an alternative explanation, Mary Rachel makes Floyd, Billy, the old man, and the Rayford Brothers relive those same moments over and over again until she can save Floyd.
This is actually one of my favorite episodes. I love the song and there are some really cool traditional stringed instruments in the old man’s store. That being said, I can understand some of the criticism leveled by others. It just happens to work for me.
I have a theory about why they did the tombstone early reveal. At this point in TZ they were now 5 seasons into a show already being known for its twist endings, maybe the writers were worried that a “he was dead the whole time” twist would have been too predictable and cliche even for the time, so decided to experiment with the formula by dropping the tombstone reveal early and then do the slow reveal to show us the “why” & “how” of the death. Pretty bold and experimental for the time, even if it didn’t work perfectly and audiences weren’t ready for it. In retrospect, a tombstone shock reveal at the end may have felt more TZ, but I appreciate the experimentation this late in the show.
When she started sing, all I could hear was: Come Wander with me, so joyous and free And away to old Sherwood high, For I'm Robin Hood, and I'm very good At avoiding the Sheriff's eye. So we'll trip along merrily...
That's the biggest appeal of this episode, it is so hard to get a grasp on what, why, and when things are occurring that repeat viewing is mandatory plus the performances are great. I also always took the main character's performance as just a rocker of the era, he was just acting the way 'those kids" acted back then, those kids being my parents 🤣🤣
It is quite an unusual idea to write a whole episode around a song. In such a case, the episode stands or falls on whether the song itself warrants it. A lousy song could have rendered this episode quite horrible, but fortunately, the song is truly up to the task. There is also how Floyd fails to understand what is meant by her being "bespoke." Took me a while to figure it out too. I like this episode, and have long awaited its coverage.
This episode was one of my favorites, the sheer surreality and lack of rational logic made it feel almost like watching somebody's nightmare...which was soon to become your own. Plus, the song was featured in Baby Reindeer. It's a haunting song.
"You killed Billy Rayford. He spoke onto me. Struck him down in his anger 'neath an old willow tree. By the lake where our love dwelled 'neath an old willow tree. You killed Billy Rayford 'neath an old willow tree." That lyric has been stuck in my head since I first saw this episode on tv.
@@wstine79 The tape’s sudden out of nowhere savagely accusing 🎶”YOU KILLED Billy Rayford!…” always creeped me out as a kid. I could see a TZ story where a singer tries to cover up a murder, but every time he plays the demo tape, the song lyrics have a mind of their own…
I have a few theories, one she is signing the song and Floyd is a character in her song that became real. Or these are characters from a song that goes on a loop. It felt like Death Ship that either you accept you're dead and cross over. Or if Floyd does hide not run, the loop breaks. And he can go back to the world of the living. I guess it has that Goundhog Day feel? If that makes any sense. I do love those Back Woods Hillbilly Stories.
The spirits return to re enact the lyrics every time she sings the song. Forced to repeat the actions because of the song. Floyd doesn't even realize he's dead. ❤❤❤ Mary is the only one alive, old and lonely, bringing them back with the song.
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat Only a chosen few get it. 😉👍 (Which, for those wondering, explains why younger Mary keeps saying “No, it always HAS to be this way, because of the song!” Can’t change the lyrics themselves, you know.)
@ericjanssen394 exactly...and she says the Raiford family tells her to not sing it, because they KNOW! The song IS the haunting, the lyrics resurrect them, 🤎🤎🤎
The Groundhog Day Loop is very interesting, since while Floyd himself doesn't remember the previous loops, Mary Rachel does. Apparently, Liza Minelli auditioned to play Mary Rachel.
I think that Liza Minelli would have made Mary Rachel a bit more self aware of what was happening, like she knew what Floyd had in mind but got along with it since she already knew what would’ve happened
Floyd being such a heel works for me. Mega stars didn't pop up much before Elvis and around the time, popular musicians were becoming known for their raucus nature. There was also a decades long history of songs being appropriated this way (or at best for dirt cheap) by the time this episode aired. It overall seems appropriate for 1965.
I googled just for fun and it turns out the first hotel room trashing wasn't until 1967 by Keith Moon. I figured surely Keith Richards would have by 1965...but nope. 1972
Elvis didn't steal songs, he covered them. Most of the early ones people claim he 'stole' (like Hound Dog) were written by Leiber and Stoller, a couple of New York-based Jewish songwriters. They also wrote Kansas City and a number of hits for The Coasters.
As if that weren't enough, Elvis Presley and Gary Crosby made a Movie together called "Girl Happy." The actual prevaricated part of Material belongs to Crosby himself, who wrote a scurrilous and largely untrue Biography of his Father Bing as an obvious cash grab.😡🤦♂️🖊⌨📚🎤🎥B.W.
My theory is is the song is being played, and these are the events of the song. Hence the reason why background characters have no personality, because that's as far as they were described.
Maybe the story is a song itself. The events play over and over as the song does. My old english teacher once told me that characters in fiction never die, because when you start the story over, they're alive again.
I always found this episode confusing no matter how many times I watched it, but that song of hers wonderful. I catch myself humming/singing it every now and again. The best I can gather is that the episode's about theft, like the theft of creative work conflated with stealing another man's woman. It's very interesting.
The events happen̈ed long ago, Mary is old. Floyd, Billy, the shop keeper, all dead. Raifords tell her not to sing because the spirits return to enact it, that's why Floyd's grave is seen.
Wow...very eerie episode...I should try watching it somewhere! That song is so haunting, and it DOES seem like a siren song. o_o Also, I'll miss Twilight Tober Zone. I wish you'd do a bonus one!🥺
This was last TZ episode to be filmed, but not last to be broadcast. Two more episodes - Fear and Bewitchin' Pool - which had been filmed before were broadcast after it. The final broadcast of the original series was a repeat of Jeopardy Room.
And why oh why wasn't this the last episode aired instead? They could have scrapped Bewitching Pool entirely and nothing of value would have been lost.
This is one of my very favorite TZ episodes. Many songwriters and musicians believe to some extent that songs and music itself are things that we don't create, but rather they exist somewhere in the ether and we just channel them. My take on it is that it's another example of a Twilight Zone character being put in his place. Floyd, while presumably a talented performer (Gary Crosby proves to have a great baritone voice when he sings it), is an egotist who believes that it's all about him. He's The Rock-A-Billy Kid, but has no affinity with or affection for the culture that produced the genre. His act may be country, but he's the classic city slicker. The songs are nothing to him, just "PD" trinkets that he can pay hicks to cough up for a few bucks. The story is his lesson that for him to believe this and act accordingly is to his peril. He belongs to the song, not the other way around. He finds out who's boss in the end. The song can't be sold, it can't be changed, and he's just a character in it. Mary Rachel and the Rayford boys understand this; Floyd has to be taught the lesson. Oddly, in a Twilight Zone-worthy twist, Twilight Zone's famous main title theme was itself stolen from its actual composer, Romanian-French avant garde composer Marius Constant. In a ploy to avoid having to pay the going rate for American union musicians and songwriters, a CBS executive had the idea to go to Europe and pay European composers and musicians to record musical cues that CBS could use as background cues in TV shows royalty-free, as they would be considered work-for-hire. When CBS wanted to change the opening theme for The Twilight Zone, they had a staffer go through the music libraries obtained in this way. The staffer found two pieces of music written and recorded by Mr. Constant, spliced them together, and they had their main theme, which the show kept for 4 of its 5 seasons. One of, if not THE most recognizable main theme in TV history. They didn't happen to mention to Mr. Constant that his music had been promoted from background to main theme. He didn't find out until long after TZ had finished its original run. So the network that created The Twilight Zone treated a foreign composer pretty much like Floyd Burney wanted to treat the music store owner: paid him a one-time fee that was much less than the going rate. Mr. Constant eventually had to sue to get paid. Oh the irony. I wonder what became of the gorgeous gold Gibson ES-295 that Floyd is toting when he rolls in. That instrument would be worth over $15,000 these days on the vintage market, of course even more with the Twilight Zone provenance.
I’ve never been sure why i always come back to this episode. Its not particularly good, doesn’t really have any answers. I just keep coming back to it.
The stand out is Mary Rachel. She has a haunting Judy Collins like voice. I could not have seen Liza Minnelli. She has too broad a voice for folk. Bonnie Beecher has a more ghostly old time voice. I think this happened before and that's how Floyd died but he's forced to relive it because he doesn't realize that he's dead.
I love this one since it's just so funny to me. This is the one episode where the Twilight Zone is just going to kill this f***ing guy and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it, there's no real reason for it, and he knows it. He's begging but who cares.
I swear I’ve heard this song before I I’m not sure where. I think it may have been in a fallout 4 radio station mod. That would make sense as I remember it has parodies of a few twilight zone episodes
I think the CBS execs were looking for a way to showcase Gary Crosby. They grabbed a screenplay designed for a longer time frame and tried to cram too much into the allotted time. I feel the episode would've been a lot better if it had fewer moving parts.
I think they should've only shown the tombstone at the end. It might have helped keeo it ambiguous whether it was the Timeloop or Siren theories. Or a third!
For anyone with knowledge of this: Did CBS ever release COME WANDER WITH ME as a single? It would have been an interesting marketing strategy to end the series with. Imagine THIS having been the series finale, with CBS Records releasing WANDER as a hit single! Mary's version for the A-side. David Crosby's version for the B-side.❤
Bonnie Beecher was in a 2 part "Gunsmoke" in the episode "Nitro", where she is again involved with a doomed lover. She plays another rural girl in "The Fugitive". After 1970 she apparently left acting to pursue social causes.
with the idea that it's a time loop ala Groundhog Day with Floyd being trapped in this loop, maybe he has to come back to the loop a better man each time, to break the curse. in this incarnation, he's still a dick and will be until he changes, and it's going to be subtle
I can't see Liza Minnelli being in any way better than Bonnie Beecher for this role. Bonnie didn't just play a folkie in this episode, she _was_ a folkie, having been Bob Dylan's girlfriend around the time this aired. Her lovely singing sounds authentic for Mary Rachel. Liza was too urban & ethnic ever to be believable in the part.
Any chance for a Outer-toberzone? Leonard Nimoy was both in an original and 1990's revival of the same episode (the one where a robot is accused of killing its owner but requests a day in court).
My feeling on this epispde was that Floyd entered into an actual folk song and then just became a part of it. Not a perfect episode but somewhat of a favourite of mind, the atmosphere is great, the music is evocative, and even Floyd Bernie, as much of a joke as he is, is an interesting time capsule of the era what with the rockabilly and travelling troubador thing.
I really hope you'll start doing twilight zone rebooth episodes next year. even though they might not be as good, I really just want this yearly tradition to continue.
For guitar nerds, that old guitar would not have played. It has no frets that I could see and it seems like they are literally using cloth strings. You can play that theme easily by doing e minor and then a minor (open chords) and just hitting the individual notes. In other words arpeggios.
I think what was happening is that it's a song and the characters are fictitious. But every time the song is sung, the fictitious character is really experience do love and grief within the song. This fits with why the characters other than the main two are so flat and emotionless. They are minor characters of the song who don't really go through any of the important emotions
Yes this was very weird episode a place like something like three characters in search of an exit that is something good it's really bad and endless loop maybe that's where bad people end up like in Tartarus
Or because it was Bad from Walter's point of view, and might feel frustrated almost all Twilightober Zones ended with a Bad episode. The exception being The 2nd one
Could you please do these as part of FanScription • What if Disney’s Cinderella didn’t make it to the ball (Disney’s Cinderella 1950movie) • What if Bambi's Mother survived (Disney’s Bambi) • What if Flik and Atta had children (A Bug's Life 2) • The Incredibles vs The Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and Vulture) • What if DreamWorks’s Rise of the Guardians 2 happened? • What if Disney’s Tarzan and friends found an unground world with dinosaurs and a lost civilization of people who mistake Jane as a Goddess (Disney’s Tarzan 2) • What if Elsa was the main villain of Disney’s Frozen • Batman vs The Green Goblin • Spider-man vs The Joker • What if The Evil Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937movie) had won? • What if Richard Donner directed Superman 3 (starring Brainiac & Bizarro) • What if Ridley Scott directed Alien 3
I AINT READY FOR THIS TO END! Cmon Walter! You don't need sleep or relaxation! 80s Twilight Zone ftw!
And The Outer Limits a show similar to the twilight zone.
i also never want these recaps to end!
Also perhaps the horror anthology series Monsters would fit too
The “debate” over just what the heck is going on isn’t complicated if you remember how Jesse Carter ended up at the end of “A Game Of Pool”. My take: Before the episode, Floyd went looking for a song, met Mary, killed Billy, and met a bad end. (Hence the gravestone..) The older mourning-cloaked Mary wrote a folk song about it, and now Floyd got what he always wanted…Now he’s a character IN the world of tragic folk songs, and, like Darling Clementine, is forced to relive his tragedy every time it’s sung. That’s how the tape recorder always had a verse ready, the song already existed.
That's the way I always interpreted it as well. Every time the song is sung, the ghosts of the people it's about come to life to re-live the story.
Oh that’s fascinating.
There's also some potential Cosmic horror that really fits in with the Twilight Zone stuff if that's the case in a way.
If you take that idea and expand it, if every story that is told is relived from the people it's told about consider the tragedy. Every time a horror movie with a tragic ending is watched a real version of all the people in it suffer the same fate over and over.
Any song or story with a sad ending and suffering is in some reality experienced on endless repeat and the people who are inflicting the trauma on those who suffer have no idea they're doing so.
Imagine the horror idea that such people are puppets on strings they can't control and they're doomed to repeat it simply because they're doomed story is popular among those who do have the power to make such realities real.
Granted I'm sure there's an SCP story somewhere in the archives that does something like that too so I'm not going to claim I'm making up some unique new idea. I just think it's interesting that there's a lot more existential horror to the idea you're mentioning if you think about it!
Dang that’s good
This episode was one of the most eeriest. That melody is beautiful but very chilling.
It's soothing in a way!
@ definitely
I know what you mean-the song is a significant factor in the episode’s creepy atmosphere.
I'm really going to miss the Twilight Tober Zone when it's over.
Ditto, but I hope that Walter will eventually cover Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark in full.
There are later installments of the popular show (though inferior if you ask me), and other great suspenseful oldies to review for years to come: Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Outer Limits, _a series I keep thinking is later TZ but it's not, and I can't find it but all I remember is Tunnel, weird things happen everytime the train goes through one_
There's always his idea of doing a three stooges month he mention in the bat may video Beware the Creeper
He isn't going to do 80s Twilight Zone? He said on the last episode he doesn't like 2019 version (which, fair) but I would've thought the 80s, while nowhere near as good as the original, would still be worth covering.
@@Dendarang I could see that. If he does do that 80's revival, I want to hear him mention the saxophone music playing during the EP Dead Woman's shoes.
The song from this episode still lingers with me ❤
it had to work or the episode would have been a total failure
My theory ties in to Death Ship. Like how Ross makes Mason and Carter relive their deaths over and over again until they find an alternative explanation, Mary Rachel makes Floyd, Billy, the old man, and the Rayford Brothers relive those same moments over and over again until she can save Floyd.
This is actually one of my favorite episodes. I love the song and there are some really cool traditional stringed instruments in the old man’s store. That being said, I can understand some of the criticism leveled by others. It just happens to work for me.
I have a theory about why they did the tombstone early reveal. At this point in TZ they were now 5 seasons into a show already being known for its twist endings, maybe the writers were worried that a “he was dead the whole time” twist would have been too predictable and cliche even for the time, so decided to experiment with the formula by dropping the tombstone reveal early and then do the slow reveal to show us the “why” & “how” of the death. Pretty bold and experimental for the time, even if it didn’t work perfectly and audiences weren’t ready for it. In retrospect, a tombstone shock reveal at the end may have felt more TZ, but I appreciate the experimentation this late in the show.
Smart insight.
When she started sing, all I could hear was:
Come Wander with me, so joyous and free
And away to old Sherwood high, For I'm Robin Hood, and I'm very good
At avoiding the Sheriff's eye. So we'll trip along merrily...
Ho haha turn perry dodge spin ha thrust!
Yoicks and away!
Just call me Friar Duck
Bonnie Beechers TV debut! I still remember her Star Trek role.
Yes , "Spectre of the Gun" (at the OK Corral)
4:05 I wouldn't say he stole, rather he was influenced and released his own versions.
Really, it’s less of a groundhog Day scenario, and more that the folk song that Mary Rachel sings makes her relive the event every time she sings it.
That's the biggest appeal of this episode, it is so hard to get a grasp on what, why, and when things are occurring that repeat viewing is mandatory plus the performances are great. I also always took the main character's performance as just a rocker of the era, he was just acting the way 'those kids" acted back then, those kids being my parents 🤣🤣
"You're bespoke, I'm Floyd Burney. So what"? Always found that line hilarious.
I always thought bespoke meant a custom suit but maybe the meaning changed over time.
It is quite an unusual idea to write a whole episode around a song. In such a case, the episode stands or falls on whether the song itself warrants it. A lousy song could have rendered this episode quite horrible, but fortunately, the song is truly up to the task. There is also how Floyd fails to understand what is meant by her being "bespoke." Took me a while to figure it out too. I like this episode, and have long awaited its coverage.
This episode was one of my favorites, the sheer surreality and lack of rational logic made it feel almost like watching somebody's nightmare...which was soon to become your own.
Plus, the song was featured in Baby Reindeer. It's a haunting song.
@@thoughtfuldevil6069 Nah, this is a dull episode...
🎶 "You killed Billy Rayford. 'neath an old willow tree..."
"You killed Billy Rayford. He spoke onto me. Struck him down in his anger 'neath an old willow tree. By the lake where our love dwelled 'neath an old willow tree. You killed Billy Rayford 'neath an old willow tree."
That lyric has been stuck in my head since I first saw this episode on tv.
@@wstine79 The tape’s sudden out of nowhere savagely accusing 🎶”YOU KILLED Billy Rayford!…” always creeped me out as a kid.
I could see a TZ story where a singer tries to cover up a murder, but every time he plays the demo tape, the song lyrics have a mind of their own…
I have a few theories, one she is signing the song and Floyd is a character in her song that became real. Or these are characters from a song that goes on a loop. It felt like Death Ship that either you accept you're dead and cross over. Or if Floyd does hide not run, the loop breaks. And he can go back to the world of the living. I guess it has that Goundhog Day feel? If that makes any sense. I do love those Back Woods Hillbilly Stories.
@@NoahFineburgh disagree. She is old and singing it resurrects them. They repeat the lyrics unending
@ love it
The spirits return to re enact the lyrics every time she sings the song. Forced to repeat the actions because of the song. Floyd doesn't even realize he's dead. ❤❤❤ Mary is the only one alive, old and lonely, bringing them back with the song.
@@Torgo-and-the-Lucifer-Cat Only a chosen few get it. 😉👍
(Which, for those wondering, explains why younger Mary keeps saying “No, it always HAS to be this way, because of the song!” Can’t change the lyrics themselves, you know.)
@ericjanssen394 exactly...and she says the Raiford family tells her to not sing it, because they KNOW! The song IS the haunting, the lyrics resurrect them, 🤎🤎🤎
The Groundhog Day Loop is very interesting, since while Floyd himself doesn't remember the previous loops, Mary Rachel does. Apparently, Liza Minelli auditioned to play Mary Rachel.
It's called a moebius strip.
She's the only living one. The rest return because of the song
I think that Liza Minelli would have made Mary Rachel a bit more self aware of what was happening, like she knew what Floyd had in mind but got along with it since she already knew what would’ve happened
Floyd being such a heel works for me. Mega stars didn't pop up much before Elvis and around the time, popular musicians were becoming known for their raucus nature. There was also a decades long history of songs being appropriated this way (or at best for dirt cheap) by the time this episode aired. It overall seems appropriate for 1965.
I googled just for fun and it turns out the first hotel room trashing wasn't until 1967 by Keith Moon. I figured surely Keith Richards would have by 1965...but nope. 1972
I never could’ve expected the episode positioned on October 29 of the last Twilight-Tober Zone to be one of the last Twilight Zone episodes to air
Elvis didn't steal songs, he covered them. Most of the early ones people claim he 'stole' (like Hound Dog) were written by Leiber and Stoller, a couple of New York-based Jewish songwriters. They also wrote Kansas City and a number of hits for The Coasters.
As if that weren't enough, Elvis Presley and Gary Crosby made a Movie together called "Girl Happy." The actual prevaricated part of Material belongs to Crosby himself, who wrote a scurrilous and largely untrue Biography of his Father Bing as an obvious cash grab.😡🤦♂️🖊⌨📚🎤🎥B.W.
My theory is is the song is being played, and these are the events of the song. Hence the reason why background characters have no personality, because that's as far as they were described.
One of my favourite episodes! I’m gladly surprised you gave it a recommendation!
Amazing EPISODE! Thanks For covering this
i actually really liked this episode when i first saw it.
Maybe the story is a song itself. The events play over and over as the song does.
My old english teacher once told me that characters in fiction never die, because when you start the story over, they're alive again.
I always found this episode confusing no matter how many times I watched it, but that song of hers wonderful. I catch myself humming/singing it every now and again. The best I can gather is that the episode's about theft, like the theft of creative work conflated with stealing another man's woman. It's very interesting.
The events happen̈ed long ago, Mary is old. Floyd, Billy, the shop keeper, all dead. Raifords tell her not to sing because the spirits return to enact it, that's why Floyd's grave is seen.
Wow...very eerie episode...I should try watching it somewhere! That song is so haunting, and it DOES seem like a siren song. o_o Also, I'll miss Twilight Tober Zone. I wish you'd do a bonus one!🥺
One of the first episodes i remember watching.
This was last TZ episode to be filmed, but not last to be broadcast. Two more episodes - Fear and Bewitchin' Pool - which had been filmed before were broadcast after it. The final broadcast of the original series was a repeat of Jeopardy Room.
Like the '64 T bird.
And why oh why wasn't this the last episode aired instead? They could have scrapped Bewitching Pool entirely and nothing of value would have been lost.
Aren’t there three episodes left?
@@nicholasjohnston1970 Yes, I know that. And, Thank you very much for answering my comment.
@@nicholasjohnston1970 Just two. The Fear and Bewitchin Pool.
Two pro wrestling references in back to back videos 🥺
I really like this one 😁its maybe even my favorite
This is one of my very favorite TZ episodes. Many songwriters and musicians believe to some extent that songs and music itself are things that we don't create, but rather they exist somewhere in the ether and we just channel them. My take on it is that it's another example of a Twilight Zone character being put in his place. Floyd, while presumably a talented performer (Gary Crosby proves to have a great baritone voice when he sings it), is an egotist who believes that it's all about him. He's The Rock-A-Billy Kid, but has no affinity with or affection for the culture that produced the genre. His act may be country, but he's the classic city slicker. The songs are nothing to him, just "PD" trinkets that he can pay hicks to cough up for a few bucks. The story is his lesson that for him to believe this and act accordingly is to his peril. He belongs to the song, not the other way around. He finds out who's boss in the end. The song can't be sold, it can't be changed, and he's just a character in it. Mary Rachel and the Rayford boys understand this; Floyd has to be taught the lesson.
Oddly, in a Twilight Zone-worthy twist, Twilight Zone's famous main title theme was itself stolen from its actual composer, Romanian-French avant garde composer Marius Constant. In a ploy to avoid having to pay the going rate for American union musicians and songwriters, a CBS executive had the idea to go to Europe and pay European composers and musicians to record musical cues that CBS could use as background cues in TV shows royalty-free, as they would be considered work-for-hire. When CBS wanted to change the opening theme for The Twilight Zone, they had a staffer go through the music libraries obtained in this way. The staffer found two pieces of music written and recorded by Mr. Constant, spliced them together, and they had their main theme, which the show kept for 4 of its 5 seasons. One of, if not THE most recognizable main theme in TV history.
They didn't happen to mention to Mr. Constant that his music had been promoted from background to main theme. He didn't find out until long after TZ had finished its original run. So the network that created The Twilight Zone treated a foreign composer pretty much like Floyd Burney wanted to treat the music store owner: paid him a one-time fee that was much less than the going rate. Mr. Constant eventually had to sue to get paid. Oh the irony.
I wonder what became of the gorgeous gold Gibson ES-295 that Floyd is toting when he rolls in. That instrument would be worth over $15,000 these days on the vintage market, of course even more with the Twilight Zone provenance.
I’ve never been sure why i always come back to this episode. Its not particularly good, doesn’t really have any answers. I just keep coming back to it.
this song
will not
leave me
Definitely an interesting episode!
I just laughed my a** off 😂
The stand out is Mary Rachel. She has a haunting Judy Collins like voice. I could not have seen Liza Minnelli. She has too broad a voice for folk. Bonnie Beecher has a more ghostly old time voice.
I think this happened before and that's how Floyd died but he's forced to relive it because he doesn't realize that he's dead.
Tomorrow is My birthday, ill be 34 this year!
Thanks for the video!! See you later!! Stay safe.😊
Have an awesome birthday.
Have an awesome birthday.
Happy Birthday.
Now that you've done Disneycember, Dreamworksuary, Bat May, and this, you should do Nickuly/Aprilodeon.
This one my favorite episodes
My take is this is an ouroboros cycle
Awesome 🤩
Thanks for the video
Looking forward to 80s Twilight Zone next October, Walter :)
I love this one since it's just so funny to me. This is the one episode where the Twilight Zone is just going to kill this f***ing guy and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it, there's no real reason for it, and he knows it. He's begging but who cares.
It was pretty clear the Rockabilly Kid was never going to become the Rockabilly Adult 😂
reminds me of the tune at dan's café from night gallery
This episodes song I always found a haunting melody
I swear I’ve heard this song before I I’m not sure where. I think it may have been in a fallout 4 radio station mod. That would make sense as I remember it has parodies of a few twilight zone episodes
So underrated
5:52
Twist
This episode, in a lot of ways, also reminds me of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead."
0:36 All bangers btw
I think the CBS execs were looking for a way to showcase Gary Crosby. They grabbed a screenplay designed for a longer time frame and tried to cram too much into the allotted time. I feel the episode would've been a lot better if it had fewer moving parts.
I think they should've only shown the tombstone at the end. It might have helped keeo it ambiguous whether it was the Timeloop or Siren theories. Or a third!
For anyone with knowledge of this:
Did CBS ever release COME WANDER WITH ME as a single?
It would have been an interesting marketing strategy to end the series with.
Imagine THIS having been the series finale, with CBS Records releasing WANDER as a hit single! Mary's version for the A-side.
David Crosby's version for the B-side.❤
"emotionally evocative ballad at the center?"-🤣-Hell, its the most haunting sad song one could ever hear
Bonnie Beecher was in a 2 part "Gunsmoke" in the episode "Nitro", where she is again involved with a doomed lover. She plays another rural girl in "The Fugitive". After 1970 she apparently left acting to pursue social causes.
Smart woman
To give credit to the king, at least he didn't act as if he wrote the songs he sang
This could use a modern adaptation.
With the right tone and music it could be fantastic!
How about doing Serling's follow up series, "Night Gallery?"
with the idea that it's a time loop ala Groundhog Day with Floyd being trapped in this loop, maybe he has to come back to the loop a better man each time, to break the curse. in this incarnation, he's still a dick and will be until he changes, and it's going to be subtle
Finally. I like this episode, and part of the reason is that it's not so easily interpretable.
I can't see Liza Minnelli being in any way better than Bonnie Beecher for this role. Bonnie didn't just play a folkie in this episode, she _was_ a folkie, having been Bob Dylan's girlfriend around the time this aired. Her lovely singing sounds authentic for Mary Rachel. Liza was too urban & ethnic ever to be believable in the part.
1:48 Radford 2:39 5:40
Oh man. So close to the end.
The Bewitchin' Pool is REALLY going to hurt, lol.
Any chance for a Outer-toberzone? Leonard Nimoy was both in an original and 1990's revival of the same episode (the one where a robot is accused of killing its owner but requests a day in court).
That woman in that story may be like siren from Greek mythology like Walter said💁🏻♂.
Ah, the death loop of Tasha Yars brother .
My feeling on this epispde was that Floyd entered into an actual folk song and then just became a part of it.
Not a perfect episode but somewhat of a favourite of mind, the atmosphere is great, the music is evocative, and even Floyd Bernie, as much of a joke as he is, is an interesting time capsule of the era what with the rockabilly and travelling troubador thing.
I really hate to see this end. Maybe you can talk about Night Gallery episodes in great detail nexr.
Interestingly enough, this is the only episode of the original Twilight Zone that was never adapted into a radio drama.
Do a new series like this about Outer Limits and call it October Limits. Tales from the Dark side would be awesome! Tales from the Darktober Side
Side note baby reindeer is so good
She’s so pretty
Does anyone know what song is used as the backing track for this review?
I really hope you'll start doing twilight zone rebooth episodes next year. even though they might not be as good, I really just want this yearly tradition to continue.
For guitar nerds, that old guitar would not have played. It has no frets that I could see and it seems like they are literally using cloth strings.
You can play that theme easily by doing e minor and then a minor (open chords) and just hitting the individual notes. In other words arpeggios.
I think what was happening is that it's a song and the characters are fictitious.
But every time the song is sung, the fictitious character is really experience do love and grief within the song.
This fits with why the characters other than the main two are so flat and emotionless. They are minor characters of the song who don't really go through any of the important emotions
Hey Walter! When Twilight-tober Zone is over, would you consider covering The Outer Limits?
Do the 80’s twighlight zone please!!!
I'll come wander with you to the twilightober zone
Yes this was very weird episode a place like something like three characters in search of an exit that is something good it's really bad and endless loop maybe that's where bad people end up like in Tartarus
I’m sad Twilight Tober is almost over
Only 2 TwilightTober Zone Episodes left folks!
Technically this is the series finale!
Next time The Fear!
Death loop is exactly what I was thinking.
~_~
When is it gonna be Stephen King time?
Hey Walter, are you gonna do the 80s episodes once you’re done with the original? I want to see your thoughts on It’s Still a Good Life.
I’m gonna miss this series when it’s over but I’m hoping that next year maybe he’ll review the 80s Twilight Zone series 🤔
2 more days until we hear why he was dreading the last episode
I’m guessing because it’s the end
Or because it was Bad from Walter's point of view, and might feel frustrated almost all Twilightober Zones ended with a Bad episode. The exception being The 2nd one
Poor overdubbing during outdoor scenes and recycling footage.
Crazy Ralph??!!
What are the chances you’ll cover the 1985 series? It’s got some incredible episodes.
It's like "Coco" where Ernesto stole Hector's song and committed murder in the process.
Gotta do the 80s episodes next
Could you please do these as part of FanScription
• What if Disney’s Cinderella didn’t make it to the ball (Disney’s Cinderella 1950movie)
• What if Bambi's Mother survived (Disney’s Bambi)
• What if Flik and Atta had children (A Bug's Life 2)
• The Incredibles vs The Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Electro, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Sandman and Vulture)
• What if DreamWorks’s Rise of the Guardians 2 happened?
• What if Disney’s Tarzan and friends found an unground world with dinosaurs and a lost civilization of people who mistake Jane as a Goddess (Disney’s Tarzan 2)
• What if Elsa was the main villain of Disney’s Frozen
• Batman vs The Green Goblin
• Spider-man vs The Joker
• What if The Evil Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1937movie) had won?
• What if Richard Donner directed Superman 3 (starring Brainiac & Bizarro)
• What if Ridley Scott directed Alien 3
So, it's like the movie Triangle