★★★★1/2 March 18, 1960 Season 1 Episode 24
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
How would you like to live thousands of years? Mr. Jameson was given that option that many of us would love to have…but it’s not without it’s downfalls. Like the episode “Escape Clause” this episode explores immortality except in this one the main character is sophisticated but can be just as selfish. Even with his considerable life experiences some things don’t sink in.
Compared to shows in 2021 this episode is paced slow but that is a great thing. The story has room to breathe and is laid out in front of us. Living forever looks great on paper but in real time it would be hard to lose people you love over and over again… and lose yourself in parts and pieces in the process.
This is a great episode and an interesting view on immortality.
This episode deals with immortality. The entire cast all lived exceptionally long lives. Kevin McCarthy lived to be 96, Estelle Winwood was 101 when she passed away, Edgar Stehli passed away shortly after turning 89, and Dodie Heath turned 90 in August of 2018.
McCarthy died September 11, 2010 at the age of 96, having earned an acting credit as late as the year he died, more than 50 years after this episode was produced.
This show was written by Charles Beaumont
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
You’re looking at Act One, Scene One, of a nightmare, one not restricted to witching hours of dark, rainswept nights. Professor Walter Jameson, popular beyond words, who talks of the past as if it were the present, who conjures up the dead as if they were alive…In the view of this man, Professor Samuel Kittridge, Walter Jameson has access to knowledge that couldn’t come out of a volume of history, but rather from a book on black magic, which is to say that this nightmare begins at noon.
Summary
Walter Jameson is a successful history professor. He’s been teaching for 12 years and has proven to be very popular with his students for his ability to bring his subject to life. He is engaged to Susanna Kittridge, his good friend Professor Sam Kittridge’s daughter. One thing that Professor Kittridge has noticed about Walter is that he doesn’t seem to have aged one bit in the 12 years they have known each other. Walter admits that he is far older than anyone can imagine but before he and Susanna can elope, someone from his past pays him a visit.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Last stop on a long journey, as yet another human being returns to the vast nothingness that is the beginning and into the dust that is always the end.
CAST
Rod Serling … Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Kevin McCarthy … Prof. Walter Jameson / Tom Bowen / Maj. Hugh Skelton
Edgar Stehli … Professor Sam Kittridge
Estelle Winwood … Laurette Bowen
Dodie Heath … Susanna Kittridge (as Dody Heath)
…
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I might even up this one to a 5 star one!
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Yes I agree…these are the hardest to rate. It is one of my favorites.
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This was a great episode – the plots are so creative on this show. This is another one that could have been a great X files episode. Reminds me also of the Interview with a vampire series where Anne Rice explored the downside of living forever
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The X-Files was made for stories like this..and there would be a big downside. Jameson knew this but I think he was on autopilot and just couldn’t stop until he was forced to.
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This looks like a great episode. The thought to live forever is intriguing and frightening at the same time.
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Outliving everyone would get old…especially your love ones.
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Kevin McCarthy was also great in Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and Estelle Winwood was amazing, working in the West End in 1903, and Broadway from 1920. She was fab in so many featured roles in movies & TV, like The Producers, Batman, and her final film Neil Simon’s Murder By Death. Still funny (“poopsie!”) parody of every Hollywood detective genre with an all-star cast incl Alec Guiness, David Niven, Peter Falk, Elsa Lanchester, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker.
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Nancy Walker…another tie to the MTM show….I do remember McCarthy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
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Nancy Walker was always great. Sad to see Gavin Mcloud has just died, Ed Asner been paying tribute.
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I saw that he passed away….yes that is sad. He was on a lot of shows.
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Being young forever would be great, but being old forever would suck.
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Yes it would bad…now 24 or 25 would be great.
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Another great Twilight Zone episode, probably a 5 star imo.
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Yea I could have made it 5 stars easily…I agree. I sometimes get too stingy with them.
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seems like yet another winner . Slow-paced can be great in movies / shows as long as the story remains compelling, which almost all of these do. From your writeup, sounds like the people involved got closer to that immortality than most of us
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I do like the views that this episode shows. A “be careful what you ask for” episode… but not that simple.
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So eerie that every member of this episode lived so long. Living forever with a time machine would be ok but to keep losing loved ones would be too hard.
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Yes it would be and you would accumulate new love ones as the years went by…
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Fantastic episode.
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Excellent episode. Considering our age, every time I see Kevin McCarthy in anything, I always think of his Brat Pack son, Andrew.
I also remember him in this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Midnight_Hour
His Judge Crandall character turned into a zombie. LOL! And, THAT leads me to this (my brain does this…pinging all over the place):
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LOL… I didn’t know about the Andrew connection..that is cool.
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EEK! No. I messed that up so badly. I was thinking Andrew…I MEANT he was a distant cousin of Eugene McCarthy. I’m having a brain cramp. I’d heard that Andrew was his son back in the 80s but, did research and found out about Eugene.
Sorry. Having an 80s flashback, along with a hot flash.
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An 80’s Hot Flash!
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Ed Zachary!
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