★★★1/2 March 10, 1960 Season 2 Episode 20
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
Robert Emhardt as Professor Ackerman does a great job in this. I have watched many shows with this great character actor. Dean Jagger is very good in the pivotal role of Ed Lindsay.
I’ve always liked this episode. The episode plays heavily into nostalgia and someone stuck there. People today would probably not think of old radio shows but it still works and with the radio it gives it a different feeling than an old tv show would. Now with Satellite radio you could live in the past with radio and it would not be strange.
When you watch something you have to keep in mind what time period it was filmed in. It relies on nostalgia a little too much but I did like the episode and it’s worth watching. This one was one of the episodes on videotape and unlike the scarier ones…this one suffers from it.
Static was based on a story by OCee Ritch (I’ve seen his name spelt OCeo and OCee), a friend of Charles Beaumont. The idea for it came from a party given by Richard Matheson attended by both Ritch and a fan of old-time radio who performed bits of radio nostalgia.
This show was written by Charles Beaumont, Oceo Ritch and Rod Serling
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
No one ever saw one quite like that, because that’s a very special sort of radio. In its day, circa 1935, its type was one of the most elegant consoles on the market. Now with its fabric-covered speakers, its peculiar yellow dials, its serrated knobs, it looks quaint and a little strange. Mr. Ed Lindsay is going to find out how strange very soon when he tunes in to the Twilight Zone.
Summary
Ed Lindsay has been living in the same boarding house for over 20 years and he has become an embittered old man. He doesn’t like how the world has changed around him and his crotchety behavior has made him certainly the most disliked man there. When he turns on his old radio however, he gets music from the 1940’s on a station that, it turns out, has been off the air for 15 years. There’s a reason he hears the music however, a reason a fellow boarder reminds him of.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Around and around she goes, and where she stops nobody knows. All Ed Lindsay knows is that he desperately wanted a second chance and he finally got it, through a strange and wonderful time machine called a radio, in the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling…Narrator
Dean Jagger…Ed Lindsay
Carmen Mathews…Vinnie
Robert Emhardt…Professor Ackerman
Arch W. Johnson…Roscoe Bragg
Alice Pearce…Mrs. Nielson
Clegg Hoyt…Shopkeeper (the “junk dealer”)
Stephen Talbot…Boy
Lillian O’Malley…Miss Meredith
Pat O’Malley…Mr. Llewellyn
Eddie Marr…Real Estate Pitchman (uncredited)
Bob Crane…the disc jockey (uncredited)
Roy Rowan…the radio announcer (uncredited)
…
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
sounds pretty good. Serling sure liked the idea of magical or mystical everyday devices, didn’t he? But not a complaint… usually the results were solid.
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He did turn objects into transports or bad things. We have around 9 more this season left and at least 4-5 of them are 5 stars.
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excellent! BTW, I began watching the used cars one last night, didn’t get to finish it but it wasn’t grabbing me that well anyway… but I sure could see the difference you talk about with the video ones vs film ones. It’s like to me, with some photographic background, I still haven’t seen a digital B&W image that can quite match a film one… something about the grain and the subtlety of gradations between gray tones.
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Those remind me of soap operas…the videotaped ones…I sure like film….the look is hard to beat.
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Everyone has their own preference for music.
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Was this for me Jim?
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Nevermind Jim! Now I get it lol. I’m slow this morning.
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Max, I really loved this episode. It’s not too “woo-woo” but the story is so good. It broke my heart that these two are still living in the same house, still loving each other, but still apart. As usual the actors are of the highest quality.
I went to visit my mom yesterday and told her about your TZ series and she remembered the one with Agnes Moorehead being “the alien.” She didn’t remember the one about the little girl being lost in the wall but I told her how much it scared me as a kid.
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The ending was sad to know what could have been…I totally agree. You almost wonder if the story did have a bit of strange in it. I know it’s wishful thinking but did they get a second chance? Probably not…probably just remembering.
That Twilight Zone made me start to realize how good of an actress she really was…That Little Girl Lost is a good one.
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I like to think they did get a second chance.
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I thought the story of the lost love added an emotional element to the story that you don’t typically see in TZ episodes. It is ultimately tragic that he is stuck in what might have been even though he has a chance right in front of him.
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That last scene muddies the water a little…was it a TZ second chance?
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Have to go back and watch it again – I thought she thought about it but decided not to and he just sank back to listening the radio.
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They both were young at the very end…I don’t know if he was thinking back or it was real.
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Oh right! I figured he just slipped permanently into the past like the old actress from season 1 and her TV. But maybe not!
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On a different topic – just watched long distance call. Despite the happy ending that’s some dark stuff. I’ll be curious to see how you rate it
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Oh I LOVE that one…it is dark as hell. That one is truly scary man.
There is only one real bad one in the rest of second season…and it is getting near. It will probably be my lowest grade ever.
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Love Dean Jagger.
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