★★★★ January 12, 1962 Season 3 Episode 17
If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.
A school teacher, Reverend, and a Colonel get invited to a bomb shelter. No it’s not a joke…but it was an attempt at one by a man named Paul Radin played by Joseph Wiseman. Paul Radin was a very bitter narcissistic millionaire and he wanted to extract an apology for past deeds that he thought he was punished for unfairly by three different people.
Mr. Radin was not a good man and he was just as bad when he was young. He cheated on a test and then planted the crib notes on another student, he was court-martialed during World War II for failure to follow orders to attack the enemy, and because of his callous attitude he caused a young lady to commit suicide. Radin will stop at nothing trying to extract that elusive apology from these people from his past…including ending the world.
I knew Joseph Wiseman was familiar…He played Dr. No in the first James Bond film.
This show was written by Rod Serling
Rod Serling’s Opening Narration:
What you have just looked at takes place three hundred feet underground, beneath the basement of a New York City skyscraper. It’s owned and lived in by one Paul Radin. Mr. Radin is rich, eccentric and single-minded. How rich we can already perceive; how eccentric and single-minded we shall see in a moment, because all of you have just entered the Twilight Zone.
Summary
Successful businessman Paul Radin invites three people from his past to join him in the underground bunker he’s built under his commercial office building. All three have had major influence on him though not the kind that made him what he is today. His former military commander had him court-martialed; his former teacher ridiculed and humiliated him in class after she caught him cheating; and his church Minister who ruined his reputation after he drove a girl to suicide. All he wants from them is one thing: a brief apology. The impact of what they’ve done is far greater than it appears.
There were NO videos that didn’t give the end away to be found.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:
Mr. Paul Radin, a dealer in fantasy, who sits in the rubble of his own making and imagines that he’s the last man on Earth, doomed to a perdition of unutterable loneliness because a practical joke has turned into a nightmare. Mr. Paul Radin, pallbearer at a funeral that he manufactured himself in the Twilight Zone.
CAST
Rod Serling… Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
Joseph Wiseman…Paul Radin
Katherine Squire…Mrs. Langsford
Trevor Bardette…Col. Hawthorne
Gage Clarke…Rev. Hughes
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I liked the premise of this one bit got a bit confused by the double twist at the end. I kind of thought the first twist was good enough although the second twist makes it clear he’s the only one who ends up being punished.
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I thought the teacher and the Colonel were a bit self righteous…not like that should make a big difference.
Serling did pull the rug from underneath you in this one.
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Sounds like a good episode. Dr. No, huh?
Speaking of which, have you seen the new 007 movie? While I much more prefer the old films with Sean Connery and Roger Moore and never quite warmed to Daniel Craig, I’ve also seen most of the modern Bonds. I guess I’m going to watch “No Time to Die” as well when I get a chance and have nothing else to do. As you can sense, I’m not exactly dying for it!
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No I haven’t seen that yet. Bailey and I talked about that earlier. That one and the new Sopranos movie.
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All about the twist!
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This is one I was ambivalent about the message. I actually identified with the Radin character. The 3 he brought down into the vault seemed way too arrogant to have been innocent of what he wanted apologies for and even went so far as to be proud of their actions. The 3 used rationalizations for squirming out of their behavior. Radin didn’t deny any of the things they accused him of doing — but neither did he confirm he was guilty of them. I was dissatisfied with how it ended. I think Radin was a much stronger person than he gave himself credit for via the writers of the story. Sorry to go on and on about it, but this is one of the few I wasn’t too thrilled about because of the fatal flaws in it.
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I did think the teacher and the Colonel were self righteous. You don’t humiliate a kid in front of a class…no matter what they did…it does not help. So I do get what you are saying. Radin wasn’t too likable but neither were the other 3.
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Lisa….off topic…what was that bluegrass song with the long title that you feature on your blog a while back? It could have been with Steve Martin. I’m trying to find it again but can’t.
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Max, sorry, I don’t remember. I tried looking through posts and couldn’t find it. There was one really good bluegrass song by Billy Strings, “Dust in a Baggie”? I think I posted one with Steve Martin and another group but didn’t tag it with Steve so…
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Thanks for looking….does “Sarah Jane And The Iron Mountain Baby” ring a bell?
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Yes it does! Hold on…
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Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers (featuring Edie Brickell) Here ya go!
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That is it! You posted that song a long time ago and I loved it…I knew it had a strange name but I couldn’t think of it.
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I must not have tagged it 😦 My tagging has gotten better over time but still not up to par.
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I have that album!
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From what I’ve heard it sounds great.
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Hmmm…no good characters in this one, it appears.
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The lead is very obnoxious but he is meant to be.
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