Even though Rod Serling is revered as a master writer in TV’s alleged golden age, and certainly was the creative force behind The Twilight Zone, some of the other contributors really could write circles around him. Maybe it was just the volume of scripts he was committed to cranking out. In just the first few seconds here I was amazed at how real these characters were, and at the little pieces of throwaway business. The papers on the desk, searching for a cigarette, a broken chair, a “circulation” pun, and use of the word gloomcookie.[1] Just great at establishing a world and two likable characters.
Owner Douglas Winter is struggling to make ends meet at The Dansburg Courier. He is interrupted by his supportive girlfriend Jackie. They are interrupted by Andy the linotype man. Unfortunately, Andy has not been paid in 8 weeks and the greedy bastard is quitting to take a paying gig. Winter reaches in his desk and pulls out a bottle of scotch to calm him down. This is in the era when a reporter kept scotch and cigarettes in their desk, not pictures of the president with little hearts all over them.
Andy knows the paper is unlikely to survive now that the big, bad Gazette has moved into town. Even worse, Andy is going to work for them. Jackie really chews him out, but Winter understands. After they leave, Winter compares that day’s Courier to the Gazette. Both have as their main story the mayor’s daughter winning a beauty contest. Only The Gazette suggests there might have been fraud involved. Frankly I would subscribe to The Gazette over The Courier too. The Gazette is also tarted up with more pictures and larger headlines like USA Today. Meanwhile The Courier’s front page looks as interesting and as doomed as a phonebook.
Winter drives out to a country bridge, scotch still in hand. As he prepares to throw himself off the bridge, he is approached by Mr. Smith (TZ 4-timer and Rocky 3-timer Burgess Meredith). He requests a ride back to town. As Smith lights his awesomely twisted cigar with 
his flaming finger, we get the idea he might not be just another angel on the bridge.
Smith finally succeeds in getting Winter to put down the bottle by joining him at a bar. Winter has run up a tab of Normian proportions, but Smith happily picks up the tab. As the waitress walks away he awesomely comments, “She moves fast for a big one.” Smith claims to be a newspaperman and offers to work for free as a linotype operator and reporter.
Winter and Smith go back to The Courier where Jackie has apparently returned to do some important midnight filing. Smith not only plays the linotype machine like a piano, he has a nose for news and $5,000 in his pocket to keep the paper afloat.
Smith has a knack for having stories reported, written and typeset immediately after they happen or even sooner — a feat similar to current reporters who also use pre-written stories, although theirs are handed to them by politicians, lobbyists, activists, and corporate PR departments.
His scoops bring attention to The Courier. Smith even starts hawking papers on the street in his spare time. Circulation triples! The Gazette even offers to buy The Courier. Eyebrows are raised when Smith reports a fire at The Gazette even as the firetrucks are heading to the scene.
Finally, halfway through the episode Smith reveals what was obvious all along — that he is the devil. Writer Charles Beaumont was wise not saving this until the end since the audience was already hip. He is also very deft in how the devil maneuvers Winter into signing away his soul. In just a few sentences, Beaumont deflects two tropes which are too common in The Twilight Zone: The blatant last-second twist, and people not reacting as a real person would. It is also pleasant to hear conversations rather than speeches.
Smith goes on reporting tragic story after story, always minutes after they occur. He has rigged the linotype machine so that now any story it prints will come true in the future. He uses this to coerce Winter into giving his soul up earlier than planned. Winter outsmarts him with his own device, however, resulting in a happy ending for him and the newspaper; at least until the internet is invented.
Once again, Season 4 exceeds expectations. Maybe that is because Charles Beaumont wrote 4 of the 9 episodes I’ve watched so far. He has tended toward happy endings even if not by conventional standards of happiness. The main characters, all men so far, are able to escape from an isolated life or to get a second chance. Whether this escapism was a conscious choice related to Beaumont’s own troubled life, who knows.
Post-Post:
- [1] No idea if this is the first use of the word. All the Google entries I’m willing to scan at 3 am refer to a more recent comic book.
- Of course, The TZ theme is iconic. But to get the full effect, wake up and listen to it through a good pair of speakers at 3 am. Black & Decker wishes they could make a drill that good.
Then to current-day Alaska. One of the reasons I clicked on this movie was the cover which had a nice, clean design and an attractive bluish tint. Holy crap did they go overboard with the blue tint. Think of the green tint in The Matrix — it was only subtly noticeable and you got used to it. This opening of this movie looks like it was shot through a bottle of Windex.
Ronnell is the first to notice that they are getting no cellphone service. Being a thousand miles from a cell tower might to be blame. Maybe they should have sprung for a satellite phone. Sadly, she is not the least respectable of the group. Stephen is a douche-bag determined to steal credit for the find.
And so the picking-off begins. But it is not as dreary and mechanical as one might fear. there are surprises and tentacles, teeth, and slime.
Jerry and Gina are in the graveyard. Jerry is digging one of those TV graveholes that any sap can dig by hand with an ordinary shovel in 45 minutes. The perfectly squared-off corners are a nice touch. It’s nice to see people taking pride in their work again.
Some time later, Gina walks into a bar in a snappy business suit and immediately starts making friends by grabbing gonads, throwing a man to the ground, making an awesome joke to a guy with a colostomy bag, and buying rounds for the house; but mostly that last thing.
Jerry ends up being in cahoots with the rubes. But there is real oil under the graveyard. Once Gina finds out she’s been hustled, she lights it up!
Post-Post:
Tonight’s episode is once again sponsored by Masland Carpet Mills, makers of fine fishing- and 
Fulbright goes home and hands his wife the $20. She is about as appreciative as you would expect and asks him if he robbed a bank. A neighbor frantically knocks at the door carrying her child. Within seconds he diagnoses the girl with hemorrhagic encephalitis. Having no alternative, Fulbright opens the new bag. He sees now that there is a warning label that the instruments must be used ethically or the violator will be subject to the full penalty of the law. Checking a handy enclosed symptom matrix, he finds a new-fangled syringe pre-loaded with an elixir for the girl.
07/18/50 — that’s 2450! [1] 
Post-Post:
Charlotte (Sherilyn “should be a much bigger star” 
The next morning, after having started work on the baby, Charlotte describes the car as “frivolous” for a new mom. C’mon, it’s a Volvo. Either these two know nothing about cars or they speak English as a second language. Later that day, Charlotte gets in the car. In her rear view mirror she sees a young woman in the back seat saying, “We’re going to have a baby.”
Lucy’s uncle confirms that she committed suicide in a car just like Charlotte’s. He offers Lucy’s stuff to Charlotte. When Jack gets home that night, he finds clothing and personal items strewn on the floor and up the stairs to their bedroom. At the top of the stairs, he finds Lucy’s driver’s license.
The car stops, the locks go down, Charlotte can’t escape. Smoke begins pouring into the car as Someday We’ll be Together comes on the radio again. Lucy appears and I’m not sure what happens. It looks like she has something wrong with her teeth, but it could just be the horrible quality of the video on You Tube. But then she leans into Charlotte’s neck like a vampire before we cut away. So this is either inconceivably stupid, or just a poor decision on the staging. If Lucy is going to bite her like a vampire, that is just a complete non-sequitur. If she is not a vampire, why lean into her neck with her mouth open? And wasn’t she going to die from smoke or CO2 inhalation anyway?
What was that horn-blast all about? I guess Charlotte was dead and slumped against the horn the whole time and Lucy “drove” the car home. Charlotte’s neck is bloody, so I guess they did go for the vampire thing, although with ghost-like tendencies..