I wonder what it was like to watch this series every week in 1985. Was there a hopefulness that it might be a worthy successor to the 1960s classic? Were people satisfied with the first episode featuring Shatterday and A Little Piece and Quiet? They were both pretty strong, high-concept segments. Yeah, I’ll tune again next week.
Wordplay was another fun, high-concept outing. Chameleon didn’t have much of a story, but was enjoyable thanks to the performances and the NASA setting. The ending was a little underwhelming. Still, maybe they found a way to make a TZ for the 1980s. I’ll give it another chance next week, if I’m home.
After that, with a few notable exceptions, the new TZ produced too many maudlin soap opera segments and short one-joke outings with no depth or arc. Gone was the grit, irony and cosmic comeuppance of the original. A good twist seemed to have become as passe as plot in a literature or skill in art.
I have a feeling this episode might have been the last stop for a lot of viewers. After the insufferable James Coco, and then the tedious Bradbury monologues tonight, maybe turning over to catch the last half of Knight Rider seemed like a reasonable move.
Barney Martin (Jerry Seinfeld’s TV father), Garrett Morris (SNL), M. Emmett Walsh (everything), Morgan Freeman (everything else) and world’s greatest actor Dan Hedaya [1] are gathered for a poker game.
Hedaya always seems to win with a hand containing three sixes. They ID him as the devil. There is a showdown. The guys try to trick him, but he tricks them. They bust him but he is a real sport, creating sandwiches and beer for them. The end.
No, that’s really it.
I assume this was to be the meaty segment of the episode. It was the longest segment at 22 minutes. It contained a cast that in 1985 were probably all familiar faces. Just, nothing happens.
Walsh is clueless as his characters often are. Martin seems to be 
playing a mentally challenged man — wait, are they going to keep the money they win from him? He should be playing for cigarettes with Martini and Cheswick. Morris has a knack for putting the wrong inflection on just about every word he speaks. Freeman is mostly the voice — literally — of reason. Tragically, the great Dan Hedaya is very subdued here.
Strangely, I must admit the 22 minutes flew by faster than did the first much two shorter segments. It must have been the actors, because there was certainly nothing in the script to captivate me. It is not tense or suspenseful. Despite the comedic talent, it isn’t really even particularly played for laughs.
As Homer Simpson once said, “It’s just a bunch of stuff that happened.” Except not much happened.
I rate it a flush, and not in the good way.
Post-Post:
- [1] Only a slight exaggeration — he is usually a hoot. How can there be no decent clips of him in Cheers on YouTube?
In 1936, Doug and his Aunt Neva are driving through the country. An old man in a dirty white suit runs into the road and flags them down. He climbs into the car without an invitation and tells Neva to drive off because the sun is after them.
Doug says he is thirsty and the old man says, “Thirst don’t describe the state of a man who’s been waiting in the hot mud 50 years [2] and is born but to die in one day. Not only thirst, but hunger!” C’mon, you just had some tar-paper!
They see a little boy in a clean white suit in the road. Neva offers to drive him home. After it gets dark, he leans in from the back seat and whispers to Neva, “Have you ever wondered if there is such a thing as genetic evil in the world?” The car stalls, the lights dim, then nothing. We couldn’t at least get a scream? I think we deserve that.
TZ Legacy: I have to move this to the top section because I’m not sure I can last to the bottom section.
As Harry is dictating a death scene to Winkler, he begins having chest pains. For some reason, he continues dictating even as he is clutching his heart (but sometimes, his throat). This is not played for laughs like Winkler misinterprets his pain; it is just pointless. They are going for a fun romp here, though, so I can live with it. Unfortunately, while Bob Dishy as Harry does play it as broad comedy, James 
Winkler is shocked to find himself transported to the home of William Shakespeare. [3] Shakespeare is having a little writer’s block, and Winkler suggests a play called Hamlet. There is some amusing business by Shakespeare hearing this wrong as Hamnet and being baffled. The gag is not explained, but makes me curious: Did viewers back then know Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet? Was the writer giving the audience that much credit? That might be the most unbelievable thing in this episode.
After getting on my good side by starting off with old Air Force footage last week, SFT is going back to the well with more footage. It is just a brief shot, though, and followed up by a picture of a busy highway and a modern home. The theme is speed, uninterrupted journeys and the convenience of modern gadgets.
Things get serious when electrical interference from the neighbor’s house disrupts Al’s TV picture. Al walks next door and he also gets no response from ringing the bell. Unlike almost every show I’ve watched for this blog, he does not open the door and waltz in uninvited. This was the 50’s when people had manners and a sense of neighborliness and propriety. So he peeks in the window. To his surprise — and mine! — he sees a 
Going downstairs to change a fuse, Al realizes he has hung on to Ted’s flashlight. He figures this out when it projects a light that gives him x-ray vision. He is able to see through the wall, and then his wife’s hand. Al tries to take the flashlight apart, but it is sealed up tighter than an iPad. He is again busted by Ted who demands his flashlight back. Ted has a lot of suspicious questions about the local power grid where Al’s airplane manufacturing plant draws its power, how there radar is powered, and what they do in case of power failure.
He continues his story about people using the machines to go back to simpler times. As people fled the oppressive future, the government outlawed time travel. They even sent out 
Aidan Hunter had the resources and foresight to build an underground bunker to survive whatever apocalypse occurred. He has electricity, fresh air, food, booze, a nice home, and the scientific know-how to program holograms. Inexplicably, he has program-med most of these avatars to be his family; and also to continue using the name Aidan.
For entertainment that night, Aidan programs up a double-date for he and his cartoon brother. Aidan is wearing some sort of black sleeveless scuba-looking thing. His holographic brother appears to be wearing a jacket over his wife-beater. If this is a sly indication that his clothing can only be overlayed onto his basic template like a paper doll — bravo!
When Aidan conjures up another girl to take into the pod, Emma takes over the form of the fantasy girl. To really get on Aidan’s good side, Emma would have shown up in addition to, not in place of the first girl. WTH, is there a weight limit on that ride? [1]