Danny Kaye is at the cemetery visiting his dead wife. He is being stalked by a 2-person gang which is sadly not as committed to diversity as the gang in the previous episode. The youths rough him up and make off with a gold pocket-watch. As one of the thugs looks at it in his hands, it burns him and begins to float into the air. Luckily a near-by mourner / martial-arts expert is nearby and opens a crypt of whoop-ass. The watch floats back into Kaye’s hand like the one ring to Sauron (if not for those meddling kids).
Kaye shows his appreciation by inviting the heroic mourner out for a “cup of Earl Gray,” hot. Kaye is insistent, ergo insists on dragging the guy out for a drink. For some reason, I can’t figure, Kaye has talked the man into not only having tea with him, but going back to the man’s apartment and having him make the tea.
The stranger is a pretty smart guy. He has shelves full of books and knows the meaning of ombudsman. Turns out the man is the night manager at a 7-11 named Billy. Kaye even more amazingly talks Billy into allowing him to rest in his apartment for a while while Billy is dodging bullets at work. When Billy returns at 2 am, Kaye has prepared beef stew and cupcakes for desert.
They decide to be roommates, but Kaye says it won’t be for long. His doctor has told him the end is near; also that he will die soon. Billy says that he was in the cemetery visiting the grave of a man he knew in Viet Nam. They turn on the TV, but are turned off by the war news. Kaye promises Billy that there will never, never, never be a nuclear war because — he produces his pocket-watch — it is 11:00. Billy points out that it is 4:00 am; why else would they be eating stew and cupcakes.
The next day, Kaye offers to take Billy to a manatee matinee, “but no films with Karen Black, Sandy Dennis or Meryl Streep.” Wow, what’s with the misogynist, gratuitous, mean-spirited shot? Against Karen Black, I mean — the other two, totally get. [1] They see a man toss a cigar out his car window. Kaye picks it up and tosses it into the man’s backseat, making it the first time I’ve ever liked Danny Kaye. Kaye claims he is responsible for everything from lima beans to cockroaches to the President of the United States to Billy’ mother. But is not God.
One day, Kaye takes Billy to the cemetery because he has a feeling he is going to die that day. He tells Billy how Pope Gregory XIII decreed that October 4, 1582 would be followed by October 15th. Eleven days vanished in order to synchronize the calendar with the seasons and equinoxes. Popes were no more infallible then than now, and he got it wrong by one hour. Kaye is the custodian of that hour. He is now ready to hand that responsibility off to a younger man.
It is a fine episode, just not what I was looking for. This kindler, gentler Twilight Zone is a little disappointing. Taken as discrete plays they are often very good even if they are a little maudlin. However, compared to Burgess Meredith breaking his glasses or James Whitmore being left completely alone forever on a planet far from Earth, they just lack the grit that I was hoping for.
Post-Post:
- [1] He does go on to explain, “They’re always crying and their noses are always red. I can’t stand that.”
- An article about those 11 days.
- Directed by Alan Smithee.
- Available on YouTube.
In class the next day, she says, “We will start by conjugating the verb to be.” How remedial is this high-school class? Wizard and Trojan walk in late and constantly disrupt class with their proud ignorance. Adrienne asks why they bother coming to school and Trojan says, “because I like your legs, baby.” This guy truly is an imbecile. 
Closing narration: We are told damned places exist — buildings where madness permeates the very bricks and mortar. We are told sometimes dedication and kindness can purge the evil from those walls . . . a lesson to be learned in the study halls of The Twilight Zone.
This might not last long. How do make science-fiction dull? You have the entire known universe at your disposal. If that isn’t quite enough, you can make a new universe designed to your specs. You can people it with plants, you can plant it with monsters, you can faun over the flora, be floored by the fauna, you can have it be devoid of life or have snotty omniscient beings. How do you take this canvas and come up with a 
We open with shots of experimental aircraft and the voice-over tells us we are in the California Desert. Hot damn — Edwards Air Force Base! This series immediately bought a ton of goodwill.
Another officer comes in, though, and shoots holes through that theory like so much swamp gas. First, radar determined the XF was never weightless. Second, the XF’s debris is now magnetized after being close to “an airship flying on magnetic power.”
Sam Whipple is reading a newspaper with the headlines KOREAN TRUCE NEGOTIATIONS STALLED and LIVING COSTS ZOOM UP. He comments that things are a mess, then turns to the camera and breaks the 4th cardboard wall.
Jarvis and his daughter Mary are able to observe the past on a TV screen. They actually witness the scientist making the faux pas that doomed the earth. Mary suggests time-traveling back to 1952 to stop this catastrophe, but Jarvis says that is impossible. Only someone from that prehistoric era can affect the past.
Whipple agrees to go back to 1952 and stop Dr. Thorne from making his fatal mistake. In the past, Whipple is able to burn Thorne’s notes which apparently contained directions and all known copies of plans for the cyclotron. He goes back home and straps on the time-vest. Unfortunately his sister has smashed the machine so he will stop acting like a kid.
Paul Tripp, who appeared as Whipple also wrote the script. Even aside from the 4th-wall bits, the episode gets a little meta. Mary Jarvis is played by Ruth Enders, who was married to Tripp for 53 years. When he introduces his new girlfriend at the end, he says her name is Ruth.
“Our story begins in Europe where Peter Wade has established a thriving air service.” It would have been nice for Karloff to tell us whether he meant Peter Jr or Sr. And just why would you write a screenplay and give two of the characters exactly the same name? “Hi, I’m Henry Jones, Sr. — they call me Indiana too!”
That night, Sr is having nightmares about the war and a B-17 crash that killed his friend Wally Huffner. Jr comes in to wake him up. Sr says they were in a plane that was hit by the Jerrys in WWII. Sr gave Wally his parachute and was able to pilot the damaged plane to the ground. Sadly, Wally croaked, or more accurately splatted as the chute didn’t open; or maybe it had been replaced by a share of 
Jr tells Sr that he saw Wally’s ghostly face and his voice. He shows Sr a parachute with the serial number 0-1636184. Jr uses this evidence to tell his father that another man died in that crashed plane — Wally Huffner. Sr took Wally’s parachute back in the war and Wally died in the crash. Well, at least, not long before the crash — Wally could not be captured by the Germans so he insisted Sr give him his cyanide tablet.