An interesting article popped up on NCR today. Apparently they have started posting some new content on Saturdays. The article, This Christmas, Let's Return to the Twilight Zone, by Tom Deignan, has a different take on holiday movies and specials. It is common this time of year to discuss which are our favorite holiday classics, "...seeking a heaping dose of comfort and joy: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1965), "A Christmas Story" (1983), and "Elf" (2003)."
We watched The Twilight Zone back in the day, as well as a similar program, The Night Gallery. I hadn't remembered anything remotely holiday themed. But apparently there was an episode, titled "Night of the Meek".From the article:
"Yes, 2020 has been a "Twilight Zone" kind of year."
"Though synonymous with a cold and creepy, sci-fi cynicism, "The Twilight Zone" — created by the great Rod Serling, currently available on Netflix — regularly celebrated the wonder of the unknown and unexplainable, all the while evincing a social justice streak that bordered on radical."
"All of this, and more, is on display in "The Night of the Meek," set during Christmas Eve, penned by Serling himself, and starring the incomparable Art Carney, alongside a supporting cast of golden-era TV stalwarts."
"In a mere 22 minutes, Carney and Serling serve up something in the sweet spot between hammy and heartbreaking — all the more resonant in a year that has seen poisonous partisan strife, debilitating illness and long, winding lines at food banks."
"The Night of the Meek" opens to festive strings of "Jingle Bells" on a snowy night, the camera swooping into a bustling department store (remember those!) with a (conspicuously diverse) clientele and an empty Santa chair."
"Our St. Nick, a shabby fellow named Henry Corwin, is actually sitting at a bar, downing shots, served up by a gloriously gruff Val Avery, whose idea of Christmas cheer involves a promise to break Santa's arms if he gets out of line."
"The production values here are, um, modest. In a day and age when TikTok videos are shot with exquisite lighting, Carney's black and white mumblings and tumblings may have viewers of a certain age reaching for the antenna to improve reception."
"But this is fitting. With its trash cans and tenements, horn honks and alley cats, "The Night of the Meek" is more John Sloane than Currier and Ives. (It also has more than a little in common with a corker of a 1932 Damon Runyon story called "Dancing Dan's Christmas," which is included in the handsome The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories, released just last month.)
"Henry Corwin returns to the department store, only to be scolded by his grinchy supervisor (an apoplectic John Fiedler), prompting a soul-bearing soliloquy.
"I can either drink or I can weep," Corwin says.
"Unlike Ebenezer Scrooge or George Bailey, Corwin does not simply fail to appreciate all he has. He has nothing to appreciate.
"I live in a dirty rooming house on a street filled with hungry kids and shabby people, where the only thing that comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve is more poverty," he says. Yet Corwin wants nothing more than to give these struggling folks a little joy. And for Christmas to come "with patience, and love. Charity. Compassion."
"The episode's title, of course, is a reference to the Sermon on the Mount, one of Christianity's defining passages ("Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth") and Henry Corwin is certainly one of Jesus' "blessed" — "pure in heart" and "thirst[ing] for righteousness."
"...Born into a Reform Jewish family in upstate New York, Serling (1924-1975) explained in 1972: "I'm not religious in the Orthodox sense that I go to church a lot. But I have strong beliefs. I believe in God."
"...In the end, Henry Corwin gets his wish, only to be confronted by a skeptical Irish beat cop. But the Christmas spirit prevails, leaving Corwin's boss to throw an arm around the cop and say: "Thank God for miracles, Flaherty."
"...We should all pay much closer attention to the other lines as well. "There's a wondrous magic to Christmas, and there's a special power reserved for little people. In short, there's nothing mightier than the meek."
I might have to check out "The Night of the Meek", if I can find it somewhere on our cable package.
Thanks, Katherine. I saw my first episode of TW when I was 12 and became an instant addict. Yes, they disturbed one's givens in thinking about reality but the justice and humanity provided the skeletal framework. Rod Serling was a patriot without the jingoism, fear-mongering. He wrote the screenplay for "Seven Days in May", a movie about an attempted military takeover of the US government. I think of that movie in these strange days. Serling fought in the Pacific but his two episodes about the Japanese were compassionate and conciliatory. Yes, I remember that episode where Art Carney becomes a real Santa Claus. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Twilight Zone - I wasn't a huge fan, but enjoyed it occasionally. I don't remember a Christmas episode.
ReplyDeleteSince arriving at our son's home we have been watching more contemporary Christmas videos - including a recent version of the Grinch that our grandson loves (and we really enjoyed also) - he has watched it 17 times! We have also watched The Christmas Chronicles, Part 1 and Part 2, set about 2 years apart. We enjoyed those. Our grandson also loves Home Alone (he's 6 1/2) so we watched that the other night. Now that his school is on break (he goes to school by Zoom), there will be more Christmas movie nights. We have already watched The Grinch twice, and may very well watch it again when joined by our other son and his two children. We adults like Scrooged with Bill Murray, but think it's not for kids so will watch it on an adult movie night. At some point we might suggest a few of the traditional Christmas movies, but, for now, the younger family members are the decision-makers.
Seems Twilight Zone was rebooted in the 1980s, and the episode was redone. It's available on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mpH3nJtlrw
ReplyDeleteThanks Jim!
DeleteSpeaking of series reboots and Christmas episodes, the old Dr. Who series was rebooted on BBC, must have been over a decade ago. The reboot has much higher production values than the original (whose aliens often seemed to be actors wearing rubber or cardboard monster suits). The rebooted series has had a number of Christmas episodes, which usually are among their better efforts.
ReplyDeleteWhether Dr. Who has any social justice content is an interesting question. The Doctor himself is a refugee from a terrible war, and despite his battling evil aliens in virtually episode, he usually is doing so in an effort to bring about peace or preserve something worthwhile.
I always look forward to the Call the Midwife Christmas special.
ReplyDelete