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TV

Exploring The Twilight Zone, Episode #65: "The Obsolete Man"

by Peter Martin, September 2, 2011 9:03 PM


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The second season of the original series rolled to a close with this episode, featuring Burgess Meredith as a librarian who is sentenced to death for not paying his overdue fees in a timely fashion.


The Twilight Zone, Episode #65: "The Obsolete Man" (original air date 6/2/61)

The Plot: In a totalitarian society, "logic is an enemy and truth is a menace." Librarian Romney Wordsworth (Burgess Meredith) is facing the final 48 hours of his life; he has been charged with obsolescence, a crime worthy of the death sentence.

The Goods: The episode is a grabber from its opening moment. The Chancellor (Fritz Weaver) stands at the top of a tall pyramid-shaped podium. Wordsworth is called in to face the charges against him in a courtroom that is stark and filled with shadows.

What follows is an electric confrontation between the forces of good and evil. The Chancellor and Mr. Wordsworth argue back and forth, each one precisely articulate. The argument continues in Mr. Wordsworth's room as he faces the execution of his sentence, and the end of his own life. Before that happens, Mr. Wordsworth springs a surprise on the Chancellor.

tz-the-obsolete-man.jpg

Strikingly directed by Elliot Silverstein, this is an uber-serious episode, built around a super-charged issue. Rod Serling, who wrote the episode, delivers one of his finest scripts, an impassioned, deeply-felt howl against totalitarianism, as well as the attitudes and suspicions that lead to it. Meredith and Weaver are brilliant, making this one of the strongest, most mesmerizing episodes in the series.

The Trivia: Meredith really demonstrated his versatility; a little earlier in the season, he'd playing a bumbling, talkative salesman in "Mr. Dingle, the Strong." And, of course, in Season 1, he'd played a man who loved reading in "Time Enough at Last," a much milder version of the righteously angry librarian he plays here, but otherwise a spiritual brother.

Weaver, who is also terrific, made an equally stunning appearance in Sidney Lumet's Fail-Safe in 1964. Like Meredith, he was a repeat TZ player, having starred as a concerned family man in the Season 1 episode "Third from the Sun."

Silverstein went on to direct three more TZ episodes. His later feature credits included Cat Ballou, A Man Called Horse, and The Car, as odd a trio of films directed by the same man as I can imagine.

On the Next Episode: Season 3 gets underway with Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery as the only two survivors of an apocalyptic battle. Be sure to visit Film School Rejects for their coverage next week!

Catching up: Episodes covered by Twitch | Episodes covered by Film School Rejects

We're running through all 156 of the original Twilight Zone episodes, and we're not doing it alone! Our friends at Film School Rejects have entered the Zone as well, only on alternating weeks. So definitely tune in over at FSR and feel free to also follow along on Twitter accounts @twitchfilm and @rejectnation.

More from Exploring The Twilight Zone


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