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I watch TZ every night at 11:00 on MeTV. One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes is the one in which a man has his TV set repaired, only to see his wife's picture on the screen. She keeps yelling things like Yonkers? and other nonsense, until the man finally puts his fist through the screen. Near the end of the program, just before he leaves the house, the repairman tells the set owner "I hope you're satisfied with my service...You will recommend me to your friends, won't you?" I don't remember what episode that quote is from; it might be "A Thing About Machines."
Edit: Yup, that was it all right. I just read the Wikipedia article on that episode, but for some reason the TV going bonkers, and Finchley's wife's picture showing on the screen and her yelling "YONKERS", et al. was not mentioned. However, I do remember the man's typewriter printing out "GET OUT OF HERE FINCHLEY", the man's electric shaver following him all over the house like a puppy, and even Finchley's car trying to run him down -- without a driver, yet.
Second edit: Nope, I goofed. The episode, which I saw last night (06-19-12) on MeTV, was titled "Inside the Box" and was about a man who kept seeing things, such as an argument he had with his wife, Phyllis, that morning ("This tastes like corrugated plastic...", et al.), on a blank channel on his TV (due to, it turns out, the fact that the man was suffering from a mental illness that causes him to see things that aren't there). The episode ends with him staring at a TV screen with slanted lines (out of horizontal sync), static noise in the sound, and his wife taunting him: "What do you see, Joe? Lady wrestlers? Fan dancers from Yonkers?.....HAHAHA! It's all in your mind, Joe. . . ." The man finally smashes his fist through the TV screen, and his wife starts throwing things around their living room while yelling at the top of her voice. She finally jumps out the living room window with a loud scream, shortly after which the police show up in Joe's living room and arrest him for murder. The last scene shows the TV repairman asking Joe, "(Did I) fix your set okay, Mister? You will recommend my services, won't you?", which is where Rod Serling is shown ending the program with the words, "....If you are in need of a TV repairman, may I suggest this one. . . . He offers 24-hour service at reasonable rates, and his office is in...the Twilight Zone."
Rod Serling was one of a kind. His brand of science fiction will never be seen again, except in reruns of The Twilight Zone airing on MeTV and on DVD. That network is also trying to revive the horror movie on TV with its "Svengoolie" weekly horror films. I've never seen them, but MeTV must think rather highly of them to put them back on late-night TV. The FOX affiliate in Cleveland on channel 8 also runs, or used to, anyway, horror movies on Saturday nights. This was a common practice in the '60s-'70s across the country, with different cities having different titles for their stations' horror film nights, e.g. "TV2 Horror Theater," et al. The shows were often hosted by local TV celebrities; in Cleveland, the channel 8 horror films were hosted by Big Chuck and Lil' John, and still are to this day.
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Jeff, WB8NHV
Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002
Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
Last edited by Jeffhs; 06-20-2012 at 11:13 AM.
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