Twilight Zone Folktale Buzz

Fireworks were going off in the neighborhood all night long. I did something different for New Year's Eve. I watched the Twilight Zone marathon. Hadn't seen TZ for a while. I was surprised at how many episodes I'd forgotten. I saw an episode called "The Hunt"-- it was very moving.

Twilight Zone episodes are morality plays, cautionary tales, or even fairly bald allegories on the era of its first life, 1959-1964. But "The Hunt" had a modern message for me.

THE HUNT:

Mr. Simpson and his faithful old hound dog are drowned while chasing a raccoon. They're dead. After wandering around for a while they come upon a gatekeeper who invites Mr. Simpson inside. Heaven is beyond.

Mr. Simpson starts ahead but the gatekeeper stops him. No dogs are allowed in. The old dog starts barking. After some back and forth, Mr. Simpson walks away from the gate. If the dog can't go in neither will he.

After a while the man and the dog stop to rest. Soon enough, an angel in overalls shows up and invites Mr. Simpson to come with him. Mr Simpson refuses, because like he told the other fellow: if dogs aren't allowed in-- forget it. The angel realizes what has happened and explains that the other gate was actually the gate to hell.

I got really sentimental, almost felt a tear go by. That's it exactly, thought me. Too many poor suckers have gone through the wrong gate, abandoning their dogs for a promise of heaven: pure, clean, lionizing.

The writer of the episode, Earl Hamner, once said in an interview:

"The Hunt," has some elements that I am still proud of, most notably the summation: A man will walk into Hell with both eyes open, but even the Devil can't fool a dog.

To me, that HELL is the bitter, narrow ideology shadowing our country today. It promises the answers if we'll just give up a few tender things. Seems like hell to live for, it seems like hell to defend and it is often hell to be around the carriers. My very messy "Democratic Dog" is always barking, reminding me to try and take reality as it comes.

•  Must sleep off folksy glow

  and I probably will.

  by hhex65 on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 05:59:04 AM PDT

•  From Mark Twain

  Heaven goes by favour. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.

  by Knighterrant on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 06:22:42 AM PDT

•  That's George Bush at the door

  inviting us all to a generations-long "war" where he gets super powers and everyone else gets squashed according to their melanin levels. No liberals allowed.

  by doorguy on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 06:24:03 AM PDT

•  Advice from my father, never proven wrong:

  If you are unsure of someone, watch how your dog responds to them and act accordingly.

  by melvin on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 06:28:42 AM PDT

•  One of my favorites

      That's a very sweet episode.
     I liked the set and the lighting, and the way they treated their rustic rural characters was respectful.
       Nowadays they'd have the Deliverance soundtrack and a lot of snotty references to these people but when that episode was made, people didn't have to work too hard to remember the old home place.
      I grew up in upstate NY and there were plenty of rural places near me ,with a backhouse ,and mud ,and hunting dogs, and man what a hard life. I worked on some of those farms...
      My inner dogs won't shut the hell up these days, proper training I calls it...

  by KenBee on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 08:19:59 AM PDT

•  Top ten

  One of my top ten favorite TZ episodes.

  When my wife and I moved into our apartment, we got a dog, half beagle, half bichon frise (long story). My wife wasn't always blind, at the time, she had basically severe tunnel vision (about a 2 degree field), but could get around okay. She took the dog for a walk on the walking trails in the neighborhood. And got lost.

  But this little three month old puppy somehow figured it out and led her back to the apartment.

  Everyone says my wife should get a guide or helper dog, but she refuses. Typically, you have to get rid of other pets you have, and my wife wants Starr to stick around, not go with any of our family or friends. She doesn't do much anymore, but she (the dog) is our 'oldest child'.

  Now if only we could get rid of this weird skin infection thing she has going on.
  

  by gmhowell on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 09:04:20 AM PDT

•  TZ

  may be my favorite television show of all time (but we're talking a really, really narrow field).  So many of the episodes play like morality plays, and so many more play like sad predictions of the future we live in.

  I also recommend, if you haven't seen:

  "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," which may be the best critique of suburban white mistrust you'll ever see.  The town literally destroys itself because of its own deeply harbored suspicions.  

  "The Mirror", in which Peter Falk's Castro-like dictator learns that political violence in the name of security only makes one less secure (!!!)

  and "Five Characters in Search of an Exit", for plain old fantasy, albeit with dark undertones of the lonliness of the human condition.

  Good times!

  by pico on Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 09:20:11 AM PDT