Joe's TV List Gets Sent to the Cornfield

#21: The Twilight Zone
(CBS, 1959-1964)

My Mom has this antique doll named Mae Starr, who has real human hair and very likely wanders the house at night crying real human tears, which may explain why the pomeranians have never calmed down like normal dogs. Besides marrying Julie, I believe the very existence of Mae was the main reason my brother, Jeff, moved out. Anyway, I sometimes called her “Talky Mae” because of The Twilight Zone, the only series to date in which a doll pushes Telly Savalas to his death down a flight of stairs. (Well, I think it's the only one, but I never watched Kojak, so I can’t say for sure.) Despite those occasional flights into camp, Rod Serling’s masterful anthology series remains one of the most thoughtful, literate half-hours in TV history, and certainly among the most influential. I imagine its playful edginess made an even greater impact during the Father Knows Best era, and at its best, the head-spinning twists (broken glasses, a broken stopwatch, an alien cookbook) became instant cultural touchstones; the latter, for example, became a great escalating gag on a Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode. If you're still not convinced of Serling's greatness, at least sit back and enjoy the spectacle of the only sentient, talking doll ever to have its head squeezed in a vise on TV. (Well, I think it's the only one, but I never watched Small Wonder, so I can’t say for sure.)