Within the next 48 hours, we will say goodbye to 2010.
For some of us, the year can't end too soon. It's a time to look ahead to the future.
But, once again, the Syfy Channel (formerly the SciFi Channel) urges us to look to the past as a new year begins. It does so with its annual New Year's Eve and New Year's Day Twilight Zone marathon.
It may be just what you need.
I say that after having glanced through Syfy's online schedule for the marathon listings, and it does not appear that a first–season episode — which aired for the first time on Christmas Day 1959 — called "What You Need" is going to be shown.
That's too bad — because it has always been one of my favorite episodes — and it seems to be the right message.
Simply put, it's the story of a hoodlum (Steve Cochran) and an old man (Ernest Truex). The old man is a sidewalk salesman who always knows precisely what people will need before they need it. The hoodlum decides that what he needs is to take advantage of the situation.
It's a good episode, and, as I say, it would have made a good theme for the TZ marathon. But I'll see it again. I'm sure I will because Syfy does show it from time to time — as do other channels.
What always intrigues me in these marathons is the opportunity to see the episodes that I seldom see — and one such episode practically jumps out at me tomorrow morning — "The Four of Us Are Dying" — about a gangster (Harry Townes) who can "twitch a muscle, move a jaw, concentrate on the cast of his eyes, and he can change his face."
It's a good episode, not a great one. And I have seen it before — but not often.
And I'll watch it if I'm awake. It's on fairly early tomorrow — 7:30 a.m. Central.
Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy new year.
