A Geek History of Time - Episode 54 - Twilight Zone and Existential Terror Through the Years Part III

Episode Date: May 9, 2020

Like they they advertise one match when crashing a car into one of the wrestlers. Not a total victory of Russia, which now we're seeing. He goes on. He's a gigantic bag of flaccid dicks. Sorry, contidence. Which when you open them up you find out that they're all cockroaches and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if anybody else is ever going to laugh this hard at anything we say.

We can actually both look out my window right now and see some very pretty yellow flowers that I'm going to be eradicating. This is a geek history of time. We connect an artery to the real world. I'm Ed Blalock, a world history teacher and part time English teacher in Northern California with a two year old son who I'm trying very hard not to wake up while we record this since his bedroom is immediately upstairs from where I'm recording. So if my vocal level seems a little bit more subdued than normal, that's the reason. I promise I'll try not to wind up sounding like Dan the man, Levittan, too often. How about you?

I'm Damien Harmony. I am a Latin teacher and part-time world history teacher up here in northern California father to it Almost eight year old and a ten year old One of whom is building the Milano in Legos Star Lord ship the other of whom my daughter saying oh, you're making a cookie All right because she's getting puns So they're both asleep above me, but they stay down pretty well, because they're not two. So yeah, all right.

So when last we left it, we talked about the twilight zone and how it had every possible cultural connection to social anxiety as a society, not the disorder. Existential dread and a sense, a overdeveloped sense that the world should be orderly and the reaction against the fact that it's not as well as an institutional level of paranoia. It keeps popping up during those times. Yeah, and I'm going to add something else, when when circumstances in society become surreal, the surrealism of the show makes an appearance. That is a really good point. makes an appearance. That's a really good point. Because I mean, I can only speak second-hand to what life felt like in the early 60 on, it was going on in the news.

And to have that sense of the widening gire kind of thing going on. Well, I would say that you even have this sense in the late 50s, and it starts to bubble in, and then in the mid 60s it absolutely happens because our logo 3 hits Alice's restaurant and it is an issue of common sense versus authority. Those two shouldn't be in opposition to each other but they are. And then they are again in the 80s and then they are again in the early 2000s. Like hey, we just got attacked We we should maybe take a look at this the whole world is actually marching in support of us Nope good at Disneyland

Okay, what yeah good at Disneyland it will be good All right, that's that's an option too. I get like there's's common sense versus a thorn. Not what I was thinking. I was gonna get told to do, but. Right, okay. So then in 2019, 20 years later almost, Twilight Zone pops up again. Jordan Peel, now famous for his direction of horror films, spearheads the effort.

And once again, the country is collectively facing an existential threat. This time, it's not even particularly from without. But the constitutional crises that this presidency has brought about, here's a small list, short list. Highlights. Starting in 2017. I've just got line items here. Facebook, air to kidnapping and a torturing on their live channel. Donald Trump was inaugurated. Several separate intelligence agencies confirmed, in fact, that yes, Russia under Putin specific orders carried out a cyber attack to make the election go trumps way.

And nothing happened. Question 40 task before we get very much farther into what is clearly going to be a litany. Yes. Is this all in chronological order of like when it showed up in the headlines or? Yeah. In terms of the months that it occurred Yes, okay, all right understand carry on So we are in mid-January Yeah, Trump's first press conference is president and he immediately goes after the media for reporting the truth about him

Which he immediately calls dishonest Trump then goes on a executive order stampede reversing a ton of policies that are supporting conservation, minority rights, science, et cetera. He also specifically bans employees from posting on social media as he's tweeting away. He also starts his wall. Carolyn Adams admits that she lied about Emmett Till.

Nothing happens. Trump banned Syrian refugees by executive order, as well as many other countries who have Muslim majority. He leaves certain ones out with which he has financial ties. Saudi Arabia. If only there was something that had happened in the previous episode where we mentioned, but they've never really been a problem

No, no the Saudis. No, they've never never never sponsored anything. Never been the source of any Ideological movement or anything that's ever been a threat in any way to I Can't keep going my God. All right. Go ahead He appointed his first Supreme Court Justice to the court, which had been vacant for nearly a year. And nothing happened. Mm-hmm. That's just January.

Here's some other highlights. Trump sets even more sanctions against Iran. He also starts rolling back the Dodd-Frank reforms. Betsy DeVoskets confirmed 51 to 50 as Secretary of Education, and if ever there was a phrase to really just highlight how batshit crazy all this is, Betsy DeVosk 51-50. She needs to be 51-50, don't you?

Yeah, no kidding. Well, and here's the best part. We're a table leg. Her brother is Eric Prince, the guy who runs black water, who is now being talked about as being in charge of Afghanistan under a private army. And he's talked about as, you know, in Trump circles, they talk about him being a vice-roy of some sort. Let's see. Oh, Trump rolls back even more regulations on fossil fuel production.

The US military launches Tomahawk missiles into Syria. Trump orders the dropping of a MOAB, the mother of all bombs in Afghanistan. Yep. That's been going on since the last time the Twilight Zone was renewed, Afghanistan. But he wanted to drop the biggest bomb yet. Protests all over the country,

clashes start up between pro Trump forces and protesters. Another Facebook live shooting. The first Easter at the White House under Trump with a rambling speech about military budgeting. Trump fires in front of a bunch of kids who were there for the egg. Yeah, explaining to them that they really made the White House look prettier.

And also like, you know, bought more planes. Trump fired James Comey from the FBI because her emails. Trump shares classified information with Russia. There's an anti-Muslim stabbing on the train in Portland killing two and injuring a third. Comey testifies to Congress that Trump pressured him into dropping the investigation into Michael Flynn and nobody did anything. There's a huge heat wave to the point where over 90 planes get grounded. Spicer resigns as the press secretary. Trump tweeted that he had complete power to pardon people currently under investigation

for their role in 2016 Russian election meddling. He then gave a bizarre speech at the Boy Scouts conference and got them to boo Obama, and nobody did anything. He banned transgender folks from serving in the military via tweet. Transcripts of several conversations show Trump to be begging foreign leaders to present a different image because he wants to look strong. Unite the right. Nazi's marched in our street in Charlottesville and kill Heather Hire. And Trump said they were very fine people and fabricated that there's something called

the alt left and he demonized Antifa. The president stared into the eclipse. Fox News reported it as the most powerful thing a president has ever done. Wait, wait, stop. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry. Sorry, sorry. They know I'd crack you. I know I'd crack you. You're kidding. Okay, you know,

all the rest of that just gets just gets a litany of of pained grunts and and sying. But okay, because you said, you know, he stared into the eclipse. And of course, I wanted to interject, well, aren't we all really at this point? But, you know, I, but I knew that there was going to be more coming and I didn't want to break your flow. And, and then you share that. And I realized that, oh my God, it was that long ago that Fox News stopped trying to be anything

other than the Trump at the end of the arm. Yeah. It's Trumpite, Provda. Oh, yeah. Or, no, you know what? No. No. Provda was a government arm of propaganda.

But that's some like straight up North Korean news bureau, right there. The most powerful thing a president has ever done. I'm sorry, I burned out his own fucking retinas. What? Like, like, you're kidding, right? done. I'm sorry. Earned out his own fucking retinas. What? Like like you're kidding, right? Like everybody in the world, who isn't you looks at what a dumbass. I mean, we all wind up, I can't remember the last name of the character, but that 70s show. Also, Kelso, yeah, Red Kelso. No, no, oh, Red, Red Foreman, Red Foreman, talking about Kelso, yeah, red Kelso. No, no, oh, red, red, foreman. Red foreman.

Talking about Kelso. Yeah. Talking about Kelso, what a dumbass. Yeah. Like, like, the most powerful thing of President, not the Leslie Sacks, not, you know, at the foreman. Freedom speech. Yeah, not the Louisiana

purchase, not the Louisiana purchase, not, you know, emancipation proclamation, not committing, not committing American troops to, to World War I, not not, not not, 125,000 Japanese Americans.

Anything, you know, any, no, I stared at the 125,000 Japanese Americans. Anything. You know, any. I stared at the sun, Mama. There to be fun. You did such a good job staring at that. Thun. Like like we have to remind small children not to do that. And he has nuclear codes.

And the thing is the small children generally listen. Yeah. And as you point out, so helpful, he's the one keeping the fucking football. Yes. Yes. God almighty. Trump,

continuing his rallies despite having won the presidency, declares that he'll shut down the government to get the wall done. Trump goes to the United Nations and states that the U.S. may have no choice but to totally destroyed North Korea. He then pressures the NFL to fire players who kneel. Yeah. Back up. Okay, hold on.

I'm sorry. In the rest of the batch,atchit crazy. I had completely forgotten that. He actually said to the United Nations in open session. Yes. That the United States may have no choice but to destroy North Korea. You know, I like a president who tells it like it is instead of like, you know, has qualifications. Deep diplomatic. Or having qualifications or being able to point out Korea on a map.

Mm. Okay, carry on. Sorry. Speaking of maps, after he pressures the NFL to fire players who kneel, which by the way, that's against the Constitution Hurricanes Harvey Irma and Maria hit the US and rapid succession Trump redraws the area affected by the hurricane with a sharpie Okay back up that was that that was that long ago. Uh-huh

God, I feel like that was last week It's weird how old we feel and yet how how long we go this stuff was sometimes. All right. Trump delays a deportor rico mocking its pronunciation, attacking its mayor, and ultimately throwing paper towels to people. The deadliest mass shooting in the United States occurred in Las Vegas, and nobody did anything. California, California caught fire burning up all kinds of northern California real estate up and down wine country killing 35. Trump threatens to shut down the media for being critical of him, and nobody does anything.

Trump withdrew the US from UNESCO because he said it was anti-Israeli. He also held back a bunch of documents that were supposed to come out about the JFK assassination. The National Climate Assessment said that our world is heating up and that climate change is real. Guess what Trump's response was. Fake news. Yeah. No, no. There's a guy held a snowball once inside. There's another mass shooting this time in a church in Texas 26 dead 20 injured.

Several men in high positions in Hollywood and entertainment are brought to light as harassers. Andrew Yang announced that he was going to run for president. By the way, it's still 2017 that I'm reading from. By the way, it's still 2017 that I'm reading from. Trump reversed a ban on elephant trophies, led in bullets and a number of other things that just seemed like decency. Trump also retweeted three different ultra-nationalist tweets from Britain. Congress passes a budget with tax cuts for the rich that leads directly to a $1 trillion increase in the national deficit. Trump announced that Jerusalem was now Israel's capital. He also shrank a couple of national parks by over half their size. California was still on fire by December. The White House directed the CDC not to use any scientific words in its budget proposal. Now that's an abbreviated list for 2017.

Now 2018 where it starts spinning faster and wobbling harder. 2018, the president brags about the size of his button on Twitter. He called a bunch of country shit holes. Oh god, I wish you guys could see Ed's face at this. A glitch in the warning system in Hawaii causes people to be sent a message that there's an incoming ballistic missile attack. People in Hawaii spend about 15 minutes in mortal terror. Yep, I remember that.

I have friends there. Yeah, who? Yeah. Parkland, Florida had a mass shooting which led to several copycat hoaxes, including in my school where we evacuated under threat of a bomb threat and a live shooter threat. Jesus. The kids who are seniors now were sophomores then. Teachers went on strike all over the country and write to work states.

Yep. A porn star reported her sexual encounter with the president despite signing a non-disclosure agreement Which led to a whole lot of lawsuits back and forth. Yeah, Trump starts a trade war with China that we have no hope of winning More actors and it's still and it still hasn't ended no More actors and entertainment moguls are shown to be sexual assaulters. Trump met with his supreme leader of North Korea in a meeting that he opposite of the facts bragged was a momentous triumph for the United States. Yeah. The US said that oh and he else is that they were in love. The US said that it would withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Janice case was decided as a blow to unions.

Mass arrests start by ice. Trump praises, then dams, and then praises Putin and Helsinki within two days. Northern California catches fire yet again in the campfire, which was started by PG and E neglect. Trump suggests raking as a solution. Yep, like the fins do. Kavanaugh is proposed as a Supreme Court justice. He is accused of sexual assault by Christine Blasiford.

She testified to it calmly and measured. Kavanaugh raged. Nobody did anything, and he's now a Supreme Court justice. There's a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue killing 11. Operation Faithful Patriot is underway. When the American soldiers are sent to the US Mexico border, despite the Posse Comatatis Act of 1878 that prohibits law enforcement by the military. Yep. There's a mass shooting in LA that killed 13 that I didn't even remember. And the Dow is at its highest point ever. Which is all that matters to the president. Mm-hmm. Now that's an abbreviated list of 2018. Here's 2019. Okay.

A polar vortex hits the United States a once in a lifetime occurrence. Remember, just a couple years prior, there'd been a giant wave vortex. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, this is 2019. A Trump pulls the United States out of another nuclear limitation

treaty. Mass shooting in Aurora, Illinois, kill six. Tons of tornadoes throughout the Midwest. Kentucky outlawed bestiality finally. Well, okay, see, so there are bright spots. Exactly. Okay, so... Yeah, um, I think we need a commercial break. Yeah, let's go to commercial. Let's All right. Hello Geek Timers, this is producer George, interrupting this podcast to let you know that we have space available. This space could be used to promote your product, book, event, group, even wish a special someone happy birthday. If you're interested in using this space,

please contact us on Twitter via private message at Geek History Time. And we're back. That break might not have been long enough. No, it's rare that the commercial break is the stability that we need. I don't have enough beer in my fridge to deal with that right now. So is there anything you want to say about that list before I bring it back around to the culture? Just that when back in 17 it was a really big deal having folks on Twitter and on everywhere on social media, reminding us daily, this

is not normal. This is not normal. And having it all read out in a litany like that, in the last episode, I talked about the surreality of the times in which the show has made it come back. And I don't think there is any better evidence of that for the current time then that list. Like, I agreed. The extent to which so much of that is so completely topsy-turvy. And like if you had submitted a script, yep.

To anybody back in 2000, talking about any of that They they've looked at and said I'm sorry now. We we can't do this But we're not gonna be able to get sponsored for this because nobody will believe it Well, and the best part is like it would have started with okay There's a guy who's gonna be on a TV show to make himself look like he's richer and smarter than he is. And he'll be the one who ends up being president about a decade after that. And they would hand it back to you going, oh nice try on making an allegory, a ridiculous allegory to Ronald Reagan. But we've already been through that.

We've already done that. You know, and the funny thing is, have you, you know, you talk about the TV show, trying to make himself look smarter and whatever, have you read the accounts from the producers of that show about the experience of trying to produce the apprentice? No. It gives a capsule. Well, the short form of it is, is they would spend all the amount of time that they had to spend filming, you know, the competitions and filming the interviews spend all the amount of time that they had to spend filming, the competitions and filming the interviews with all the people on the show and all that.

And then they would go in and based on the way things had gone, the producers would think, okay, we're looking at this, this is probably who's gonna get fired. And then Trump would just randomly fire people. And all of the editing they had done to lead up to what they had expected. They had to run back and recut everything. And this didn't happen once this happened repeatedly because he wasn't paying any fucking attention. No, no.

Like, like, you know, and it was, and, and, you know, part of what I remember reading about it was them saying, oh yeah, no, he is, he is functionally illiterate. Like whether whether he's able to read or not, he doesn't. He has the attention span of a particularly agitated toddler. You know, and he's, you know, there's no, there's no predicting what the family's going to do because he's not paying any attention and he's a danger to himself and everyone out there basically, you know, and, and, you know, and they had to cut the show to make him look like the business tycoon. Wow. Well, it worked because people voted based on that. Yeah, and if you go back, if you go back and look at the show, I gotta say it's a real

testament to the producers managing to do that with whatever they had for a B-roll. You know, because the couple of episodes of it I ever watched had a coherent throughline. All right, this is the person who's kind of in trouble and this is how this is going to go and they run up being the one who goes home. And it's like, how did you craft that? Wow. At the 11th hour.

You know, yeah. So yeah, no, he's, yeah, we could, yeah, we could, yeah, we could spend the opposite. It's just just going off. I'm sure on on how incredibly like fit the man is for civic dog catcher, a little on president of the United States. Yeah. Yeah. You know, but yeah, time will tell. So,, after Kentucky outlaws B.C. Reality, Twilight Zone hit the air. And it's been picked up for a second season.

And we now have streaming platforms, more than three networks. And we have asynchronous entertainment. But, you know, we are living in the times, so we will have to actually make prudent predictions. So I say let's look at the pattern overall and see what prediction is most prudent. So in 1959, you had an increasing destabilization, obviating itself in the American psyche. Yeah. The Soviet Union had the H bomb, Cuba a communist revolution America had been at war with another communist country through its proxy earlier in the decade Korea

Bomb shelters were coming on to the market Like there was a market for that Government was creating and getting increasingly paranoid Or increasing paranoia or increasing paranoia. They were questioning all sorts of citizens on their basic loyalty and humanity was beginning to go out into space. All of this was a huge source of anxiety and worry and mistrust. Okay. There was a level

of absurdity, you call it surrealism, I think it's actually more absurd. But also more importantly, there's a level of fear. And then a show comes out safely and cleverly reflecting our fears back to us through science fiction in half hour chunks. It never caught on with the majority of people because people chose to use their entertainment as an escape, not as a reflection.

Interestingly, you know, it was really, really popular around the same time? Candid camera. Really? Yeah, which is essentially reality television. Well, yeah, it is. You know, I thought Candid camera was later. I always think a Candid Cameraw being a seven days thing. Well, it existed then too, but it existed contemporaneously with the later part of the Twilight Zone. Really?

Yeah, I still had thought it was a decade later than that. To my knowledge. Yeah, it was because it came out at, yeah, it came out in 1960. Really? With Alan Fun. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. So, escape is a fair thing to want when you are faced with existential terror the whole time.

And all of this is at a time when a president, one office, easily, partly due to his novel use of television to highlight his good qualities and hide his deficiencies. Eisenhower was one of the first, he was the first presidential candidate. A lot of people say it was Kennedy because he dulled up for the camera and he recognized how to use the camera. But Eisenhower ran a series of ads where he would be looking down into the left of the they directed him look down into the left with your

Answers and answer no more than 30 seconds at a time or Minute at the time and so then they would have people and he would just he would read policy answers is like I nobody's asking me these questions I'm like no, no, no, no, no, worry. We'll have people to ask you those questions and then they plucked people out to look like voters, to look like the kind of voters that they're reaching for for that particular question and they would ask the question

and he would answer the question and it was cut in such a way to make it look like he was answering them directly. That was television. He did that very, very well. Yeah. So you have a presidential, a television president. existential terror from without in the form of atomic war and the propped up idea on both sides that the other side was just a hair's breadth from wiping us all out.

I told you about that last episode. And existential terror from within in the form of a government, howning its citizens to insist on their loyalty and the very narrow definition of patriotism that was quite frankly one of jingoism more than it was loyalty to the ideals of this nation. Yeah, combine that with uncertainty

and the future is an uncertain thing, of course. Okay, more to the point, combine that with uncertainty and the future is an uncertain thing of course, okay. More to the point, combine that with space, the most unsure enterprise that there is. Nicely done. Thank you for that. So that's what happened in 59 to bring it up to bring up the Twilight Zone. It came up, failed commercially, but the urge to reflect wasn't there even though the writers urged to reflect society was. In 85, the culture is again facing destabilization in its psyche. America is negotiating with the USSR in very dire terms and the threat of nuclear war, which had in some ways become a part of the culture, was also making itself felt again. America had been at war a couple years earlier, although this time not nearly too,

in this time it was to make up for the previous wars. The Cold War was in all the movies. Rocky went and won the Cold War for us, so did Rambo. The government was not to be trusted, and yet most Americans clung to the same government they didn't trust. The executive of which was selling weapons to our stated enemies to give money to a group that was not our stated enemy over and above the objections of Congress to get around the Boland amendment. Yeah, even more, they were also bringing drugs into the country.

The government was creating an existential crisis from within as well as a constitutional crisis that people would rather ignore. The people sense of existential terror had grown from without cold war, the rise of terrorism, and from within a government that was literally killing its own people, ignoring those deaths and contributing to a perceived rise of crime. Then a show comes back safely and cleverly reflecting our fears back to us through science fiction and half-hour chunks. It never caught on with the majority of the people because people chose to use their entertainment

as an escape, not a reflection. A few years later, America's funniest home videos came out. Mmm. So we keep wanting to escape by watching lesser versions of ourself. And not even written, creative, artistic lesser versions of ourself, captured lesser versions of ourselves captured lesser versions of ourselves. Yeah. All of this is at a time when a former actor is president. I would say that escape is a fair thing to want when you're faced

with existential terror the whole time. Yeah. So now it's 2002. two. Nothing. Actually, I did write something this time. This time I knew I would piss you off if I did it twice. So the culture is yet again facing destabilization in its psyche. And this time it's acutely felt as we've suffered an actual existential threat on some levels at 9-11. It's a very uncertain time following a time when we'd bombed the shit out of a country for over 70 days, a few years earlier, Yugoslavia. We didn't know when or if the next attack was coming. We've talked about this on prior episodes. And our federal government told us go to Disneyland and that they would handle it for us. Security.

Don't worry about the increasing paranoia in the government and its exhibiting again, willingly. And by the way, more and more people are being imprisoned due to stronger laws against crime, swelling our imprisoned population, and further, further villainizing large swaths of the population. Meanwhile, our government is kidnapping random folks from far away and keeping them in secret prisons all throughout the world, and there's an existential terror from without terrorism, and an existential terror from within. Terrorism. And not to put too fine to point on it.

Yeah. Also we don't know what the government is going to do. There's a tremendous amount of uncertainty there as well. And the desire and entertainment is, again, escape, numbness, not reflection. In fact the entertainment we would come to consume for the next several years was increasingly violent, increasingly fractured psyche, and increasingly gray. So think about what was big, 24, the shield, any number of its clones, gritty, gritty, gritty, this gritty got gritty, gritty, gritty, gritty, right?

And also lost, and also heroes. Now people will say what they will about it. Oh yeah, battle star Galacto. Which we've talked about. Yes, at a wonderful length, it was really well done. Yeah. But so gritty or so lost or so disassociative disorder, or why not all three?

Yeah, yeah. I'm looking at you, ball of tar. Yeah. Yeah. You know, which which originally started in Britain, but then got adapted. You know, yeah. What's life on Mars? I thought you were talking about the the mission to Mars. No, no, I'm talking about the TV short run TV series life on Mars and the the conceit of it is that a cop from 2000 whatever

winds up Getting getting struck by a car. Oh, and The next thing and it was he wakes up and it's 1972. And he's a detective in the same police department. He had been in previously. And he keeps seeing flashes from his life in the future while he gets pulled into trying to investigate a murder mystery in 1972, 1974, whatever he was. And the show highlights the very dramatic changes in police culture from the 70s until the modern era, in that like the British version, which is superior for usually is. Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it's the original. So has that going for it? But in both versions, but especially in the British version, he winds up witnessing shocking levels of police brutality and police violence that really, really trouble him and its business as usual for everybody in 70, whatever. And a casual level of corruption, low level, you know, not like straight up taking

bribes, but you know, walking into walking into a place and getting free beers, you know, kind of kind of stuff. And, you know, and, you know, you talk about it's deeply gritty and it shows it's deeply morally gray. And at the same time, dissociative. Yeah, you know, why not all three? Yeah, and then depending on which version of the show, the ending is either a complete downer or you feel cheated that it isn't a downer

because yeah. You feel cheated that it isn't a downer because... Yeah. So it sounds like lost. Yeah, pretty much. It's of the same vintage. So yeah, it was speaking of the same aspect of the mass subconscious. Yeah. Well, so you know what else is really popular right around the same time? Reality television. Yeah, actually there's competition shows survivor as well as

I forget a few others Housewives. Yeah, also rich and pretty eras is running around doing nothing and being obnoxious. Oh around doing nothing and being obnoxious. Oh, the simple one. Oh, the simple one. They're the ones. Which manages to combine the vacuosness of, you know, eras' with, they manage to both make Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton look stupid. Yes.

And the ordinary people they're interacting with look like a bunch of idiot hicks. Yep, it's like nobody winds up coming out of that show looking good. Again, we would rather not look at artful stuff. And if we do, we want it to just reinforce the violence that we're kind of becoming okay with being a country that does it. At least in the 80s, we lied about it. I remember there was a, I took a class on the history of the American War in Vietnam and the teacher said something to the effect about the cultural war that the baby boomers at the time still

wanted all the material success, but they just wanted to have fun beforehand. And so they didn't see the need to get married to the first person they had sex with. It was mom and dad were screwing. It doesn't mean we're going to, you know, we're living together and we're screwing. And that's it. And the parents said, well, you could at least have the decency to be hypocritical about it. Yeah. So that's always stuck with me.

But we would rather look at bad versions of ourselves. And then there was a TV show that comes out a little bit later than that, where a, again, a sub-moronic lead is in a position of decision making and exploiting the work of other people in a boardroom and in a business setting. Are you talking about Shark Tank? No, no, there's another one called the... Well, they did a version of it called my Big Fat Obnoxious Boss, but that was a spoof of it on Fox TV, which had also come up with who wants to marry a millionaire.

Right. And then they came up with my big fat obnoxious fiance, which was actually a work. It was so much fun. But no, I'm talking about the one that my big fat obnoxious boss spoofed. Yeah. The apprentice, I think. Yeah.

Yeah. So then a show comes back safely and cleverly reflecting our fears back to us through science fiction and half-hour chunks. Nobody wanted it. Reflection was not the desire. Machismo fantasy and catharsis absolutely was. An interesting shift in what we wanted as a culture when faced with existential terror the whole time.

Then in 2019, the culture is still and even more facing a full on shaking apart from its foundations and ideals. Because pendulum doesn't swing back equally, it finds new centers. And it's been creeping farther and farther toward insanity for quite some time. In 2019, we have a federal government that is, wait for it, attacking the federal government and destabilizing itself. Yep. And it's not just one branch, but multiple, and the institutions are under existential

threat. The paranoia is increasing, and the the gas lighting has gone through the roof. And we are witnessing the death-throws of this system that has for a long time been showing its ass and exposing its fault lines for generations. It remains to be seen if a show can come back safely and cleverly reflecting our fears back to us through science fiction and half-hour chunks and actually be accepted. Currently, we're all on lockdown in a once-in-four lifetimes happening. And now more than ever, our entertainment choices show us about ourselves and people are going ape shit for a guy who raises tigers, which is the 21st century version of the Beverly Hillbillies.

Oh, dude. At a time. Yeah. I need to interject here in LeBronnie and Sunderstand because you all know, even if you haven't watched the show, you know who Damien's talking about. He's talking about Josh Rivevogel who likes to go by the name Joe Exotic. And of course he's talking about Tyker King. Who is now the Democratic presumptive nominee, right? Yes. Joe Exotic. Yeah. Joe Exotic. Yeah. No, no, Diamond Joe Biden. Thank you. Joe exotic. Yeah. Joe exotic. Yeah. No, no, Diamond Joe Biden. Thank you. Got you. Diamond Joe Biden with a sweet Trans-Am. I wish I could remember, I think it was the onion who came up with

that character, uh, back during the Obama presidency, Diamond Joe Biden. But anyway, um, what would the, what, Diamond Joe Biden. But anyway, um, but what the, what what our audience all, all five of you need to know, uh, is that, that Damian has not watched Tiger King. Um, and, and is, um, staunchly refusing to do so. Mm-hmm. staunchly refusing to do so. Which, you know, I respect that choice. I tried to do that and my wife won't let me. Because she watched it all the way through and was like, no, no, no, babe, you only watched the first two episodes

and then you were there for the last episode. No, no, you need to watch the rest of it because you need to understand how completely batch it crazy all of these people are. And she's not wrong. Like, like, at all. Now, I will point out that I'm not refusing to watch it out of a moral stance, but because I don't want to pay for Netflix again. Like I canceled it once I got Disney Plus because I've got ESPN and Hulu in that package deal. And I'm like, I've got those

and I've got another streaming service and my wrestling streaming service. I don't need to be paying $60. What am I getting cable? Yeah. Okay. So. Yeah.

But yeah, I'm also remaining willfully ignorant of it because I don't have any goddamn interest in watching people who remind me of the folks that I used to live near in Florida. Well, you know, I'd live near them already. I'm done. I did my time. Yeah, no, I understand that.

And yeah, I rather agree with you, but again, I'm I'm I like being married right and so you know Yeah, and when I was married I watched more reality TV and now I watch pro wrestling which Again, I'm not better than anybody spiritual is kind of the spiritual successor to reality TV predecessor spiritual is kind of the spiritual successor to reality TV. Predecessor. Predecessor, spiritual ancestor. That's what I meant. Yeah.

And I would say only in as much as carnivals are as well, which was very much what the learning channel turned into when they started having to add the question mark, the learning channel. Yeah. But yeah, I, you know, I'm not better for my choices. I'm not better than anybody for having made these choices. And I, I, I, it's just not a genre, I've been severed, either. Yeah. But yeah.

And so I want to point this out. When I was coming up in the early 2000s, I watched my big Fatabnoxious fiance and my big fat obnoxious boss, both of which were a work. They were not reality TV. They were contrived, but the people who were on it thought they were on reality TV. That compelled me. But reality TV has never compelled me. The wrestling goes deep. So you really are a wrestling fan. Yes.

Because the art of the work is a thing. Absolutely. Yeah. So we're saying all of this in order to get to what we think is the prudent prediction. Oh, I've got more though. Oh, OK. So we're watching everybody's going Gaga for the Tiger guy. Yeah. When a former reality show personality is

the fucking president. We absolutely have existential terror though I don't really think there's much terror from without anymore. Though our president has convinced people that hordes of Mexicans and Muslims are coming from everywhere to have anchor abortions. So I love the way you put that. You know, here's what I'm going to say. I think if you live on the coast, there isn't a perception of an outside threat. If you live in the middle of the country, there is. And I think that is...

However unreal. Yeah, well, yeah, I'm saying the perception there. Yes. And I think that is a new wrinkle in the pattern. And I'll put a pin in that for now. And we'll come back to that. Keep going. OK.

Well, from within, the terror is absolutely very clearly there. Oh, yeah. And from within, I mean in the form of an actual virus, existential terror from deep within. So, what is the future of the Twilight Zone? History has shown us already what's likely to happen. So I wanna hear from you.

Do you feel free to take the pin out? I am done with my TED Talk on the Twilight Zone. Okay. I think that we are in... There are very significant parallels and your thesis about a time of paranoia and existential dread and what have you. I think it's premafeisha, you can't really argue against it. With that being said, I think there is possibly a greater chance for this reboot to succeed for a couple of reasons.

The biggest one being that, and we've talked about this before, that it used to be there only three TV stations. Right. right in 1960 there were only three TV stations in 1985 there were still mostly three TV stations but if you had cable there were another 15 and Fox came in in 1986 if I recall yeah yeah and so it became the fourth. Yeah, yeah, and now like you just said, I don't need Netflix. I already have Hulu and Disney and ESPN and whatever all Amazon and WD Network. Don't forget. And yes, of course. sorry, sorry, I don't want to overclock that one because that's that's crucial. Both for you and for anybody else trying to understand you are psyche.

But we now live in an era where, you know, Netflix or CBS, all access, or CVS, all access, are now capable of being viable commercially. Maybe not roaring successes, but they're capable of being viable commercially by targeting a niche audience, playing to a niche audience, you can make money by doing a niche series, like how many people are, what percentage of the population are going to be really, really deeply engrossed in a fictionalized account of the life of the British

royal family since the Ascension of Elizabeth II. That's a really good point. Like, I mean, you know, we're talking in my, my pun show, Capital Punishment. We're talking about growing our digital audience and, and we don't need to have millions. No, a couple thousand is fine. Yeah, I mean, I want millions, but you're right though, the niche is going to be niche, you know, and that's really, really an important point. And so I think, you know, do I think we're going to see this iteration of the twilight zone become a massive commercial success that everybody talks about, probably not. But it doesn't have to anymore either. But in order for it to be considered a success by the being counters, it doesn't need to be anymore because

the paradigm has shifted. So we have that going on. And then beyond that, there is a really dramatic also paradigm shift in our zit-geist as a nation. We now have, in a great many ways, our popular culture is reflective of our political division. You know, in that, I mean, like right now, everybody's talking about Tiger King because we're all, you know, locked in the house with no place to go and like, oh my god, these people are fucking nuts. Okay.

Mm-hmm. But, you know, think about how many people are watching the crown and where those people primarily are. And then think about who is still watching a lot more network TV, watching a lot more of the reality shows, watching a lot more of that kind of stuff. There is a definite, again, niches being a thing. Yep. To a large extent, there are broad divisions in those niches between balloon niches and red niches. Yes, there are. And I think for whatever reason, and I don't want to get into, you know, theorizing why, because that could potentially become pejorative and not the kind of thing I'm going to engage in, but I think people who are interested in the kind of subversive and reflective and social justice kind of things that the Twilight

Zone has done are going to be your coastal blue state urban kind of people. Mm-hmm. Sitting, yeah. Sitting, yeah. Sitting, yeah. And the folks who are going to be more interested in escapist reality TV kind of stuff. And again, Brockbrush, because- Save time. But I think you're gonna see a lot more red state,

a lot more rural folks in that category. And so I think the very political circumstances that have made the Twilight Zone relevant to us now might actually help it be viable. Again, I don't think I'm not going to put money down on it turning into a big broad spectrum, you know, popular kind of thing. I think we're in a set of circumstances where it doesn't need as big an audience to be viable. And I think it could be viable. If of course the writing is good and they don't wind up relying too heavily on, well, you know, remember that episode, that,

dot, dot, dot, and just really tricky stuff. I mean, if they can capture the spirit of the original series and do that kind of stuff consistently, then yeah, I think there are enough people on our side of the aisle and with our over-intellectual kind of pre-delections that they can have. I think they can be viable. I think it can go for several seasons at least. Yeah, I think we've gotten into this world of the democratization of our art now, where it's funny because it is corporatized to a greater degree than it ever was on some levels.

And on other levels, it's still a democratization of that corporatism because now you have multiple points of access. Now you have a lot more different stories being told, and they've figured out how to commodify the niche instead of saying, we want that big third of the pie. Now they're like, no, we want, you know, this, this 16th of the pie and these two parts that are, you know, three 30 seconds and, and all this, and, and it's still viable that way. I think that you're absolutely right. So I think in some ways you're seeing a

generalization of a formerly ghettoized genre potentially by virtue of the overcome modification of of a democratizing art. It's a really weird time, but I would also point out that one of the reasons that if it will be successful, one of the reasons that it will be, and I'm not convinced that it will be, but just because I've seen it happen three times already, like I did the research,

you know. But I think one of the reasons that it would be successful is because it's such a horrifying time that we're living. And people want to, you ever burn the roof of your mouth on pizza and you get that little blister and you just tongue the hell out of it all day long. Oh yeah. Or when you're eating chips and you stab yourself and you just can't stop. Do one hip-woin-a-beat.

Yeah, and he can't stop worrying at it. Yeah, yeah. So I think that in a world where you have that sore, you're gonna wanna keep tongueing it. Yeah, so that's what I think would keep it from getting shelved again after two to five years. Yeah, well, and again, and again, I want to stress that I'm not saying I'm predicting that it will be viable.

I'm just saying, I think it, I think it, I think now it possibly has the best chance it ever has had. That's true. Yeah. For, for the reasons I listed and what you just said is like the extremity of the batch had crazy that we're living through right now is so great and especially right now with an invisible, a literal, you know, can't see it threat. Right.

That literally has us all huddling in our homes, I think if the writers and the producers can figure out how to work with that and how to play on that effectively, I think they can potentially capture enough lightning in a bottle to keep it going. Yeah, you don't have to be a universal success to be successful now. Yeah. So, well, bleak as it is, that is the Twilight Zone episode. Yep. Yeah, it's a sad, sad tale at the end of the day.

Twilight zoning through the terror So are you reading anything for funsies during our quarantine? I think well, I mentioned a couple of episodes ago I that I finally did actually pick up Dune again I haven't had a chance to read anything on it in the last couple of days because of, you know, administrative work stuff. But I am working my way through that. And it is interesting how much a story that is set in the impossibly far future can be so remarkably dated in so many ways. I remember reading a handmaid in this tale going, wow, this is third wave feminism.

Like, it was clear, like, I was like, this was written in 85 and then I turned the publisher's, you know, it was like, oh, I was, I was right, you know, I was in a year or two. Yeah, well, yeah, because I mean, it is, it is very clearly third wave feminism. And I think that is both one of its limiting factors and one of its great strengths. Yes. You know, I can't say that it's necessarily

one of Herbert's strengths in tune that I can look at and go, this was very Herbert's strengths in doing it, but I can look at it and go, this was very clearly written down in the 60s. Right. You know, because there's a lot of stuff that he has a preoccupation with that is just so much of that era in so many ways. And then, you know, the gender politics in it is of course.

Like wow. Yeah. So that's all in pursuit of an upcoming episode here. I look forward to it. Soon. Yeah. So yeah. What is your, I mean we've kind of already hit it, but just real fast before, well, while we're on our way out, what is your, I mean, we've kind of already hit it, but just real fast before,

while we're on our way out, what is your takeaway from having done all of this research? Um, I think perhaps I gravitated toward the twilight zone, the black and white, because I grew up under the color. I really appreciate color twilight zone from 85. And that caused me to reach back to 59. And I fell in love with that. And neither the 2000, two version, nor the 2019 version, have held any interest for me to even begin to start. And I find it interesting that those have both come up at a time where I was an actualized agent of my own life.

Okay. And I'm not interested in exploring them, whereas I was very much interested in exploring the ones that occurred either prior to me existing, or honestly, like my mom was born in 56, so it was when she was three years old that that came out. So prior to me existing or prior to, you know, me being double digits even

So there's an interesting intellectual Thing that's happening there to me where I want to watch things that Our time capitals time capsules of a time that I had no say in my world And I have no interest in watching the ones that existed at a time where I did have a say in my world. So apparently the mirror I like to look at is not as reflective of me as it is reflective of something that's next to me. And I find that to be an interesting,

I'm not going to call it cowardice in any way, but an interesting reticence on my part to watch the stuff that came out at a time where I was able to affect change in my world. So the reflections are, you know, I've done this many a time actually. I do the safety of the historian, and where I'm just like, I'm just gonna wait for 10 years, and then I'll start researching it, which I've ceased to be that in a lot of ways, but when it comes to this wildlife zone, apparently I'm still willing to do that.

So I just kind of found it interesting that that's what I gravitated toward. Now that being said, there was way more originality and pathos in both of those than you could possibly have any third or fourth generation version of a thing in terms of originality. Yeah, but yeah, so that would probably be it. I do find it interesting that it doesn't get talked about nearly as much, which is the

outer limits. And there were a couple other shows that came out in the 80s that were similar too, but outer limits rebooted itself in the 90s. And I found that recently on the Amazon and I started enjoying that. And it does not have the same feel as Twilight Zone in a way that I can't put my finger on it. Well, I think I can tell you what it is. Oh, okay.

The outer limits was, I wanna say it, it, it, Twilight Zone came along first. Twilight Zone was CBS. And the writers and producers at, I don't remember which network was the outer limits, saw that and went, they're really doing some funky stuff, man. And the the outer limits is what you get when you take some of the ideas out of the twilight zone. And you pull nearly all of the social subversism subversion. When you take the subversion and the and the moral mirror out of it.

Yeah, it seemed a lot more monster-y, alien-y, and therefore further removed. Yeah, it's monster-y, it's alien-y. It is, it is, if the Twilight Zone was written by somebody who was trying to do escapism as opposed to social commentary science fiction. There you go, okay. That would explain why the second time it came around, it lasted for seven years. Yeah.

From 95 to 02. Yeah. So because it was, it was, it was escapism, which is generally a lot easier to make commercially successful. Which more acceptable. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think that's also the reason why, for me, as science fiction nerd, Holm, the

outer limits always kind of felt like that guy who says, oh man, let me tell you about this story I wrote. And he's really wrapped up in how clever his twist ending is. And you're like, no, that's really, okay, yeah, that is, and you can't help but recognize that is really clever, but it doesn't have the kind of emotional hit. It doesn't have the gravitas. It doesn't have the gravitas, It doesn't have the gravitas,

and it doesn't leave you going, oh, oh shit dude. Yeah, it's an exercise in technique, not in pathos. Yeah, yeah. And you know, an episode like the monsters, when the monsters come to Maple Street, or when the monsters come to Mabel Street, or what's the one with Burgess Meredith, where is class is break in the last?

I'm gonna say there's four of those with him, but this one, Time Enough Alast, which is my favorite. Yeah, time enough at last is a classic, you know, twist ending, oh Henry kind of thing. And it could so easily be cliche, but because of everything that gets bound up in it. And everything that it comments on and everything that it reflects on, it is one of the most powerful episodes of television ever. Yeah, oh absolutely. And the outer limits and the outer limits regularly did

really clever. Oh, I didn't see that coming, but it's inevitable kind of twist ending. Right. But they never left you gutted like that. True. And so I mean, that's because the whole time we've been talking about this, I've been thinking about the outer limits. And you know, hearing you talk about your experience watching the older series, the new ones, I realized I finally had that crystallized in my head. And I think that's going to be my takeaway is that their science fiction has an innate level of power in it. Because you can do stuff with allegory and symbolism and, well, you know, I'm not talking about race,

I'm talking about filling the blank. You know, I'm talking about nuclear weapons, I'm telling a story about, you know, the starship or whatever, you know, and, and, and you, you can then use that bit of slight of hand to, to do some really powerful stuff. Oh, yeah. And at the same time, you don't have to. And you can tell a monster of the weak story. And everybody, you know, and everybody

winds up seeing everything that gets done in the genre as being in the same category as the monster of the weak story. Right. And on the one hand, that's infuriating. But on the other hand, without that, the other stuff wouldn't necessarily have the same level of allegorical power. Yeah. And it's a weird, poetic, poetic kind of thing that we've touched on in other places. But I think here it really crystallizes when you look at the differences between those two series. Sure.

And then you look at some of the other kindoff series, like you remember monsters, tales from the dark side. My buddy, Johnny, talked about that with me and we watched the intro to it, yeah. Yeah, and they were all very much in the same kind of vein. And some of them were like, a couple of episodes of Tales from the Dark Side, we die hell out of it. Sure, tell you.

Well, you know, there's Tales from the Crypt too. I mean, there was a word of blood. I mean, there was all kinds of that kind of stuff, kind of all folded up. Yeah, and I think all of those in one way or another are a response to the twilight zone. But they don't have, like you say, they don't have the same gravitas because they're not dealing with allegory. They're just telling a monster story. They're just doing humanity to their monsters.

There's no monstrosity to their humans yeah yeah precisely yeah well yeah I would say Twilight Zone is a a classic I think it's something that everybody should be should watch usually comes up once a year twice a year on some sort of network marathon yeah over a holiday just sit down with a bullet popcorn and watch it. It's great stuff. And also it tells us about ourselves. Definitely.

All right. Well, why don't you plug yourself on social media? All right. If you want to try to yell at me about how wrong I am about the gravitas of the outer limits, you can find me at ehblaloc on Twitter. You can find me at MrBlaloc on Instagram. And then you can find both of us, collectively, if you want to yell at both of us at once or sponsor us or or or throw money at us. That'd be awesome. You can find us at geek history time on

Twitter, mm-hmm and Damien, where can they find you? You can find me at duh harmony. There's two H's in there both on the Twitter and on the Instagram. You could find me on Twitch.tv at 8.30pm every Friday night. Twitch.tv forward slash Capital PUNS for our weekly digital pun tournament. Capital punishment. It's been going almost four years now. We've moved to a digital version because we can't gather.

Because the plague walks abroad. Yes. And also you can find me starting this coming Sunday, which this coming Sunday to those of us who are recording live right now. But every Sunday thereafter you can find me on twitch.tv forward slash calling it in the ring with my partner Johnny Taylor. Capital punishment is a pun tournament where myself and Daniel Humberger crack wise make puns on certain topics. Calling it in the ring is where my partner Johnny Taylor and I, we talk about professional wrestling matches as we are watching them together on Twitch.

And both of us have a deep love of comedy and of wrestling. And of course, you can find me right here on a key history of time. If you could do us a favor, please rate, subscribe, review, give us five stars if you think we earned it. Even if you don't think we earned it, even if you don't think we earned it, I mean it's not like we're doing it shirtless. So please please please give us those likes. We were number 14 in New Zealand and we dropped to number 44 and I want to at least get back up to number 30. So please rate subscribing review this show if you listen to the commercial,

throw us some money, throw some shackles our way for our hard work, because this, I believe, is episode 54, which means we have over a year's worth of weekly content for people, which is pretty exciting, considering, you know, we start this quite some time ago. Anyway, for a geek history of time, I am Damien Harmony. Yeah, you know, we we start this Quite some time ago anyway For a geek history of time I am Damien Harmony

And I'm at Blaylock and until the next time we see you Be safe stay inside and wash your fucking hands And... SICKA-DUDO-DUDO