The Key of Imagination: A Twilight Zone show with Joe Meyer

Not all heroes love having powers. Such is the case for Lieutenant Fitzgerald--Fitz for short, in this week's Twilight Zone episode "The Purple Testament." This is a story of a soldier with an odd gift--or, perhaps, curse. Fitz knows when death is coming for his fellow soldiers--he can literally see it on their faces. Captain Riker, played by Dick York, does all that he can to help t...

Sometimes, in order to find our courage we must first experience our fear. This is the case for lieutenant Decker of the Royal Flying Corpse in this week's episode of The Twilight Zone: "The Last Flight." We're going to talk about whether or not Decker's superstitious event is the cause of his newfound courage; we'll talk about the French World War I ace pilot Georges Guy...

Franklin Gibbs is experiencing a kind of hell that, unfortunately, many people can relate to: addiction. A man who prides himself on self-control, with one pull of slot machine arm, Franklin now finds himself attached to a one-armed bandit. In this week's episode of the Key of Imagination, we're going to be looking at the Twilight Zone episode, "The Fever." We'll talk about whether or not Franklin...

Every so often, we experience moments that seem outside of the normal patterns of existence. Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) a young woman on a cross-country trip across the United States, is experiencing just such an event. No matter how fast or far she seems to drive, Nan cannot seem to outrun a particular hitch-hiker, a man--or entity--who seems to have a hidden purpose. This week on Key of Imaginati...

Astronauts on a voyage to stretch the mark of humanity, only to find themselves crashed on an asteroid, or so they think? This week we're talking about the Twilight Zone episode "I Shot an Arrow into the Air." We'll discuss whether or not we actually can land on an asteroid--and possibly if we can live on, or in, one; we'll take a stroll over to Sigmund Freud's house and...

William Sturka, a perfectly normal man in many respects: family, friends, a job. However, he's walking around with a big secret. Namely, a ware is coming, one that will ultimately mean the end of the species. All he can do is grab his loved ones and friends and make a mad-dash for a means of escape. In this week's episode of The Twilight Zone, we take a look at one of my favorite episodes:...

What if you could shapeshift and change your face to look however you want it to. What would you do with that power? If you're our protagonist in this week's Twilight Zone episode, Arch Hammer, you'd spend your time being petty, breaking hearts, and stealing from men who should probably not be trifled with. But, the Twilight Zone has a way of balancing itself out--as Mr. Hammer will le...

In this week's Twilight Zone episode, we're going to discuss "What You Need." Pedott is a gentleman with a very special gift: he can see into the future. He can reach into his box of wares and pull out exactly what you need to help you through a particularly difficult part of your life. But, when down-on-his-luck Fred Renard realizes what Pedott can do, he decides that he is goin...

What would you do if a person you cared about not only disappeared from existence, but no one but you has any memories of their having existed at all? That's at the heart of our Twilight Zone episode this week: "And When the Sky was Opened." Three astronauts leave earth only, disappear for 24 hours, and then mysteriously reappear. One-by-one, each disappears. we'll talk about whe...

John Lyly famously said, "all is fair in love and war." However, we know that this is not true. War is a complex moral subject. As a paratrooper in World War II, Rod Serling knew this first hand. In this week's episode of Key of Imagination, we're taking a look at "Judgment Night." It's the story of a man damned, not for the war he brought to humans but for the war...

Can dreams hurt us? No, I'm not talking about some Freddie Kruger stuff. I mean can nightmares cause our bodies to fail? In this week's episode of KOI: A Twilight Zone Show, we're talking about the episode "Perchance to Dream." It's the story of a man in crisis, desperately trying to stay awake, for if he goes to sleep, he will be face-to-face with Maya, the femme fatale....

A classic Twilight Zone episode--Time Enough at Last stars the great Burgess Meredith. If there's a Twilight Zone hall of fame, Meredith is a first-ballot inductee. Most people have the image of Henry Bemis, his glasses lying in the rubble, with him repeating over and over, "it's not fair." But, is it? That's one of the questions we're going to pursue in this episode. We...

Should we let robots become the caretakers of our elderly? Can artificial companions solve our loneliness problems? Rod Serling's Twilight Zone was already asking these questions before we even knew they were possible. In this week's episode of The Key of Imagination, we're going to explore these questions and more through the Twilight Zone episode "The Lonely," starring Jack...

If you were offered immortality, would you take it? In this week's episode of The Twilight Zone, Walter Bedecker is going to receive such an offer. In "Escape Clause," we are introduced to a man who is absolutely terrible--and I'm not talking about the Devil, who is also in the episode. Walter Bedecker is a horrible human being, but does he deserve this ending? Well, let's ta...

You can't go home again, or so the phrase goes--unless you just happen to live in the Twilight Zone. In "Walking Distance" we meet Martin Sloan (played by Gig Young), a man who is tired of the hustle and bustle of the world and in dire need of a return to simpler times. But, when he finds himself suddenly in his old childhood stomping grounds, he learns a valuable lesson about life a...

In this week's episode of The Key of Imagination: A Twilight Zone Show, we are going to the movies--and we might not be coming back, if our star has anything to say about it. We're taking a look at "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine", starring Ida Lupino as Barbara Jean Trenton. Barbara Jean was at the top of the movie star game, but the tastes of the people have moved on to new star...

In this week's episode of Key of Imagination: A Twilight Zone Show, we're going back to the old west to meet a friend, Mr. Al Denton in " Mr. Denton on Doomsday ". Al is a gunslinger in the old sense of the word. He's had to prove just how fast a draw he is on numerous occasions, until one day, he killed someone that he couldn't forget. From that moment on, Denton has bee...

In this episode of Key of Imagination: A Twilight Zone Show, we are going to make a sales pitch, one for the angels. If I'm going to grow my audience, I better learn how to make a sales pitch. Luckily for me, I happen to be working with some of the greatest materials ever to touch a television screen--or any screen for that matter: Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. We're going to be talking...

In this episode of the Key of Imagination: A Twilight Zone show, we talk about the pilot episode: "Where is Everybody?" It stars Earl Holliman as Mike Ferris, a man who finds himself just walking down a road one day. No scary, you say? Well, what if that was literally the first thing that you remember from the day? That might change the way you view your relationship to sanity. If you fi...

Oh, no! Not another Twilight Zone show. How is this going to be any different than the 50 others? That's a fair question. I'll answer it here, but it will take a lot of time and work to provide a more adequate answer through the episodes themselves. My name is Joe Meyer. I'm a college instructor, and I've taught the Twilight Zone numerous times in the classroom over my career. What...