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wordfromoursponsor · 5 months

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"If you listen to people talking about TV commercials sometimes you wonder why they haven't chopped their sets up before this. They're *that* mad." (1955)

#vintage #retro #advertising #vintage ad #old ad #1950s #TV #TV set #television #1950s television #commercials #Y&R #Young & Rubicam #house ad

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artist-issues · 4 months

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I just found out you like the Twilight Zone! Please talk about your favorite episodes, if you have the time!

Oh yay, sure! I started watching the Twilight Zone about five years ago and it’s become one of my top 3 favorite tv shows of all time. It’s creepy, and I have a low tolerance for psychological horror, so I take my time watching it. But my favorite three episodes are a lot of other people’s faves, too.

I think the very best one is It’s A Good Life. This kid is born with godlike powers—he can do anything—but he chooses to make everything the way he wants it. He transports his whole town out of the world or destroys the rest of the world—the townspeople aren’t sure which. Their lives revolve around keeping this kid happy, because if he’s ever upset, he does terrible things to them. He doesn’t like it when people look at him like he’s the monster he is, so he strikes them blind, or turns them into toys, or, if he even hears you thinking unhappy thoughts he sends you “to the cornfield.” Which is basically death. The whole town is constantly telling the boy that everything he does is good, and everything they feel is good, and they’re always telling each other to think everything is good. And eventually one guy stands up to the boy (the boy’s name is Anthony) and gets fed up, and Anthony kills that guy, then makes it snow, which kills all the remaining crops in the town, and the people just sort of go… “I guess we won’t have food now. That’s a good thing you did, Anthony.” And it ends.

Because the thing is, all of the stuff that sets Anthony off—all of his little pet peeves that everybody tiptoes around—they’re actual good things. He doesn’t like other kids because they don’t always do what he wants. He doesn’t like dogs because they are afraid of him. He doesn’t like music, or television, unless it’s what he creates. He thinks suffering is funny and he likes to make up vicious creatures, then kill them, and have everybody approve of it.

Anthony is forcing everyone to behave like what is really good is actually bad, and what is really evil is actually good. He flips right and wrong on it’s head, and everyone goes along with it out of fear.

I also love Eye of the Beholder, even though it’s on the nose. (HA. Get it) The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine is incredible too. That idea that nostalgia for whatever you thought was the best time of your life can actually imprison you…and you don’t even know it’s a prison. And it keeps you from embracing and growing in and loving the rest of your life.

And Where Is Everybody, for those of you who’ve never seen The Twilight Zone, is the very first episode, and it just perfectly captures the weird “what is going on” vibe that draws you into the show.

I think there are two things that make me love The Twilight Zone.

The first is that every episode “makes you think.” Usually they don’t have conclusions where everything is explained, or resolved; Anthony is not defeated, Barbara Jean stays in the movie screen with no explanation of how she got in there or what will happen to her now…but the fact that the storytellers leave it like that literally forces you to think more about what you just saw.

Your brain naturally goes, “yikes, the kid just gets to keep making life a nightmare? Don’t like that. If I were in there I would’ve just knocked him on the back of the head. Why didn’t anybody do that?” And by having to think about it more, you aren’t critiquing or arguing with the actual story. You’re thinking it over, trying to figure it out, because you naturally accept that there is something there to be worked out. The “message” of every episode gets under your mental guard, works it’s way into your worldview.

You watch “It’s a Good Life” and realize that not everything is “good.” Sometimes there’s plain evil that can’t be reasoned with or explained away in the world, and you just have to stop protecting yourself with pretending otherwise and do something about it. The townspeople should’ve all stopped pretending and worked together, or been brave enough to realize stopping the monster or dying trying was better than living in fear.

And that brings me to the second thing I love about The Twilight Zone: every episode has a message. It has something it wants you to think about. It’s not just tickling your suspense-responses, or giving you a brain worm about nothing but creepiness. It’s not trying to get you “in your head” to “figure it out.”

I know I just said it makes you think, but it specifically makes you think about something real, a concept that affects real life. The Twilight Zone answers enough of your questions with each story to make you think about the lesson, and doesn’t give you enough information to be like, “I’m going to figure out the Easter eggs, and the backstory behind how everybody in Eye of the Beholder got pig noses!”

The Twilight Zone makes it obvious that there are important questions to ask when you watch a story, (like, “Why didn’t everybody work together to kill Anthony?”) and there are useless, unimportant questions to ask when you watch a story. (Like “where did Anthony’s godlike superpowers come from?”) And it specifically engineers each story so that you’re more emotionally involved with the RIGHT questions, instead of the arbitrary questions.

Nowadays everybody’s like, “let’s figure out exactly where that Easter Egg came from! Let’s see if we can figure out what version of Arthur’s narrative is the REAAAL one in The Joker! I can’t actually verbally explain what Christopher Nolan was doing but I totally got Tenet.” 🙄

I’m tired of stories that are all shock-&-awe and no meat. The Twilight Zone might ask you simple questions, but they’re really good, important ones to have answers to. And the artfully suspenseful, show, don’t-tell episodes of The Twilight Zone make those questions stick in your head and your heart.

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toon-feasts · 3 months

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Tom and Jerry "Baby Butch" (1954) dir. William Hanna, Joseph Barbera

#tom and jerry #hanna barbera #animated food #1950s television #cartoon food

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justbusterkeaton · 10 months

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Buster on ‘This Is Your Life’ in 1957

#buster keaton #this is your life #silent movies #comedy #1920s #1950s television #silent comedy #silent film #eleanor keaton #louise keaton #harry keaton #Louise Dresser

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peterlorrefanpage · 2 months

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Peter Lorre as Mr. Ho in "The Man Who Lost His Head" (1956, Climax!)

Plot: A young sailor collapses on the estate of a wealthy Englishman in the Orient and, upon reviving, is offered a strange bargain in exchange for his life.

Climax! Season 2 Episode 40, July 26, 1956, with Cedric Hardwicke, Debra Paget, and John Ericson.

Wish I could find this out there! Those eyes...

#peter lorre #peter lorre television #1950s television #climax!#Mr. Ho #lost media

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emperornorton47 · 5 months

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Betty was brave

#betty white #arthur duncan #Tap dancer #Back to the 1950s #1950s television #censorship #1954 #courage

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karloff-the-uncanny · 4 days

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Boris Karloff onset of “The Rosemary Clooney Show” in 1957.

#another photo I’ve only discovered recently. there’s been loads lately!#boris karloff #william henry pratt #karloff the uncanny #old hollywood #old hollywood actor #classic horror actor #classic actor #the rosemary clooney show #Karloff on TV #Karloff in the 1950s #1950s #1950s television #1957 #classic movie actor #rare photos #rare propaganda

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hundredyearoldoakdesk · 4 months

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Alan in The Phil Silvers Show in 1958

Source:

entertainmentwise.com

#alan alda #phil silvers #1950s #1950s tv #1950s television

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gurumog · 2 years

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Zorro S02E28 - Treasure for the King (1959) Dir. Hollingsworth Morse Walt Disney Productions

Guy Williams as Don Diego de la Vega / Zorro

#zorro #guy williams #walt disney #hollingsworth morse #walt disney productions #1950s television

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wordfromoursponsor · 5 months

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"How to pick an agency for television" (1950)

#vintage #retro #advertising #vintage ad #old ad #1950s #television #ad agency #advertising agency #Young & Rubicam #house ad #early TV #1950s television #Arthur Godfrey #Fred Waring #Aldrich family

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i--needed--that · 2 years

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Tell me, Gene...How, exactly, am I supposed to resist you when you keep making yourself 100% irresistible. 😉 If I didn't know better, I'd think that you were doing this on purpose! 😄 This is legitimately one of the cutest things I've ever seen in my life. 🥺 The adorable factor is off the charts, here...and Gene is clearly enjoying his adorable, little dance partner. If a man who is "good with children" is your weakness...you may want to look away now. 😄 Otherwise, you could end up like me...and then, you'll have to change your name to @i--needed--that, and spend all your free time, hyping Gene on the internet. Trust me...It will turn into a whole "thing"!!! 😄🤭😉 Cherylene Lee & Gene Kelly, appearing on Gene's television special, "The Gene Kelly Show" (1959).💕

I claim no rights to this video. 🤍

#gene kelly #cherylene lee #1950s #1950s television #vintage fashion #vintage men #musicals #mgm #dancers #tap dancers #classic actors #golden age of hollywoood #old hollywood movies #old hollywood stars #old hollywood #silver screen

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toon-feasts · 2 months

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