Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the ninth episode of The Twilight Zone: "Perchance To Dream."

Richard Conte (Don Barzini from The Godfather) plays Edward Hall, a 35-year-old(!) who is convinced that if he goes to sleep, he'll die. He has a heart murmor, you see, and any excitement will put him down forever. Further complicating things is a sexy BDSM cat lady who visits him in his dreams. Is this just the story of a man who thinks a wet dream will kill him? Is it a metaphor for repressed homosexuality? Or something else? Patrick and Matt definitively answer these questions.

"Perchance To Dream" originally aired November 27, 1959; directed by Robert Florey; written by Charles Beaumont; based on "Perchance To Dream" by Charles Beaumont; starring Richard Conte as Edward Hall, John Larch as Dr. Rathmann, and Suzanne Lloyd as the cat lady.

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, 1-Week Rental: A Movie Podcast. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

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Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the eighth episode of The Twilight Zone: "Time Enough At Last."

Burgess Meredith is Henry Bemis, a freakin' loser who just wants to read BOOKS. Books??? "What's this swill you're reading?!" his shrew of a wife demands. "David Copperfield? Sounds positively pornographic!" she yells as she rolls over it with a bulldozer.

Then the apocalypse happens and Henry finally gets some Me Time to read. But the universe is cruel and, we shall learn by the end of this classic episode, not fair.

"Time Enough At Last" originally aired November 20, 1959; directed by John Brahm; written by Rod Serling; based on "Time Enough At Last" by Lynn Venable; starring Burgess Meredith, Jacqueline deWit, and Vaughn Taylor as Mr. Carsville.

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, 1-Week Rental. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

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Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the seventh episode of The Twilight Zone: "The Lonely."

Jack Warden plays Corry, a man wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to a most fiscally irresponsible imprisonment: solitary confinement on a faraway asteroid. His only human contact comes every three months, when space merchant marines spend 15 minutes on his asteroid delivering him supplies. He's lonely, folks. But that's about to change when he's given a miraculous gift: an artificially intelligent ladybot. But can a robot (or, as they repeatedly say it, "ro-but") replace a human being? What is a human being, anyway? And how remarkable is it that this 70-year-old episode maybe predicted a future world of romantic AI chatbots?

"The Lonely" originally aired November 13, 1959; directed by Jack Smight; written by Rod Serling; starring Jack Warden, Jean Marsh, John Dehner, and Ted Knight.

Source: "'I felt pure, unconditional love': the people who marry their AI chatbots" by Stuart Heritage | The Guardian (2025) - https://bit.ly/4oHvrPd

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

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Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the sixth episode of The Twilight Zone: "Escape Clause."

Walter Bedeker is a hypochondriac who convinces himself he's constantly dying, even though his doctor repeatedly gives him a clean bill of health. But he knows the truth, and anyone who tells him otherwise must be lying. His only way out of perpetual illness leading to an early grave is to strike a deal with the devil, here portrayed in the form of a man named Cadwallader. In exchange for Bedeker's immortal soul, Cadwallader will give Bedeker an indefinite extension of life, and he'll be able to run small-scale insurance schemes and smoke as many cigarettes as he wants.

"Escape Clause" was written by Rod Serling and directed by Mitchell Leisen. It originally aired November 6, 1959.

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify ( https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE) , Apple Music ( https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl ), or YouTube ( https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA ).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast ( https://bit.ly/45fA9IW ), Spotify ( https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr ), or YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod ).

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Patrick Perot and Matt Stokes go through the fifth episode of The Twilight Zone: "Walking Distance."

Gig Young plays Martin Sloan, who's just sick of it all. Sick of his successful career as an unspecific 1950s business dad. Sick of all the phone calls. Sick of the hustle and bustle of the big city. Wouldn't it be great if he could just step back in time, back to his lovely 1930s childhood when he was hanging out at the merry-go-round and the bandstand, and everything was fine with the world? He just might get more than he bargained for...

"Walking Distance" is one of the most acclaimed episodes of the series, and we have a lot of fun with it, but we find it actually leaves us a little flat, especially when future Twilight Zone episodes will execute much stronger versions of this story. Still, it's fascinating to look back at the late '50s and see that even then, people were nostalgic for a mythic past.

"Walking Distance" was written by Rod Serling and directed by Robert Stevens. It originally aired October 30, 1959.

Source: "Writing for Television – Conversations with Rod Serling," Ithaca College (1972) - https://youtu.be/UzyGwK48wsY

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify ( https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE) , Apple Music ( https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl ), or YouTube ( https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA ).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast ( https://bit.ly/45fA9IW ), Spotify ( https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr ), or YouTube ( https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod ).

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Patrick Perot and Matt Stokes go through the fourth episode of The Twilight Zone: "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine."

Ida Lupino plays Barbara Jean, a former movie star whose early-1930s heyday has long since passed. She spends her days sequestered in a screening room of her house, re-watching her own movies... and maybe doing more than that.

Patrick calls this the first "real" episode of The Twilight Zone. And he's right. It's great from beginning to end and has the first legitimately inspired Twilight Zone-esque ending of the series.

"The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" originally aired October 23, 1959; directed by Mitchell leisen; written by Rod Serling; starring Ida Lupino, Martin Balsam, Jerome Cowan, Alice Frost, and Ted de Corsia as Marty.

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Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA). Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the third episode of The Twilight Zone: "Mr. Denton on Doomsday."

A drunkard used to be the fastest gun in the west, but now all he cares about is the bottle. Actually, being the best shooter around is more blessing than curse. Really makes you think. Anyway, some kind of weird stuff happens.

This episode could use more Satan.

"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" originally aired October 16, 1959; directed by Allen Reisner; written by Rod Serling; starring Dan Duryea, Martin Landau, Jeanne Cooper, and Malcolm Atterbury as Prof. Henry J. Fate.

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Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA). Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the second episode of The Twilight Zone: "One for the Angels."

Ed Wynn plays Lew Bookman, a "pitchman." You know, a peddler. A huckster. A hawker. He sells toys, notions, and trinkets, or, as Larry Burns puts it, "If this stuff's too nice for ya, I've also got some crap." Bookman longs to make the world's greatest pitch and sell all of his wares to the most difficult mark. And he'll get his chance, and perhaps much more than he bargained for, when he meets Mr. Death (Murray Hamilton).

"One for the Angels" originally aired October 9, 1959; directed by Robert Parrish; written by Rod Serling; starring Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton.

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA).

Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).

Matt Stokes and Patrick Perot go through the very first episode of The Twilight Zone: "Where Is Everybody?"

An amnesiac wanders through a town, unable to find a single human being, but always feeling like somebody is just out of reach. Creepy!

How well does this episode serve as an introduction to The Twilight Zone? How well does it stand on its own? And how much does it hold up now?

Plus, there's a lot of talk about the space race, the Cold War, and America's obsession with going to the moon.

"Where Is Everybody" originally aired October 2, 1959; directed by Robert Stevens; written by Rod Serling; starring Earl Holliman.

Music credit: "Something Is Coming" by Rural Route Nine. listen on Spotify (https://bit.ly/3QzvDQE), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3DaYsQl), or YouTube (https://youtu.be/EErrn2Zt9mA). Listen to Matt's movie podcast, Load Bearing Beams. New episodes out every Friday, a deep-dive into a different movie every week. Listen on Apple Podcast (https://bit.ly/45fA9IW), Spotify (https://bit.ly/3tk7FAr), or YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@loadbearingbeamspod).