Rod Serling: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an exhibit of the eerie and the oddball.
They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar
Written by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Don Taylor
Rod Serling: Our first offering this evening: faces; paint, pigment, and desperation. The quiet desperation of men over 40 who keep hearing footsteps behind them, and are torn between a fear and a compulsion to look over their shoulders. The painting is called: They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar.
Randy Lane (William Windom), a sales representative of Pritkin Plastics, approaches the twenty-fifth anniversary of his employment with the company. Feeling depressed at the fact that his best years are behind him and his boss, H. E. Pritkin (John Randolph), hasn't commended him for his work, Randy gets drunk on an extended lunch break. He visits his favorite hangout, Tim Riley's Bar & Grille, now condemned and preparing to be torn down. Randy soon begins hearing singing in the derelict bar, which now appears as it did in his youth and filled with the people he used to know from his past. As the bar keeps changing between lively and empty every so often, Randy works to figure out just what the explanation behind the phenomenon is.
Tropes
- Abandoned Area: Tim Riley's Bar & Grille. A happening hotspot 25 years ago, it's since been condemned and set to be torn down to make way for a bank.
- An Aesop: Just because you feel like you've wasted your life and you'd rather go back to the good times of your past, that doesn't mean you don't have anymore to live for.
- Arc Song: The ghosts in Tim Riley's Bar keep singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" throughout the segment, which makes Randy's memories of the past manifest in his waking life. When they hear the workers preparing to tear the building down, Katy changes it to a somber and sobering rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" as the ghosts slowly disappear. Randy's co-workers sing the former song to him at the end of the segment, when he breaks out of his funk and looks forward to the next 25 years.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After being tormented with haunting reminders of his past, Randy learns to live in the present, and as soon as he does so, his boss throws him a party where he finally acknowledges his 25 years of service with the company.
- Lighter and Softer: There's nothing sinister at work, only a band of ghosts who get together to help Randy stop living in the past.
- The Lost Lenore: A big factor regarding Randy's nostalgic depression is his wife, Katy, who died of pneumonia when he was away, and he got to the hospital too late to save her.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: No one besides Randy acknowledges the ghosts, nor do they interact with anything in the environment, but Randy certainly sees them as real, and they seem to act somewhat independently of his fantasies.
- Mean Boss: H. E. Pritkin appears to be one at first, only interested in Randy getting his work done rather than congratulating his service to the company. He opens up near the end, when he finally gets around to holding the celebration in Randy's honor.
- Nice Girl: Miss Alcott, Randy's secretary, firmly believes that Randy is a good man. She notices how stressed her boss is about his lack of acknowledgment and the stress regarding both the titular bar and his past, so she tries to bring up his anniversary to Mr. Pritkin in the hopes that Randy gets a golden watch or something. She even offers to cook a celebratory dinner for him as he drinks his woes away, goes out of her way to look for him when he misses said dinner, and even gives Mr. Pritkin a verbal thrashing for his neglect of Randy's issues. What's even better, Pritkin takes her words to heart and throws a party just for Randy.
- Nostalgia Filter: Thanks to him longing for his youth, and with a little help from the ghosts, Randy often hears voices from those he knew long ago and sees them and the current location as they appeared in 1945.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The specters of people from Randy's youth pop up in the titular bar, which goes from condemned to furnished when they appear, and do so to break Randy out of his funk.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Officer McDermont, who reflects fondly on Tim Riley's Bar and the memories he and Randy had there. When he spots Randy having broken into the condemned building while drunk, he calls off the hot-blooded officers looking to throw him behind bars and tries to calmly tell him that he understands just how he feels, even driving him home instead of arresting him.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Miss Alcott gives Mr. Pritkin such a speech after she sees how far gone Randy is, noting that the least he could've done was to respect Randy's anniversary, understand his issues, or even give him a gift. The look on Pritkin's face shows that he now knows where he went wrong, so he goes out of his way to put on a celebration for Randy's anniversary.
- Rule of Symbolism: The end of the segment frequently cuts between Mr. Pritkin raising a toast to Randy's anniversary and a wrecking ball about to smash Tim Riley's Bar. Miss Alcott gives Randy a kiss and the man himself moves in to share the admiration of his fellow workers, just as the ball makes contact with the bar, representing how he's finally moving on from the past.
- Title Drop: The ghost of Randy's father quotes the title when he and the others hear the work of the demolition crew outside the bar.
The Last Laurel
Based on the short story "The Horsehair Trunk" by Davis Grubb.
Teleplay by: Rod Serling
Directed by: Daryl Duke
Rod Serling: We offer for your approval, a painting which has to do with what happens to men who take a walk into nature's marketplace, and exchange certain powers for other powers. The blind, we're told, for example, develop an extraordinary sense of touch. In this case, the story of a man who perfects the art of killing. Our painting is called: The Last Laurel.
Crippled track star Marius Davis (Jack Cassidy), a middle-aged shell of his former self, believes that his wife Susan (Martine Beswick) is cheating on him with a myriad of lovers, including his physician Dr. Armstrong (Martin E. Brooks). Spending nearly all of his time lying in bed, Marius has trained himself in the art of astral projection, which he intends to use so he can sneak up on Dr. Armstrong and bash his head in, leaving Susan to take the blame. Unfortunately, a power outage gets him turned around.
Tropes
- Big Blackout: Marius intends to astrally project himself sneaking up on Dr. Armstrong to bash his head in, but a blackout occurs as he does so, leading him to accidentally wander into his own room and kill himself instead.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Marius' voice, demeanor, and his soul's movements indicate that he's completely willing to kill anyone who crosses him to honor his delusions of justice.
- Cassandra Truth: Susan claims to have seen Marius walking out of her room one night, which Dr. Armstrong deduces as nonsense, since he can't move. Given that we learn Marius is capable of astral projection, she was right all along.
- Evil Cripple: Marius, a former track star who was left bedridden after his crippling, tries to kill the doctor he thinks his wife is cheating on him with.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: By utilizing sheer force of will, Marius can astrally project his soul out of his paralyzed body, retaining the ability to grasp objects. He plans to use this ability to murder the doctor he incorrectly suspects of being his wife's lover while he sleeps. However, Marius gets mixed up during a blackout, goes to the wrong room, and winds up killing himself.
- Inner Monologue: Marius' thoughts are heard nonstop throughout the second half of the segment, explaining his ability of astral projection for the audience's benefit as his soul prepares to put his plan into action.
- Post-Mortem One-Liner: Marius oddly gives himself one when he bashes his sleeping body's head in and his soul disappears: "Marius Davis doesn't live here anymore."
- The Sociopath: The conniving and delusional Marius firmly believes that Susan is cheating on him with everyone, particularly his doctor. It's for this reason that he aims to kill the doctor as a means of invoking twisted justice.
- Stupid Evil: Marius' evil plan goes to pieces when he gets lost in a power outage and bashes his unconscious body's head in.
- Villain Protagonist: Marius wants to kill Dr. Armstrong, who he incorrectly believes is having an affair with his wife, and frame Susan herself for doing so.
