YMMV / The Twilight Zone (1959) S1E28: "A Nice Place to Visit"

---

• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In a spoiler for both works, watch the first season of The Good Place just before or after watching this episode.
  • In the first casino scene, Rocky tells Pip to place his money on the betting table. Pip says that he doesn’t have any money, causing Rocky to joke, “What, they pay you in halos or something?” Fast forward 49 years later to the release of Bayonetta, and you have Rodin, who like Pip, is a demon and what does Bayonetta pay him in? Halos.
• It Was His Sled: Valentine's actually in Hell. The twist is now easily the best known part of the episode, to the point that the main page doesn't even have it protected under "spoilers".
• Misaimed Fandom: Donald Trump has cited this episode as a major inspiration for his "philosophy of success" - emulating Rocky Valentine's desire to always win and to have everything until it becomes boring - while seemingly ignoring the episode's unambiguously delivered moral warning against such covetousness.
• Moral Event Horizon: It's revealed that Rocky crossed this as a child when he killed a dog that bit him.
• Riddle for the Ages: What Heaven must be like in this universe. Theologically speaking, it makes some sense that Valentine's wishes being granted would still be torture since he's still cut off from God.^note  For example, the Catholic tradition of the "Purgatory of Desire" works on a similar concept, albeit with Purgatory rather than hell. Some conflate the episode with The Twilight Zone (1959) S3E19: "The Hunt" to suggest the real Heaven is much more modest and, more importantly, has dogs. Which make it unquestionably better.
• Signature Line: "Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea you were in Heaven, Mr. Valentine? This is the other place!" due to being the mother of all Wham Lines.
• Special Effects Failure: When Rocky shoots the lamp, it takes a second after the gun is fired for it to shatter.
• Spiritual Successor: The Good Place took its title and concept from this episode and turned it into a series.
• Values Dissonance: The episode aired in 1960, so despite the dark theme of the episode, regulations of broadcast television prevented the showing of blood and gore when Rocky gets shot (though the episode made up for it by the area being dimly lit), required that the women's willingness to indulge his desires be presented with coy innuendo, and refers to Hell as "the other place."

---