I just finished watching this episode yesterday, and it was the first time I ever saw it. Man, talk about profound. All he wanted to do was live the simple life, which is commendable. But he simply knew too much about what was going to happen, and he realized he was a danger because of this. Knowing how the future will unfold can be dangerous in so many ways. I'm actually glad I don't know it. Rod Serling was an absolute master.
A profound musing on time and chance by Serling, with one of the finest performances, out of many excellent turns, of Dana Andrews' career. Stays with you a long, long time. Where are the actors like him these days?
Fine actors shine with fine scripts. Dsna Andrews' acting was always well-grounded in character, and actor in the Golden Age of Cinema, and yet he's largely forgotten today.
" The past is inviolate. The past is sacred. " Serling's script for this episode was pristine. Of note is his using the device of time travel to revisit the past with many of his teleplays. " Walking Distance, " " The Trouble with Templeton, " " A Stop at Willoughby. " The yearning for a road less traveled.
The worse part of seeing short glimpses of time in the future is knowing you are merely a participant as it unfolds before you. What I have realized is that these visions of short moments in time come from a play book already written and that we are all experiencing a virtual reality.
One of my fav episodes but I recently purchased all seasons and I can't find this one . The statement or conversation he has with his friend before flipping the switch was freaking CLASSIC . Every word, EVERY WORD IS TRUE. I swear, I've never heard it said better , EVER .
So many Twilight Zone episodes belong in a Hall of Fame. This one IS a particular favorite of mine. I too often feel as though I'm living in the wrong time. Absolutely superb writing and acting.
I lived in 8 different decades 1970s were best ! 80s was right up there with it ? 60s too much turmoil riot's, Vietnam war, protests, and assassinations. 1950s to much prejudice !
The "Twilight Zone" was a true work of brilliance in all aspects, from writing, acting, direction, photography and musical scoring. Sadly, I seriously doubt we will ever see the likes of this again, this series encouraged deep thought and reflection.
I don't personally believe in time travel to the past, for many different reasons, but his statement is one of them and is expressed well. For one, if the past does, somehow, exist, it would have to be inviolate and unable to be changed. As with so many episodes of TTZ, a good reminder that the time you live in now is YOUR time - make the most of it and stop looking only at the bad. No time is any better or any worse. It just is. Whether it's people under the threat of death from nuclear weapons or terrorism, or people under threat of death from plague, fire or invasion, the human condition is what it has always been - a mixture of good and bad.
He realizes that going back to the past is pointless. If you try to change a major event, either something will happen to prevent you from doing so ( like his gun jamming when he tried to shoot Hitler) or your own actions to prevent some catastrophe will become the catalyst to CAUSE it to happen! Either way you FAIL TO CHANGE what happened before. This is one of two theories on what can happen if time travel into the past were possible. The true nature of TIME is (to me) the single most fascinating aspect of the physical universe. Rod Serling has several episodes where he deals with TIME. I think he was intellectually curious about this subject.
@D Sullivan you are correct! There is that third option of an alternate time line or alternate universe. Serling was aware of this option in the episodes: Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville and Back There. That is assuming he wrote these two. Just off the top of my head without checking I believe he wrote Back There. Not sure about the other one.
Attempting to go back in time to correct a great wrong never works because what happened cannot be undone due to the intricacies of the Space-Time Continuum.
Serling saw the fears and depths of humanity. His genius came in his ability to put it into stories we simpler people could relate to. By "putting it in pictures" we all could suddenly see our flaws, our wishes, our consequences. His was writing well ahead of his time. Today, television is written down to morons. Serling tried to raise us.
He said “I can’t even touch you” for fear of affecting the past, but him just being there talking to her is just as bad. And then he kisses her…??? Huh???
I agree…If Paul would not have held back (the information); it could have been potentially an emotional overload for Abby. I thought that Paul kept things vague enough for such a delicate subject matter. I love this episode, but I think that the last half (in Homeville 1881) if by far the most poignant.
The reason why he wouldn't hook up with her even if he had the time is that people's mentality were different back then. They have moral values unlike us today.
I won't insult you by calling you "unenlightened," but I will respectfully disagree and say that I can't say as I would. Even though we know it's possible, at least according to experimental evidence, I have no desire to go into a future and gamble it's going to be better. Watch the original "The Time Machine" for a really good set of reasons why that wouldn't work out the way you think. I'll take the life I'm allotted, do all the good I can now, and then go on when my life ends.
Even if he made no further attempts to change what he knows will happen and he tries to just live his daily life like the people around him, it would take a toll on him emotionally because all the people around him in the whole world have an empty slate as far as the future is concerned. It is a blank slate, an empty void. But not Paul. All during the day and night, hour after hour would be whirling images of all the advancements that would be coming ahead and how every invention, every book, every song would gradually take humanity to the developing industrial 20th century with all the wars and conflicts and tragedies that will unfold and all he can do is sit on the sidelines and watch it all happen AGAIN, totally helpless. That would take heavy toll on him emotionally because he is such a sensitive caring man. Over and over his mind would be shouting to him: "you dont belong here. You belong in your own time. You are out of place." He would not find the happiness and peace he was looking for. Even Mr. Feathersmith was begging Ms Devilin to send him back to 1963 when he considered what his life would be like living in 1910.
@@calvinjackson8110 I agree 100%. So many people think that living in the past would be incredible. For me, it would be horrific. To know as certainly as we can "know" anything in history, of course, of the disasters, the advancements that would seem so wonderful but be used for such evil,. to see the deaths happen because of a simple lack of knowledge or of ignorance, would be a living hell. You'd sit and watch it all happen again, as you so well said, and know there was literally nothing you could do. No thank you. I'll take the time I live in, now, and do my best to make an impact on the lives I can touch, and then go on when my time comes.
Compare the words spoken in this scene to what you hear when you leave your house today. I find it terrifying to wonder how we will speak, how we sill sound tomorrow.. Like, you know what I mean, like?
Oh, I don't know. My husband and I used to debate about the past. I get so frustrated with this century.. all the craziness... I would joke about inventing a time machine. We go back to simpler times.. the Middle Ages.. and, then he'd list all the horrors of the past. I'd end up nodding. Plague, pandemics and epidemics, Inquisitions, wars, death by simple infections that a pill can cure today, dying in child birth, bad or no sanitation. No toilets, running water, central heating, death at 50... Maybe the human condition is just hopeless and therefore our history is horrible slog until we die? Great scene and Dana Andrews was a truly wonderful actor.
Good episode, but I didn't get the impression his efforts to change history failed because "the past is inviolate". It didn't work because every time he tried you can see that the way he's going about it is all wrong and isn't going to succeed.
"The past is inviolate, it is sacred. It belongs to those of you who live in it." No, they no longer live in the past. They live in God's Kingdom. The past cannot be recovered. My past was filled with anger and abuse. I have no need to relive that horror. But the horror of the immediate future (spoken in January 2021) motivates me to consider some good things from the past. The left/liberal world of Beijing Biden and Komrad Kamala is sure to be a horror even I cannot imagine.
I see why your past was so terrible. It is still consuming you and now you think around every corner there is more anger and abuse coming for you. Calling Biden and Harris names and fretting for what you are sure they will do....tell me; of the many executive orders Biden has created, which if any really indicate we are headed for a hell on earth?
@@julianmarsh1378 Sadder still that they seemingly speak to reverently of people living "in God's Kingdom" and then go on to be so insulting to people of a different political stripe. If you truly are a believer, then none of this shocks you as you know the world isn't going to get better as time goes on. Partisanship and name calling just makes life more unbearable and robs you of the ability to be of any good or positive impact on lives right NOW, while you live. I'll pass, thanks. I can disagree, politically, and not let it consume me. Well said.
@@jasondaniel918 I'm paying attention. I disagree with your statement, and believe Julian was spot on in their assessment. Do the good you can now, while you live, and let politics and human nature, which you CAN'T change, take care of itself.
What writing,what acting. Brilliant.
As they say, that man could do a dramatic reading of the phone book and give an oscar winning performance.
Wouldnt be surprised he did a phone commercial somewhere
A work of art. Excellent writing. Excellent acting. A wonderful cast. One of the best TZ finales ever.
Agreed, Also, the music is fantastic. A very poignant scene.
I just finished watching this episode yesterday, and it was the first time I ever saw it. Man, talk about profound.
All he wanted to do was live the simple life, which is commendable. But he simply knew too much about what was going to happen, and he realized he was a danger because of this.
Knowing how the future will unfold can be dangerous in so many ways. I'm actually glad I don't know it.
Rod Serling was an absolute master.
A profound musing on time and chance by Serling, with one of the finest performances, out of many excellent turns, of Dana Andrews' career. Stays with you a long, long time. Where are the actors like him these days?
Fine actors shine with fine scripts. Dsna Andrews' acting was always well-grounded in character, and actor in the Golden Age of Cinema, and yet he's largely forgotten today.
Dana Andrews Was A Great Actor. If You Haven't Seen 'The Best Years Of Our Lives', I Recommend It.
Yes, yes, yes.
He was also great in Night of the Demon - that really scared me as a kid.
His acting is amazing...and I think Dana Andrews might be one of the handsomest men I have ever seen.
" The past is inviolate. The past is sacred. " Serling's script for this episode was pristine. Of note is his using the device of time travel to revisit the past with many of his teleplays. " Walking Distance, " " The Trouble with Templeton, " " A Stop at Willoughby. " The yearning for a road less traveled.
Maybe because lm a train buff, but "A Stop At Willoughby" is among my favorite episodes. How the main character is yearning from his current misery.
@@eles2147 Great episode...........WILLOUGHBY.
When the future becomes the present it will then become the past.
I wonder if Serling yearned for the possibility of time travel given the number of episodes he wrote and presented.
Yes very well put
Such a sad ending, but after all there couldn't be any other possibility.
The worse part of seeing short glimpses of time in the future is knowing you are merely a participant as it unfolds before you. What I have realized is that these visions of short moments in time come from a play book already written and that we are all experiencing a virtual reality.
My God this show could be so deep. Beautifully written and brilliantly acted.
Dana Andrews...........extraordinary actor. His performance in OX-BOW INCIDENT awes me every time. Am also very fond of his movie SEALED CARGO.
One of my fav episodes but I recently purchased all seasons and I can't find this one . The statement or conversation he has with his friend before flipping the switch was freaking CLASSIC . Every word, EVERY WORD IS TRUE. I swear, I've never heard it said better , EVER .
Look in Season 4...one hour eps
It's a beautiful artistic statement on the impossibility of time travel.
This magnificent ending belongs in a Twilight Zone Ending Hall of Fame. Along with " Walking Distance."
The same message as 'walking distance' ...leave the past to those living it ...it is theirs and theirs alone
So many Twilight Zone episodes belong in a Hall of Fame. This one IS a particular favorite of mine. I too often feel as though I'm living in the wrong time.
Absolutely superb writing and acting.
I lived in 8 different decades 1970s were best ! 80s was right up there with it ? 60s too much turmoil riot's, Vietnam war, protests, and assassinations. 1950s to much prejudice !
Yes it does , kind of melancholy
The scene works because Paul never came out and told Abby the whole truth.
Amazing Performance 👏👏
I put this episode right up with “Walking Distance” powerful scene
The "Twilight Zone" was a true work of brilliance in all aspects, from writing, acting, direction, photography and musical scoring. Sadly, I seriously doubt we will ever see the likes of this again, this series encouraged deep thought and reflection.
Way ahead of its time !🤗
I don't personally believe in time travel to the past, for many different reasons, but his statement is one of them and is expressed well. For one, if the past does, somehow, exist, it would have to be inviolate and unable to be changed. As with so many episodes of TTZ, a good reminder that the time you live in now is YOUR time - make the most of it and stop looking only at the bad. No time is any better or any worse. It just is. Whether it's people under the threat of death from nuclear weapons or terrorism, or people under threat of death from plague, fire or invasion, the human condition is what it has always been - a mixture of good and bad.
He realizes that going back to the past is pointless. If you try to change a major event, either something will happen to prevent you from doing so ( like his gun jamming when he tried to shoot Hitler) or your own actions to prevent some catastrophe will become the catalyst to CAUSE it to happen! Either way you FAIL TO CHANGE what happened before. This is one of two theories on what can happen if time travel into the past were possible. The true nature of TIME is (to me) the single most fascinating aspect of the physical universe. Rod Serling has several episodes where he deals with TIME. I think he was intellectually curious about this subject.
What you just quicksave and reload it back?
@D Sullivan you are correct! There is that third option of an alternate time line or alternate universe. Serling was aware of this option in the episodes: Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville and Back There. That is assuming he wrote these two. Just off the top of my head without checking I believe he wrote Back There. Not sure about the other one.
Stephen King dealt with the same issues in 11/22/63, one of the best books I've ever read. I won't give away what happens, but it's great.
@@marcschneider4845 He stole a lot of the alternate future idea from the 1990 USA movie"Running Against Time."
@@calvinjackson8110 Malcolm Jameson wrote "Blind Alley." Rod Serling adapted "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" from that story.
Attempting to go back in time to correct a great wrong never works because what happened cannot be undone due to the intricacies of the Space-Time Continuum.
And if man could go back and change things then all the future things might never have happened!!!!!
Even if we could go back we would disrupt everything with just our presence alone.
@@RichWeigel Agreed
Love ❤️ changes everything!
especially the love in my pants
A fool loses tommorow reaching back for yesterday.
And a fool like you just plain loses.
Profound - So true J-man Jr
So he's a time traveler
Serling saw the fears and depths of humanity. His genius came in his ability to put it into stories we simpler people could relate to. By "putting it in pictures" we all could suddenly see our flaws, our wishes, our consequences. His was writing well ahead of his time. Today, television is written down to morons. Serling tried to raise us.
beautiful scene
Excellent Episode
He said “I can’t even touch you” for fear of affecting the past, but him just being there talking to her is just as bad. And then he kisses her…??? Huh???
This reminds me of that Star trek episode with Joan Collins. Dana Andrews did a good acting job here.
Brilliant acting and brilliant deep philosophy
I agree…If Paul would not have held back (the information); it could have been potentially an emotional overload for Abby. I thought that Paul kept things vague enough for such a delicate subject matter. I love this episode, but I think that the last half (in Homeville 1881) if by far the most poignant.
I like how some Twilight Zone episodes including this one, for example, entirety have better sound qualities.
Damn, Abby is fine..
Ikr. Why not stay in the past and hook it up.who gives a shit. Fucking stooge
@@mattcunningham9235 Seriously! He's already there! Man, brother don't want no help, brother don't get no help ...
The reason why he wouldn't hook up with her even if he had the time is that people's mentality were different back then. They have moral values unlike us today.
Awesome
What does it mean to love but not to see even when you stand it it’s presence???
I want to time travel to the future. Nothing in the past is worth the trip.
How unenlightened. But what makes you think the future would be any better?
@@julianmarsh1378 I have no idea if it would be better but I'd rather see where we took ourselves. I already know what got us in the here and now.
Same here. Who would want to live in the old days with no modern technology and everything done the hard way?
I won't insult you by calling you "unenlightened," but I will respectfully disagree and say that I can't say as I would. Even though we know it's possible, at least according to experimental evidence, I have no desire to go into a future and gamble it's going to be better. Watch the original "The Time Machine" for a really good set of reasons why that wouldn't work out the way you think.
I'll take the life I'm allotted, do all the good I can now, and then go on when my life ends.
What about 1965--Mr. Tambourine Man by The Byrds!!!???
If he would have said: "I'm going back...back to the future." I would have closure.
The town " Homeville" is the same town as the sign at the end of 'Walking Distance' .... Never noticed that before
If he can't change the past then there's literally no reason why he couldn't stay.
Emotionally it would be too shattering for him
Even if he made no further attempts to change what he knows will happen and he tries to just live his daily life like the people around him, it would take a toll on him emotionally because all the people around him in the whole world have an empty slate as far as the future is concerned. It is a blank slate, an empty void. But not Paul. All during the day and night, hour after hour would be whirling images of all the advancements that would be coming ahead and how every invention, every book, every song would gradually take humanity to the developing industrial 20th century with all the wars and conflicts and tragedies that will unfold and all he can do is sit on the sidelines and watch it all happen AGAIN, totally helpless. That would take heavy toll on him emotionally because he is such a sensitive caring man. Over and over his mind would be shouting to him: "you dont belong here. You belong in your own time. You are out of place." He would not find the happiness and peace he was looking for.
Even Mr. Feathersmith was begging Ms Devilin to send him back to 1963 when he considered what his life would be like living in 1910.
@@calvinjackson8110 I agree 100%. So many people think that living in the past would be incredible. For me, it would be horrific. To know as certainly as we can "know" anything in history, of course, of the disasters, the advancements that would seem so wonderful but be used for such evil,. to see the deaths happen because of a simple lack of knowledge or of ignorance, would be a living hell. You'd sit and watch it all happen again, as you so well said, and know there was literally nothing you could do.
No thank you. I'll take the time I live in, now, and do my best to make an impact on the lives I can touch, and then go on when my time comes.
Would you really want to know everything that's going to happen? That's not really living.
"The Most Interesting Man in the World... He doesn't time travel, time travels to him."
---Albert Einstein
No! There is only the present. You cannot go back to the past. Everyone is s part of the present.
Compare the words spoken in this scene to what you hear when you leave your house today.
I find it terrifying to wonder how we will speak, how we sill sound tomorrow..
Like, you know what I mean, like?
Anyone know whether this work is public domain? I want to sample the dialogue for a song. Thank you!!
For anyone liking more.. "horror"/thriller, watch The Night Gallery by Rod Serling. An anthology series like TZ
How did the guy in the future with the time machine know when to bring paul back?
Great
She is a beautiful lady does anyone know her name
Patricia Breslin
Don't leave that pretty little thing.
1:43 "A world menaced by a bomb." - 1962 "A world menaced by a bomb." - 2022.
What season was this episode? Trying to find it on Netflix?
4
He should have told her:"Don't worry.You'll be fine.I see you marrying a football team owner."
So, at the end, was he actually going Back to the Future?
where can I watch full episodes of the twilightzone for free
You can buy it on dvd disk at the overlord amazoned
It so valuable why do you want it free?
who the flip? keeps taking amazing show down.😠l
Oh, I don't know. My husband and I used to debate about the past. I get so frustrated with this century.. all the craziness... I would joke about inventing a time machine. We go back to simpler times.. the Middle Ages.. and, then he'd list all the horrors of the past. I'd end up nodding. Plague, pandemics and epidemics, Inquisitions, wars, death by simple infections that a pill can cure today, dying in child birth, bad or no sanitation. No toilets, running water, central heating, death at 50... Maybe the human condition is just hopeless and therefore our history is horrible slog until we die? Great scene and Dana Andrews was a truly wonderful actor.
I’ll still gladly take 1956. I was there.
@@laurencelevine3955 So was I. I was only 8 but I was there.
The past is just that, the past. Live in the present not in the past or future.
Mr. D. should have stayed and married Abby. The time concept is that he was part of history since time is cyclical.
Is this royalty free?
fr
I sampled it in a song and I want to know if I can release it without any problems
Good episode, but I didn't get the impression his efforts to change history failed because "the past is inviolate". It didn't work because every time he tried you can see that the way he's going about it is all wrong and isn't going to succeed.
What a kill-joy. Betcha he's great at parties. Geez!
......because you were here. Playa.
Plot twist…….he goes home to his wife.
To his wife from future.
Should have taken Abby to pound town.
1974. Fall. Line,(,the. Fine. 9) ,nu. Gamma. Alpha...Johnson. Ç. Smith. Univ. Charlotte,n.c.
God won't allow us to go back in time.
There is no god.
"The past is inviolate, it is sacred. It belongs to those of you who live in it." No, they no longer live in the past. They live in God's Kingdom. The past cannot be recovered. My past was filled with anger and abuse. I have no need to relive that horror. But the horror of the immediate future (spoken in January 2021) motivates me to consider some good things from the past. The left/liberal world of Beijing Biden and Komrad Kamala is sure to be a horror even I cannot imagine.
I see why your past was so terrible. It is still consuming you and now you think around every corner there is more anger and abuse coming for you. Calling Biden and Harris names and fretting for what you are sure they will do....tell me; of the many executive orders Biden has created, which if any really indicate we are headed for a hell on earth?
@@julianmarsh1378 Bubba-san, if I need to answer that question for you, you are NOT paying attention.
@@julianmarsh1378 Sadder still that they seemingly speak to reverently of people living "in God's Kingdom" and then go on to be so insulting to people of a different political stripe. If you truly are a believer, then none of this shocks you as you know the world isn't going to get better as time goes on. Partisanship and name calling just makes life more unbearable and robs you of the ability to be of any good or positive impact on lives right NOW, while you live.
I'll pass, thanks. I can disagree, politically, and not let it consume me. Well said.
@@jasondaniel918 I'm paying attention. I disagree with your statement, and believe Julian was spot on in their assessment. Do the good you can now, while you live, and let politics and human nature, which you CAN'T change, take care of itself.
Not only was he a liberal he was transgender. She was hot.
Andrews was neither of the two. Where the hell do you get such foolish information from?
@@scott12xu He's probably just a typical stupid right wing Trumpie conservative idiot.
yeah lol nigga was straight up gay as hell. she wanted dat dick