I've checked out a handful of episodes during Sci-Fi's holiday marathon, but I honestly don't recall the "shot live/direct to video" episodes like the last two. It has a whole different "texture" or feeling to watching it. Kinda cool...kinda TZ. You know. I didn't remember these at least, not on a video way. Cool. This one has "Ed Norton" as Santa Claus and John Fiedler ("Redjac") as co-stars. Quite fun, actually! (Seconds later) Art Carney is SO TRAGIC and STRONG in this episode. I SWEAR I've never seen itt before...a real treat to me in the new year though I cry to see it as well.
I actually didn't like the "video" episodes from TZ. There were only a few I think, then they went back to film. There's the one where the family lives in the mansion staffed by robots, the one where the hospital patient is having nightmares about being lured to the morgue, (22?), and maybe one more. I haven't seen them for a while. Glad to see the show is alive and well, though.
There are a half-dozen videotaped episodes of TZ: "The Lateness of the Hour" (with John Hoyt) "Static" "The Whole Truth" "Night of the Meek" (Art Carney Christmas episode) "Twenty-Two" (with Jonathan Harris and Arlene Martel) "Long Distance Call" (with Billy Mumy) They were done because the show was running over budget and they needed to save money. Shooting on videotape was cheaper, and editing was done by switching cameras just as with a live production, so there was less post-production time and expense required. But the technology was crude and very limiting, requiring stagey, in-studio stories with no location work and minimal special effects, and it proved too limiting for The Twilight Zone. Serling declared it "disastrous." (This info comes from The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree.)
I used to read a lot of MSZ in the '80s. And it all looks very...thrown together. You get my drift, right? Very...last minute.
"The Night of the Meek" is probably the best Christmas episode of any show that I have ever seen. Art Carney really sells his character. I'm glad I managed to catch it this time around.
To this day, I maintain a private conceit about that episode : Spoiler: TZ ep - Night Of The Meek That Carney's character always had been Santa, but had lost his way somehow in the real world, til he found the bag and regained who he was. Also, I wish I could find out whether Carney's pal Gleason had ever been under consideration for this role. This has to rank with Charlie Brown for best 'touches the spirit' Xmas ep.
Video or not, "Night of the Meek" is still one of my favorite TZ episodes. And it's not even written by Richard Matheson!
I think more than a few of these episodes are well-written, which leaves me more disappointed that they were shot on video in the live television manner. They'd look ugly all by themselves, but compared to the cinematography that used film on every other episode, they look really ugly.
I haven't even looked at any of my TZ Collection 1 I got for a steal a couple months ago...sure enough, Night of the Meek is the first episode on the first disc. I'll have to pop that in since I haven't seen it since I started this thread just over a year ago!