On Hoboken-set Twilight Zone episode "The Mighty Casey"
Episode featuring "Hoboken Zephyrs" (and home-stadium palm trees) misses the mark
By the Chilltown Blues
“The Twilight Zone” (1959-1964) came to exist in part because creator Rod Serling had a hard time writing commercially about things he thought were important. He grew up on radio and the best of that medium helped inspire his own storytelling, along with hopes that TV would not become, like radio had, Serling thought, a medium for communicating meaningful ideas reduced to glorified advertising.
As a TV writer, Serling was fortunate enough to have a script produced as part of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (a 1958-1960 variety show from the production company co-created by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz). The episode was in what would become the fantastical “Twilight Zone”-style and was a success, opening the door to a place that “lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge,” as Serling narrated in the show’s first-season opening.
Serling thought it was horrendous that pop storytelling didn’t generally address the actual unfairness of the world. “The Twilight Zone” let him and other writers do that, still not without struggles, through the science-fiction lens.
One might hope the show’s tale set in Hoboken, debuting in 1960 as its 35th episode, would be among its classics. But there are reasons it doesn’t spring to mind the way the show’s episodes with haunting commentary or winking comfort do. While it flounders as it tries for the latter, “The Mighty Casey” still offers some food for thought. Maybe more than it did when it aired in 1960, thanks to the benefit of hindsight.
