You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind,

a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.

That's the signpost up ahead. Your next stop, the Twilight Zone.

One thing that I've always tried to do with the Twilight Zone podcast is to come at each episode with a fresh pair of eyes.

To try and let go of that received wisdom that tells us which ones are classics and which ones are the clunkers or the turkeys now I'll be the first to admit I don't always succeed I still get

carried away with the magic of the show at times and I don't really feel like I pick them apart with a modern

Critics eye. I mean you may disagree with that but I tend to be of the opinion that if the magic of the episode works

it works and those little nitpicks I can easily let them go.

So you won't usually hear me saying nobody would do that in that situation or, you know, that's not right,

unless the overall feel of the thing isn't really carrying me along, then those floors start to come to the surface.

So it's not just seeing whether those classic episodes still hold up.

It's also reevaluating those ones that are considered to be the bad episodes too. I don't mind standing up and saying, you know, this episode may not be generally well thought of,

but I like it and it's with that attitude that I now come to one of those episodes that does get a bit of a bad rap. Good Twilight Zone is timeless and to tell the truth a lot of bad Twilight Zone isn't bad because it's aged badly. It's more that the content just isn't up to par. But occasionally there are things that jump out that immediately age an episode

nothing says age more than bad special effects or creature make-up well this episode in that

department does have a bit of a doozy so let's see whether the episode we'll be discussing tonight

can weather that storm when we take a look at Mr Dingell the Strong.

Uniquely American institution known as the neighborhood bar. Reading left to right are

Mr. Anthony O'Toole proprietor who waters his drinks drinks like geraniums, but who stands four square for peace and quiet and for booths for ladies.

This is Mr. Joseph J. Callahan, an unregistered bookie, whose entire life is any sporting event with two sides and a set of odds.

His idea of a meeting at the summit is any dialogue between a catcher and a pitcher with more than one man on base.

And this animated citizen is every anonymous better who ever dropped rent money on a horse race, a prize, a prize fight, or a floating crap game,

and who took out his frustrations and his insolvency and any vulnerable fellow barstool companion with an arms and fist reach.

...