Last time on the Twilight Zone podcast we dug into the archives of the After Hours Club

to bring you a discussion about a vintage piece of Rod sailing work called The Strike.

And this time I'm going to play you the second part of that discussion

where my friend Al Shedsmer and I discuss another piece of vintage sailing called The Arena.

Now, if you're a new listener to the Twilight Zone podcast, this is not the usual format,

but just some placeholders over those busy summer months.

And perhaps it's quite fitting to go back to some of Rod Sailing's earlier work at the moment

as we mark 50 years since the great

man passed away. And if you follow the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation on Facebook, there have been

some great tributes to the man by several of the board members there and I recommend that you

check them out. But for now, check out when Al Shardsmer and I talked about

the arena. And it was first broadcast on April 9,1956, written by Rod Serling and directed

by Franklin J. Schaffner. It may be Senator James Norton's first day in office, but he's brought

along some political baggage

inherited from his father. After having served 24 years in the Senate, Norton's father was not

nominated for re-election by the state's senior senator, Rogers. As a result, Norton admits

to his assistant, Jack Feeney, that he shares his father's intense dislike for Rogers, though they have never met.

During his first press conference, Norton is goaded into insulting Rogers, and the resulting headlines spare a minor scandal.

Rogers responds by humiliating Norton on the Senate floor.

Over several weeks their verbal sparring matches continue to make headlines.

Feeling badly about the political beating his prodigy is taking,

a drunken fiendy visits Norton late one night and divulges a piece of information

...