"The Midnight Sun", Poll and discussion thread

Norma (Lois Nettleton) and her fellow apartment dwellers react to an increasing temperature when Earth changes its orbit around the Sun. With Betty Garde.

List of musical cues

This is the preferred thread for any and all of your "The Midnight Sun" posts--facts, opinions, questions, speculations, and whatever else you can think of.* You can also give your opinion of the episode on a 1 to 10 scale, in the poll shown above.

Let the discussion begin!

*More specific instructions and suggestions about posting questions/comments related to this episode are located here.

"9" Classic Zone. Switcheroo ending. Cool, very cool.





Leen

This ep is always in my top 10 so I gave it a 10. Love Lois Nettleton...great twist ending I totally didn't see coming...

Here's a picture of my girls and me which I'm sure is the "Waterfalls in Ithaca" Mrs. Bronson was referring to. It just has to be!

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/3547/ButtermilkFalls.th.jpg

Like . . . where?

I got Leen's link through the "Quote" option:

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/3547/ButtermilkFalls.th.jpg

Try going there directly. It worked for me, but it look a little too long to display. It's also a small picture compared to the size of the page that displays.

Even before I saw the name in Leen's link, I had always thought that Mrs. Bronson was referring to Buttermilk Falls. I know the Falls from my Cornell days.

Is that you in the middle, Leen? The picture is so small that you all look like sisters to me. Do you care to give first names from left to right?

That's odd . . . right after I clicked on the link (which I knew was there, but assumed contained a typo or something since the pic didn't come up), the pic came up where it should have all along. Before that, there was no red "X" or anything. I've never seen things work quite that way.

Oops, now there's no pic again.

Hey this is the Twilight Zone for sure! Sorry I'm not as savvy on this board with the tags at all like I was on 5th dimension.

Thanks Dan for whenever it works. I could send you a larger one. Hope, 14, is on the left. Lauren, 20, is in the middle and I'm (no age given) on the right.

Leen

This is a GREAT episode! Number three on my list. I love everything about it, especially the twist ending.

I thought Tom Reese was very good, he looked like he really was going to lose it from the heat. And I wouldn't have known that Betty Garde was the passenger in Flight 33 if I hadn't read it here.

Lois Nettleton was on the In The Heat Of The Night tv show. I think her character ran a cafe or something. I couldn't believe how different she looked then. On Midnight Sun, she made me think of Nancy McKeon, if that makes sense.

Yes! That's who she reminded me of, too.

Yes! That's who she reminded me of, too.

Thanks, Bevis! Nice to know I'm not nuts after all.

Okay so after the tsunami hit and there were reports that it was so powerful it shook the Earth's rotation (like ringing a bell, some said) this is the first sci fi scenerio I thought of if it also happened to change the Earth's orbit. Creepy huh? My daugher wondered if we would have to adjust our clocks as well. Hmmmmmmmm.

Leen

Wow! It shook the Earth's rotation?? That doesn't sound pleasant. I watched 'The Day After Tomorrow' the day after the news of the tsunami was first mentioned. Needless to say, it was very unsettling. Oh and 'The Midnight Sun' gets a 9 from me, one of my favorites.

A 10 from me. My second favorite episode. I think this has the best twist ending of all other episodes with twist endings.

Agree this had one of the best twist endings of the series, one I'll bet very few saw coming.
Always amused by the guy who plans to "move south". With the earth pulling away from the sun, I doubt this would make much if any difference.

http://www.leapinbass.com/zone/picture_pag...03/tz075-04.jpg

I agree with you there.

And the exploding thermometer was cool.

Har! Har! Har!

My number one episode!!!!

Best twist ending after "To Serve Man" Great acting, effects, and script.

10/10

I love this episode...I wish I gave it a 10 instead of a 9 (not sure why I made that mistake).

There's some more discussion of "The Midnight Sun," especially of the ending, in the "Favorite Episode--Season 3" thread, starting about here.

Very good episode with a hot and heavy atmosphere, and a great twist at the end. I like it a lot. Gave it an 8, but probably could just have easily given it a 9. Good clean fun in the sun.

Mrs. BRONSON!! Aaaargh. That name completely flew out of my head in another thread post. I kept thinking Bunker but I knew that wasn't right. I don't remember Norma ever telling her to stifle herself.

I remember the scene where they are fighting what I remember to be as a container of juice...Kinda reminds me of the good 'ol Hurricane Seasons here in Florida, where folks fight over bags of ice and such!

Wasn't it pineapple juice? I'll have to check my tape to be positive, but I remember thinking that pineapple juice would be particularly refreshing if you were very thirsty. Maybe that's just because I love orange-pineapple juice blend.

And they weren't really fighting; Mrs. Bronson felt bad about accepting the juice and guilty about being kind of greedy about it in the first place, as I recall.

I found a link to the 2 scenes which were deleted for budgetary reasons. Inferred in the policeman scene is a suggestion of murder/suicide or double-suicide!!

http://psychcentral.com/wiki/The_Midnight_Sun

Does anyone remember the exact wording of Mrs Bronson's describing of the waterfall? I seem to recall her saying "near Ithaca". If so, may I submit for further consideration:

http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~lyon/photos/ithaca.html

Yes, I believe that's correct! Thanks for the pictures, they were awesome!

Yep been there saw that! And it is something to see.

I guess you didn't see my Buttermilk Falls post, sigh.

I bet Dan has seen this one too.

Leen

It's grapefruit juice. I'm not sure, but I think this identification is cut from Sci Fi. It occurs a few lines before the current is cut off, and right after a scene that I know is cut: the radio news broadcast.

I couldn't remember it exactly, but I can cut and paste a transcription:

"Oh, it's beautiful, Norma. I've seen waterfalls just like that before. There's one near Ithaca, New York. It's the highest waterfall ... highest waterfall in this part of the country. And I love the sound of it. That wonderful blue water tumbling over the rocks. That wonderful cool, clear water. You hear it, Norma? Hear it? You do hear it, Norma, don't you? That wonderful sound. You know, we could ... we could swim in that waterfall. Let's do that. Let's swim in it, shall we? I used to do that when I was a little girl. Just, just sit there and let the water come down over me."

So there is. I either didn't notice that or forgot about it. Thanks Paul, and thanks also to Ryan for posting that article in wikipedia.org. I think the episode would have been a heckuva lot better with those two scenes, but there's no use crying over spilt milk, I guess.

Paul, thanks for posting that link to the missing scenes. I had read them once when the episode scripts were posted on 5D, but I enjoyed revisiting them.

It's interesting how one's perception of an episode can be affected by the way one is exposed to it. I saw the premiere of "The Midnight Sun" in 1961, but like all of Season 3, it was never rerun until the series was syndicated almost five years later. By the time I had my second viewing, I had long ago purchased the paperback collection that included the short story adaptation of this episode, and I had read it so many times that to me the short story was the episode. I'd have incorrectly told you that there were a repairman and policeman in that episode, and that Norma's last name was given as Smith. That's because all of these are included in the short story.

The repairman isn't a serious casualty, but the presence of the policeman explains why Norma has a gun: the policeman gave it to her for protection. That stage direction ("he looks meaningfully toward the gun in Norma's hand") certainly does create disturbing inferences, but look at what the short story says instead:

"... four or five at the most, it'll be too hot to stand it." He looked over Mrs. Bronson's shoulder at Norma standing in the door, still holding onto the gun. His mouth was a grim straight line. "Then you use your own judgment, ladies."

This isn't nearly as foreboding, and frankly, suicide and/or murder never crossed my mind here until I read that script excerpt today. It's possible we might be reading more into that stage direction than Rod intended, or Rod may have softened his intentions when translating to the short story.

It's a nice theory that these scenes were cut for budgetary reasons, but a more routine possibility is that there simply wasn't time for them. What survives in the uncut version takes the full 25-minute allotment, and it doesn't seem unnecessarily padded.

I tried clicking on that "Salvadore Ross" link, but I got an error. Can you do any better, Paul? I'll save a detailed discussion for that episode's thread, but I've long felt that something is missing from there as well, and Zicree has phantom credits for characters who appear only in Slesar's original short story.

I did see your post, Leen - I had remembered the line about "highest one in this part of the country...", and searched by those parameters.

Buttermilk Falls as you can see flows down what I would call a rocky hill. When we were there last Thxgiving we saw that at the bottom, directly behind us in the picture, was an actual swimming hole. Closed obviously during the winter months.

We've only seen Taughannock Falls from the overlook which has an above view. This waterfall as you can see flows vertical. We hope to hike to the "ground level" one of these days.

My younger daughter has two T-shirts which proclaim "Ithaca is Gorges." You should see the folks trying to figure out what it means. Some even ask and still don't get it. Makes for good conversation.

Thanks Paul for those pictures. I've been there three times, but never on a sunny day. Being a Floridian now it's hard to adjust to the "chill to the bone" feel in the air in upstate NY.

Leen

Dan Hollis wrote:

Where did you copy this from, Dan? I really miss the transcripts section we used to have on the old 5D board. Is there another site out there with the transcripts or did you save them from the old board? Thanks.

Merci, beaucoup mon ami!
(I hope I remembered my high school french correctly in that reply)

Another one for the spittle thread, courtesy of the 5D flub list--when Tom Reese is standing in the doorway asking why doesn't it end, they do a long shot of him, and his jacket is totally soaked. Then they cut to a closeup of him, and his jacket is only wet down the middle of his back.

I don't know how to captures and such, sorry!

Well get in the game sista I think anybody who has the capability to view their DVDs on their computer probably can do this.

http://img148.echo.cx/img148/9295/ms18da.jpg

http://img148.echo.cx/img148/7444/ms26dj.jpg

http://img148.echo.cx/img148/6844/ms30ln.jpg

I dunno...could be the extent to which his jacket is (or is not) making contact with his body in each frame...or maybe the lighting changes.

I recommend more discussion before we enshrine this one in Spittle.