"The Obsolete Man", Poll and discussion thread

A librarian (Burgess Meredith) is declared obsolete by a book-hating, totalitarian society, and is allowed to choose his own method of execution.
Originally aired June 2, 1961.

Full video of the episode on CBS.com
List of musical cues

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Let the discussion begin!

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This is probably my favorite episode. I voted it a 10.

10 Zones

Peace

10.
I wonder why Marc Scott Zicree said they cut out the aaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! thing at the end, when it can be heARD clearly.

If I remember correctly, he said that it was edited differently. The director wanted them to do the AHHHH thing for a long time before they started moving, but the editor wouldn't cut it that way, and had them start moving sooner. I could be wrong though.

"8" and rising on my list. Absolutely love the just desserts (deserts) ending.

Leen

I loved the political/religious slant to this one, and Burgess is fantastic!!
One of my favorites!!

One of the best eps. Great message at the end. Meredith's performance was outstanding! Appropiate ending for the chancellor, huh?

That is correct. The editor in question was named Jason Bernie, and he worked on a lot of episodes after this one.

"The Obsolete Man" is probably my least favorite "consensus classic," to the extent that this is a consensus classic. (I think it ranked about 16th in the last Fifth Dimension MegaBallot.) Too talky (actually, "shouty") and melodramatic for me.

"Which is exasperating for
A highly susceptible Chancellor!"

These are lines from my first song in Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe. I play the Lord Chancellor of England (roughly equivalent to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the US), a significantly different character from the one played by Fritz Weaver, but the lines above just seem to fit TZ as well as G&S.

I gave this one an 8. A nice story about a totalitarian society and 1 persons way of not succumbing to it all.

I wonder though, don't you think that once "The State" saw things were going terribly wrong - off script so to say, that they would have cut away from coverage of Meredith's cornering of the Chancellor in the apt. and gone instead to coverage of something like a nice massacre of nuns or preachers or something.

I mean, you're watching this hoping maybe, just maybe a whole lot of people will see this and re-evalute what kind of "state" they're living in and then do something...but somehow I doubt it....anyway, a very interesting episode that's just not quite 9 or 10 stuff for me...

I interpret this as Wordsworth's winning gamble. He feels that the State, believing that the Chancellor will not crumble, will allow the telecast to continue, thereby demonstrating the Chancellor's resolve, even in the face of death. The State probably doesn't care that the Chancellor is doomed; in their minds, he's expendable, and his death is a small price for the State to pay. To the State, things aren't "going terribly wrong" until the Chancellor begs for mercy, and that's only a few seconds before the telecast will end anyway as the equipment is blown to bits along with everything else in the room.

By the way, I used to have a digital clock almost exactly like Wordsworth's. The casing was different, but the inner workings, including the wheels that contained the digits, were identical, even to the font used for the digits. I had already owned it for a few years when this episode premiered. A similar clock, also with the same digits, appears in the I Love Lucy episode "Don Juan and the Starlets," one of the episodes set in Hollywood.

Also, isn't Wordsworth unusally cooperative/brave/stupid (choose one) by not running out of the room right after the Chancellor?

I'm sure it took a combination of courage and faith (if the two qualities are clearly distinguishable in this particular case) for Wordsworth to stay in the room, but I can't see how doing anything else would have made any sense. Wordsworth would almost certainly have been executed later anyway, perhaps tortured as an additional punishment, and the effect of his escape would have been to make readers (and theists) look like weak-willed hypocrites on national television.

That's a good answer, JBWB. To a small extent I was playing Devil's Advocate (or perhaps I should say Mr. Smith's Advocate), but if I had thought it through a little more carefully, I hope I'd have come to your conclusion. After all, Wordsworth didn't need the Chancellor there to run out of the room all by himself at 11:59:59 -- and probably into the hands of some State officials (but not right away -- supposedly there aren't any in the immediate vicinity).

That final expression we see on Wordsworth's face is priceless. Joan of Arc couldn't have done better.

A GREAT episode! In my top 10, and my favorite Meredith episode. I love everything about it.

I recall seeing it once when I was younger late during the marathon and falling asleep. However, the second time I saw it, I was much more awake, a little older and enjoyed it ALOT. Any time it's on, I try to catch it, plus I will watch it on DVD. It is one of my favorites, for the acting by Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver, the theme, the overall tone of the episode...just a '10' in my book.

Guess you guys like this episode. Well, so do I and it got me thinking that I haven't seen any TV shows lately dealing with the issue of authoritarian states. This episode deals with it and couples it with the religious tenents of our founding documents. The phrase "endowed by their creator" always comes to mind when I watch this one. Top 20. Give it a 9.

First episode I distinctly remember seeing during a New Year's Eve marathon. Great acting, script, et al.

10/10

A good episode that I didn't see coming. In the opening few minutes, I thought it was going to be a little slow. But it definately picked up as the episode went on.
Burgess Meredith was strong again. I gave this one a solid 8.
The only reason I voted this low was that the ending kinda threw me off where the people surrounded him at the end. Them standing around him "humming" or whatever just struck me as weird.
But after reading Zicree's thoughts/explanation it was a little easier to digest.
A little creepy nonetheless.

TZ DZ Fan

10 all the way. Rod at his moralistic best!

i love this episode i like the part where the man get scared and runs out the door and the building blows up then they play the awsome tune when the man go back to the stand when they tell him stand where you are.any one know what im talking about???

Nothing more really needs to be said other than Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver. They are probably my two favorite TZ stars and they really are great here. The set design is impressive. The only thing that hurts the episode to me is the uniformed members of the state. I don't get the way they "gang up" on the Chancellor.

I think it's cool when they're in the courtroom and the whole while the they're talking the people are going "ooh" it's quite interesting to listen to!

any body

Yeah that's a great piece of music Damin, and it's also in "It's a Good Life" during the jack-in-the-box scene. It's from a radio score by Bernard Herrmann called "Brave New World".

yea thats it

another great episode.

i like how wordsworth throws back the words that the chancellor says to him. for example when the chancellor realizes that he is locked in wordsworth's room, wordsworth tells him to face the camera and not to cheat the audience.

i also like that wordsworth doesn't back down from his beliefs and stands up for himself.

just wondering.. how did the state prove that god doesn't exist?? hmmm..

One conceivable "proof": "The State has declared that God doesn't exist. Therefore God doesn't exist."

Alhtough very good, this would be an even better episode without the whiny Burgess Meredith.

Bevis wrote:

"Everyone is created equal but some are more equal than others".

I always imagined that the state issued some kind of demand for God to show himself, and if he doesn't within XX hours/days/weeks or whatever, that would be proof that he didn't exist.

10
Awesome episode
"YOU ARE OB-SO-LEEEEEEEEEEETE!!"

Such passion. 10 Zones

Peace

This episode is in my top 3. I especially enjoyed Rod's narration at the end, which continues to stick with me to this day:

"The Chancellor, the late Chancellor, was only partly correct, he was obsolete. But so was the State, the entity he worshipped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete. A case to be filed under 'M' for mankind... in the Twilight Zone."

Powerful stuff!

By Far the best Burgess Meredith episode. My second favorite he did. Acting by both Burgess and Weaver are top notch. A defining lesson and moral that never is out dated.
Finally an episode that Mr. Z and I completely agree on!

10! Without reservation and hesitation.

DrM

This is a an intelligent episode.
10 zones

Peace

Mr. Z,

I'm sure you are correct about our taste in zones. Just seems that the ones I've been commenting on as of late were also commented on by you in contradiction to my opinion. Loved the intellectual adversity, but became disheartening that it was always against you. I'm glad to come across one, TOM, in which we are in total agreement with each other.
To the gems we've yet to review,

DrM

This episode is a good reminder for us to seek peace.

Peace

Cool noir episode.

Peace.

Hmm, I voted on this some time ago and would hope I gave it a 10.

The courtroom set design was fantastic. One of my favorite sets in The Twilight Zone, next to the bin in Five Characters in Search of an Exit (which is my favorite episode)

Anyway, I love how in this episode, Burgess plays another man who has a love for books. And I love the aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAH thing towards the end too.