"The Night of the Meek", Poll and discussion thread

A drunken department-store Santa (Art Carney) finds a magic bag of gifts.
Originally aired December 23, 1960.

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

This is the preferred thread for any and all of your "The Night Of The Meek" 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.

And yes, the title is "The Night Of The Meek" (italics mine), beginning with the word "The." It says so on the episode ending credits, and according to "Dan Hollis," also says so in the teleplay. Thanks, Dan, for making me aware of this.

Let the discussion begin!

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

One of my top 15 or 16 or so. Either a 9 or 10 for me. The scene before Serling's introduction, when Corwin falls in the street and the kids run to him excitedly, is the only TZ scene I can think of that's ever made me teary-eyed. Yeah, let's make it a 10, then.

Definate 10 in my book. I'm going to watch this on every Christmas, if I can... I think Sci-Fi would play it on Christmas Eves, that'd be awesome.

This has really gone up on my list since joining the 5th D. Art Carney was good in anything but this one really gets to me now.

"8" A pleasure to watch.

Leen

I gave it a 10. It's one of my top 3 episodes. Just everything about it is perfect....

A sentimental favorite for sure. Years later, Art played Santa again to perfection in the movie "The Night They Saved Christmas".

http://tedstrong.com/graphics2003/carney-as-santa.jpg

This episode is one that I didn't care for at first, but I have really grown to enjoy it! It happens to be one of those sentimental episodes for me!

I enjoy this episode as well, especially being a fan of Art Carney. A Christmas TZ episode, what else could you want? Definitely going to watch this one on Christmas Eve.

I agree with those that rate 'Night of the Meek' a ten. I was lucky enough to get a copy at a local yardsale a little before Christmas. Even my mom. who is not very fond of TZ, loved it. We've added it to our "movies to watch every Christmas" list, along with Christmas Carol(1951) and Miracle on 34th Street(1947).

Welcome to the board Kathy!

I enjoy Art Carney's performance as the drunken Santa and John Fiedler's performance as Santa's manager highly, and the weird Christmas music is very interesting, but I wish they didn't use that horrendous videotape recording method. Still, this is a solid "8" episode.

- David

A great episode. I love it.

My Christmas season doesn't officially start until I've watched this and the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol (Alastair Sim is the ultimate Scrooge! ).

It's the same feel with me too Jayo. The Alastair Sim version is such a classic, it's the only one I can watch and I love it! It truly fills me with the Christmas spirit to watch that...too bad I have to wait another year

Oh and I love watching the cartoon version of Dr. Seuss' 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'

"Night of the Meek" is a wonderful addition to my Christmas Eve traditions
http://leapinbass.com/zone/picture_pages/t...02/tz047-11.jpg

Thanks for the welcome, patton29.

"How The Grinch Stole Christmas" is a Chistmas favorite of mine too --- also Charles Schultz's classic "Charlie Brown's Christmas".

A very sentimental story of a drunken department store Santa that has a few miracles in his bag…literally. I actually enjoyed the 1980's Twilight Zone remake more than the original.

By the way, I hate the look of the videotaped episodes. There were times when the fake snow reached blizzard-like intensity, which was funny to me.

A nice, Christmas story that can stand alone even apart from the TZ. Art Carney was well-cast.

Agree. One of the Zones you watch mainly for the performance. (Videotape did hurt this one, IMO.)

It's better than that, if we can believe Zicree. The episode was done, according to Buck Houghton, because Rod "wanted to see Art Carney play Santa Claus." In other words, the role was chosen for the actor, not vice versa, so it just had to be a perfect fit.

It's better than that, if we can believe Zicree. The episode was done, according to Buck Houghton, because Rod "wanted to see Art Carney play Santa Claus." In other words, the role was chosen for the actor, not vice versa, so it just had to be a perfect fit.

Well, it improves the odds anyway. Thanks for the info reminder, Dan.

You're welcome, and congratulations on making that Post #1500 for yourself. I'll have 13 more after this one to hit 1000.

Congratulations Beev! I just had my 300th post earlier today!

Thanks, and cheers all around!

In other milestone news, Leen's thread just passed 8,000 views today. (I think most of those have been in the last hour! )

this episode was sooo corny i don't like it at all:(

You will with time, Grasshopper. You will with time. There are definitely some Zones I never really cared for until years later.

I used to think it was corny, too! By the way, in the beginning in the bar, look how the bartender spells Merry Christmas! It only has one R! Hey, Leen I think this would be a great addition to the spittle thread!

I'll make a note

i seen it and didn't like it

I've always considered this to be intentional, since it's so obvious. It portrays Bruce as uneducated. Just about all of us have seen similarly misspelled signs in business establishments.

im sorry but this episode bore me

That's OK, Damin. You have a right to your opinion. Don't take my friend LeenZone seriously, she's a little silly sometimes. (Then again, so am I. )

I agree with Dan that Bruce's spelling error should be considered a Bruce flub, not an episode flub. By the way, I've known people who were well-read lovers of literature but whose spelling was just terrible.

i noticed this too..
i wish real snow was like that.. makes for easy shoveling!

i love the transformation of corwin from sad, crying drunk to happy, cheerful santa. great role for art carney.

i hate this episode

There are at least four consecutive posts pertaining to this episode, starting here.

Best Xmas episode ever...on any TV show.

As much as I like this episode, I respectfully disagree with this comment. The best Christmas episode of any series I've ever seen was from Amos 'N' Andy

By far the best of the videotaped episodes, IMHO.

Corny? Of course! But I've always loved the ending with the store manager and the cop. Oh was it perfect not to show what was going on up above and just leave it to those two cronies to sum it all up. Perfect. Makes you want to join their toast.

wasent that great needed more of "twilighty" feel tiit

On December 11, 1985, Bobby Rivers hosted a two-hour TZ special on WPIX in New York. It featured four episodes shown uncut and uninterrupted: "Eye of the Beholder," "The Invaders," "Time Enough at Last," and "The Night of the Meek." Two of the "Special Thanks" in the closing credits went to TZ Magazine and Marc Scott Zicree. I recorded the special on my VCR and still have the tape intact.

It was around this time that Viacom repackaged the series, and I believe it was during this repackaging that the final line of Rod's closing TNOTM narration -- "And a Merry Christmas to each and all!" -- was eliminated. Nevertheless, I'm happy to report that the line is present on my tape.

I have transferred the final 60 seconds of the episode's soundtrack, ending with the "lost" line, to an .mp3 file. If anyone would like a copy, please e-mail me (not a PM, since e-mail will give me a return address), and I'll send it to you.

I'd also be happy to make this file available online, so that anyone who clicks on a link (presumably included in a post in this thread) can hear it on demand. I don't have the resources to do this, but if anyone else can accomplish this if he had the .mp3, please e-mail me so that I can send it to you.

Note: I reserve the right to withdraw either or both of these offers if, for legal reasons, I'm requested to do so. I don't see sharing a one-minute sound byte as being any more illegal than the frequent posting of still photos from TZ episodes, but I'm not a lawyer.

Thanx, Dan, for moving this discussion here where it belongs,
as we were all muddling up Rod's birthday thread.

Not sure if it was directly established yet,
but the Definitive Edition does NOT contain the line in question.