They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar/The Last Laurel
- Episode aired Jan 20, 1971
- TV-PG
- 51m
After years of competition in business, lonely widower Randy Lane recalls better times when he and his wife used to visit a local bar. / Crippled Marius Davis uses astral projection to exact... Read allAfter years of competition in business, lonely widower Randy Lane recalls better times when he and his wife used to visit a local bar. / Crippled Marius Davis uses astral projection to exact revenge on his wife Susan and her lover.After years of competition in business, lonely widower Randy Lane recalls better times when he and his wife used to visit a local bar. / Crippled Marius Davis uses astral projection to exact revenge on his wife Susan and her lover.
Photos
- Directors
- Daryl Duke(segment The Last Laurel)
- Don Taylor(segment They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar)
- Writers
- Rod Serling(segment They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar)
- Davis Grubb(segment The Last Laurel)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn this episode, the main character Randy Lane travels to his childhood home '67 Bennet Ave' which is also Rod Serling's childhood home address.
- Quotes
The Policeman (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): The party's over, Randy.
Sales Director Randy Lane (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): Over? Where's everybody gone?
The Policeman (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): They've gone to their respective rewards. Now, the party's been over for twenty-five years. Now c'mon, laddie, let's go home.
Sales Director Randy Lane (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): No, no, no, Officer McDermott, this is where it is, right here.
The Policeman (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): This is where what is, Randy?
Sales Director Randy Lane (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): The best years of my life. It may be that you decide to call downtown for the psycho squad, but something... different... has been happening to me. I keep getting beckoned to by ghosts. Every now and then, it's 1945. How do you like them apples? And if you think that sounds nutty, get a load of this. I wish those ghosts would stick around, they're the best friends I got. I feel a lot more comfortable with them than I do with these live, warm, flesh and blood bodies I ride up and down elevators with.
The Policeman (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): Randy, why don't you tell me all about it in the car?
Sales Director Randy Lane (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): Because I want to tell you about it here! Now I rate something more than I got! Where does it say that every morning of a man's life he's got to Indian wrestle with every hot, young contender off the sidewalk who has an itch to go up one rung? McDermott, I've put in my time, you understand that? I've paid my dues! I shouldn't be hustled to death in the daytime and then die of loneliness every night! That's not the dream! That's not what it's about!
The Policeman (segment "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar"): Okay, Randy, c'mon. I'll drive you home.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The 23rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1971)
The first is reminiscent of several Twilight Zone episodes, in which the central character -- middle-aged businessman Randy Lane (William Windom) -- longs for days gone by, when life seemed so much better. The tearing down of a local bar where he spent so many good times causes him to spiral into a miasma of self-pity, so that he is unable to see the good things that he has in the present: a great job, friends, and a caring, attractive secretary who has the hots for him. It's typical Serling sentimentality of the kind that worked so well in such TZ classics as Walking Distance and A Stop at Willoughby, but this particular story is extremely laboured and runs out of steam long before the schmaltzy ending.
The second tale is a lot shorter, and far better for it. Jack Cassidy plays ex-decathlon champion Marius Davis, now no longer able to walk. Convinced that his wife Susan (Martine Beswick) is being unfaithful, Marius has mastered the art of astral projection and plans to kill the man he believes to be her latest lover: his own physician. In an ironic twist, Marius loses his sense of direction while 'out of body' and winds up bashing in his own skull. Great fun!
- BA_Harrison
- Feb 19, 2023