Or, “Carl Barks Meets The Twilight Zone!”Every now and then, something surprises me enough to report on it here.
The FOURTH season of THE TWILIGHT ZONE was a series of hour-long shows, and has rarely been seen in syndication. In one such episode, “In His Image” (Aired January 03, 1963), we return from the teaser and opening commercial break to the following line, delivered by episode star George Grizzard, teasing his girlfriend:
“I’m so sorry to bother you Ma’am, but I, like, belong to THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS and, if you buy a ten-year subscription to the ‘Ladies Home Companion’, I get a genuine toy typewriter free! Now, wadda you say…”
Yes, he said “THE JUNIOR WOODCHUCKS”… a term that, to my knowledge, existed nowhere outside of the Donald Duck comic book stories of Carl Barks – and those stories later inspired by Barks.I wonder if Barks ever saw that one!
A coincidence, or had Duck fans infiltrated Rod Serling's staff? Stranger things have happened…
And, aren’t you glad I didn’t begin this post with “Submitted for your approval…”
1 comment:
Longtime friend Brent Swanson supplies the following information on why the term “Junior Woodchucks” appears in a 1963 episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE:
“Just read your Blogspot piece about the Junior Woodchucks reference in the ‘In His Image’ episode. The writer on that one was Charles Beaumont, who was very familiar with Barks and his work, having been a fellow writer for Western Pubs [the publisher of Carl Barks’ Disney comic book stories], and an all-round hip guy anyway. (I'm a bit more attuned to Beaumont at the moment since I just ran ‘7 Faces of Dr. Lao’ for the movie club I belong to.)”
Thank you, Brent. It’s great when things like this come together in unexpected ways!
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