Category: Whatcha Watchin’

Can you still kick the can?

July 15, 2022

In 1962 an episode of the Twilight Zone was entitled “Kick the Can”. It is the story of a group of old people who live in what was called a nursing home. Sixty years later we need to look at this story and remember what Rod Serling was trying to tell eight-year-old boys like me.

Charles and Ben have been life-long friends and are now roommates at Sunnyvale. Charles has decided that he is not as old as everyone thinks he is. While watching some kids playing in the street, he begins to believe that he only started to age when he quit playing games like hide and seek and kick the can.ch for kicking the can. It was always a game I played by myself when no one else was around. I preferred to sit under a tree with a book when I could. My first love was Cowboy Sam and as I became able to read more advanced literature I read “Podkayne of Mars” by Robert Heinlein. That was my introduction to Science Fiction.

My dad never allowed me to watch Twilight Zone or other Sci-Fi Shows. I watched them in reruns while in college. My brother bought a TV for our room, and we could watch anything we wanted. The late show was my friend.

Science fiction, including The Twilight Zone, deals with possibilities. That is what Charles was talking about. Is it possible that man’s thinking about aging was wrong? Today we have phrases like, “you’re only as old as you feel,” and “think young, act young, be young.” This episode of the show deals with our constant desire to stay young.

When what is now called America was first discovered by the Europeans, they wondered at the longevity of the natives of certain areas in south and central America. Rumors of a fountain of youth were frequently told. These stories were taken back, and more money was spent for further exploration.

In this story the idea of regaining youth is simple. After being separated from the others because he is called senile, he decides to make a break at night. Some of the others from the home go outside with him. Ben does not want any part of trying to become younger. The end of the show leads us to believe that Charlie was correct in his thinking.

What makes you feel younger? My grandchildren both make me younger and wear me out at the same time. What we eat can help us stay healthy and act younger. Proper exercise and healthy living practices can also extend our years.

The point made by Rod Serling is that we can make our years worse by simply thinking older. Think younger and be younger. Play can help us feel better. Take time for fun.

©Copyright 2022 by Charles Kensinger

The Shop Around the Corner

December 16, 2021

The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You’ve Got Mail are three movies that have a great deal in common. Jimmie Stewart and Margaret Sullavan made the 1940 picture The Shop Around the Corner from a script written by Samson Raphaelson.

Judy Garland and Van Johnson reprise the storyline and the characters in the 1949 semi-musical In the Good Old Summertime. The original play was known as Parfumerie written by Miklos Laszlo, a Hungarian American playwright. The third incarnation was She Loves Me, a 1963 Broadway musical.

The storyline is of a man and a woman who have been exchanging letters for some time and have fallen in love. The pair are coworkers in a perfume store and then in a music store. That changes in 1998’s You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Meg owns The Shop Around the Corner that is a bookstore. Tom Hanks is a CEO of a major chain of bookstores that are moving into the neighborhood.

They are exchanging messages in an AOL chat room. The scene where the couple agrees to meet at a local restaurant is almost identical in all the productions. He looks in and sees that she is a woman that hates him. When he enters and sees her, he doesn’t admit that he is her good friend. He makes fun of the other man. This is the plot in each script.

The unique part of the You’ve Got Mail movie is that the characters Meg and Tom play are involved with someone else and are keeping it a secret from their lovers. Can you be in love with someone you have not yet met? It is an intriguing question.

This was not the first play or movie where two adults who seem to hate each other become lovers. Another series of productions reverse the order. The original was The Front Page from 1931 tells of a newspaper reporter and his editor that have a falling out after being friends for years. That’s the reverse of a couple that hates each other and then falls in love.

What if the reporter is female and the editor is male? They are also a divorced couple. The 1940 movie His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell was the first incarnation of this twist. Switching Channels from 1988 teams Burt Reynolds with Sharon Stone as a cable news network owner and his top reporter that use the same story. Do you know any other movies or TV shows with the same story? I’d enjoy hearing about them.

©Copyright 2021 by Charles Kensinger