Description: Season 4, Episode 15
Air Date: April 18, 1963
Plot Summary: An eccentric toy designer becomes unhinged after seeing visions of his childhood street and friends.
Review: This is definitely one of the weirder episodes out there, but it fails to be memorable in spite of this. It's primary flaw is that it feels too similar to previous episodes like "Walking Distance." The story explores nostalgia and how the past may not be as great as we want to remember it. Although TZ has touched on this material a number of times, there are other ways to spin the tale. Unfortunately, this episode did not change things up enough to make it feel unique in comparison to those other episodes.
This time around we have the titular Horace Ford who comes off as autistic or something. He keeps yelling his dialogue, going off into weird tangents about his own life as if others have experienced the events alongside him, changes subjects on an incoherent whim, and cannot adjust properly or interact normally. I really don't know what TZ was trying to display here. Nevertheless, Horace works as a toy designer which is perfect since he acts like a big kid and only talks about toys and games. Even with all of these issues, Horace still has a wife somehow. There is also a weird dynamic with Horace's mom living with them and the wife having to baby the mother. Again, I don't know what this is all about since a lot of throwaway details are added that go nowhere.
I think the episode was trying to portray a mid-life crisis before the concept had been established since Horace doesn't go off the deep end until his 38th birthday approaches. Horace revisits the street he grew up on, to reminisce, only to discover it's exactly as lively and amusing as he remembers it. Plus, three cents for a hotdog?! Umm, hello! I do dream of being a fatass time traveler, after all! Anyway, Horace is unnerved when he sees his friends are there as well but just as young as ever. The story somewhat explores the notion that you glamorize your memories, but they don't contrast it enough; we only see the mundane life Horace lives and the childhood he longs for...not the opposing sides. This, revisiting the street process, occurs a few times with Horace becoming more and more unstable with each passing. The wife sort of believes Horace since each night a boy visits their apartment to return a watch Horace drops. Toward the end, Horace's crazy antics get him fired from his job and this leads to him turning back into a kid at one point. His childhood friends beat him up for whatever reason too. The wife tries to find Horace, and we see how drab the street truly is. The wife gets Horace to turn back into an adult and they discuss how things aren't always as we remember. And that's pretty much it. Ehhh...there's nothing here we haven't heard before. The trouble is, other episodes did it better and did it first. I get that there is something about the growing up aspect, but the ideas aren't focused enough to bring clarity to the narrative.
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