Air Date: June 17, 1960
Plot Summary: A robot is secretly added to a failing baseball team's lineup to turn things around.
Review: While this a fairly straightforward episode, there was a lot going on behind the scenes worth mentioning. For one, the original actor cast to play the manager died shortly after filming, and Mr. Serling and crew felt it would be a disservice to air the episode as is; the actor was succumbing to his illness while filming. Being the assholes they were/are, CBS didn't want to pay for a re-shoot so Mr. Serling and crew ended up paying for it personally. Now that's integrity you rarely see anymore. At the same time, this re-shoot created various editing inconsistencies and other behind the scenes problems. Sheesh.
Anyway, the story is simply about a terrible baseball team that are meant to be the worst in the league; the team is fictional by the way. The manager of the team is losing his shit after the pitiful display of the current players, and it was kind of amusing in a way; I liked when the one dude was exorcising and the manager is like, "Yeah, we see you." The manager is also played by the same actor from "The Lonely," Jack Warden, who must really love his robutts (and must they pronounce it like that?). And, again, the robot is more of an android than a true robot. A scientist brings this robot, named Casey, to the baseball field to try out, and he blows away any human player. It was a bit awkward when the manager meets Casey, though, because he like orgasms or something. I believe the emotion you were looking for, Mr. Warden, was pain, but you play it however you wish, buddy.
After seeing Casey in action, the manager decides to quietly add him to the team without revealing he's really a robot. Does it even matter--considering when people find out Casey's a robot they're completely nonchalant about it? I don't know about you, but if I found out someone was really a robot I'd be seriously unnerved...and this is more than 50 years later! So, yes, after winning endlessly, it is discovered Casey is not human, and the team is nearly expelled until they find a loophole to exploit. The baseball officials claim they are only bothered by the fact that Casey has no "heart;" no clarity on whether that's figurative or literal. Because the scientist thinks making a robot is a walk in the park, he says give me a second, brah, and magically creates a full-fledged artificial intelligence. With Casey becoming pretty much sentient, he cannot bring himself to cheat with his superhuman abilities and lets the team lose. It was funny that they kept cutting to the scoreboard to show the giant margin of loss. I know that's cliched as hell, but usually when other films do it the innings keep going up and TZ kept the blowout in the top of the first inning. Casey then decides he wants to do something more meaningful with his life as the manager and scientist concoct a plan to create a team of robot players. The episode ends with the implication that they did, in fact, create a robot team in the form of the Dodgers, but I don't know enough about baseball history to know if there was another team TZ could be referencing.
Overall, this is a mostly forgettable episode. It has its moments and moderate gags, but it's more zany antics than anything. I appreciate the trouble that went into presenting the episode, but there's not a lot of depth to the story. I know it was meant to be another comedic episode, but I don't like those for the most part. Or maybe it's the fact that the huge dork in me can't seem to watch anything baseball related without perpetually singing "take me out to the ball game" continually in my head (sometimes aloud).
No comments:
Post a Comment