9/10
They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar was possibly Rod Serling's last harrah on "Night Gallery"
1 December 2008
William Windom is Randolph Lane, a worker at a plastics company for the last 25 years who's been off drinking and reminiscing at the abandoned-and-about-to-be-torn Tim Riley's Bar. His boss (John Randolph) doesn't like it and is considering replacing him with his underling Harvey Doane (Burt Convy) who's quite a hotshot. Only his loyal secretary Lynn Alcott (Diane Baker) still treats him kindly. Lane's been having memories of his homecoming from the war and how happy he seemed to be when he first worked at his company as well as how sad he didn't get to say goodbye to his now-late wife. I'll stop there and say while Rod Serling wrote a very compelling tale of the effects of aging and how those years can pile on like a sledgehammer (a suitable word considering the story) due to alcohol and not having enough time to smell the roses, he backtracked on the ending which was probably forced on him by the network. Still, "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar" was possibly his last compelling work as a writer before his untimely death four years later. To which I can only add, rest in eternal peace, Mr. Serling...About the next shorter segment of the hour, "The Last Laurel", that one stars Jack Cassidy as Marius Davis, a man who's paralyzed from the legs with a bad back who suspects his wife of having an affair with his doctor. When a collapsed bridge forces the doctor to stay in the house, Marius finds he has an out-of-body experience that allows him to pick objects up at will. So he picks some scissors in order to kill his wife's alleged paramour. I'll stop there and just say that the length of about eight minutes seems just about right for this episode as one wouldn't want to spend another second with these not-so-very-nice people. So I don't think the ending affected me one way or another. And since I'm used to this kind of twist ending especially from Serling, it really wasn't much of a surprise to me. Still, it was pretty good as filler goes...P.S. This segment gets a 6.
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