Kevin McCarthy is quite good as popular college history professor Walter Jameson, whose lectures have the distinct air and sound of authenticity to them, especially when a mysterious diary of an unknown soldier is read from the American Civil War, which arouses the suspicions of a fellow professor whose daughter he is set to marry, even though Walter's past is soon to catch up with him in a long overdue fashion... Strong and compelling(if just a bit contrived) episode takes a familiar premise and makes inspired use of it, with seldom a dull moment or misstep. Good makeup F/X too in fondly remembered entry.
35 Reviews
Old enough to have known Plato
bkoganbing31 May 2013
Kevin McCarthy takes us into The Twilight Zone in this episode about a popular history professor who gives some really vivid lectures. As the episode opens his colleague and potential father-in-law Edgar Stehli listens in on his lecture on the Civil War reading some original source material from the diary of someone on William T. Sherman's staff during the siege of Atlanta.
How did he get in possession of the diary. Easy enough, he was there and he wrote it. In fact as he puts it he's old enough to have known Plato personally. Stehli is stunned by the revelation, about how he got to be that age. But he knows one thing, he can't marry his daughter Dody Heath.
The question is settled when someone from out of McCarthy's past played by Estelle Winwood settles the issue.
This is a favorite Twilight Zone episode of mine with McCarthy and Stehli giving great matched performances.
How did he get in possession of the diary. Easy enough, he was there and he wrote it. In fact as he puts it he's old enough to have known Plato personally. Stehli is stunned by the revelation, about how he got to be that age. But he knows one thing, he can't marry his daughter Dody Heath.
The question is settled when someone from out of McCarthy's past played by Estelle Winwood settles the issue.
This is a favorite Twilight Zone episode of mine with McCarthy and Stehli giving great matched performances.
Who Wants to Live Forever?
Coventry28 November 2016
If Sci-Fi cinema taught us just one thing, it's most certainly that craving for immortality is a big and sad mistake! Many movies and TV show episodes have brought forward protagonists, mainly scientists but also regular folks that somehow saw their wish granted but then spent the rest of eternity regretting it! Their motivation to live forever is usually that they think one lifetime is too short to fulfill their hopes and dreams, but they don't realize that their loved ones around them continue to age normally and die. Melancholic vampires also often struggle with this issue. The most famous and legendary tale regarding immortality is undoubtedly Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which got turned into a couple successful and less than successful movie adaptations already. This TZ-episode, written by specialist Charles Beaumont, brings a nice variation on the same theme. Walter Jameson has allegedly lived long enough already to have known Plato and serve as a Major in the Civil War, but he always kept a low profile and now poses as a history teacher at university. He's about to marry headmaster Kittridge's ravishing daughter Susanna, but Professor Kittridge has unmasked Walter. At the same time, someone's from Walter's more recent past has discovered his whereabouts. "Long Live Walter Jameson" isn't the most memorable episode of the show, or even the wonderful first season, but benefices from an intelligent script & dialogues as well as stellar performances. The climax is intense and original, as I don't recall ever having seen an immortal person standing face-to- face with an ex-wife who's now almost twice the age he is. The special effects during the finale (the archetypal accelerated ageing process) are excellent and Kevin McCarthy (star of the 1956 milestone "Invasion of the Body Snatchers") gives a very mature and engaged performance in the titular role. McCarthy died in 2010 at age 96. Not quite immortal just yet, but a beautiful age nevertheless.
great classic
richspenc15 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of my favorites. It has a lot of dialogue and not much in special effects until the last part but the dialogue is very good and I have most of it memorized and I'm still not tired of it, so that says something there. And the special effects are very chilling and moving. I really liked the bonding between history teacher Walter Jamison and his fiance's dad Sam. The lines even when Walter first arrives about Sam verses Suzana's cooking are good. It only gets better when Suzana leaves the scene and Sam starts questioning Walter's age and then discovers Walter's photograph in a Civil War book, the photograph being one of the very memorable things of the episode. The photo being the revelation of Sam finding out Walter's big ultamate secret, Walter's cornered and is forced to let Sam in on the truth of him being old enough to have known Plato personally. He tells Sam about meeting an alchemist 2000 years ago and him granting Walter's wish about wanting eternal life. He tells Sam about how over time, living forever is not as great as it seems and you start getting tired of living (I've seen that idea used already in the not as good TZ episode "Escape clause"). Walter tells Sam about his many different guises over the centuries including Hugh Skeleton, the Civil War general that he had been telling his history class about and whos picture is in the book Sam discovered. Walter also tells Sam of him having different marriages and different families through the times and having to eventually leave each one to avoid anyone getting suspicious. One of his past wives from the beginning of the 20th century when Walter was under a previous guise , who is now old, has tracked him down, unbeknownst to Walter. I liked Walter's philosophy about death being what gives life its meaning. He says "you love a rose because you know it will soon be gone, whoever loved a stone?". I won't reveal the ending here. This whole episode is fantastic.
Long Live The Twilight Zone!
telegonus31 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Long Live Walter Jameson is one of the best and best loved episode of the Twilight Zone TV series, and like so many from the first season it's different in mood and theme from the ones that came before and after it. The script is by the legendary science fiction and fantasy writer Charlies Beaumont, and it's directed by radio veteran Tony Leader.
The story is that of a perennially youthful looking history professor at a small college who, it strikes a colleague and friend of his, more than just a little too knowledgeable about the history he lectures about. This is particularly disturbing as the professor, the Walter Jameson of the episode's title, is engaged to be married to his colleague's daughter.
After a post-prandial chat, and during a game of chess with his, he hopes, father-in-law to be, Jameson admits that indeed that's him in the Matthew Brady photograph taken during the Civil War, and that indeed he's way over a hundred years old. More like two thousand, and counting.
Jameson acquired his gift of youth from a sorcerer of some kind millenia ago, and this enabled him to live an incredibly long time, and to have been married, raised children, and yet also see his family and friends die, many times over; and as he speaks the viewer learns that this gift has not granted him wisdom but is something nearer to a curse.
Even with his eternal youth Jameson yearns for death. In the end he gets his wish, and from an unusual source, as he is shot by an ancient wife he had abandoned decades earlier. The transformation of the still handsome and youthful looking Jameson to an old man, then a painfully wizened and crippled dusty old thing is probably the best special effect of the entire original Twilight Zone series.
There's wisdom in this episode, and a cruel irony as well, as author Charles Beaumont suffered from a rare medical condition that caused him to age prematurely and die before he was forty. Nor was the show's creator, host and frequent contributor, Rod Serling, destined for a long life, as he died before he turned fifty.
Yet the dark clouds that hung over these two men have silver linings for the viewer: The Twilight Zone has been in continual syndication since production closed in 1964. This may not be immortality but it's a very long time for what's become a cult TV series to remain popular, as it is to this day.
The story is that of a perennially youthful looking history professor at a small college who, it strikes a colleague and friend of his, more than just a little too knowledgeable about the history he lectures about. This is particularly disturbing as the professor, the Walter Jameson of the episode's title, is engaged to be married to his colleague's daughter.
After a post-prandial chat, and during a game of chess with his, he hopes, father-in-law to be, Jameson admits that indeed that's him in the Matthew Brady photograph taken during the Civil War, and that indeed he's way over a hundred years old. More like two thousand, and counting.
Jameson acquired his gift of youth from a sorcerer of some kind millenia ago, and this enabled him to live an incredibly long time, and to have been married, raised children, and yet also see his family and friends die, many times over; and as he speaks the viewer learns that this gift has not granted him wisdom but is something nearer to a curse.
Even with his eternal youth Jameson yearns for death. In the end he gets his wish, and from an unusual source, as he is shot by an ancient wife he had abandoned decades earlier. The transformation of the still handsome and youthful looking Jameson to an old man, then a painfully wizened and crippled dusty old thing is probably the best special effect of the entire original Twilight Zone series.
There's wisdom in this episode, and a cruel irony as well, as author Charles Beaumont suffered from a rare medical condition that caused him to age prematurely and die before he was forty. Nor was the show's creator, host and frequent contributor, Rod Serling, destined for a long life, as he died before he turned fifty.
Yet the dark clouds that hung over these two men have silver linings for the viewer: The Twilight Zone has been in continual syndication since production closed in 1964. This may not be immortality but it's a very long time for what's become a cult TV series to remain popular, as it is to this day.
Oscar Wilde Lives
Hitchcoc1 October 2008
There have been many fictional accounts of men who cannot die, who are able to transcend centuries. Dorian Gray is the most obvious one. In this portrayal, Kevin McCarthy is about to be married to a pretty young woman. It is found out during the episode that his face has been seen in a Civil War picture. We come to know that this man has been around for centuries. He has had wife after wife, grown tired of them when they aged, and then moved on. Unfortunately for him, one of those wives is still alive and fingers him, ruining his plans. This is a tightly done rework of the Oscar Wilde story without a painting. As is the archetypal result, this cannot go on forever.
'You just go on living.Thats all'.
darrenpearce11130 December 2013
Kevin McCarthy is impressive as the ancient history professor, tired of thousands of years of life. Egdar Stehli matches him as his colleague and prospective father-in-law to the pipe-smoking Methusala. McCarthy plays Jameson as blasé about life, only really excited by lecturing on long ago history in which he was an active participant. Stehli plays Professor Kitteridge as a sensitive, rapidly aging man who fears death. That he refuses to let his thirty-year-old daughter marry Jameson seems like a patriarchal order from an earlier era.
One of so many interesting stories by Charles Beaumont in TZ. Intriguingly set up from the beginning with the stalking presence of Estelle Winwood.
The real life longevity of McCarthy and Winwood has been mentioned. Also Stehli lived to 89.
One of so many interesting stories by Charles Beaumont in TZ. Intriguingly set up from the beginning with the stalking presence of Estelle Winwood.
The real life longevity of McCarthy and Winwood has been mentioned. Also Stehli lived to 89.
No Geritol Needed
dougdoepke6 August 2006
Excellent entry from that magical first year. Kevin Mc Carthy's history professor appears to know a lot more about history than what's in the books. His photo even turns up in a Civil War album. Prospective father-in-law Edgar Stehli gets suspicious and confronts him. Is he really just 39 or just pretending. Theme allows writer Charles Beaumont to philosophize about life's ultimates-- life, death, love, eternity. Also, allows Serling to convey his agnostic leanings in the postscript. Mc Carthy makes a persuasive professor, although Stehli seems a little too bland. The script may be talkier than most; however the action picks up with the conclusion that is both well done and quite fitting. All in all, this is one of the episodes that won the series an enthusiastic following and has helped maintain its classic standing over the years.
"It's death that gives this world it's point".
classicsoncall20 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Walter Jameson (Kevin McCarthy) has the kind of knowledge that can't be found in books. A couple thousand years ago, an ancient alchemist put him in a coma with a potion that gave him the secret of eternal life. What I would want to know is what happened to the alchemist? Did he himself take advantage of the occult arts, or simply pass away in his own due time. For this is at the heart of the matter of the Walter Jameson story, just as it was in Twilight Zone episode #1.6 - 'Escape Clause'. It's the unintended consequence that gets you every time, even in cases of immortality. One doesn't consider up front what living forever actually portends, outliving loved ones who grow old and die, while contriving ways to explain away one's own youthful appearance with the passage of time. There's another issue too that I haven't seen dealt with in stories like this; how does one cope with the advance of science and technology when the mind one grows up with is conditioned to an earlier era? My eighty year old mother can't quite grasp the concept of the internet and e-mail, while I in turn can't quite grasp the concept of Lady Gaga. Perhaps future discoveries that hold out the promise of prolonged life will also offer the ability to cope with it as well.
"I dreamed, as you dream, of immortality..."
meansphene13 May 2017
"Long Live Walter Jameson" is a wonderful episode, one of my favorites. It explores a straightforward, yet very interesting concept: what happens to an otherwise ordinary man who cannot die?
Unlike many Twilight Zone episodes that famously conclude with an ironic twist, "Walter Jameson" doesn't finish by upending all that the viewer has seen for the first twenty or so minutes. In fact, the finish isn't really surprising at all. Jameson's immortality is revealed early on, and then rather neatly gets out of the way so that a quiet, contemplative story of character, loneliness, and fear can be told. Interestingly, there is a subtle twist that is almost easy to miss -- when Walter and his friend Sam are having the discussion that is the focus of the whole episode, it's not exactly clear which one of them really is the "older" (i.e. wiser) man.
Kevin McCarthy and Edgar Stehli do great work as the jaded immortal Walter Jameson, and his all too mortal friend, Sam Kitteridge. Watch in particular Stehli's delicate reactions as Kitteridge learns the truth about Jameson and discovers the real consequences of living forever.
This is an engrossing episode, which takes place almost entirely in a single room, and with hardly any musical backing. I rate it as one of the five best of the entire series. Enjoy. 9.5/10
Unlike many Twilight Zone episodes that famously conclude with an ironic twist, "Walter Jameson" doesn't finish by upending all that the viewer has seen for the first twenty or so minutes. In fact, the finish isn't really surprising at all. Jameson's immortality is revealed early on, and then rather neatly gets out of the way so that a quiet, contemplative story of character, loneliness, and fear can be told. Interestingly, there is a subtle twist that is almost easy to miss -- when Walter and his friend Sam are having the discussion that is the focus of the whole episode, it's not exactly clear which one of them really is the "older" (i.e. wiser) man.
Kevin McCarthy and Edgar Stehli do great work as the jaded immortal Walter Jameson, and his all too mortal friend, Sam Kitteridge. Watch in particular Stehli's delicate reactions as Kitteridge learns the truth about Jameson and discovers the real consequences of living forever.
This is an engrossing episode, which takes place almost entirely in a single room, and with hardly any musical backing. I rate it as one of the five best of the entire series. Enjoy. 9.5/10
There can be only one.
BA_Harrison6 July 2017
If you could live forever, would you really want to? To remain the same age while all those you love grow old and die? These are the questions posed by this episode of The Twilight Zone, which stars Kevin McCarthy as history professor Walter Jameson, whose future father-in-law Sam Kittridge (Edgar Stehli) comes to suspect that Jameson's in-depth knowledge of the past is down to first-hand experience.
Long Live Walter Jameson is a very talky episode, mostly consisting of scenes of dialogue between McCarthy and Stehli, but that doesn't stop it from being a very entertaining tale, thanks to the excellent script by Charles Beaumont, which keeps the viewer intrigued throughout, and fine performances from the two male leads.
Others here on IMDb have mentioned TV shows and films that might have been influenced by this episode. I'd like to add '80s fantasy classic Highlander to the list, Russell Mulcahy's film exploring very similar territory.
Long Live Walter Jameson is a very talky episode, mostly consisting of scenes of dialogue between McCarthy and Stehli, but that doesn't stop it from being a very entertaining tale, thanks to the excellent script by Charles Beaumont, which keeps the viewer intrigued throughout, and fine performances from the two male leads.
Others here on IMDb have mentioned TV shows and films that might have been influenced by this episode. I'd like to add '80s fantasy classic Highlander to the list, Russell Mulcahy's film exploring very similar territory.
one of Beaumont's best
HelloTexas114 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The central conceit of this first-season episode written by Charles Beaumont is simple, yet marvelously played out. Walter Jameson (Kevin McCarthy) is a college professor engaged to be married to an elder colleague's daughter. The older professor, Samuel Kittridge (Edgar Stehli), has noticed something odd though about Jameson- in the twelve years they've known each other, Kittridge has become an old man while Jameson hasn't aged at all. Then the truth is admitted by Jameson- he's over two thousand years old and the college professor he claims to be now is just the latest in an almost endless series of guises he's adopted over the centuries to keep from being found out. In one beautifully written scene in Kittridge's living room, Jameson gives us an idea what it must be like to live for so long. Without being terribly specific, the mental image he paints is not a happy one. Always outliving friends and colleagues, having to abandon wives and family before they realized he wasn't aging... the existence he describes, far from being some wondrous miracle, comes across as bleak and desperate, hollow and dishonest. The final scene has one of his previous wives, now a very old woman, finding him and killing him, before he can marry again and continue the endless cycle. McCarthy's performance and accompanying trick lighting and make-up while he is dying and aging rapidly is quite convincing, even now, and very eerie. A stellar episode of 'The Twilight Zone,' and one of Charles Beaumont's best scripts.
Don't get your pic taken
Calicodreamin30 May 2021
Eerily prophetic?
PrometheusTree6427 September 2010
Kevin McCarthy and Estelle Winwood became the oldest active actors in
the Screen Actors' Guild decades after appearing in "Long Live Walter Jameson" on THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
That was always uncanny, given the storyline.
But it's even eerier now that Kevin McCarthy has just died. And why? Well, one of the things in "Long Live Walter Jameson" that some people have noticed in recent years was the reference in his diary to the city being destroyed on "Tuesday, September 11th", 42 years before the 9/11 attacks.
So now McCarthy's death date of Septemeber 11th seems equally odd.
the Screen Actors' Guild decades after appearing in "Long Live Walter Jameson" on THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
That was always uncanny, given the storyline.
But it's even eerier now that Kevin McCarthy has just died. And why? Well, one of the things in "Long Live Walter Jameson" that some people have noticed in recent years was the reference in his diary to the city being destroyed on "Tuesday, September 11th", 42 years before the 9/11 attacks.
So now McCarthy's death date of Septemeber 11th seems equally odd.
Nothing lasts forever
Woodyanders25 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Walter Jameson (superbly played by Kevin McCarthy) teaches history at a local college and displays an uncannily thorough understanding of the subjects he lectures about. As he should, because Jameson is actually an immortal who has been alive for well over two thousand years.
Director Anton Leader relates the neat and engrossing story at a steady pace as well as ably crafts an appropriately sober and mysterious mood. Charles Beaumont's smart and literate script not only makes a potent and provocative central point about death being a natural part of the cycle of life, but also poignantly points out the bitter and lonely price one must pay for living forever. McCarthy anchors this episode with his strong and thoughtful work as Jameson; he receives sturdy support Edgar Stehli as suspicious professor Sam Kittridge, Estelle Winwood as aged former wife Laurette Bowen, and Dodie Heath as perky fiancé Susanna. An on the money show.
Director Anton Leader relates the neat and engrossing story at a steady pace as well as ably crafts an appropriately sober and mysterious mood. Charles Beaumont's smart and literate script not only makes a potent and provocative central point about death being a natural part of the cycle of life, but also poignantly points out the bitter and lonely price one must pay for living forever. McCarthy anchors this episode with his strong and thoughtful work as Jameson; he receives sturdy support Edgar Stehli as suspicious professor Sam Kittridge, Estelle Winwood as aged former wife Laurette Bowen, and Dodie Heath as perky fiancé Susanna. An on the money show.
LONG LIVE THE PROFESSOR???
tcchelsey3 May 2022
William Tuttle, the first makeup specialist to win an Oscar, did an outstanding job with this episode. In all, he was behind twelve TZ classics.
Definitely, you need an abundance of makeup for this creepy tale, starring Kevin McCarthy, playing a young, up and coming professor who apparently has nine lives and was actually in the Civil War!
Is this guy a warlock? Been watching this for decades and still can't get enough of it, all the more reason why Rod Serling was a master storyteller.
The professor's future father in law (well played by Edgar Stehli) uncovers the truth. Best is veteran actress Estelle Winwood who turns out to be HIS WIFE, or at least one of them from decades past! A campy tale, not to be missed, truly hits the macabre bullseye.
The ending transformation is fantastic, and where William Tuttle works his makeup magic. Perhaps one of the most rerun TZ episodes, if not the most talked about. It (may) have inspired DARK SHADOWS to a slight degree, or at least a few very similar episodes where vampire Barnabas Collins likewise rapidly "lost" his youth.
Over the top 10 STARS. SEASON 1 EPISODE 24.
Definitely, you need an abundance of makeup for this creepy tale, starring Kevin McCarthy, playing a young, up and coming professor who apparently has nine lives and was actually in the Civil War!
Is this guy a warlock? Been watching this for decades and still can't get enough of it, all the more reason why Rod Serling was a master storyteller.
The professor's future father in law (well played by Edgar Stehli) uncovers the truth. Best is veteran actress Estelle Winwood who turns out to be HIS WIFE, or at least one of them from decades past! A campy tale, not to be missed, truly hits the macabre bullseye.
The ending transformation is fantastic, and where William Tuttle works his makeup magic. Perhaps one of the most rerun TZ episodes, if not the most talked about. It (may) have inspired DARK SHADOWS to a slight degree, or at least a few very similar episodes where vampire Barnabas Collins likewise rapidly "lost" his youth.
Over the top 10 STARS. SEASON 1 EPISODE 24.
Another Variation on the Belief That Death Can Take a Holiday!
malvernp1 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
This well-remembered TZ episode from its fabulous first season touches upon a theme that has long been explored as a popular subject of fantasy fiction. The Ides of apparent immortality and its real and unintended consequences may remind many readers of Dorian Gray and his Portrait as famously described by Oscar Wilde. However, there have been many other literary examples that pursued the possible fictional results that flow from being able to live well beyond a normal lifespan. For example, the High Lama character in James Hilton's Lost Horizon is a man who had survived several lifetimes while waiting for the right person to take his place in Shangri-La. And in the MGM film version of Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Hendrik van der Zee is afflicted with a longevity spanning hundreds of years while he searches for the woman who will lift his curse and allow him to find peace. And we should not forget the many humorous possibilities of living an extraordinary lifetime as explored by Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks in their celebrated 2000 Year Old Man classic comedy sketch.
There is nothing particularly humorous or romantic about Long Live Walter Jameson (LLWJ). For all its amazing fantasy elements, we are presented with a quite serious exposition on the concept of immortality. Most TZ episodes are either story-driven or special effects-driven. Many of the better ones (like LLWJ) really reflect a combination of both. Charles Beaumont's fine script for LLWJ contains a literate discussion between the two protagonists (Kevin McCarthy and Edgar Stehli) about McCarthy's unfortunate situation of looking young but being quite old as this is relevant to his current involvement with Stehli's rather nubile daughter. The tragic aspects of this dilemma are intellligently considered, and ultimately bring doom to the McCarthy character. The strength of this story flows from our fascination with the concept of immortality as a curse rather than a blessing, and the high quality of Beaumont's inspired prose.
As for the special effects used in LLWJ, they are truly remarkable. William Tuttle, then head of the MGM makeup department, devised a series of three different age makeups for McCarthy that allowed him in an almost seamless way to transition from youthful life to a most elderly death in just one scene. The end result seems far more impressive than what was used on Hurd Hatfield for his climactic death in MGM's earlier theatrical film version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
LLWJ is one more splendid entry from TZ's memorable first season. Its success helps to explain why TZ continues to appeal to us after over 60 years since first being broadcast.
There is nothing particularly humorous or romantic about Long Live Walter Jameson (LLWJ). For all its amazing fantasy elements, we are presented with a quite serious exposition on the concept of immortality. Most TZ episodes are either story-driven or special effects-driven. Many of the better ones (like LLWJ) really reflect a combination of both. Charles Beaumont's fine script for LLWJ contains a literate discussion between the two protagonists (Kevin McCarthy and Edgar Stehli) about McCarthy's unfortunate situation of looking young but being quite old as this is relevant to his current involvement with Stehli's rather nubile daughter. The tragic aspects of this dilemma are intellligently considered, and ultimately bring doom to the McCarthy character. The strength of this story flows from our fascination with the concept of immortality as a curse rather than a blessing, and the high quality of Beaumont's inspired prose.
As for the special effects used in LLWJ, they are truly remarkable. William Tuttle, then head of the MGM makeup department, devised a series of three different age makeups for McCarthy that allowed him in an almost seamless way to transition from youthful life to a most elderly death in just one scene. The end result seems far more impressive than what was used on Hurd Hatfield for his climactic death in MGM's earlier theatrical film version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
LLWJ is one more splendid entry from TZ's memorable first season. Its success helps to explain why TZ continues to appeal to us after over 60 years since first being broadcast.
To have eternal life is to be cursed.
mark.waltz20 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
While the character of Walter Jameson, played by Kevin McCarthy, is not a vampire, he might as well have a stake put through his heart because he desperately needs to find peace and he won't find it with the type of life that he has. As one of the top college professors at his university, he has a beautiful fiance (Dody Heath) and a promising future that looks bright and happy. But on the inside, McCarthy is hiding a desperate secret and it is one that he cannot escape from: his destiny. Prospective father-in-law Edgar Stehli admires his work but has suspicions about McCarthy's past which are soon proven right. A strange older woman (Estelle Winwood) stocks McCarthy and after a confrontation between McCarthy and Stehli, she confronts him as a woman from his past. What is this past, and how will it affect his future? Or more importantly how will it affect the future of Heath or any other woman that he will become involved with? Stehli, aware of the truth and concerned about his own pending mortality, struggles to learn McCarthy's secret, something even McCarthy is unable to control or explain. There's only one way out and like ashes to ashes and dust to dust, McCarthy will find his Twilight Zone with hopeful rest.
The character of Zorba the Greek once said he met an old man who lived as if he would never die, but lived himself as if he would die any minute. Either way, both characters were grabbing at life but here, the two men discuss the exact same differences and it has a completely different meaning. McCarthy wants to die but is too afraid to take the step, while Stehli who is slowly dying of old age desperately wants to stop that process and be able to live forever irregardless of the aging process. This has many moral questions asked that the scripts does not directly answer, and there lies in the strength of this episode, a philosophical opening for discussion of the importance of living life while you have it and avoiding prolonging it irregardless of destiny. The themes are touching and poignant, and are relevant in any era. That therein lies the beauty of this episode, a fight that man has that he can never win.
The character of Zorba the Greek once said he met an old man who lived as if he would never die, but lived himself as if he would die any minute. Either way, both characters were grabbing at life but here, the two men discuss the exact same differences and it has a completely different meaning. McCarthy wants to die but is too afraid to take the step, while Stehli who is slowly dying of old age desperately wants to stop that process and be able to live forever irregardless of the aging process. This has many moral questions asked that the scripts does not directly answer, and there lies in the strength of this episode, a philosophical opening for discussion of the importance of living life while you have it and avoiding prolonging it irregardless of destiny. The themes are touching and poignant, and are relevant in any era. That therein lies the beauty of this episode, a fight that man has that he can never win.
The Twilight Zone-Long Live Walter Jameson
Scarecrow-881 January 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Kevin McCarthy stars as a history professor with a secret, he's over 2000 years old and knew Plato personally! His fiancé's elderly father figures it out when he sees a Civil War photograph with Walter Jameson in Sherman's army and questions his potential future son-in-law about it. Jameson coughs it up, saying an alchemist was responsible and so Professor Samuel Kittredge(Edgar Stehli)beckons him for answers as to how he could halt the dying process. LONG LIVE WALTER JAMESON is essentially a dialogue movie with aging make-up wizardry at the very end which might remind others of David Bowie's fate in THE HUNGER. McCarthy and Stehli have a specifically long conversation on aging and the detrimental effects which come with having immortality, watching others die as you remain the same. Estelle Winwood's role, while small, is significant in that she is one of those who suffered thanks to Jameson's non-aging, while responsible for his downfall. Dody Heath is the woman who could become Winwood's Laurette if Jameson isn't stopped from marrying her. Anchored by McCarthy's credible performance as a man who doesn't look a day over 42 and yet feels every year he has been alive, admitting he is too afraid to use the revolver in his drawer to end the misery which comes with outliving those you love.
One of the most thought-provoking and profound episodes in the series
grantss5 January 2020
Tom Jameson is a history professor at a college. He is engaged to marry the daughter of Professor Kittridge, a colleague and friend. Things get complicated when Jameson reveals that he is over 2,000 years old.
The average episode of the Twilight Zone was entertaining and intriguing but not always profound. The worst episodes were quite predictable with a twist and/or ending you could see a mile off.
The best ones were not only intriguing but thought-provoking and profound and this is such an episode. Interesting story that covers themes like life and death, and what lies between, in an objective way and certainly makes you think about your own mortality.
Superb.
The average episode of the Twilight Zone was entertaining and intriguing but not always profound. The worst episodes were quite predictable with a twist and/or ending you could see a mile off.
The best ones were not only intriguing but thought-provoking and profound and this is such an episode. Interesting story that covers themes like life and death, and what lies between, in an objective way and certainly makes you think about your own mortality.
Superb.
Immortality
AvionPrince1619 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
So the episode is focus of that man who seem to have immortality and lived trough times. We have some talks about life, the non permanent things in life, that nothing is eternal, talk about death, grow old, life in general. I mean it was pretty interesting and like also that to be wise dont come necessary with become old. Clearly not. We have also talks about how immortality look like and the suffering to see our own family died and to not get old. But our actions always have consequences. We cant avoid that. So that man get killed by one of his ex. Life is not eternal and because is temporary that make it more beautiful and intense.
Timeless Classic
robinc-7495925 July 2021
A marvelous, thoughtful piece of science fiction. Kevin McCarthy's performance as a dashing middle-aged professor is exceptional, including a gripping (albeit apocryphal) history lecture, an impetuous marriage proposal, and a surge of guilt and heartbreak. A climactic confrontation toward the end of the episode--beautifully directed, in which a ghostly character appears before Walter Jameson and bids him look into her eyes--calls to mind Hamlet's mournful lament to the skull of Yorick: "Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that."
He lived long enough
sol-kay27 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILER** Brilliant history professor Walter Jameson, Kevin McCarthy,has been wowing his students as well as collage faculty members for some 12 years with his BS stories about historic events dating back to the ancient Greeks. How does Jameson come up with all these stories of events that happened hundreds if not thousands of years ago with such clarity and imagination? It's as if he was there at the time both observing and even taking part in them!
That's what Prof Jameson's colleague 70 year old chemistry professor Sam Kittridge, Edger Stehli, thought about him until one day looking at old photos of the Civil War Kittridge spotted a person on the Union's General Sherman's staff that's the spitting image of Walter Jameson! In fact the person a Col. Hugh Skelton is the very same person who Jameson was reading to his students excerpts from his personal diary of the burning down of Atlanta back in 1864 by Sherman's men!
As Kittridge starts to ask some deep and very probings questions about Jameson's past he finally gets him to admit the dark secret that he's been keeping from him and everyone else he knew in his life. Jameson is a lot older then he looks, a lot lot older, and no matter how hard he tries he just can't get himself to die. Being the coward that he was and still is back some 3,000 years ago Jameson, or whoever he was at that time, had himself treated by this Egyptian alchemist who made him immortal! This feeling of immortality has since worn off with Jameson outliving his friends family and, over the last 3,000 years, scores of wives!
Despite his past in knowing that he'll outlive any woman he marries Jameson has his sights set on Prof. Kittridge's 30 year old daughter Susanna, Dodie Hearth, a graduated student at the collage that he and Prof. Kittridge teaches at. Susanna had fallen madly in love with the tall graying handsome and well spoken, on historical matters, Jameson and nothing on this God's earth, including her father, is going to stop her from marrying the big hunk. That's until one of Prof. Jameson's former spouses, who he left out in the cold, 78 year old Lauretta Bowen, Estelle Winwood, has something to say about it!
***SPOILERS*** Having found out about her former husband Thomas "Tommy Boy" Bowen, now calling himself Walter Jameson, forthcoming marriage to Susanna Kitteridge in the local newspaper's society column Lauretta decided to pay him a visit. Not to talk about the good old days but to pay the two-timing heel back for everything that he did to her and also prevent him from doing the same thing to the unsuspecting Susanna Kittridge! And in that put her former estranged and long suffering husband, in being sick and tired of living, out of his misery! Something that he's been trying to do for centuries but didn't quite have the guts to do it himself!
That's what Prof Jameson's colleague 70 year old chemistry professor Sam Kittridge, Edger Stehli, thought about him until one day looking at old photos of the Civil War Kittridge spotted a person on the Union's General Sherman's staff that's the spitting image of Walter Jameson! In fact the person a Col. Hugh Skelton is the very same person who Jameson was reading to his students excerpts from his personal diary of the burning down of Atlanta back in 1864 by Sherman's men!
As Kittridge starts to ask some deep and very probings questions about Jameson's past he finally gets him to admit the dark secret that he's been keeping from him and everyone else he knew in his life. Jameson is a lot older then he looks, a lot lot older, and no matter how hard he tries he just can't get himself to die. Being the coward that he was and still is back some 3,000 years ago Jameson, or whoever he was at that time, had himself treated by this Egyptian alchemist who made him immortal! This feeling of immortality has since worn off with Jameson outliving his friends family and, over the last 3,000 years, scores of wives!
Despite his past in knowing that he'll outlive any woman he marries Jameson has his sights set on Prof. Kittridge's 30 year old daughter Susanna, Dodie Hearth, a graduated student at the collage that he and Prof. Kittridge teaches at. Susanna had fallen madly in love with the tall graying handsome and well spoken, on historical matters, Jameson and nothing on this God's earth, including her father, is going to stop her from marrying the big hunk. That's until one of Prof. Jameson's former spouses, who he left out in the cold, 78 year old Lauretta Bowen, Estelle Winwood, has something to say about it!
***SPOILERS*** Having found out about her former husband Thomas "Tommy Boy" Bowen, now calling himself Walter Jameson, forthcoming marriage to Susanna Kitteridge in the local newspaper's society column Lauretta decided to pay him a visit. Not to talk about the good old days but to pay the two-timing heel back for everything that he did to her and also prevent him from doing the same thing to the unsuspecting Susanna Kittridge! And in that put her former estranged and long suffering husband, in being sick and tired of living, out of his misery! Something that he's been trying to do for centuries but didn't quite have the guts to do it himself!
Live Long And Prosper
Lejink29 November 2022
One of the more improbable "Twilight Zone" episodes as we're introduced to Kevin McCarthy's handsome, charismatic middle-aged University lecturer. He has a younger girlfriend, the very kept-daughter of an older colleague who has his suspicions about just how uncannily realistic his descriptions are of events which obviously happened years before he was born.
After dinner at the older prof's house, when the 30-year-old daughter has been safely packed off to bed (!), he confronts McHale with a Civil War snap-shot of seemingly the latter's doppelganger and demands an explanation. And just who is the little old lady keeping tabs on McHale outside his house...
No explanations are offered for the big revelation of the piece to which I guess the short running-time lends itself, so it's probably just one of those where you suspend your disbelief and putting aside the chauvinism of the time, maybe class it as one of the lesser episodes of the classic series.
After dinner at the older prof's house, when the 30-year-old daughter has been safely packed off to bed (!), he confronts McHale with a Civil War snap-shot of seemingly the latter's doppelganger and demands an explanation. And just who is the little old lady keeping tabs on McHale outside his house...
No explanations are offered for the big revelation of the piece to which I guess the short running-time lends itself, so it's probably just one of those where you suspend your disbelief and putting aside the chauvinism of the time, maybe class it as one of the lesser episodes of the classic series.
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