User Reviews

TEACHER'S AIDE is the kind of story I was hoping for from THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE. It stars cult favourite Adrienne Barbeau as a struggling teacher in an inner city area who finds herself cursed with some new powers thanks to a sinister gargoyle sitting atop the school roof. Soon she's beating up students with aplomb but her newly-found demonic powers demand payment.

This is cheesy in the extreme and chock-full of dated special effects, but most importantly it's fun! The simple story is just enough to fill the scant running time and Barbeau is always good value too, making this one of the more enjoyable episodes of the series I've experienced.

PALADIN OF THE LOST HOUR isn't too bad either. It's an effective two-hander featuring old-time actor Danny Kaye in one of his last performances as an old-timer in possession of a special fob watch. The story begins with him being ambushed by a gang of robbers, only to have a young guy fend them off and help him out. It soon turns out the guy has issues of his own, but a touching relationship develops between the two men. The fantasy aspects are limited here but I appreciated the acting and the mature storytelling.

Episode 7 of the series once again has two segments. The first "Teacher's Aide" has Adrienne Barbeau as a school teacher who one day while breaking up a fight, is possessed by the gargoyle statue outside the school. As expected she uses the power to take down a gang of jerks who have run rampant over the school. Fun little monster episode, I love how 80s it is as the gangs in here look like there straight off the Michael Jackson "Beat It" music video. The second "Paladin of the Lost Hour" is a well written story of a widowed man who contains a magical pocket watch witch holds the last hour of his life in it, he is saved by a former Vietnam vet who saves him from robbers one day. The two men despite being totally different form a unique and touching friendship. Very nice and touching episode which benefits from the fact that's it well acted and directed. Very good episode.

Having been a public school teacher for over forty years, I could relate to the urge to do what Adrienne Barbeau did to those jerks. Of course, she was possessed. I don't know what the deal was with that school, but had it been realistic, there would have been something positive about it. This is a base monster movie with little to recommend it. The second episode was much better. It features Danny Kaye as a wise old man who has a magical watch. It seems that once the Pope had to reset the clocks in the world and as a result and hour was lost. But this is a story about friendship between two men, both of whom have suffered inestimable losses. One is a guy who was still alive after facing near certain death in Vietnam. The other who misses his wife desperately. They are strangers at first but form a loving bond. It's quite a wonderful, well written episode.

Episode 7 of "The Twilight Zone" from the CBS 1985-1986 season featured two segments and both were pretty good and touching in memory. They were "Teacher's Aide" and "Paladin of the Lost Hour". I will give my take and view on each.

"Teacher's Aide" stared veteran B movie cult actress the sexy Adrienne Barbeau as an inner city high school teacher Miss Peters who teaches English at a school that's run by a tough and nasty group of students that are both thugs and gang members. She desperately wants to make a difference, yet the challenge is tough then something strange happens. Outside the school one day while breaking up a fight on the yard an up above statute of a demon like gargoyle is struck by lighting and upon her looking up at it's eyes they reflect to her and it's like she becomes possessed! Now the discipline and command of respect comes from students, really a neat way to handle things. Overall good story and concept, making all of us wonder what it would be like to have some kind of special powers that we could use at our jobs to make people do what we want them to. Plus it's always great to view Barbeau.

The second segment "Paladin of the Lost Hour" is very emotional, touching, and sentimental. It's the tale of a widowed old man(Danny Kaye) who oddly holds the last hour of his world in a magical timepiece clock, and upon an attempted mugging at a cemetery site he's rescued by a Vietnam vet. As the tale unfolds both become good friends even though different as daylight and dark, as the old man reads books and the ex vet is a night store clerk yet a bonding and warming friendship develops. Each man starts to care and connect with one another as the Vietnam vet reveals a hard and guilty like secret something in the end the old man helps him with! Really a touching and moving story that makes all of us wish we had one more chance to say goodbye or see a loved one one last time.

Overall one of the better episodes of the series that's well done, neat, touching, and memorable.

I rate this a 10 based solely on the strength of "Paladin of the Lost Hour." This is by far my favorite story of the 1980s Twilight Zone.

Both Danny Kaye and Glynn Turman were superb, as was the writing. 10 out of 10.

Recognized Glynn Turman instantly in the 1985 episode of Twilight Zone, "Paladin of The Lost Hour". Always liked him, in a Sidney Poitier sorta way, you knew just by his demeanor he had a unique intelligence. Brilliant in The Wire too.

One more thing. The old man doesn't want to die because he's afraid, rather, he's afraid to leave his wife behind. Oh, she's already dead, but by leaving himself, there will be no one left to keep her memory alive. That is beautiful.

No wonder this episode's writing is so damn good, it was written by Harlan Ellison!

My first 10 / 10 ranked episode of the 1985 series so far.

CBS television revived a classic television program from the early 1960's called the Twilight Zone. This black and white program was a collective anthology of common human behavioral themes. The premise was mixing morals, life lessons, i.e., Prejudice, bigotry infidelity. hypochondria or any phobia known to the human race and putting it in an anomaly of the supernatural. Hosted by the silver tongued Rod Serling creator and writer of most of the scripts had total control of the series. Rod,.impeccably dressed with cigarette in hand as he narrates the prologue for the next 20 minute story to unfold but in all cases except one episode was not involved in any of the episodes as a participant. Twilight zone ended it's run in 1962. In 1969, NBC TV revived a new series with a different twist in color called Night Gallery. The program begins with our dapper host Serling in his signature suit who welcomes his viewing audience as the mythical curator as he walks into a gallery of three paintings. Unveils the portrait and the story of horror and macabre unfolds. In the Late 70's Rod Serling past away due to frequent heart attacks from his chain smoking. Sadly, Serling died on then operating room table during a 10 hour open heart surgery. He was only 50 years old. Moving on to the mid 1980's during a viewing of the New York Based late night talk show hosted by nostalgia expert Joe Franklin, Mrs. Rod Serling was a guest that night. Mrs. Serling told Joe Franklin that she came upon unused scripts of Twilight Zone episodes. Fans of the earlier show wrote to her in her upstate New York home as she annually received thousands of letters for more Twilight Zone to be put back to television. Mrs. Serling lobbied for the series to be brought back to air..The new shows where shorter in time without Rod of course but a narrator, (voice only) and not shown to narrate each tale of oddity. Shown in groups of three in a one hour time slot on the CBS network. One such episode was a script written by the famed television writer Harlan Ellison called "Paladin of The Lost Hour" Starring famed entertainer Danny Kaye as a contemptible but strange elderly widower called Gaspar. Gaspar was visiting the love of his life Minna at her grave site when he is attacked by two thugs. One of the muggers attempts to steal Gaspar's pocket watch but instead the watch starts to glow and burns the mugger's hand as the watch floats back into the hand of Gaspar. A man of color Billy (Glynn Turman) witnesses this and comes to Gaspar's aide. Billy offers to take Gaspar back to his apartment as they recount the earlier events. Billy was at the cemetery to visit an old Army buddy. Billy has to go to work but offers his place for Gaspar to rest. When Billy finishes work he comes home to find Gaspar cooking a meal for him in gratitude. Billy further learns more about his new guest . Gaspar is terminally ill and homeless. Gaspar learns that Billy wasn't just visiting a friend but a man who sacrificed his life for him during the Vietnam war. As the episode evolves we learn of this strange time piece Gaspar possess and the meaning of the holder of the watch and it's ramifications and consequences. To me this episode brought out the purity of friendship,integrity and loyalty. How beautifully the script is woven together as these two men from different backgrounds,strangers interlock in a special bond. Just makes you think why each of us is here on Earth for a special purpose. FYI... Writer Harlan Ellison who was expelled from College for punching an English professor. Went on to publish somewhere to date in the neighborhood of 1700 works. Every time his books were published Ellison would mail his books to that professor in reprisal.

Female Teachers who maintain discipline must be possessed by a demon!

People who think so dropped out of school and wrote this abomination.