The husband is indifferent to his wife's concerns as well as blind to his mom's machinations; the wife, while harboring legit concerns, is also a weak, obnoxious shrew (like all "TZ" wives excluding Pat Carter in "Nick of Time"); and the grandma is easily one of the most selfish monsters in all of "TZ." So, as far as likable characters are concerned, "Long Distance Call" fails ... What it does have is a subject matter that was grim for its time and still pretty squirm-inducing even to this day. It's because of this -- and the fact that "Distance" leaves it up to us to decide whether or not a supernatural element was involved (which if there was then the grandma is indeed one of "TZ"'s most odious heavies) -- that makes this episode, for me anyway, stand the test of time pretty well.
"World of Difference," incidentally, caught me off-guard by placing the twist at the start, instead of the end, of the episode.
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telegonus (738)
8 years ago
Irony of ironies: I caught some, mostly the last part of Long Distance Call on MeTV this A.M. and I was moved and impressed by if nothing else the actors. Philip Abbott impressed be a great deal even the first time around. He deserved a better career. More like that of Arthur Hill, whom he reminds me of; or, going back a generation, Ralph Bellamy. That the supernatural element was soft pedaled (for a change) helped make this one really work. If there was no supernatural involved that's a little boy with some big problems. The open endedness of the ep felt right, though I think they wound up the recovery at the last moment way too quickly, as if they were running out of tape or something...
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AngularTurnip (3337)
8 years ago
This episode's premise might have benefited from being fleshed-out a little bit more. Funny, but when "TZ" actually had the hour-long format they largely squandered it.
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