He’s right. It’s not fair. He’s been criticized by his boss, bullied by his wife and when he finally gets a chance to enjoy his books, his glasses break. Poor guy
& there I WAS waiting for a twist in the tale, then some cretin comes along & spoils it for me. & HE PROBABLY WONDER'S WHY HE NEVER GETS TOLD ABOUT SURPRISE PARTIES FOR FRIENDS UNTIL AFTER THE EVENT
His wife was awful...she ruined his poetry book and discouraged and looked down upon his main source of enjoyment in life (reading). He should have kicked her to the curb!
@The Never One it's important that he doesn't have a "happy ending"--not because he's "anti-social," but because he's neglected all the other important things in his life (job, wife, etc) in the the pursuit of one passion.
His boss hated him, his wife despised him, and now all he has is a pile of books he can now never read. And of course, the black object lying around, representing his only way out.
Everyone is missing the point of this episode. It's not just that he has enough time at last to read, it's that he has enough time at last to see how much of his life he lost just reading instead of living life. There's nothing wrong with reading but when you spend more time in a book than you do in the real world you waste your life
funny you should relate that way,as god did a trick on us,this man in the portrayal he is insane already he hasn't face the one trial of any man or woman is living life alone,god put forever in our hearts,and he is the ultimate jester,how do you explain a duck bill platypus in any language,BURGESS MERIDITH RIP,i liked his westerns too
Because that isn't the point of the episode? What do you mean "lost?" If his greatest joy in life is reading, then how is reading...losing life? That's all he wants to do. His wife was horrible, his boss is mean, work is boring. If you're doing what you love, then you're not wasting your life. The whole notion of "wasting" your life also assumes that there is an actual metaphysical reason for existence. But there isn't.
I love how his reaction is so basic, and you can't help but agree with him. He doesn't rage and scream and carry on. Just remarks how unfair it is lol Fantastic.
+BendyPenguin64 I'd say this ranks up with the one where the woman goes on holiday but the stewardess says "Room for one more dear" and then the plane blows up. But, I think the best one Burgess Meredith did was the "Obsolete Man" episode story.
XTheVideoGamerGirlX The plane episode (Twenty Two) is one of my personal favourites and The Obsolete Man is my favourite episode of the whole show. It had a very important message about recognising the rights of other people. :)
BendyPenguin64 I loved Obsolete Man because it showed what history would become specially when they say stuff about Hitler etc, even Rod Sterling says "Not a future that may happen, a future that CAN happen". And if I recall, the people who made final destination based it upon Twenty Two where the plane blows up and they end up as the survivors.
"Wait, I can still read the large print books if I put them really close to my face ." (eyeballs fall out and break) "It's not fair! It's not...wait, I can read the braille books." (hands fall off and break)
Fallout 4 has a ref to this near the boston library and trinity plaza. Inside a pulowski preservation chamber is a skeleton clutching a book with two more books around it and a pair of eye glasses to its side.
This is easily one of the greatest endings in television history, but what always gets me isn't just how sad and horrifying it really is, but how much it reflects Beemis' life. He'd spent his time shutting people out so he could read, to escape his reality and go somewhere better. And in the end, the one thing that keeps him from facing reality- the fact that the world has quite possibly ended and everyone he knows is gone- is a chance to do nothing but read. Then when his glasses smash, all he's left with is that reality. Harsh.
You’ve got it totally wrong. He didn’t “shut people out” - he was totally willing to let people in, and share his love of books with them. He was always trying to reach out to people and show them how wonderful books could be, it was everyone else who was shutting him out.
Burgess Meredith played both Henry Bemis in this episode and three more unrelated characters inother episodes (Mr Dingle the Strong, Obsolete Man and Printer's Devil) and 20 years later he played Micky Goldmill in first three Rocky movies.
I saw this episode probably 30 years ago (I am 41 now), and it has always stayed with me as if I watched it fresh just yesterday. My friend and I were discussing how we have so many stacks of books to read yesterday and how we need more hours in the day and more days in the week to finish them all. Then I came on here to find "Time Enough At Last" to show her. It made such a lasting impression on me.
As a man with the strongest possible prescription glasses(thanks dad for the genes), this scene shook me. I know all too well how crippling it can be to lose one's glasses for even a short length of time. In that broken world it's a damn death sentence.
ya'know he coulda just picked up a piece of the broken glass and looked through that. too bad he likely starved to death since he can't find food or water, of course, without his glasses.
While logically there's probably a pair of glasses somewhere out there that would work for him (though it'd be harder to find with being unable to see), the whole point of this episode (and indeed many of the best episodes of Twilight Zone) is the way it tackles many frightening or under-looked topics (especially for the time when television was still an uprising kind of media) with much abstraction. The whole point of this episode is the main character let's everyone push him around and he's never in control of his life, he's unhappy because he never has time to do what really interests him (reading) and never stands up for himself, he lets himself be dictated by the world around him. And when he finally has time, he misses his chance to pursue his passions. It's a simple allegory in this day and age, but the message is still important I think about how too many let their lives pass them without ever really doing what they want to do with it until it's too late.
He could always wander the wasteland till he finds a corpse with unbroken glasses with a prescription similar enough to his own It might take a few days.
Matt Duczeminski His glasses aren't so thick that he's legally blind or anything. He could make out corpses. A nuclear holocaust just happened. There'd be a lot of corpses.
In this story the guy has survived because he was in the bank vault when a nuclear bomb detonated, I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure every piece of glass outside vaulted areas like that wouldn't stand still to a nuclear explosion. His glasses were more than likely the last ones around.
I just read a comment saying "The greatest Hell is to be just out of reach of Heaven", it's so true too, like winning the lottery and getting run over by a dump truck in the same day and being paralyzed for life. Bad luck sucks!
When I saw this ending it shocked me. I was not expecting this to happen, and yet it was done so perfectly. The silence after his glasses break, the realization of what happened, and how tragic it is. It’s my favorite episode from this show
This is what being isolated during COVID is like. Me "I finally can watch all my Netflix shows and play my PS4 games" My kids "Dad I'm bored, can we use the TV" My wife "why don't you fix the dishwasher and mow the lawn" Me "That's not fair, there was time, there was all the time I needed" Twilight music starts playing with my face in horror fading out to black.
They would have changed the story with him wearing a hearing aid. That fell out of his ear. Then he stepped on it. The story was determined to screw an avid book reader. If he could have used braille then the scene would have ended with a malfunctioning truck brake release and a truck rolling over and crushing his fingers!
This is one of the greatest scenes in the history of television. I saw this episode when it was first broadcast, and I will never forget the shock my family received at the end. Looking at it again today, I think the decades have done nothing to diminish its power.
@@stevejordan7275well I’d wager plenty of canned food and water survived. Also I think he would actually be fine dying earlier if his last few years were filled only with pleasure.
He thought of the building when it had been whole. He remembered the many nights he had paused outside its wide and welcoming doors. He thought of the warm nights when the doors had been thrown open and he could see the people inside, see them sitting at the plain wooden tables with the stacks of books beside them. He used to think then, what a wonderful thing a public library was, a place where anybody, anybody at all could go in and read. He had been tempted to enter many times. He had watched the people through the open doors, the man in greasy work clothes who sat near the door, night after night, laboriously studying, a technical journal perhaps, difficult for him, but promising a brighter future. There had been an aged, scholarly gentleman who sat on the other side of the door, leisurely paging, moving his lips a little as he did so, a man having little time left, but rich in time because he could do with it as he chose. Henry had never gone in. He had started up the steps once, got almost to the door, but then he remembered Agnes, her questions and shouting, and he had turned away. He was going in now though, almost crawling, his breath coming in stabbing gasps, his hands torn and bleeding. His trouser leg was sticky red where the wound in his leg had soaked through the handkerchief. It was throbbing badly but Henry didn't care. He had reached his destination. Part of the inscription was still there, over the now doorless entrance. P-U-B-C L-I-B-R--. The rest had been torn away. The place was in shambles. The shelves were overturned, broken, smashed, tilted, their precious contents spilled in disorder upon the floor. A lot of the books, Henry noted gleefully, were still intact, still whole, still readable. He was literally knee deep in them, he wallowed in books. He picked one up. The title was "Collected Works of William Shakespeare." Yes, he must read that, sometime. He laid it aside carefully. He picked up another. Spinoza. He tossed it away, seized another, and another, and still another. Which to read first ... there were so many. He had been conducting himself a little like a starving man in a delicatessen-grabbing a little of this and a little of that in a frenzy of enjoyment. But now he steadied away. From the pile about him, he selected one volume, sat comfortably down on an overturned shelf, and opened the book. Henry Bemis smiled. There was the rumble of complaining stone. Minute in comparison which the epic complaints following the fall of the bomb. This one occurred under one corner of the shelf upon which Henry sat. The shelf moved; threw him off balance. The glasses slipped from his nose and fell with a tinkle. He bent down, clawing blindly and found, finally, their smashed remains. A minor, indirect destruction stemming from the sudden, wholesale smashing of a city. But the only one that greatly interested Henry Bemis. He stared down at the blurred page before him. He began to cry.
@@ryankey1793 LMAO! Let's also not forget that he was the penguin on TV's Batman, STARRED in 3 other Twilight Zone episodes besides this one and had numerous film and stage appearances. Hmm....yep, never got that big break. Too bad
I love this episode. In the span of about 25 mins, I experienced most of the human emotions, and this episode turned from a humorous comedy to a dystopian tragedy.
This is essentially me when lockdown is in effect because of the Coronavirus giving me the opportunity to play videos games, only for my PC to break without any fix
For a guy who was blacklisted throughout the '50's, Burgess Meredith sure came back with a vengeance! Between his great performances on 'Twilight Zone', his iconic turn as the Penguin, his portrayal of Mickey in the 'Rocky' movies, and the countless voiceover work he lent his unique voice to, he has left a deep imprint on at least a couple of generations. And best of all, he's from my home town! Burgess Meredith, the Pride of Cleveland, and too cool for school.
....and he appeared FOUR TIMES during the series- three of the scripts [including this one] were written by Rod Serling, who didn't give a ---- about "the blacklist". He KNEW great talent, and made sure Meredith appeared whenever possible.
When I first saw this episode in seventh grade, I TOTALLY understood his love of books! ^^ And it pains me every time to see/hear this reference, because it truly isn't fair. Finally having the opportunity to read for the rest of his life,caught in by the ecstasy moment (WHO WOULDN'T BE EXCITED IN READING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! XD) he forgot to hold the glasses together, Dam, this episode is traumatic. Going to stop remembering it, it just too depressing....
***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I see then, thanks for the explanation there, I was in agreement there too much with him that I guess I was a bit vainly in human life as well. XD
This episode feels particularly relevant now. With the pandemic, we're more lonely than ever, but now we finally have time to do all the things we've wanted to do.
I watched this episode over four years ago and I always remembered it as being the most saddest moment of television. The character had hopes and dreams which were smashed to bits in a matter of moments. this episode really stuck with me to this very day.
Its a sad ending. I always hated endings like this, especially if endings like this happened to old people. Whenever old people would have these types of endings or would die, I would always fell guilty. Like if you agree
I was a child when I saw this. Six, maybe seven years old. It stuck with me. I had no idea what show it was, only where I was when I saw it….which enabled me to establish my age. I Googled “Man who broke glasses, last man alive, library” and sure enough, there it was. It had to have been a rerun, as I was not born when it first showed on The Twilight Zone, but I never forgot it or the absolute sorrow I felt for this man.
That sad moment when you realize that you will never have the time to accomplish everything you want to , and that there will never be enough time , and that you are powerless to do anything about it.
I remember seeing this episode on British television when I was a kid in the 1980s. Always stuck with me because my dad was really bookish and this will have been his worst nightmare.
Oh no, I watched this last year and was recently reminded of it. I thought I was prepared to face it again... I was so wrong. He's so happy! But his utter defeat at the end. It hurts my soul. May you find all the books and time somewhere else, Henry.
I felt so sorry for him. He spent most of his life miserable, then got what he finally deserved, but then it was taken away again. This is rod serling saying fuck this character
For anyone who thinks this ending is too sad, here's a theory I've devised: Bemis at first gives into despair, wanders the charred Earth for a few days.... then finds a group of survivors, one has a pair of glasses, gives them to him, so he goes back to the library so he can read those books to the others... and one of them features the stories told in the Twilight Zone Movie.
Great acting, but in my opinion, he should have had some few seconds of silence between him realizing the glasses are broken and the line "That's not fair", so it could sink in. I'm just nitpicking, Burgess did a great job.
"Tomorrow is always uncertain, so we live for today. Though Mr. Henry Bemis walks among the shadows of the past, he is constantly reminded that despite the fact that things can change in an instant, some things do not. One of those things is that war... War never changes. Not even here... In the Twilight Zone."
I saw this episode one early Easter morning when I went into the living room to sit on the couch with my dad, I remember it playing a little differently, but that's just my bad memory.
I finally moved to hawaii to live out a long held dream of surfing and fitness only to immediately end up with crippling sesamoiditis in both feet. I remembered this scene from when I was a kid and had a dark laugh.
2:28 my reaction when the pull tab on my can of Pepsi came off while trying to open it just now. I had to come find this video to match my feelings inside.
For some reason I remembered Mr. Meredith as being older in this. I first saw this as a child and the ending really upset me because I read all the time. It still upsets me today.
I can't say how much I LOVE this episode. I first heard it on an old time radio show, then I saw the original TZ episode. So epically heartbreaking. Sure these days we'd figure out other ways for this guy to get his stuff fixed or what he can do later on, but when it first aired, it was the best way to show how dreams can be smashed in a moment.
again I'm very thankful for the technology we have. I've dropped my glasses multiple time yet they remain nice and unblemished. if I was living back then oh man I would be paying out of my ass for glasses.
On a side note, Adam West said that he couldn't say enough wonderful things about Burgess Meredith. Adam said that Burgess was always very wonderful to work with.
As someone who wears glasses, I always wonder how he didn't notice them slipping at all. If I even suspect my glasses aren't secure, my hand instantly goes to hold them in place before I realize it.
As an 80's baby and a 90's child, this one episode was particularly sad for me you see. My mother worked at American Library Association in downtown Chicago. She would take me to work with her on the weekend while she did what was called "Booklist." I LOVED reading. From the posters where everyone was encouraged to read, to the "mind is a terrible thing to waste," and so on. I often thought as a child, "how come no one read that?" Especially since in that era, radio and reading were a HUGE part of the way that people collected their news. SMH! THEN, to add insult to injury, at the end, those big thick glasses BROKE! WOW
I think it's being missed that life is to have a balance. He neglected his wife, his job, his friends and who knows what else to read. If you've seen the episode this was apparent when he couldn't be bothered to correctly count out the woman's money at the beginning (he's a bank teller) , nor even notice she was gone. He was warned by his boss he was endanger of loosing his job because he wasn't doing it properly. He didn't even notice or care about anyone until there was nothing else to do, in the episode he even laments over how he just has the same items to read over and over. It was AFTER that he goes looking for people, and then prepares to commit suicide. Seeing the library he stops. It was a sad ending still. But he read to the detriment of those around him when they were relying on him to carry out his responsibilities.
The punishment doesn't fit the "crime". This is the story of a neurodivergent person mistreated by virtually everyone in his life, and then cruelly and needlessly spited by fate. He was undoubtedly the most likeable character in the episode. Especially compared to his incredibly abusive wife.
This episode is a metaphor and a warning for life - if throughout your life you follow the path you think you're 'supposed' to follow, or a path that others tell you you *should* be following, when you finally retire from the job you hate in your old age - you may just end up dying before ever truly getting to do the thing you love.
Finally there's time at last all the time I need..." One of my favorite episodes with one of my favorite actors that I grew up with via Batman 66' as The Penguin thee incomparable Burgess Merrdith..." He played this masterfully..."
The way he stumbles over as the camera pulls away, his vision too blurry to even see the steps in front of him, or the stacks of books he carefully arranged. Unable to find the gun to end it all, unable to see his hand in front of his face or the hands of the clock, forever stopped. Forever stuck in place with nothing but time. Time enough at last... in the Twilight Zone.
iconic ending, man what an episode. this stuck with me ever since I was a kid. reminds me of how much I held stuff like books (or eventually non-material subjects, lol) so close to me, and the fear of them or the freedom of enjoying them being taken away from me.
That's actually pretty terrifying if you really think about it. Blind to the end of your days with no human connection or at least a dog to keep you company.
