Air date: March 10, 1961
Ed Lindsay (Dean Jagger) is a cranky old bachelor who lives in a boarding house populated mostly by older folks like himself. He is particularly annoyed by television, and how the set in the common room hypnotizes all the other boarders to watch boring commercials and vapid programming. Determined for a reprieve, Ed goes to the basement and retrieves his old radio. He sets it up in his room, but soon finds out that it's picking up big band music from Tommy Dorsey, as well as the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour" radio show.
As one of his fellow boarders tells him, the only problem is that Tommy Dorsey, Edward Bowes, and everyone else he's listening to is long dead. Puzzled, Ed attempts to call the radio station, WPDA, only to find out that it's been out of business for years. The radio also never plays its old programs when any other boarders come into Ed's room, prompting them to grow concerned about his mental state, particularly a woman named Vinnie (Carmen Mathews), who twenty years before, was Ed's fiancée.
Troptic:
- Bottle Episode: With the exception of one scene in a junk dealer's office, this episode takes place entirely in the boarding house where Ed and Vinnie live.
- Celebrity Paradox: In 1940, Vinnie mentions listening to Ed Wynn on the radio. Wynn previously played Lew Bookman in "One for the Angels" and would later play Sam Forstmann in "Ninety Years Without Slumbering".
- Grumpy Old Man: Ed is a bitter bachelor in late middle age who despises television, longing for the days when radio was the most popular form of home entertainment. Vinnie doesn't believe that he's really hearing radio transmissions from the 1930s and 1940s, instead thinking that it's all a product of his imagination when they used to listen to those programs together, and he regrets not marrying her when he had the chance.
- Mental Time Travel: In the end, Ed's radio sends him back in time 20 years or so, evidently with the purpose of fixing the biggest mistake of his life and actually marrying Vinnie. Notably in the last scene, the 1961 version of Ed seems to have already forgotten what a television set is, asking "What is that thing?" when he sees it for the last time.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: In the end, thanks to the radio, Ed ends up going back to 1940, giving him a second chance to live his life and marry Vinnie
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: After spending the whole episode believing his radio was picking up signals from twenty years ago and presenting himself as a loon, Ed ends up going back to 1940, giving him a second chance to marry Vinnie.
- The One That Got Away: Ed obviously regrets not marrying Vinnie in 1940, even though he doesn't want to admit it.
- Time Travel Episode: One of Rod Serling's favorites, wherein an old man starts hearing 20-year-old radio transmissions.
- Video Inside, Film Outside: This is the fifth of six episodes recorded on videotape instead of film in order to reduce costs.
