At first I was wondering why Burgess Meredith's character let Fritz Weaver's character out of the apartment, but therein led to the wisdom of Burgess's character: it allowed for Fritz's character to be shown for being the coward that he was and led to him being considered obsolete.

Excellent message.

another good Burgess Meredith episode. this is set in the future. a cruel world where someone who is considered obsolete by a team of judges, will be killed. mr. meredith plays a man who was a librarian. now they are considered obsolete since books are done away with gasp! he is informed he is obsolete and will be killed by his own choice. he chooses to die in his apartment at a certain time. he requests one of the nastier judges meet him there at a certain time and he will reveal his chosen death. the man shows up and is informed that blowing up the apartment is his choice for dying. when the jerk judge tries to leave he finds he is locked in. when a momment before the explosion comes he freaks out and pleads to be let out. the door opens and boom. now we see a scene where the officer is being judged for being a coward and now he gets attacked and killed. erie show. glad the judge got his.

One of the times in the series that the script is too heavy handed, too black and white. This is eminently watchable, and by no means a bad episode, but it is far from the top rank.

Another excellent Burgess Meredith vehicle on T-Zone. I would surmise he and Jack Klugman owe a lot to Twilight Zone. Meredith is a superb character actor, who deserves more than being solely remembered as the Penguin.

As I mentioned in my review of the Twilight Zone, one of the reasons why the stories have withstood the test of time is because they were more than just scary stories with happy endings, they were moral stories. In many cases that meant expressing a belief in God. The Obsolete Man with Burgess Merideth is a prime example of such a story. It is set in the future where the state has taken control of people's lives and books, including the Bible, have long since been banned. As a result, librarian Mr Romney Wordsworth has been deemed obsolete by the state. He is to be executed within forty eight hours but he may choose his method of execution. Mr Wordsworth asks for an executioner and that the method chosen be kept a secret between the executioner and himself. He also asks that his execution be televised and completed at midnight of the following day. The state grants his requests. As the final hour draws near, the chancellor from the state arrives and preaches one last sermon about the glory of the state, only to find that Mr Wordsworth has locked the door and then in front of the TV camera announces that in one hour the room is going to explode. Mr Wordsworth says that he will spend his final hour reading his Bible and the people should be able to see how a representative of the state does the same. When the last minute has arrived and is counting down the chancellor breaks down and begs to be let out, finally saying Let me out...... for God's sake, let me out and Wordsworth replies, Yes, for God's sake, I will let you out. There is a surprise ending that follows but the premise of the story, and in particular the verbal exchange when Wordsworth is first brought before the chancellor, are reasons why Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone have stood the test of time, remain a favorite among the viewing public, and will continue to do so as long as the Twilight Zone is aired. Many episodes, but in particular The Obsolete Man, showed us not only the danger that lies within ourselves, but our salvation as well.