Excellent 90-minute play, written by Rod Serling before Twilight Zone. Although it was written in 1958, it touches on various themes of human nature and political behavior that are chillingly relevant for today.
Bonus #1: It stars a very young William Shatner, who does a great job of playing the lead role as an unsavory storekeeper in an Old West town.
Bonus #2: Includes embedded 1950's commercials. OMG.
Serling's experiences in getting the script approved apparently pushed him to the direction of science fiction:
Network pressure and sponsor meddling was making it almost impossible for him to say anything meaningful in a straight dramatic setting. A series with a sci-fi/fantasy twist, on the other hand, would open up new story possibilities — and allow Serling's social jabs to fly under the radar of nervous sponsors.
"On The Twilight Zone, I knew I could get away with Martians saying things that Republicans and Democrats couldn't," he said. And a TV legend was born.
