Leon Janney stars in a light and somewhat amusing story built on the traditional depictions of one year coming to a close and a new one ready to begin. In this case, “the old man” is the year 1961. He puts up great resistance to being replaced by the newborn 1962. This Bob Corcoran story is good and creative, but it does drag a bit, and probably could have been wrapped up five minutes or so sooner. We get the point: 1961 was not the greatest of years and the “old man” wants to make it right. His superiors do their best to make it seem like it’s in his best interest, and this was the agreement when he started. He certainly knew what he was getting into, because he replaced 1960, after all.
The year was a tough one with significant international tensions, including the building of the Berlin Wall, a space race that might lead to the militarization of space, nuclear testing that demonstrated the destructive power of such weapons, the building of fallout shelters that seemed certain to be used, the assignment of military advisors to South Vietnam, and social tensions. One could understand why “old man 1961” might want a little more time to smooth things out. But, forced retirement was the rule, and the story has reminders that not everyone experiences the same kind of year. Some people have good years, too. A year is different for every person. There is also the lesson that no matter what happens, time keeps passing, and change will occur whether accepted or not. A new year often holds a promise of starting anew, with a fresh attitude, and an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past.
The crowd in Times Square, a key focus of the story from its opening scene, was celebratory as the clock ticked to become 1962. There was great hope for a happy new year.
In 1961, it was still legal in the US for employers to have mandatory retirement policies applied to their employees. There were always employers who chose not have such rules. It was not until 1986 that mandatory retirement became generally unlawful, with some exceptions. This story may have been a subtle commentary about the topic, with sympathy for some workers who still had much to offer having to leave the jobs they had if their employers had such a rule. In the late 1960s there was legislation making it illegal to discriminate against workers because of their age, especially after age 40. Those laws did not affect mandatory retirement policies.
No script cover page is available for this episode. The recording date and time is, therefore, not known.
The surviving recording is a network aircheck, likely from WROW of Albany, New York.
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https://archive.org/details/TSP611231
THE CAST
Leon Janney (The Old Man), Ted Osborne aka Reynold Osborn (The Director), Larry Haines (The Tippler), Rita Lloyd (Miss Fowler), Ivor Francis (Assistant to Director), Guy Repp (Johnson), Ralph Camargo (The Announcer), Lawson Zerbe (Joe Walston)
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