Plot
Ed Lindsay, an embittered, irritable bachelor in his late fifties, living in a boarding house, is dismayed over the mindless programs and commercials emanating from the television set watched by the other residents. He retrieves from the basement the old radio which, in his younger and happier days, he enjoyed as a source of relaxation and entertainment. Installing it in his joyless room, he is astonished to hear the radio transmit 1930s-40s music and programs, including those of Major Bowes, Fred Allen and Tommy Dorsey, all of whom are no longer alive. He tells the others about the miraculous broadcasts, but when they come into his room, they hear only static. What's more, when he tries to contact the radio station ("WPDA", in fictional "Cedarburg, New Jersey") broadcasting those programs, he discovers the station went off the air (and out of business) 13 years earlier.
Ed has a heartfelt confrontation with Vinnie Broun (Carmen Mathews), who has lived in the same boarding house with him for two decades. We learn that in an earlier era, they had intended to marry, but he kept letting other things interfere, and too much time passed. She tells him that the past cannot be recovered and he should let it go, and that the phenomenon by which he can listen to defunct programs is nothing more than a manifestation from his failed youth. Ed is furious and he throws Vinnie out of his room. His obsession with his radio continues to grow.
Worried about Ed's mental state, Vinnie and the other residents have the radio hauled away by a junk dealer. After Ed notices the radio missing and demands an explanation, he rushes out and buys the radio back from the junk dealer for $10. Ed takes the radio back to his room and, to his great relief, finds it still operational. He loses himself in an old Tommy Dorsey love song, the one he would share with Vinnie. Suddenly, the door to his room swings open, and Vinnie enters. Both Ed and Vinnie are young again — or rather, Ed has retreated 20 years into his own past to relive his life and to set things right ... in the Twilight Zone.
Read more about this topic: Static (The Twilight Zone)
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