Many consider the Emmy-nominated "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar," to be Night Gallery's crowning achievement. One of Rod Serling's most revealing and introspective character studies, "Tim Riley" completes Serling's fictional triumvirate, reflecting his own life and career. His Emmy Award-winning teleplay "Patterns," (1955) chronicled a hungry young executive's dynamic climb to the top of the corporate ladder. In 1960, Serling penned the Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance," which examined the plight of an advertising executive in the prime of his career, struggling with success and its inherent responsibility. "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar," (1970) neatly closes the loop with a tale of a burned-out plastics pitchman, drained by the constant day-to-day stress and strain of life and work. We follow the character of Randy Lane (played by William Windom), as he deals with an opportunistic young buck, an overbearing and insensitive employer, and a modern age which strikes the middle-age executive as cold, impersonal, sterile.

Randy Lane is Rod Serling in mirror image, reflecting the writer's yearnings for a simpler, gentler, more carefree age. A time when hope and optimism were the primary drives in his life. Randy Lane now feels displaced, an anachronism, acutely uncomfortable in the present. When Lane suddenly discovers the mechanism that allows him to revisit his beloved past, he embraces the opportunity with a near-religious fervor. Ultimately, however, he discovers that the present can offer new hope, and a new beginning, but only if one is willing to reach out and accept the love that is offered in the here and now.

Serling began writing this teleplay in early 1970. It was originally titled: "Backward, Turn Backward," and he completed his first revision on May 28, 1970. When broadcast on January 20, 1971, the episode garnered enormous ratings and rave notices. Audience response to the program was so profound that NBC took the unprecedented step and rebroadcast "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar," twice in a span of two years. The episode also received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Single Program of the Year, the television academy's most prestigious award.

In his final interview shortly before his death in 1975, Rod Serling was asked to name the scripts that he had written in his thirty-year career that held the most meaning for him. The six-time Emmy Award winner mentioned only two: "Requiem for A Heavyweight" and "They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar."

(NOTE: For the purpose of maintaining the integrity of the original source material, all typographical errors made in this script have been left intact.)

NIGHT GALLERY #32362

Air date: January 20, 1971

THEY'RE TEARING DOWN TIM RILEY'S BAR

Written by Rod Serling

Directed by Don Taylor

Music: Benny Carter

Director of Photography: William Margulies

Time: 40:15

Cast:

Randy Lane: William Windom

Lynn Alcott: Diane Baker

Harvey Doane: Bert Convy

Pritkin: John Randolph

Officer McDermont: Henry Beckman

Blodgett: David Astor

Tim Riley: Robert Herrman

Father: Frederic Downs

1st Policeman: John S. Ragin

Katy: Susannah Darrow

Intern: David Frank

Miss Trevor: Mary Gail Hobbs

Bartender: Gene O'Donnell

Switchboard Operator: Margie Hall

1st Workman: Don Melvoin

2d Workman: Matt Pelto