The problem I do have with this Twilight Zone episode is that Burgess Meredith is saddled with a dope. He's written as a failure at everything he does. He's a vacuum cleaner salesman and hangs out (for whatever reason) at a bar where a bookie and his long term "client" (Don Rickles) argue back and forth over a game and bet that resulted from said game. Rickles can be quite funny and he's always animated and lively, but there are times where he's a prick. In "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", he's not only a prick but a louse and bully. Meredith is basically a walking, clueless, victimized stooge, and this episode pains me to see him stuck in such a part. After the exceptional episodes, "The Obsolete Man" & "Time Enough at Last", I think when TZ fans see Meredith in "Mr. Dingle", they won't have a problem burying this away in the back of their minds unless the image of a stunt double of him lifting up a stunt double of Rickles in the bar, giving him a propeller spin remains so strong it will be too difficult to forget. Look, this show has so many great episodes, the bad ones can come and go with little to no acknowledgment unless we are watching them individually at the time. "Mr. Dingle" to me is an inconsequential chore to get through because the aliens are beyond laughable and Meredith takes punches to the jaw of Rickles with regularity, dropped to the floor, and too much of a wuss to defend himself unless equipped with given super-strength. He stutters and has this "Golly Gee Whiz" expression on his face; the episode provides the strength that allows him for once not to be picked on, but then removes the power once the "twin alien" decides his petty use of it for "exhibition" (media gets wind of it and a crowd starts to line up in the bar for which most of the episode takes place; excluding a scene in his home and park where Dingle lifts a park bench with a woman on top of it) could no longer be tolerated. The bar owner seems unsympathetic to Dingle's dilemma, more annoyed at not "being neutral" when asked by Rickles about the call of a baseball game than getting slugged for simply telling the truth! I'm not sure if the writing by Serling spurns from how he was feeling at the time—perhaps this has a symbolism to it regarding how the innocent will often be pounded on for no reason other than they're too weak or dumb to avoid mistreatment—but Dingle's abuse is damn hard to watch to me. Sure Rickles receives a smashed cigar and airplane spin off the ground, but by episode's end he once again abuses Dingle. Why Dingle even goes to the bar and gets dragged into an argument between bookie and welcher only to take nasty, foul remarks and punches to the face is beyond me. The contraption the twin aliens are fixed in is ridiculous (and perhaps intentional; it would have had to have been a joke as embarrassingly crude as the double-headed twin aliens appear), and I hate seeing a great show present something so schlocky and silly. Even worse are these kids with adult male voices (and mustaches!), in get-ups that were too big for them as they hobble about and antennae dangling from their heads (portraying Venusians no less). Some TZ (and old television) fans will enjoy this, but I found myself at times cringing. I'd tell new converts introduced to TZ to skip this one until they watched a lot of the quality episodes of the series. Not Serling's high water mark by any means.
Review of Mr. Dingle, the Strong
