This episode is top notch. Henry is a sweet, meek and visually challenged man who's only wish is some time to read. All of the other characters crush his spirit and demean his desire for the written page. It's runs the gambit of emotions from funny to heartbreaking. His shrew of a wife does make me laugh when she calls out his name - Hen-REEEEEEEY like she is in a hog-calling contest. The poor man can't read a ketchup bottle and she demarcates his book of poetry, which he notices after the glimmer of hope when she wants him to read to her. What a b*tch!!! I am an avid book reader myself, no Kindles for me. I read the condiments and cereal boxes when I was a kid. Heck, when I was a young kid, I always thought hor d'oeuvre was pronounced "hors (as in whores) de vores" because I read it on the toothpick bottle.
When I first viewed this years ago, I was so happy when he found the library but I quickly turned a 180 when, well, watch it. I think the set in the initial aftermath shot was the same as in "One More Paulbearer" when Paul Radon comes up from the bomb shelter.
Burgess Meredith is such a delight. I strikes me funny that this character is a voracious reader and then he plays a doomed librarian in "The Obsolete". Add to that, the titular character in "The Printer's Devil", a written form that is also losing steam in the modern world-newspapers.
Just a fantastic episode.
