Besides being great episodes about the same theme, I like how subversive "Walking Distance" and "A Stop at Willoughby" are in regards to their protagonists' shared profession.

I don't think it was a coincidence that both Martin Sloane in "Distance" and Gart Williams in "Willoughby" are both ad executives in NYC. Remember, both episodes were from the first season, aka 1959/1960. This was the "Mad Men" era, the time when Madison Ave ad exec was venerated as one of the ultimate dream jobs to have for a man. Both of these characters have it and ostensibly are living the American ideal. And the result? Both are completely miserable and want to escape from it, one into his past, the other into a fantasy. "Willoughby" in particular shows how much the job is crushing Gart's soul ("Distance" keeps it all offscreen, probably because Martin is implied to be quite good at it, just burned out), what with the pressure, competition and the overbearing boss. It was just like Rod Serling to puncture the image of the ad exec as a dream career and show just how stressful and grinding a job it can be. And given how annoyed he was having to deal with sponsors and ad men while working in TV, it might have been a little bit of revenge as well.