Twilight Zone - Season 4

Can't believe I hadn't ever realized that all the one hour shows come from season 4! They have these phenomenal sets, (probably been out for ages), of each season consisting of either 5 or 6 discs. I'm no spring chicken, and remember watching the show when it was first run. However, I had never remembered that it became a one hour show on season 4, then returned to a half hour for it's last season.

As an aside, one of the extras included is an audio only of Rod's lecture at a great school that used to exist in Los Angeles, called The Sherwood Oaks Experimental School. I took several interesting classes there, one with the recently deceased Dan O'Banon, and another producing series with Tony Bill. I actually recorded that whole six weeks on cassettes which I still have in my archives.

 

Lot of padding in most of those Season 4 eps unfortunately.

If I'm in the mood for a Zone I usually pick something from the first three seasons.

 

The thing that I like the most about the one-hour shows is that I haven't seen them all 50 times. I've only seen them maybe one or two times at the most so they are still fresh enough that I can watch them and not know them by heart. The first time I ever saw them was when I got them in a trade from someone when they aired in Toronto in the early 80s. They hadn't run in syndication in NY since the mid-60s when I was too young to watch them. The half hours are better but I've seen them all far too many times.

 

I am on Season 3 right now working my way through the whole series set. I was wondering when the 60 minute eps were going to be. Season 2 had all the videotape eps and a few I've never seen before. Those were poor quality transfers so obviously the originals were lost.

 

THE TWILIGHT ZONE was actually cancelled after Season 3 and removed from CBS' fall schedule. A show called FAIR EXCHANGE was scheduled that year, an oddity, an hour-long sitcom. Judy Carne played a British exchange student staying in America.

That show failed to garner much ratings, so CBS looked around and decided to get Rod Serling's show out of retirement, had him film his intros at a static set while he was teaching.

To fill an hour, they wanted Rod to expand TWILIGHT ZONE to twice its former size; it was also an effort they hoped would increase ratings. So in January, TWILIGHT ZONE (minus the "The") premiered with hour-long episodes.

Many find the shows bloated, taking too long to get to the crux of the matter, or simply padded out, but in reality there were some fine episodes that year.

Fourth Season also gave birth to the newer opening credits design with the eye, the door, the clock, floating through space, an idea that survived into TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE and beyond.

My favorite from the fourth season is "On Thursday, We Leave For Home", a show that affected me profoundly back when it originally aired, and still moves me to this day.

Harry

 

One hour-long episode that scared me as a child was "The 30 Fathom Grave", starring Bill Bixby, Simon Oakland. One of my first memories of having a TV show scare the #*!! outta me. What I appreciate most about the Twilight Zone is that it's never really been equaled, at least not on TV.

 

...a 4th season episode when the wax figures her husband owns come alive when she tries to melt them down...

scared the livin daylights outta me when I was a youngster!

 

I am making my way through the complete series blu-ray box set of The Twilight Zone and just finished season four last night. For those who may not remember, this was the season where the show adopted an hour-long format, double the length of the previous seasons, and is widely regarded as the weakest season of the series' run. I can understand now why it's regarded in that way, as almost all of the episodes feel so unnecessarily padded and drawn out. Many episodes feel like they would probably make a good, brisk half-hour show, but at an hour they feel like a chore to watch. I think the only episode I genuinely enjoyed was "On Thursday We Leave for Home."

What are your thoughts on season four of The Twilight Zone? Are there any episodes you feel are good and you genuinely enjoy?

 

I know this is the show's worst season, but I thought this might still generate at least a little discussion.

 

The one hour format was not great for the 'Twilight Zone' as the show's pacing is often what gave so many of the classic episodes their dramatic tension and punch. Much of that was lost in season four. Now, that's not to say that there weren't some great episodes in season four, but it certainly does not hold up well compared to the first three seasons. Perhaps it is close to on par with season five, which reverted back to the 30 minute format, but was not nearly as good as the first three seasons either.

The best season four episodes, or at least the ones I most enjoyed, are:
Mute - a slow-moving episode about a girl with telepathic powers. The episode packs a strong message about the danger of conformity.
Death Ship - A space ship crew lands on a faraway planet, only to find an exact duplicate of their ship on the surface.
Miniature - A idiosyncratic man (played by Robert Duvall) becomes infatuated with a miniature girl who lives in a doll house that only he can see.
The Parallel - An astronaut returns from outer space to find that everything is just a bit askew from the way things were before he left. Is he in a parallel universe?
The New Exhibit - The curator of a wax museum of famous serial killers believes they are coming to life and committing horrible crimes. Or is he just delusional?

I don't outright dislike any episodes this season (although I don't love any either), but my least favorite is "The Bard" where a very unlikable television writer enlists the help of Shakespeare to write new scripts. It is worth watching if only to see a young Burt Reynolds doing his best 50s-era Marlon Brando impression.

 

One hour was too much for that ironic twist or punchline.

How about Raold Dahl's "'Way Out"?

 

I have to disagree with you on this take...I loved the hour long episodes...all of them! with The New Exhibit being my favorite...I remember seeing the hour long eps when I was a kid.....with the hour long time frame the stories seemed to move a steady pace..some of the half hour episodes seemed rushed.

 

I always thought "He's Alive" the story of a Neo-Nazi disciple who gets coaching from Adolf himself was a pretty good episode.

 

a young Dennis Hopper.

 

"Miniature" was my favorite from the 1-hour episodes

 

Ugh, "The Bard" was pretty awful. I get that Serling was trying to poke fun at some of the stuff that went on behind the scenes, but it was just done so poorly. That was the season four finale (were they really considered "finales" back then?), so the season sure went out on a low note. The Burt-Reynolds-as-Marlon-Brando bit was probably the only redeeming aspect.

Out of the episodes you listed, I only really found "Death Ship" and "The Parallel" to rise slightly above being just okay. All of them would have worked much better as half-hour shows, of course.

 

Correct, the opening title just said "Twilight Zone" but Serling still always said "The Twilight Zone" in narration.

 

The neo-Nazi played by a young Dennis Hopper. I thought it was too ham-fisted in its moralizing, and the "twist" was obvious, of course.

 

A

Agreed, but by season 4 many of the "twists" were contrived or obvious. TZ was great for two seasons, good for a third, and then it dropped off considerably. Serling had much less control over scripts, writing, etc. Plus like any groundbreaking show, hard to keep coming up with fresh ideas.

Still, of the one hour shows, there weren't many good ones, and "He's Alive' was entertaining.

 

Yeah, there's even quite a few clunkers in the third season. To be fair, though, the first two seasons combined include 65 episodes, which is close to what most modern network shows would do in three seasons.

 

I cannot think of a bad episode in first two seasons. Not all classics, but all at least good, well written. Third season mixed, then quick decent in four and five.

 

Season five has a couple of "classics" though, doesn't it? "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" for one. There's also "The Masks."

 

It's been too many years since I saw this particular season but I remember enjoying it and not having a problem with the hour long format.

I love the episode "The Thirty-Fathom Grave", that one creeped me out when I first saw it.