Twilight Zone, Season by Season

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by benjaminhuf, Aug 23, 2010.

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  1. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Name your top three episodes from the first season, and say why they are you favorites. There were 36 episodes in the first season, and so you have to pick carefully.

    As we know, this show is soon to come out on blu-ray. It has low production values compared to anything today, but as I said in the Inception thread I'd pick some of these over that big, bloated, but still ok movie. I just think that maybe I think a bit more with at least a few these 25 minute gems than I do with that 2.5 hour movie.

    from wikipedia:

    The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode (156 in the original series) is a mixture of self-contained fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to serious science fiction and abstract ideas through television and also through a wide variety of Twilight Zone literature. The program followed in the tradition of earlier radio programs such as The Weird Circle and X Minus One and the radio work of Serling's hero, dramatist Norman Corwin.

    The success of the original series led to the creation of two revival series: a cult hit series that ran for several seasons on CBS and in syndication in the 1980s, and a short-lived UPN series that ran from 2002 to 2003. It would also lead to a feature film, a radio series, a comic book, a magazine and various other spin-offs that would span five decades.

    Aside from Serling himself, who crafted nearly two-thirds of the series' total episodes, writers for The Twilight Zone included leading genre authors such as Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Jerry Sohl, George Clayton Johnson, Earl Hamner, Jr., Reginald Rose, Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury. Many episodes also featured adaptations of classic stories by such writers as Ambrose Bierce, Lewis Padgett, Jerome Bixby and Damon Knight.

    The term "twilight zone" predates the television program, and originally meant simply a "gray area." (Intelligence analysts in the early Cold War labeled a country a twilight zone if there was no definite U.S. policy on whether to intervene militarily to keep it from going Communist.)[citation needed] Rod Serling himself chose the title of the series, and said that only after the series aired did he discover that the "twilight zone" was also a term applied by the US Air Force to the terminator, the border between "night" and "day" on a planetary body.[citation needed]

    1 "Where Is Everybody?" Robert Stevens Rod Serling October 2, 1959 (1959-10-02) 173-3601
    A man (Earl Holliman) finds himself wandering in an abandoned town while struggling to find the answers about his identity and where he is.
    2 "One for the Angels" Robert Parrish Rod Serling October 9, 1959 (1959-10-09) 173-3608
    A pitchman (Ed Wynn) makes a deal with Death to continue living until he makes one great sale.
    3 "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" Allen Reisner Rod Serling October 16, 1959 (1959-10-16) 173-3609
    A washed-up gunslinger (Dan Duryea) is given another chance by a mystery man.
    4 "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" Mitchell Leisen Rod Serling October 23, 1959 (1959-10-23) 173-3610
    An aging film star (Ida Lupino) lives a life of seclusion in her private screening room.
    5 "Walking Distance" Robert Stevens Rod Serling October 30, 1959 (1959-10-30) 173-3605
    While visiting his boyhood hometown, a middle-aged executive (Gig Young) finds himself in the past.
    6 "Escape Clause" Mitchell Leisen Rod Serling November 6, 1959 (1959-11-06) 173-3603
    A mean-spirited, abusive hypochondriac (David Wayne) sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for immortality.
    7 "The Lonely" Jack Smight Rod Serling November 13, 1959 (1959-11-13) 173-3602
    An inmate (Jack Warden) sentenced to solitary confinement on a desert planet is given a gift by a sympathetic supply-ship captain.
    8 "Time Enough at Last" John Brahm Lyn Venable / Rod Serling November 20, 1959 (1959-11-20) 173-3614
    A man who loves to read (Burgess Meredith) survives a nuclear explosion.
    9 "Perchance to Dream" Robert Florey Charles Beaumont November 27, 1959 (1959-11-27) 173-3616
    A man with a heart condition (Richard Conte) is afraid to fall asleep.
    10 "Judgment Night" John Brahm Rod Serling December 4, 1959 (1959-12-04) 173-3604
    A former U-boat commander (Nehemiah Persoff) is condemned to relive his past.
    11 "And When the Sky Was Opened" Douglas Heyes Richard Matheson / Rod Serling December 11, 1959 (1959-12-11) 173-3611
    The crew of an experimental spaceship begin disappearing one by one after returning to Earth.
    12 "What You Need" Alvin Ganzer Lewis Padgett / Rod Serling December 25, 1959 (1959-12-25) 173-3622
    A salesman (Ernest Truex) has the ability to sell his customers exactly what they need.
    13 "The Four of Us Are Dying" John Brahm George Clayton Johnson / Rod Serling January 1, 1960 (1960-01-01) 173-3618
    Arch Hammer (Harry Townes) is a con man who can change his face to make it look like anyone he chooses.
    14 "Third from the Sun" Richard L. Bare Richard Matheson / Rod Serling January 8, 1960 (1960-01-08) 173-3615
    With a nuclear war about to happen, two men steal a spacecraft to take their families to a new planet.
    15 "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" Stuart Rosenberg Madelon Champion / Rod Serling January 15, 1960 (1960-01-15) 173-3626
    A manned space flight crash lands on what the astronauts believe to be an unknown asteroid.
    16 "The Hitch-Hiker" Alvin Ganzer Lucille Fletcher / Rod Serling January 22, 1960 (1960-01-22) 173-3612
    A mysterious hitchhiker keeps appearing on the road as a woman (Inger Stevens) drives across the country.
    17 "The Fever" Robert Florey Rod Serling January 29, 1960 (1960-01-29) 173-3627
    While on a vacation his wife won to Las Vegas, a man who shuns gambling becomes addicted to playing a slot machine.
    18 "The Last Flight" William Claxton Richard Matheson February 5, 1960 (1960-02-05) 173-3607
    A British World War I fighter pilot lands his Nieuport biplane on a 1959 American airbase after flying through a strange cloud.
    19 "The Purple Testament" Richard L. Bare Rod Serling February 12, 1960 (1960-02-12) 173-3619
    A lieutenant (William Reynolds) serving in World War II suddenly gains the mysterious ability to discover who is about to die via a strange flash of light across their face.
    20 "Elegy" Douglas Heyes Charles Beaumont February 19, 1960 (1960-02-19) 173-3625
    Running out of fuel, astronauts Meyers, Webber, and Kirby land their spaceship on a remote asteroid and find that it is already occupied.
    21 "Mirror Image" John Brahm Rod Serling February 26, 1960 (1960-02-26) 173-3623
    A woman (Vera Miles) waiting in a bus station begins to see strange things.
    22 "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" Ronald Winston Rod Serling March 4, 1960 (1960-03-04) 173-3620
    At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, neighbors whose contact with the outside world is mysteriously cut off begin to suspect each other of being aliens.
    23 "A World of Difference" Ted Post Richard Matheson March 11, 1960 (1960-03-11) 173-3624
    A businessman (Howard Duff) suddenly finds his life is just a role in a movie.
    24 "Long Live Walter Jameson" Tony Leader Charles Beaumont March 18, 1960 (1960-03-18) 173-3621
    Walter Jameson (Kevin McCarthy), a professor, has the gift of eternal youth.
    25 "People Are Alike All Over" Mitchell Leisen Paul W. Fairman / Rod Serling March 25, 1960 (1960-03-25) 173-3613
    On a mission to Mars, an astronaut (Roddy McDowall) finds out that people are alike all over.
    26 "Execution" David Orrick McDearmon George Clayton Johnson / Rod Serling April 1, 1960 (1960-04-01) 173-3628
    A criminal about to be executed (Albert Salmi) is brought to the future.
    27 "The Big Tall Wish" Ron Winston Rod Serling April 8, 1960 (1960-04-08) 173-3630
    A washed-up boxer (Ivan Dixon) has his fate reversed by a child's wish.
    28 "A Nice Place to Visit" John Brahm Charles Beaumont April 15, 1960 (1960-04-15) 173-3632
    A criminal (Larry Blyden) who is killed in a shootout with the police believes that he has made it to Heaven.
    29 "Nightmare as a Child" Alvin Ganzer Rod Serling April 29, 1960 (1960-04-29) 173-3635
    Schoolteacher Helen Foley (Janice Rule) finds a strange and very serious little girl, named Markie (Terry Burnham), on the stairs outside her apartment.
    30 "A Stop at Willoughby" Robert Parrish Rod Serling May 6, 1960 (1960-05-06) 173-3629
    An advertising executive (James Daly) who has grown exasperated with the stress of the business life longs to get off a train at a stop called Willoughby.
    31 "The Chaser" Douglas Heyes John Henry Collier / Robert Presnell, Jr. May 13, 1960 (1960-05-13) 173-3636
    A man uses a love potion to win a girl's heart.
    32 "A Passage for Trumpet" Don Medford Rod Serling May 20, 1960 (1960-05-20) 173-3633
    A down-on-his-luck trumpet player (Jack Klugman) gets a second chance at life.
    33 "Mr. Bevis" William Asher Rod Serling June 3, 1960 (1960-06-03) 173-3631
    A man's (Orson Bean) guardian angel tries to improve his life.
    34 "The After Hours" Douglas Heyes Rod Serling June 10, 1960 (1960-06-10) 173-3637
    Marsha White (Anne Francis) is a woman browsing for a gift for her mother in a department store. She ends up finding out that she's not the person she thinks she is.
    35 "The Mighty Casey" Robert Parrish &
    Alvin Ganzer Rod Serling June 17, 1960 (1960-06-17) 173-3617
    The coach (Jack Warden) of a broken-down baseball team allows a robot named Casey to play on his team.
    36 "A World of His Own" Ralph Nelson Richard Matheson July 1, 1960 (1960-07-01) 173-3634
    A playwright (Keenan Wynn) has the power to create what he describes on his recording machine.
     
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  2. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    1. Walking Distance - My favorite TZ episode. I can relate to the longing to go back home and Bernard Herrmann's score is beautiful.

    2. Time Enough at Last - Love Burgess Meredith, and I see parallels between his love of books and my love of records and wives who prevent us from doing our thing.

    3. One for the Angels - Ed Wynn is terrific in this one. A touching story.
     
    Keith V likes this.
  3. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    Lots of goodies, but I have a soft spot for THE HITCHHIKER. 1.) Inger Stevens is in it. Dang, she was cute. 2.) I already knew the excellent Orson Welles 1942 radio version of this one, so the TV version is an excellent "alternate" version. 3.) That scene where she looks in the rear view mirror? Creepy. Very well done.

    Going.......my way???
    Matt
     
  4. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    "Judgment Night"
    "Mirror Image"
    "The Hitch-Hiker"
     
  5. lasvidfil

    lasvidfil Forum Resident

    Location:
    Coram, NY
    1) People are alike all over- Huge fan of Roddy Mcdowall

    2) Time Enough At Last- Absolute classic. Great perfromance from Burgess Meredith

    3) The Lonely- Good story made better by Jack Warden
     
  6. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    5 "Walking Distance" (despite the plot loopholes it is very emotional and still to this day has a great moral)
    8 "Time Enough at Last" (an iconic episode)
    11 "And When the Sky Was Opened” (Great portrayal of fear and disillusionment by all of the actors)
     
  7. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

  8. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    some info about Rod Serling

    from wikipedia:

    Read about the death Serling witnessed during his service in World War II that I think affected some of his work:

    As editor of his high school newspaper, Serling tried to persuade his fellow students to support the war effort in a variety of ways. He wanted to leave school before graduation to join the fight, but his civics teacher talked him into staying through graduation. "War is a temporal thing," Gus Youngstrom told an eager Serling, "It ends. An education doesn't. Without your degree, where will you be after the war?"[15] Serling enlisted into the U.S. Army the morning after his high school graduation, following brother Robert.[16]

    Serling began his military career at Camp Toccoa, Georgia under General Raymond Swing and Colonel Oren 'Hard Rock' Haugen[17] and served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division.[5] Over the next year of paratrooper training Serling and others took to boxing as a way to get their aggressions out. Serling competed as a flyweight, and totaled 17 bouts, rising to the second round of division finals before getting knocked out.[18] He was remembered for his berserker style and for "getting his nose broken in his first bout and again in last bout."[19] He tried his hand at the Golden Gloves, but was not overly successful.[13]

    April 25, 1944 was the day Serling had been looking forward to: the day he received his overseas orders. When he saw that he was headed west, through California, he knew he was headed to fight the Japanese rather than the Germans. He was disappointed; as a Jew, he had hoped to have a hand in combating Hitler.[20] On May 5, the division boarded the USS Sea Pike and headed into the Pacific, ending up in New Guinea, where they would be held in reserve for a few more months.
    Men and equipment on Leyte beachhead. October 20, 1944.

    It wasn't until November 1944 that these troops would see combat on the island of Leyte in the Philippines. The 11th Airborne Division would not be used as paratroopers; however, they were sent in as light infantry after the Battle of Leyte Gulf to help mop up after the six divisions that had gone ashore earlier.[21] Their mission seemed simple; go from point A to point B, cleaning out Japanese positions as they went. In reality, the terrain and lack of military intelligence proved to be just as difficult to handle as the unpredictable enemy.

    For a variety of reasons Serling was transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon, nicknamed the 'death squad' for its high casualty rate. According to Sergeant Frank Lewis, leader of the demolitions squad, "He screwed up somewhere along the line. Apparently he got on someone's nerves."[22] Lewis also noted that Serling was not cut out to be a field soldier. "...[H]e didn't have the wits or aggressiveness required for combat."[22] At one point Lewis, Serling and others were in a firefight trapped in a foxhole. As time passed and they waited for darkness Lewis noticed that Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines. Another example of how Serling was a dreamer in a harsh reality was that he would go off exploring on his own, against orders and then get lost."[22]

    Serling's time in Leyte would shape his writing and his political views for the rest of his life. He witnessed death every day while in the Philippines, both at the hands of the enemy and through random events such as those that killed another extroverted Jewish private named Melvin Levy. Levy was in the middle of a comic monologue as the platoon sat resting under a palm tree when a food crate dropped from above, decapitating him as the men watched. Serling led the services for Levy and created a Star of David over his grave.[22] In his future writing career Serling would set several of his scripts in the Philippines and use the unpredictability of death as a source for much of his material.[23]
     

    Attached Files:

  9. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Zodiac: Excellent list. I'd like to hear your runner ups too. As you say, the music alone by such as the great BH who worked with Hitchcock so often really helps to make this series.

    I was in a small town recently in Colorado that had a soda fountain from the early 20th century that still worked just as it did in the old days, and rather like in Walking distance. My kids had chocolate malts. Only thing was they served it in paper cups.

    Ed Wynn is great. From recently watching a documentary on Serling, I saw that he had worked with Wynn before. And Wynn is also in that delightful episode with the clock, which has a surprisingly happy ending.
     
  10. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, she's quite a beauty. And died tragically young, which makes this episode more poignant. Didn't know there was a radio version.
     
  11. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, there's something about Judgment night that appeals to me. Morality and nightmares and repeating loops. It creates a mood too.

    For Mirror Image I just learned that Serling was writing about something that almost happened to him. He was at an airport and saw someone from the back who was the same height, the same build, had the same hair, and most eerily the exact same briefcase. Serling said he didn't want the man to turn around in case it might be his double. But then the man did and it was obviously someone else...
     
  12. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter


    Oh, you can't worry about plot holes when it comes to TZ!!! I rather like that they often don't have a real "answer" for what happens. It just does. That may be why I would often watch them over and over as a kid--to try to find the answer that wasn't there. Although sometimes there are some hidden answers.

    But And When the Sky Was Opened had none!! They just vanish one by one....Still creepy somehow. Good pick.
     
  13. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Need to watch People are Alike again. Haven't seen it in at least 30 years and I don't remember it somehow. But like you I really enjoy Roddy M.

    So many great acting talents like Jack Warden who are really used in their 25 minute mini-epics.
     
  14. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    My picks. I like all those mentioned, plus a lot of others, including....

    The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine. The depth of the feeling for the history of Hollywood is good here. And I like the ending. Somehow reminds me just a little of Sunset Blvd.

    Third From the Sun. This was a nice critique of nuclear terror in the Cold War. The end may seem silly, but I think it was one of the first times it was used. It was copied a lot after that.

    The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. Another good critique of the Cold War and what it can do...

    A World of Difference. Is it real, or is it a film? David Lynch in one of his recent movies whose title I can't recall kind of does a remake of this one. I prefer this 25 minute version to Lynch's 3 hour epic.

    The Big Tall Wish. Rare for the time African American cast treated with respect. I keep wanting it to end a little differently.

    Nightmare as a Child. A delusion that is real. The young actress who played "Markie" vanished professionally not that many years later. No one seems to know what happened to her. I ran across a rather ominous sounding auction of some of her personal stuff once...

    A Stop at Willoughby. I like this one. Sad though. Kind of like a more depressing version of Walking Distance.

    The After Hours. Are you real or are you a mannequin? The lives of things when we're not looking..
     
  15. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Season 2: (1960–1961)

    29 episodes

    Note: Six episodes of this season were recorded on videotape (not on film as all other episodes) at CBS Television City, as a cost-cutting measure mandated by CBS programming head James T. Aubrey. They were "The Lateness of the Hour", "The Night of the Meek", "The Whole Truth", "Twenty Two", "Static", and "Long Distance Call", all of which have a visual appearance which is distinctly different than episode shot on film. In addition, videotape was a relatively primitive medium in the early 1960s, thus the editing of tape was next to impossible. Each of the 6 episodes was therefore "camera-cut" as in live TV, on a studio sound stage, using a total of four cameras. The requisite multicamera setup of the videotape experiment pretty much precluded location shooting, severely limiting the potential scope of the story-lines, and so, the short-lived experiment was ultimately abandoned
    Episode # Title Director Writer(s) Original AirDate Production Code
    37 "King Nine Will Not Return" Buzz Kulik Rod Serling September 30, 1960 (1960-09-30) 173-3639
    A World War II bomber, King Nine, has crashed in the desert. Captain James Embry (Robert Cummings) finds himself stranded, alone except for the wreckage and the mystery of what happened to his crew, all of whom have disappeared.
    38 "The Man in the Bottle" Buck Houghton Rod Serling October 7, 1960 (1960-10-07) 173-3638
    A downtrodden pawnbroker (Luther Adler) and his wife are offered four wishes by a genie.
    39 "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" Douglas Heyes Rod Serling October 14, 1960 (1960-10-14) 173-3641
    An insecure, unsuccessful gangster named Jackie (Joe Mantell) waits in a cheap, dirty hotel room for his boss - and is harassed by his own reflection.
    40 "A Thing About Machines" David Orrick McDearmon Rod Serling October 28, 1960 (1960-10-28) 173-3645
    An ill-tempered writer (Richard Haydn) who reviles and constantly abuses machines starts to think machines are conspiring against him.
    41 "The Howling Man" Douglas Heyes Charles Beaumont November 4, 1960 (1960-11-04) 173-3642
    A man traveling in Europe on foot stumbles across a religious order that has trapped the Devil (Robin Hughes).
    42 "The Eye of the Beholder" Douglas Heyes Rod Serling November 11, 1960 (1960-11-11) 173-3640
    A disfigured woman (Maxine Stuart, then Donna Douglas) undergoes plastic surgery in order to look more like everyone else.
    43 "Nick of Time" Richard L. Bare Richard Matheson November 18, 1960 (1960-11-18) 173-3643
    While on his honeymoon, a man (William Shatner) becomes obsessed by a fortune-telling machine which produces uncannily accurate answer cards.
    44 "The Lateness of the Hour" Jack Smight Rod Serling December 2, 1960 (1960-12-02) 173-3652
    A woman (Inger Stevens) is concerned over her parents reliance on life-like robot servants.
    45 "The Trouble With Templeton" Buzz Kulik E. Jack Neuman December 9, 1960 (1960-12-09) 173-3649
    Booth Templeton (Brian Aherne) is a Broadway actor nostalgic for his youth and his late wife. During rehearsals for a new play, he finds himself back in the milieu of his first success in 1927.
    46 "A Most Unusual Camera" John Rich Rod Serling December 16, 1960 (1960-12-16) 173-3606
    While robbing an antique shop, two thieves (Fred Clark, Jean Carson) find out that they have stolen a future predicting camera.
    47 "The Night of the Meek" Jack Smight Rod Serling December 23, 1960 (1960-12-23) 173-3663
    A drunk, out-of-work department store Santa (Art Carney) finds a magical sack that can create Christmas presents and soon becomes the real Santa Claus.
    48 "Dust" Douglas Heyes Rod Serling January 6, 1961 (1961-01-06) 173-3653
    An unscrupulous peddler (Thomas Gomez) sells a bag of "magic dust" to the family of a condemned man.
    49 "Back There" David Orrick McDearmon Rod Serling January 13, 1961 (1961-01-13) 173-3648
    A man (Russell Johnson) who has traveled back through time tries to stop Lincoln's assassination.
    50 "The Whole Truth" James Sheldon Rod Serling January 20, 1961 (1961-01-20) 173-3666
    A used car dealer (Jack Carson) finds he's purchased a car that makes him tell the truth.
    51 "The Invaders" Douglas Heyes Richard Matheson January 27, 1961 (1961-01-27) 173-3646
    A woman (Agnes Moorehead) living in isolation is terrorized by space aliens.
    52 "A Penny for Your Thoughts" James Sheldon George Clayton Johnson February 3, 1961 (1961-02-03) 173-3650
    A man (Dick York) gains the ability to read minds when a coin he flips stands on its edge.
    53 "Twenty Two" Jack Smight Rod Serling February 10, 1961 (1961-02-10) 173-3664
    A stripper (Barbara Nichols) recuperating in the hospital is haunted by nightmares of a nurse leading her to a morgue.
    54 "The Odyssey of Flight 33" Justus Addiss Rod Serling February 24, 1961 (1961-02-24) 173-3651
    An airliner traveling from London to New York travels back in time.
    55 "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" John Brahm Rod Serling March 3, 1961 (1961-03-03) 173-3644
    In an experiment, two Martians give vacuum-cleaner salesman and perennial loser Luther Dingle (Burgess Meredith) superhuman strength.
    56 "Static" Buzz Kulik Charles Beaumont March 10, 1961 (1961-03-10) 173-3665
    A man's (Dean Jagger) old radio plays programs from the past that only he can hear.
    57 "The Prime Mover" Richard L. Bare George Clayton Johnson /
    Charles Beaumont March 24, 1961 (1961-03-24) 173-3647
    Ace Larsen (Dane Clark) discovers his partner, Jimbo Cobb (Buddy Ebsen), has telekinetic powers after a car crashes outside their café.
    58 "Long Distance Call" James Sheldon William Idelson &
    Charles Beaumont March 31, 1961 (1961-03-31) 173-3667
    A boy (Billy Mumy) receives phone calls from his recently deceased grandmother on the toy phone she gave him.
    59 "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" Buzz Kulik Rod Serling April 7, 1961 (1961-04-07) 173-3654
    While searching alone for water, the leader (Cliff Robertson) of a 1847 wagon train ends up in the future.
    60 "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" Justus Addiss Rod Serling April 21, 1961 (1961-04-21) 173-3655
    A gang of gold thieves use suspended animation to escape to the future.
    61 "The Silence" Boris Sagal Rod Serling April 28, 1961 (1961-04-28) 173-3658
    A man (Liam Sullivan) makes a bet that he can go without speaking for a year.
    62 "Shadow Play" John Brahm Charles Beaumont May 5, 1961 (1961-05-05) 173-3657
    A man (Dennis Weaver) convicted of murder tries to convince those about to execute him that it’s all just a recurring nightmare of his.
    63 "The Mind and the Matter" Buzz Kulik Rod Serling May 12, 1961 (1961-05-12) 173-3659
    Mr. Archibald Beechcroft (Shelley Berman) uses mental powers to change the world he lives in.
    64 "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" Montgomery Pittman Rod Serling May 26, 1961 (1961-05-26) 173-3660
    A group of bus travelers find that there is an extra person when they stop at a diner.
    65 "The Obsolete Man" Elliot Silverstein Rod Serling June 2, 1961 (1961-06-02) 173-3661
    In a future totalitarian society where books have been banned, librarian Romney Wordsworth (Burgess Meredith) is put on trial for the crime of being obsolete.
     
  16. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    There are some episodes available on CBS.

    http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/

    I own the complete DVD set, which I got at the bargain price of $99, or something like that. I thought I'd watch it with my kids. But they usually find it too spooky.

    My son, who is now 14, likes it, but when he was 9 or whatever, it just creeped him out too much.

    I might even buy it again on blu if it's not too much. Not sure why I still have such fondness for this show...I still haven't watched more than half of my dvd set.

    Blu is close enough to 35mm that watching it that way will give an idea of what Rod Serling saw in the screening room at CBS or MGM 50 years ago once an episode was complete.
     
  17. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    Man, I saw some of those episodes new on network TV when I was maybe 7 or 8, and they creeped the hell outta me. I think To Serve Man and The Invaders warped me for years. (But in a good way.)
     
  18. mavisgold

    mavisgold Senior Member

    Location:
    bellingham wa
    "Room for one more honey"
    "it's a cook book"
    They're all good :righton:
    Too bad I know them all and they will never be new again
     
    Damiano54 likes this.
  19. kevintomb

    kevintomb Forum Resident

    "I shot an arrow into the air"

    "A stop at willoughby"

    "After hours"
     
  20. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    Season 2: I could probably making 10 set of 3 favorites, but these 3 are closest to the thin line that bounds the Twilight Zone
    42 "The Eye of the Beholder" - another classic. I love the shadows and contrast. I suppose when it was first aired it wasn't so obvious why the faces are never shown, unless, perhaps, it is because I know the surprise ending. Great editting for the time, though, because the scene changes just before you start to wonder why there are no (well lit) close ups.
    51 "The Invaders" - super creepy, and prime example of the twist ending
    58 "Long Distance Call" - extremely creepy and if it was written today for broadcast TV, it would be considered to risky to portray a youngster attempting suicide.
     
  21. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Long Distance call was one of the first episodes I showed my son at age 9. I'd actually forgotten the episodes, and showed it pretty much at random. It creeped him out so much he mostly swore off TZ for 3 years. Now, at age 14, he's somewhat getting into it again.
     
  22. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    1."The Howling Man" –I’ve always liked it, not sure why. Like the transitions as the “howling man” takes on his true form. And the ending as the camera zooms into the darkened room….superb….

    2."Nick of Time" – Shatner, baby. I love the man. The “Ten *****ty Shatner Movies” countdown served only to remind me that I need to buy more Shatner movie DVDs! Good story and that fortune machine’s silently mocking bobbing head is very effective.

    3."The Eye of the Beholder" - No defense needed. A classic. Television at it’s best.

    My runners up would be "The Night of the Meek" & "The Invaders", simply because I love Art Carney and Aggie Moorehead. "Long Distance Call" great too. Creepy is the correct word.
     
  23. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    There is so much tension in Long Distance Call. Father is a Momma's Boy, and is afraid to tell her off. Billy Mumy loves Grandma and is unaware that she is alienating him from his own mother and doesn't realize the strain that she is causing between his parents.

    I agree, the darkened room at the end of Howling Man is superb, man can either lock up the devil or set him free.
     
  24. benjaminhuf

    benjaminhuf Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, To Serve Man is another classic. Nice adaptation of a fine short story by Damon Knight. The last line is fun: "To Serve Man!! It's a cookbook!!"
     
  25. kevintomb

    kevintomb Forum Resident

    Wow there are so many great ones in the first 2 seasons I had to read this over for almost an hour! I could really pick 10 best ones from the first 2 seasons EASILY!!
     
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