No one has mentioned ' The Dummy' with Cliff Robertson. Spoiler alert ! I saw this episode when I waa about eight or so and at the end when it's revealed that the dummy is now the ventriloquist and Robertson is the dummy I damn near pissed myself. Really scared me.
I just watched "On Thursday We Leave For Home". It is one of the hour-long episodes, but it would have worked very well if they would have clipped it down to a half-an-hour show.
I agree with every single one of your picks, except with The Trouble with Templeton, In His Image, (both of which I haven't seen yet) and The Self-Improvement of Salvatore Ross
Yes it was, and it's in the top 50 list which I presume you didn't look at. They needed an episode in the schedule and their budget was nearly blown, and they got the rights to air it for much less than it would have cost to produce another "new" episode.
The list omits the 51st best episode : ' Busted By BwanaBob ' , a chilling tale of being caught red-handed.
The one with the crew of people from a boat called the S. S. Minnow getting stuck on that tiny island gave me nightmares as a kid. They had to make everything from coconuts. Freaky stuff.
The episode you're thinking of is season 3's Cavender Is Coming and you're not alone in disliking it - I personally don't care for it either (though season 4's The Bard is worse in my opinion) and it's generally considered to be one of the weakest episodes of the series from what I've seen. My understanding is that it was intended as a backdoor pilot for a comedy spinoff series with the Cavender character that never took off, which is why the tone feels so out of place compared to other episodes. It is available without the laugh track on at least some of the home media releases; while I don't like the episode either way I think it actually works better without the laugh track than with it, not just because I'd rather not need to be constantly reminded through canned laughter that what I'm watching is supposed to be funny when I don't particularly think it is, but also because I felt the laugh track took away from certain scenes it was utilised in (of course it was going to be used during the slapstick/jokey scenes, but then there are bits like the last five or so minutes of the episode starting from when Carol Burnett's character is upset that her friends and neighbours don't recognise her anymore and she pleads for her old, happier life back - it's supposed to be a touching finale but the laugh track plays through it and ruins any sort of sentiment it was going for). However, because it was designed with said laugh track in mind, watching the episode without it also results in a bunch of awkward moments where the actors just trail off at the end of a line and/or just stand there and do nothing for where the canned laughter would have been utilised.
Over the last few weeks, I've watched this 50 countdown. I skipped a couple I just don't like very much or had just recently watched and the one season 4 episode because Netflix doesn't have it. I agree with #1. That's always been my favorite episode. It's also number one on a 2019 best 50 list I found that I'm going to watch through. Not a lot of overlap between these two lists that I noticed, so I find that interesting. I didn't care so much for this current list. Started off stronger than it ended, I thought. Aside from the obvious classics, of course. A few of my favorites not on this list: Rip Van Winkle Caper, A Most Unusual Camera and Mr. Dingle the Strong.
i think the fourth season is really much better than its reputation. Overall, the episodes are better than those of Season Five. The problem is just that, when it's bad, it's bad for a good hour instead of a mere, breezy 25 minutes. If you don't wish to watch the whole season, at least watch these: In His Image He's Alive Death Ship Printer's Devil (feat. the legendary Burgess Meredith playing wonderfully against type) The New Exhibit On Thursday We Leave For Home Passage On The Lady Anne Other Season 4 episodes i like a lot are: Jess-Belle (more of a rural folktale than a regular TZ, but it's something special IMO, if a bit corny) Miniature (again, not a typical TZ, but a Charles Beaumont classic) No Time Like The Past (i'm a sucker for time travel stories) Episodes i disliked: The Thirty-Fathom Grave (more like "The Fifty-Minute Bore", amirite?) I Dream Of Genie (why did they attempt comedy episodes so many times?) Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville (Julie Newmar was great in it though) The Incredible World Of Horace Ford The Bard (oh, the humanity; in the hands of a good comedy/satire writer this could have been wonderful, but alas, it is far from Rod's strong suit; this is unwatchable IMO) Any episodes not mentioned are quite good too, they just don't really stick out in my mind one way or the other.
I wish you could at least see it with the laugh track nowadays. From what I understand it's been scrubbed everywhere.
I can't comment on the home media releases in other countries, but the region B blu-ray boxset of the complete series does give you the option to watch the episode with the laugh track. Does the region A release have it too?
I looked it up and Region A does have the option. I only have access to Netflix, and Wikipedia says it was removed from the DVD as well as the TV versions.
Yes, I agree. Season 4 is often seen as the red-headed stepchild of the series and doesn't fit the typical mold of the concise half-hour episode that presents an interesting scenario, briskly plays out that idea, and then twist ending. The hour-long episodes stretch out more and dig a bit deeper. It's not as good as Seasons 1-3 for sure, but I think it's probably better on the whole than Season 5. Season 4 had several episodes that were dogs, but it also had some fine episodes, too. And it produced my favorite episode of the entire series - "On Thursday We Leave for Home." I disagree with the poster above who said it would work better as a half-hour episode. I wouldn't take out a thing.
I like the twilight zone but one strange episode is cowboy tv star is visited by jesse james This jesse james looks like an old football player Showdown with rance mcgrew
I have the 2010 five-season box set from Image Entertainment. The episode "Cavender Is Coming" has actually five different audio options. - the remastered audio track (no laugh track) - the original audio track (no laugh track) - the episode with the laugh track (very noisy, not cleaned up much) - a commentary track with Martin grams, Jr. - an isolated music track
One of the most brilliant aspects of the The Twilight Zone is that Serling & Co. brought out the best in the actors. It's as if just being on the show gave the actors some extra umph to carry out the script. Rod Serling rubbed off on people. He inspired them. He inspires me to this day. I don't think there can be a Top 50. It's too difficult for a show of this magnitude. One that is often overlooked, "Night Call," Season 5, Ep. 139, the one that wasn't aired in its intended slot due to the Kennedy assassination. One of my favorites.
I had an opportunity over New Years to see a few of the TWILIGHT ZONE episodes on the marathon that Decades was running. Back in the thread on the smoothing of motion on a SyFy run back in 2016, I commented that it might have been something done to speed the motion up for more commercials. Well, no, that's not what it was then, nor now. The whole series appears to have been remastered for TV showing with the motion-smoothing effect performed on the episodes. I witnessed this on both Decades and sister station MeTV. It is essentially what a filmed show looks like with the TVs motion smoothing turned on - except it's being broadcast that way. Somehow smoothing was applied to the episodes that are now in syndication - and may forever look that way. The only way out may be to buy the Blu-rays. I even recall someone saying that a DVD set they bought looked that way, and I didn't believe it at the time. I do now. It could only be a matter of time before they do this to STAR TREK!
