what have you learned from the Twilight Zone?

Always be nice to dolls that talk.

But more importantly, from that episode I learned that Telly Sevalas did have hair at some point in his life.

Don't know what lesson to take from that one.

Did anyone see the one about Hitler? I watched it only last year but can't remember the details for some reason. I think it was like, an hour long.

Burgess Meredith is da OBSOLETE! (OBSOLETE! OBSOLETE!...) man.

"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" is classic too.

I so want to see:

Five Characters in Search of An Exit
This episode was adapted by Rod Serling from Marvin Petal's short story "The Depository," but it could easily have been inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. Five people from various and assorted walks of life -- an Army major (William Windom), a clown (Murray Matheson), a ballerina (Susan Harrison), a tramp (Kelton Garwood), and a bagpipe player (Clark Allen) -- find themselves trapped in a huge, cylindrical prison. They don't know where they are or how they got there, but it soon becomes painfully clear that they'd better escape, lest they be driven crazy by the deafening peal of bell which periodically interrupts their conversation.

-- Tadeusz Suchodolski (llamasfu...), March 14th, 2002.

The town and the episode are called "Centerville". Last time I saw this episode I wept in sympathy for their plight (of course it was 4a.m. and I was stoned).

I was surprised to see that the Willoughby episode had an upbeat ending. Sterling seems to be advocating suicide for certain people.

This is one of the greatest things I've ever seen, actually.

Did anyone catch the episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, where William Shatner and John Lithgow made a little inisde joke about "the man on the wing"? (Shatner played the passenger in the original, Lithgow was in the movie version).

the truest stories i've heard are from rod serling and hans christian andersen.

I had totally forgotten that the "bookish little man" who won't stop reading is Burgess Meredith. I had also forgotten that it's hilarious.

"You, Mr. Bemis, are a reader!"

"You know what ya are, Rock? Yer a TOMATO! Here, read David Copperfield."

A ton of these are on youtube now. I would like to watch some but they are very variable. What are like the best six or seven episodes?

Zinc is actually kinda useful

Karagarga, if you can. Family secret. I also have the first two seasons of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which would make for an interesting TS thread, maybe.

TS: method of demise

• An apparently wounded Robert Redford who turns out to be... worse
• Barbara Bel Geddes wielding a leg of lamb

Ok seriously, I'm only about 10 episodes deep into the first season, but why don't people ever talk about how funny this show can be? I just watched the one with the hateful little hypochondriac who makes a deal with the devil and then uses his immortality to have "accidents" for insurance money... I laughed at an unseemly volume for this hour of morning. It was like Groundhog Day, except instead of rooting for the character's redemption, you're rooting for something much simpler.

Episode 6A of The New Twilight Zone taught me - in the beginning of my first grade year - that children who performed too well on tests would be put to death.

I have determined that Rod Serling had abandonment issues.

A ton of these are on youtube now. I would like to watch some but they are very variable. What are like the best six or seven episodes?

If you live in the US I think all of the first few seasons are available free on the CBS website. Otherwise, as mentioned upthread, "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" is a definite winner if it's available.

I'm also partial to things like "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" and "The Shelter"... the ones that exploit the more hysterical side of atomic-age America. they're fun.

Maybe check out the Shatner episode "Nightmare at 20,000 feet" and "Time Enough at Last", cos both are considered to be fairly classic-y type episodes. They're not the best but they're memorable.

Also, "He's Alive".

Might be worth scanning the wikipedia episode list to see if any of the episode blurbs look interesting, though. There are a lot to choose from... I just found loads I never got around to watching. If I wasn't meant to be working right now, I'd be watching four hours straight of the Twilight Zone.

Thanks for answering. I've seen "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" and yes indeed it was excellent. I will look for the others you mention. Any other recommendations from anyone appreciated!

eye of the beholder

two

S (I don't remember too many titles):

- the one with the writer who uses a tape recorder to make his creations come to life
- Dennis Hopper as neo-nazi
- TV repairman drives couple insane
- Talking Tina
- Patriarch about to die makes his family wear a bunch of hideous masks before they can claim their inheritance
- guy gets stopwatch that stops time
- Burgess Meredith in proto-fascist society, condemned to death because he's a librarian
- pair of shoes wants revenge

man, so many... one of the best shows ever

talky tina is alfred hitchcock, i think.

no.

guy gets stopwatch that stops time

I remember this one but only vaguely. What happens in it?

what, you want me to give it away before Zelda gets a chance to watch it?

more S:

- aliens make weak nerdy Burgess Meredith super-strong
- survivors of bus crash get trapped in a diner and argue over which one of them is actually a Martian
- woman has doppelganger at bus station (this one FREAKED ME THE FUCK OUT as a kid - still really creepy)
- asshole factory boss gets ironically replaced by Robbie the Robot
- Woman in dept store terrorized by mannequins

Wow Talky Tina sounds awesome. There's another story called "Perigi's Wonderful Dolls" that has a similar hook but sounds a lot less psychologically intense. Radio drama of it here: http://www.escape-suspense.com/2007/02/best_or_worst_p.html

The crazy laughter of the doll is worth listening to it for.

Talky Tina kicks ass - Telly Savalas!

-low-rent criminals obtain polaroid camera that spits out pictures from 5 mins in the future.

^^^ ooh yeah good one

-the one where the sun is getting closer and closer

-TO SERVE MAN

-the doctors want to perform plastic surgery on "ugly" woman

-boy has many powers, including mind reading

OK top marks chaps, but what did you learn?

murder any children with near-omnipotent psychic powers at first opportunity

avoid Burgess Meredith

you may be the pig faced freak

think about all possible meanings of the phrase on that book the 8ft alien is always carrying around

don't buy Talky Tina

when flying, always carry anti-gremlin spray

-the one with shatner getting fortunes from a machine at a diner (don't eat in small-town diner if your car breaks down)

more S:

- couple runs around deserted town where nothing works, periodically terrorized by ear-splittingly loud laughter of child
- any episode with Ed Wynn
- the Professor from Gilligan's Island builds a time machine and unwittingly transports a man condemend to hang into the future
- in future where everyone looks the same, adolescent girl agonizes over which model to choose for her adult body

"The werewolf was by tonight, but he didn't look so well. And that must be Count Dracula now..."

?

I learned that what seems like Heaven may just be That Other Place

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Play_(The_Twilight_Zone)

mentioned this one upthread a few years ago, apparently

ahh, the Doppelganger one was really good! Mirror Image.
the Dennis Hopper Hitler one was He's Alive.
REALLY want to see the condemned to death librarian ep but can't remember the title.

- in future where everyone looks the same, adolescent girl agonizes over which model to choose for her adult body
this one was The Number 12 Looks Just Like You, or something (which is also the name of a really shit band)

- woman has doppelganger at bus station (this one FREAKED ME THE FUCK OUT as a kid - still really creepy)

Haven't seen this one (in fact there are more and more episodes that I thought I'd seen, but turns out I was just watching The Simpsons), but I gotta stand up for Hitch on the doppelganger issue. Nothing can be better than "The Case of Mr. Pelham."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmPMw5wIyvM

YOU ARE OBSOLETE

I think the only episodes I can honestly say "destroy" for are the ones shot on video. absolutely horrible sacrifice of usually fantastic visual style.

-the one where the guy goes back in time and tries to stop Lincoln from being shot but fails (you can't stop the inevitable. or, prophets are mistaken for loons)

Shakey then you're okay with destroying the dead-grandma-rings-toy-phone one? I saw that one recently and the videoness made it xtra creepy. (lesson: remove dead grandma's vocal cords before burial)

that's a Bill Mumy one yeah...? anything with him gets a pass

- Old West huckster raises the dead. FOR REAL

The one where the woman gets locked in the department store after hours and discovers she's a mannequin on a day pass freaked me right the fuck out when I was like 8 years old.

that one is great - also features one of my favorite "I am SO GAY" character actors: James Millholin

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41XC62EDFML._SX320_SY240_.jpg

i just watched 'mirror image' during lunch
now all i want to do is watch twilight zone all afternoon. except i am at work. and being in a twilight zone frame of mind while being slightly hungover and at work is probably not so good for me.

Every time I get sick, there's a Twilight Zone marathon on! Spooky. One of the best shows of all time for real.

The most didactic one I can think of is also my least favorite: the ep where the guy in Vegas wastes all of his & his wife's money on gambling, and then a talking slot machine shows up in his hotel room and shoves him out the window. Morals: 1. Don't gamble, 2. Don't marry a gambling asshole.

Wing-on-plane gremlin dude reminded me so much of Rob Smith in fuzzy mascot suit from "Why Can't I Be You" vid – it kind of robbed the ep of a lot of suspense. For me.

One of the best shows of all time for real.

Direct copy and pasted quote from myself, 2:12 AM last night: "this show is so great. Got to be one of the best TV series ever anywhere. Not to sound grandiose, but really."

haha

i really think that the most important thing i've learned from all the twilight zone watching when i was young is that freaky weird tv is the way to go re: tv and that twilight zone rules

The sun one is just psychotic.

I could srsly watch nothing but Twilight Zone & be happy (well, that and Kids in the Hall). Twilight Zone is pretty much perfect 90% of the time.

it really is, & its probably gotten even better with age - most of the points & twists are still cool today but its also got the time capsule aspect going for it

freaky weird tv is the way to go re: tv

Careful with that theory, though. You could find yourself watching LOST for the next 30 years of your life and still not knowing what the show is about.

I saw a kind of out-of-Twilight-Zone-character one the other day wherein an SS dude goes and visits his old camp, and is tried (in his imagination) by Jews he tortured and killed. And I think he dies of shock. That was all that happened! It was just "Nazis are evil!" and that's it. It also had a vibe Twilight Zone is frequently good at being too obvious about: the whole EC comics ironic revenge thing. "YOU sharpened the PENCIL, now the PENCIL comes back to sharpen YOU!"

Submitted for your approval, one rrrobyn, who thought she was only watching a television show...

aaaaaahhh!

THE SCARY DOOR

i am sitting here with headphones on watching another episode at the meeting table and it's totally overcast outside and it all feels very much like i am on tv or in tv or ohnnooo

"YOU sharpened the PENCIL, now the PENCIL comes back to sharpen YOU!"

hahahaha

yeah that concentration camp one is a snoozer (lead actor in it is good tho, they used him a bunch...?)

THE SCARY DOOR

ok I totally loled at that

"why should I believe you, you're HITLER!" lolz

i did too, esp b/c it cuts off so perfectly
xpost

yeah the end is what nails it

"It turns out it's man" is a big catchphrase at my house.

is it me or are Serling's episodes usually some of the weakest/most sentimental/most heavy-handed moralizing...? Ned Beaumont otoh, that guy had an amazing track record on the series.

er Charles Beaumont

wtf that Nazi ep is rated #25 all-time at TV.com. credibility, lost.

http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/show/237/top.html?tag=subtabs;top

I mean look at this run, a bunch of these are all-time best episodes, really varied:

# Perchance to Dream (27 November 1959) - Writer (writer)
# Elegy (19 February 1960) - Writer (writer)
# Long Live Walter Jameson (18 March 1960) - Writer (writer)
# A Nice Place to Visit (15 April 1960) - Writer (writer)
# The Howling Man (4 November 1960) - Writer (writer)
# Static (10 March 1961) - Writer (writer)
# The Prime Mover (24 March 1961) - Writer (writer)
# Long Distance Call (31 March 1961) - Writer (writer)
# Shadow Play (5 May 1961) - Writer (writer)
# The Jungle (1 December 1961) - Writer (writer)
# Dead Man's Shoes (19 January 1962) - Writer (writer)
# The Fugitive (9 March 1962) - Writer (writer)
# Person or Persons Unknown (23 March 1962) - Writer (writer)
# In His Image (3 January 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Valley of the Shadow (17 January 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Miniature (21 February 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Printer's Devil (28 February 1963) - Writer (writer)
# The New Exhibit (4 April 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Passage on the Lady Anne (9 May 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Living Doll (1 November 1963) - Writer (writer)
# Number 12 Looks Just Like You (24 January 1964) - Writer (writer)
# Queen of the Nile (

now i want to download a bunch of these but they aren't available in itunes, lame

re: The Scary Door -- In the earliest episodes, they didn't have their artwork all together yet, so instead of the Scary Door we get... The Oogy Cave!

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i191/fluxion23/TZcave.jpg

I will leave it to Abbott to give a clever name to this opening.

haha shakey's been reading too much dashiell hammett

http://20.media.tumblr.com/dHMNAEtykp4biavfWvLNEeLWo1_400.jpg

mannikins are people too

Willoughby, Willoughby, next stop Willoughby...
― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 14 March 2002 01:00 (7 years ago)

i learned where funki porcini got his sample from!

i got excited the other day cuz wgn was showing back-to-back episodes on a regular basis. but it was the new version! i gave it a shot, but they're pretty awful.

by "new" i mean like mid-late 90s or something. will have to check imdb

There was a revival in the early 00s that were pretty awful, but kinda neat to see some of "today's stars" still out there in the syndicated wilderness. Katherine Heigl tries to kill Baby Hitler. Jason Bateman gets burned alive by children. Shannon Elizabeth is a fantasy cartoon character who comes to life... or does she?

I religiously watched the 80s versions. Kids who watched Amazing Stories or the colorized Alfred Hitchcock Presents were pussies.

I religiously watched the 80s versions

I was always happy they did a version of the story "Examination Day" for that.

^^^only saw that once but man did that stick with me. 80s TZ was actually kinda good on occasion

^^ Did all three of us turn 12 in 1985?

(I just checked wikipedia. The show aired two days before my birthday!)

how do The Outer Limits and The Night Gallery compare? are there any other similarly-themed 50s/60s tv series i should check out (other than Hitchcock Presents, obv)

i hear great things about Playhouse 90 (which Serling used to write for) but there's nothing of it, anywhere.

I have the Outer Limits box set (hmm actually I may have given it away) which is okay but not even close to TZ level of quality. Occasionally they feature some big name actors and have some wacky special effects but in general the stories are way more pedestrian and predictable and don't have any of the wit or thematic complexity of vintage TZ. Also the politics are usually totally reactionary. I can't think of more than a handful of episodes that are worth watching more than once

There is a marathon on the sci-fi channel right now.

Was 'Occurrence on a Bridge at Owl Creek' a twilight zone ep or just a short film?

Both. A short film that they bought the rights to and aired as an episode.

^^^ dude, i SO thought of that same display name yesterday

I have the Outer Limits box set (hmm actually I may have given it away) which is okay but not even close to TZ level of quality. Occasionally they feature some big name actors and have some wacky special effects but in general the stories are way more pedestrian and predictable and don't have any of the wit or thematic complexity of vintage TZ. Also the politics are usually totally reactionary. I can't think of more than a handful of episodes that are worth watching more than once

― Suckanoosik Chamber of Commerce (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:01 PM Bookmark

so RONG

unfortunately, i can't think of a good way to counter your assertions other than pointing out that the politics of the show are quite left-wing (not sure if that's what you meant or not). i think the episodes have tons of thematic complexity. wit, i dunno, i guess the best i can say is that it was a very very serious show.

here's a couple of articles that say it better than i can.

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/masterpiece/2002/04/08/outer_limits/index.html?CP=IMD&DN=110

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/the-outer-limits-the-original-series-volume-1

dude, i SO thought of that same display name yesterday

haha, I made sure to post something somewhere as soon as I thought of it.

baja, do you rate outer limits above twilight zone?

anyone seen night gallery?

definitely rate outer limits higher than any sixties show but star trek

50 years ago today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMn9ms37ImA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyaBxYjWcQ&feature=PlayList&p=8ACD8A7C6B3A882A&index=0&playnext=1

http://www.avclub.com/articles/bryan-singer-to-develop-another-twilight-zone-rebo,90105/

Like poor souls trapped in a world where all of television’s genre stories with an undercurrent of social commentary and moral lessons can only be told through the prism of a single recognizable brand name, CBS executives are once again planning another version of The Twilight Zone, swept along by forces they can’t begin to comprehend. Submitted for your approval: Bryan Singer, a Hollywood producer who’s been drafted to develop a Twilight Zone update, one that could prove to be his redemption for his similar work on NBC’s scrapped Munsters reboot. Unless, perhaps, he is doomed to repeat history? As, perhaps, are we all?...

of ffs

what have you not learned from the Twilight Zone?

Wonkette also had Old Lunch's Trump = Billy Mumy idea

http://wonkette.com/609960/10-twilight-zone-dystopias-that-dont-seem-all-that-bad-now

am kinda depressed that author thought of Agnes M primarily as Endora

"...I'm a mannequin!"

are we talking about the new twilight zone anywhere?

i watched the first and second episodes and ... didn't really love then. first ep impressions: i like jordan peele hosting, enjoyed performances by kumail et al, was pleasantly surprised by seeing them shooting somewhere i walk past twice a day. just felt like i could see everything that was going to happen a mile away (i haven't watched original twilight zone in so long that i have no idea if this is part of the style).

just straight up didn't like the second episode

watched a couple random vintage episodes last night and they BOTH turned out to be ones where the main character learns at the end that they've been dead the whole time. Has anyone ever run the numbers on what percentage of Twilight Zone episodes feature this twist? It's gotta be like a third at least, no?

and if not death then the twist is that everything is the opposite of what you thought (i.e. the silent one with the woman fending off the space aliens, who actually turn out to be...)

the movie "right at your door" from about 10 years ago is basically a 90 minute Twilight Zone in this respect, as is "the machinist" and maybe even "fight club"

It's gotta be like a third at least, no?

nah, not even close

one of the two was admittedly amazing & i was surprised I hadnt seen it before as it appears to be a classic - "the hitch hiker". Really spooky performance by the lead actress, espec at the end

Ariana Grande dressed as the medical staff from "Eye of the Beholder" this Halloween

"The Hitch Hiker" def my favorite from Season 1 (I'm not as up on other seasons)

oh man, The Hitch Hiker is one of the best

I really like the one about astronauts jumping the fence so they can steal a rocket and get off of their doomed planet, only to successfully escape and make their way toward... Earth

kind of a typical TZ twist

how many episodes are there where they have to escape a planet and they successfully escape and go to Earth

or where the opposite was really happening all along (the earth is burning up, but it turns out to be a dream, and the earth is really freezing instead, etc)

RIP Carol Serling

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/carol-serling-dead-wife-twilight-zone-legend-rod-serling-was-91-1269950

Just read something about the original choice for narrator of The Twilight Zone but now I can’t remember.

eerie

Ha!