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

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!

Original series just added to Netflix Canada. See y’all in a while.

a late goodie, apparently bought in from elsewhere, is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge_(film)#Twilight_Zone_airing

(hopefully the ilx trailing bracket bug will not strike again)

the mirror gif from episode 1 is all time

https://gifdb.com/gif/twilight-zone-down-the-stairs-mirror-bump-b3eesz6n5kduai4e.html

“The good writing, really good writing — like wine — has to age well with the years, and my stuff is momentarily adequate.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/07/opinion/twilight-zone-tv-america.html

Beauty is not just skin deep, even when you want it to be: "The Lonely," S1 E7, Jean Marsh and Jack Warden (o my child mind)

Watch out for being paid in kind, and not by the person you were just now being kind to: "Mirror Image," S1 E21, Vera Miles and Martin Milner, look out now!

That which is lost is somewhere: "Minature," S4 E8, Robert Duvall, Barbara Barrie (also Sally Kellerman and other good'uns).
This ep was not incl. in original syndication package because of a plagiarism suit which was later dismissed, and the only time I've ever seen it on TV was in the 80s, I think, as part of an anniversary subset of episodes. Duvall seems to shed real tears at one (well-timed) point, and my Mom got so upset. Improbably apt use of colorization, though that version seems to be DVD-only.

Watch out for being paid in kind, and not by the person you were just now being kind to: "Mirror Image," S1 E21, Vera Miles and Martin Milner, look out now!

btw, Legend are showing these an hour at a time on sat and sun in the uk, free to air

(which means two at a time apart from series 4(?) which were an hour each)

Sepinwall's put up a full chapter from his biography:

https://www.whatsalanwatching.com/how-rod-serling-mostly-survived-world-war-ii/

Just saw this over the weekend:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLB8gs4l08

Thanks---Shatner always brings me The Twilight Zone, no matter what else he's doing.

From a discussion on the thread simply entitled dylan:

Late last night, I saw The Twilight Zone's "Come Wander With Me," and was struck by the somewhat spectral, somewhat sensible young singer of a suitably intriguing folkoid song, the kind that sounds traditional, with words that prove increasingly relevant to the present situation: turned out to be Bonnie Beecher, of the Minneapolis Party Tape---backstory here, by son of the teen recordist: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/08/my-father-recorded-bob-dylan-at-19-how-the-historic-minneapolis-party-tape-was-made/

― dow, Saturday, April 11, 2026 2:31 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Beecher is married to Wavy Gravy.

Wonder if the Bil Golfus involved in the recording is Billy Golfus, Minneapolis radio DJ who made the documentary When Billy Broke His Head, documenting his life after suffering a traumatic brain injury when his Vespa scooter was rear-ended by a car.

― bulb after bulb, Saturday, April 11, 2026 3:51 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

(and Beecher was originally Boettcher. Curt Boettcher was also at the University of Minnesota, where he started the GoldeBriars, before moving to LA)

― bulb after bulb, Saturday, April 11, 2026 4:04 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

OMG, are they related? Was wondering---wiki cited her orig name, but didn't mention him.

― dow, Saturday, April 11, 2026 4:15 PM (six months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Curious, but couldn't find anything on limited digging

― bulb after bulb