Your Favorite Twilight Zone

[Bear]

Time Enough at Last.

http://media.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/twilightzone/timelg.jpg

[NDHorse]

Time Enough at Last.

http://media.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/twilightzone/timelg.jpg

I saw the title of the thread and that is the first one I thought of, even before I saw your first post. Definitely the best one. I have been going through all of the TZ over the past few years through Netflix. I only have 2 discs left.

[david r]

My favorite is Walking Distance. One of the very first episodes, about a burned out man who returns to his childhood hometown and finds nothing has changed. It's exactly like it was when he was a child.

How I've often thought of doing that myself.

[Haunt]

Nightmare at 20,000 feet and the one with Talking-Tina; Living Doll. i also like Jess-Belle and Silence.


Season 4, Episode 7: Jess-Belle
Original Air Date: 14 February 1963
Jess-Belle wants to win the love of Billy-Ben Turner, but the only way she can do it is if she has the aid of a magic potion that will make her into a witch!

comments: just plain creepy to me and i don't know why. maybe it was that it was almost a musical.

Season 5, Episode 3: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Original Air Date: 11 October 1963
A man, newly recovered from a nervous breakdown, becomes convinced that a monster only he sees is damaging the plane he's flying in.

comments: just plain entertaining because of William Shatner. i really felt for the guy even though his actions were non-sensical.


Season 2, Episode 25: The Silence
Original Air Date: 28 April 1961
Annoyed by a club member's constant chatter, a man bets him he cannot remain silent for a year, living in a glass enclosure in the club basement.

comments: i liked it because of the twist ending.


Season 5, Episode 6: Living Doll
Original Air Date: 1 November 1963
A frustrated father does battle with his stepdaughter's talking doll, whose vocabulary includes such phrases as "I hate you" and "I'm going to kill you".

comments: i like killer dolls.

[Kirayoshi]

Two faves:

A Passage for Trumpet. Jack Klugman as a burnt-out alcoholic jazz trumpeter who thinks he's become a ghost after throwing himself in front of a Mack truck.

The Obsolete Man. Burgess Meredith as a God-fearing librarian in a world where both religion and books have been outlawed, about to be executed, but will he take his executioner with him?

[Buzz Dixon]

"The Invaders" Agnes Moorehead vs. tiny invaders from space.

[nonhosonno]

I love Charles Beaumont's "The Howling Man."

[dswynne]

Old series:

"The Hitch-Hiker" (About a woman who realizes too late, as she drives across America, that she is already dead).
"Mirror Image" (About a woman who runs into her own "evil twin" at a bus stop...and nobody believes her until it is too late).

First Revival:

"Paladin of the Lost Hour" (Danny Kaye's last performance as a guardian of the LAST hour of the Universe).
"Her Pilgrim Soul (about a holographic image of a woman who help saves the marriage of her reincarnated husband).

Second Revial:

"Sunrise" (when a group of archeology students must perform an Aztec human sacrifice on one of their own...only to realize that it might not have been necessary).
"It's Still a Good Life" (I liked this one because it is actually a sequel to an original TZ episode- "It's a Good Life" -that resolves it...and played by the original actors, Bill Mumy and Cloris Leachman; it was quite interesting to see this done).

[NYRUNAWAY]

I can't decide on one because there are just so many. Here are the ones I can think of right now. This is in no particular order

1. The Howling Man
2. The Monsters are Due On Maple Street
3. To Serve Man
4. The Masks
5. The Obsolete Man
6. Time Enough At Last
7. The Midnight Sun

[Kirayoshi]

"Paladin of the Lost Hour" (Danny Kaye's last performance as a guardian of the LAST hour of the Universe).Oh God yes, I forgot about that one! Powerful stuff. It ain't easy to adapt Harlan Ellison to the screen but that ep succeeded. Also, from an Ellison story, there was "Shatterday", with Bruce Willis(before he became a megastar) as a guy who finds that he was split into two people, who fight each other for the right to exist.

Also from the first revival(the second revival was an unnecessary and criminal waste of Forrest Whittaker):

A Message from Charity. A modern teen discovers that he can communicate telepathically with Charity, a girl from Massachusettes, circa 17th century, and must save her from being condemned as a witch.

Eye of Newton. Sherman Helmsley and Ron Glass(Shephard Book from Firefly!) as a mathemetician and a demon, respectively. More a one-note sketch than an episode, but the punchline was laugh-out-loud funny.

To See the Invisible Man. In a semi-totalitarian near future, a convicted criminal (the script was deliberately vague on the actual crime, IIRC) was condemned to one year of 'invisibility', meaning he was forced to wear a scar on his forehead, and literally the entire population of the world was forbidden from interacting with him in any way. Powerful stuff.

[Scorpion13]

"On Thursday, We Leave For Home."

Fantastic look into how people react with responsibility, and the ending is one of the most frightening Ive ever seen on a Twilight Zone episode.

[StoneGold]

Season 5, Episode 6: Living Doll
Original Air Date: 1 November 1963
A frustrated father does battle with his stepdaughter's talking doll, whose vocabulary includes such phrases as "I hate you" and "I'm going to kill you".

comments: i like killer dolls.

Little trivia piece on that one - they actually got the voice of Chatty Cathy, the talking doll Talking Tina was based on, to play Talking Tina. That voice? VO legend June Foray.

[rick]

Nice to see a mention for Paladin of the Last Hour. It was pretty much the only episode of the revival that approached the magic of the original. And Danny Kaye was just so wonderful in it too.

My personal favorite of the original series was Walton’s creator, Earl Hammer jrs, The Hunt.

It’s really just a simple fable about a backwoods type who along with his trusty dog accidentally drowns and then almost gets tricked into going to Hell, but figures out the game when they tell him he can’t take his dog with him.

Like I said, just a fable, but I really do love it.

Oddly enough, my other favorite is also by Hammer, entitled The Bewitchin’ Pool.

It’s the story of two lonely and unhappy children who discover a paradise filled with happy children at the bottom of the swimming pool. On the one hand the episode is just a basic fantasy about children finding a happy place, but even as a little kid I caught the little subtle nasty bit about the fact that in the end the children more or less find happiness by drowning themselves.

Which I should point out might also just show that both Earl Hammer and I have issues with water. :eek:

[rick]

Oh God yes, I forgot about that one! Powerful stuff. It ain't easy to adapt Harlan Ellison to the screen but that ep succeeded. Also, from an Ellison story, there was "Shatterday", with Bruce Willis(before he became a megastar) as a guy who finds that he was split into two people, who fight each other for the right to exist.

Also from the first revival(the second revival was an unnecessary and criminal waste of Forrest Whittaker):

A Message from Charity. A modern teen discovers that he can communicate telepathically with Charity, a girl from Massachusettes, circa 17th century, and must save her from being condemned as a witch.

Eye of Newton. Sherman Helmsley and Ron Glass(Shephard Book from Firefly!) as a mathemetician and a demon, respectively. More a one-note sketch than an episode, but the punchline was laugh-out-loud funny.

To See the Invisible Man. In a semi-totalitarian near future, a convicted criminal (the script was deliberately vague on the actual crime, IIRC) was condemned to one year of 'invisibility', meaning he was forced to wear a scar on his forehead, and literally the entire population of the world was forbidden from interacting with him in any way. Powerful stuff.


Wow, I hadn't thought of most of those in years, but now that you mention it, those were some really great stories. It certainly didn't hurt that version to have Harlen as the story editor.

[LordEd1976]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eye of the Beholder yet.

[Kirayoshi]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eye of the Beholder yet.I'm not. That one was kinda heavy handed, and when I first saw it I could see the punchline coming in a mile away. Plus, having the plastic surgery victim meekly accept the totalitarian state's decree that anyone 'different' must be isolated from the rest of the world played against the show's normal politics(in episodes like "The Obsolete Man" and "Death's Head Revisited", Rod Serling's scripts took a firmly anti-totalitarianism stance).

How about "I Sing the Body Electric"? Based on a Ray Bradbury story, about a harried father who purchases an android to act as a nanny/grandmother figure for his kids. That was one of the first episodes I ever saw and it was kinda sweet.

[Sijo]

"Night of the Meek" with a down-on-his-luck Store Santa finding a bag that produces the perfect gift for everyone. I prefer the remake, where the gift the bag gives his Scrooge of a boss is a memento of his (late?) wife, rather than a bottle of brandy, as in the original.

[DubipR]

So many to choose from! Aside from the ones listed already, here's a few that stand out in my mind:

A Stop at Willoughby- great ending!

100 Yard Over the Rim- Not big on the western ones, but this is good one.
Love the Cliff Robertson ones.

5 Characters in Search of an Exit- So strange and yet compelling.

The Dummy- still freaks me out today. Another Cliff Robertson classic.

The Night Call- Freaky freaky freaky

Nick of Time- the other Shatner episode and better one. More psychological and better acted... for Shatner that is.

The Howling Man- Its Satan...what's not to love?

The Night Fate Stepped In- Another good western. Another good ending.

[Lord of Denial]

I like the one that was ironic.

[Buzz Dixon]

Or the one where it was a cook book.

And it was written on Earth.

By Hitler.

(joke stolen from FUTURAMA)

[Guapo Méndez]

From the 80's series, A little peace and quiet, where a woman finds a necklace that can stop time. Good stuff.

Another episode is the one where a group of friends are at their usual poker game...all regulars but one, claims he's the cousin of the missing regular and the game he plays is definitely high stakes.


The veteran who cannot fall asleep because something from his past wakes up...

[Haunt]

Another episode is the one where a group of friends are at their usual poker game...all regulars but one, claims he's the cousin of the missing regular and the game he plays is definitely high stakes.

that one's my favorite from the later series. it had Garrett Morris, Dan Hedaya, and Morgan Freeman in it. very charming episode; loved the ending.

[david r]

From the 1980s series, Paladin of the Lost Hour was a true masterwork. Rod Serling would have been proud.

Also Chameleon, about the alien that can change shape.

Or the one about the two boys searching for their scientist father in his warehouse, and discover his secret potion has turned a black widow spider GIGANTIC!! This one creeped me out.

[Haunt]

From the 1980s series, Paladin of the Lost Hour was a true masterwork. Rod Serling would have been proud.

Also Chameleon, about the alien that can change shape.

Or the one about the two boys searching for their scientist father in his warehouse, and discover his secret potion has turned a black widow spider GIGANTIC!! This one creeped me out.


it creeped me out because the younger actor in that went on to become a "porn star." he was also in Fright Night 1.

[kalorama]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Eye of the Beholder yet.

That's only because I hadn't looked in this thread before. Eye of the Boholder is one of my favorite (if not the favorite) Zone episodes of all times.

That one was kinda heavy handed, and when I first saw it I could see the punchline coming in a mile away.

So could I, but it was so well executed that I still got a jolt when the big "reveal" came around. (And criticizing a Twilight Zone episode for being heavy-handed is like complaining that your double-chocolate ice cream cake with hot fudge topping is too rich. Subtlety wasn't really the show's stock-in-trade.)

Plus, having the plastic surgery victim meekly accept the totalitarian state's decree that anyone 'different' must be isolated from the rest of the world played against the show's normal politics(in episodes like "The Obsolete Man" and "Death's Head Revisited", Rod Serling's scripts took a firmly anti-totalitarianism stance

As did Eye of the Beholder. The obvious point of the story was that the woman was a victim of the system's control. By forcing people to conform to to arbitrary norms in order to display their own power over the populace, the system took what was beautiful about American society and turned it into something ugly. It was a pretty clear commentary on Communist witch hunts and the like.

[Kirayoshi]

So could I, but it was so well executed that I still got a jolt when the big "reveal" came around. (And criticizing a Twilight Zone episode for being heavy-handed is like complaining that your double-chocolate ice cream cake with hot fudge topping is too rich. Subtlety wasn't really the show's stock-in-trade.)
Fair point. But even by the standards of other episodes, Eye of the Beholder was overdoing it. It made "Death's Head Revisited"(the one with the concentration camp commander being driven insane by the ghost of one of his victims) read like a Tom Stoppard play. It was okay, but not one of my faves.

Anyone remember one called "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge"? A dialogue-free story involving a condemned Civil War prisoner making a break for freedom when his hanging went wrong.

[Buzz Dixon]

Anyone remember one called "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge"? A dialogue-free story involving a condemned Civil War prisoner making a break for freedom when his hanging went wrong.And the only one that wasn't made by the TWILIGHT ZONE team! "An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge" was a French short film based on the classic Ambrose Bierce short story of the same name. The film was nominated for an Oscar as best short subject (can't remember if it won that year or not) and Serling and Buck Houghton, his producer, pressed for time and budget, simply bought the rights to include it in the TWILIGHT ZONE series. For many years it was not available in the syndicated package but now is included.

[berk]

The one that really hit me when I used to watch it when I was a teenager in the 70s and CBC used to show it late at night, was the one about the doppelgangers, Mirror Image. I remember finding it really eerie and disturbing. And I loved the the lead actress, Vera Miles; she was so pretty and I felt so scared for her in the story.

I have the 1st season dvd set now, and Mirror Image still stands up. But I'm amazed at how well the show has aged. Yes, there are some - well, many - aspects that obviously feel a little hokey now, but if you can get past tha,t the real strengths of the show have not faded at all. So much so that I can't even list all the episodes I'd like to nominate from this one season, so I'll stick to the one I already mentioned.