Submitted for your approval, a television show that, 55 years after its premiere, still has some of the best and memorable genre story telling that was ever packaged in a half-hour anthology format.
With as many episodes as TZ had, inevitably there were clunkers. But by and large, it was an amazing SF/Fantasy show, with original stories by (or adaptations of) some of the great names in the biz.
Of course, TZ was often about the "twist ending" — that was Serlin's speciality, as well as Richard Matheson, who also wrote flocks of the segments. The twist ending sometimes feels a bit of a cheat, as if it were a half-hour morbid joke building up to a punch line. But it was almost always you remembered afterwards.
And it was a show that featured a lot of folk who would go on to later TV fame. William Shatner had a couple of great episodes (the famous "gremlin on the wing" and the devilish prediction box in the diner), as did Burgess Meredith (the inveterate reader), Agnes Moorehead (fighting a silent alient invasion), Jack Klugman (on the trumpet), and Robert Redford (as a cop comforting an old woman afraid of death). Heck, pretty much every person working TV in Hollywood at the time showed up on one episode or another.
Hmmmm. It's been a long time since I watched much of "The Twilight Zone." Maybe that should change.
Originally shared by +Les Jenkins:
Still one of the best sci-fi shows to ever air on television.
Remembering Rod Serling And the Debut of The Twilight Zone
On this day in 1959, American TV audiences embarked on a trip to a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. This first journey to the middle ground between light and shadow was a powerful voyage we still haven’t forgotten. It was the first time we caught a glimpse of The Twilight Zone.
The worst ones for me were the comedic episodes. I also don't care much for those with the theme of nostalgia, as I find them maudlin.
We just lost Richard Kiel, the Kanamit in "To Serve Man." Did you know that in Damon knight's original story, the Kanamit (pl. of Kanama) looked rather like pigs, making the ending even more ironic?
My favorite will always be "Time Enough at Last," and I wouldn't be surprised if you agree, Dave.
+Scott Randel Some of the comedic ones still work, I think, but most of them are a bit too broad for my taste. And the nostalgic heart-twangers are, yes, glurgy.
I did, in fact, call out Burgess Meredith above …
Others of note would be "It's a Good Life" (also from an equally scary short story — Jerome Bixby, I think), and a lot of the Cold War commentary tales ("The Shelter," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street").
Yes, you mentioned Meredith, but you didn't say whether that's your #1 episode.
I still send people to the corn field when they annoy me. 😉
There are a lot of top 10 lists for this on the Web. They're nearly all identical, too.
Hmmm. I'd need to do a thorough review to confirm it's my Number 1, but easily on the Top 5.
Very fond of Burgess Meredith as the demonic typesetter.
I miss watching TTZ. Will have to see if I can get my box set back from my son who borrowed it a long time ago. I just have to be careful he doesn't make me "go away".
"Printer's Devil."
Man, you can really go down a rabbit hole looking up "Top Ten Twilight Zone Eps," both the lists themselves and the suggestions in comments.
The very first TV episode guide I bought was for The Twilight Zone (hardback). Highly recommended for anybody who wants background information on the show.
http://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Zone-Companion-Scott-Zicree/dp/1879505096/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412397184&sr=8-1&keywords=twilight+zone+episode+guide
+George Wiman If you have Netflix, the whole series is there.
Okay…open question for the thread. Rather than favorite…what was your FIRST twilight zone episode? That one tends to stick with you.
For me, it was "Little Girl Lost" about a girl who falls out of bed, and rolls into a void dimension.
+Greg Stockton Netflix is missing season 4, weirdly. Hulu has the complete run.
One of the fun bits of getting a walkthrough of Tower of Terror was seeing all of the little bits of TZ memorabilia and references they snuck in. There's a TON of stuff in the lobby that you can't even see from the queue.
Season 4 was the period in which the show was expanded to an hour. For decades, those episodes were not included in the syndication package.