Twilight Zone Marathon

Who's watching?

I always watched with my dad. Since he's gone it makes me too sad to watch. Still the old TZ's are some of the best TV ever written with great acting. Well worth watching and if you're young and have never seen really good writing and acting on TV it's must see.
I am.
I am but I wish they would show the rarer episodes. Sometimes they do after midnight. I hope that's the case this year so I can record them.
"Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" with Ur-supermodel Suzy Parker is starting. In it a plain girl with frau potential gets transformed into a beautiful woman in the future of, let's say, the year 2000. It's the DL dream and the ultimate gay Twilight Zone episode. Agree or disagree?
R3
What network is this on?
SyFy
SyFy
R3/R4
It seems like they stick to the episodes from 1959-1963. I loved the first season of TZ - a lot of classics were a part of it.
Nancy Malone was just on in the "Stopover In a Quiet Town" episode, and it's not one of my favorites, but WOW, she was a beautiful woman in her day.
http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsM/tve10965-19640424-351.jpg
Sorry, bad Nancy Malone link above, try this one. (If you don't know, she wound up head of 20th Century Fox television and still directs today)
http://www.twilightzonemuseum.com/autographs/l-m/images/automalone10.jpg
[quote]"Stopover In a Quiet Town" I think this one is pretty creepy actually.
A Penny for Your Thoughts starring Darren Stevens from Bewitched!
Yup, we're watching.
No, I'm not watching. I don't watch Fox News.
No "It's a cookbook!" yet. Pity. Perhaps later today.
r15, of *course* they're going to do that one. When I don't know but I'm certain that episode won't be left out. It's amazing the quality, of that series. I got hooked in the late 70's and never lost my infatuation. Harkens back to a time when things were much more hopeful; the space race, changes in civil rights, questioning of current mores. Things seemed so much more "revolutionary". Even though it was the early 60's. A tragic waste that Searling died so young. The one with Roddy Mcdowell is on right now!!
Roddy was quite cute when he was young and twinkish, R16. Yummy! I realize they'll show "To Serve Man", but as I wrote earlier I wish they'd show more of the rare ones. So far, it doesn't seem like they will. I just like using the DL-quoted "It's a cookbook!"
R3/R15
*crunch* "But... it's not fair! I had all the time in the world now!"
why%20couldn%27t%20he%20just%20track%20down%20another%20pair%20of%20glasses%3F
The correct pronunciation of "robot" in the Twilight Zone is "ro-but" as Dr. Zoidberg correctly says on Futurama.
R3/R15
I love Walking Distance with Gig Young - even the score is nice.
[quote]I wish they'd show more of the rare ones. So far, it doesn't seem like they will. Everyone relax. It's on all day tomorrow, and I'm sure they'll show all the really popular ones then.
SyFy-West is showing it Sunday night at 10:30 Pacific, R15. I think that means it will be on at 10:30 in the Eastern zone also, but I might have that wrong. I checked the whole schedule in advance to see what episodes I might want to not miss. It looks like it's all the usual suspects this marathon. Even in the late night/early morning hours, they are only running the most familiar shows this time. Not that I'm complaining because I love them all, but I agree that it is nice when they throw in some of the lesser seen episodes sometimes.
Ring-a-ding%20girl%27s%20gay%20nephew
"I'm sure they'll show all the really popular ones then." Reading comprehension, my dear boy. While I enjoy many of the popular ones, I want them to show some of the less popular ones. Many of the less popular ones are underrated.
R19
I never see the one with Carol Burnett aired.
If I recall, R24, they did show that one in the wee hours last year.
The Hitchhiker with Inger Stevens is coming on now! I've never believed the story about how she committed suicide. I think Burt Reynolds knows the truth.
Going my way?
From last year's thread: 1. What type of Twilight Zone episodes do you prefer (Western, space/aliens, post-Second World War moral fables, time travel to the past, the humorous ones, post- or near-apocalyptic, etc.), and why? These may not be the best categories, so I just use them as examples. 2. Why do some of the episodes not seem dated? Is it the crisp writing and acting or their universal themes or something else? I compare this series to the later The Outer Limits, and with a couple of exceptions, the latter seems very much a product of its time. In contrast, many Twilight Zone episodes, with the exception of special effects and technology, could almost be set today. Why the difference?
"Stopover In a Quiet Town" Was shamelessly ripped off by Marvel Comics in 1980, in an issue of "The Micronauts".
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/helenmicronauts.htm
I grew up watching these shows as a kid and they scared me to death in the 1960s. I am amazed at how well the stories held up all these years.
[quote]Why do some of the episodes not seem dated? Is it the crisp writing and acting or their universal themes or something else? Has to be a combination of all three. All I know is that I can watch my favorite TZ's over and over and never get bored or tired of them.
[quote]many Twilight Zone episodes, with the exception of special effects and technology, could almost be set today. Why the difference? I think you partially answered your own question. The originals were made on a shoestring and they were made in B&W, mostly on sound stages and in the backlot. 80% of the effort went into good scripts and good acting. Today (or even a few years after they were made) the ratio would have been reversed, and 80% would have gone into whizbang special effects and location shooting. I think that's true for most shows. When everyone switched to color the quality of the scripts and acting suffered, and the shows became all about the visuals. You can see it most clearly in the decline of the TV Westerns.
The favorite episodes are coming up. Below is the schedule from SyFy for the next few hours (too bad they got some of the titles slightly wrong for episodes earlier today. Oh, dear!). DL favorite "Talky Tina" is on at 8:00 p.m. I've put catchphrases or summaries next to them for those who may not know the episode titles. The Invaders - DL fave Agnes Moorhead silently fighting off tiny aliens 05:00 PM The Bewitchin' Pool - Children escape divorcing parents by diving into pool at the other end of which is a benevolent paradise for kids 05:30 PM The Midnight Sun - The world is getting hotter for a young and old lady, or is it? 06:00 PM The Masks - Dying old man makes ungrateful relatives wear masks to reveal their true selves. 07:00 PM The Odyssey Of Flight 33 - Plane tries to land at Idlewild (now JFK) without much success 07:30 PM Living Doll - Talky Tina and Telly Savalas! 08:00 PM The Obsolete Man - Burgess Meredith (without broken glasses) and Fritz Weaver in a totalitarian future where Burgess, his occupation and reading have become obsolete. Weaver would later do an homage to this episode on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine playing a Cardassian (not Kardashian). 08:30 PM Eye Of The Beholder - Pig faces are beautiful. 09:00 PM Time Enough At Last - That's not fair! Burgess Meredith with glasses and without bitchy wife or asshole boss. 09:30 PM A Stop At Willoughby - Less hellish than an actual Metro-North commute. 10:00 PM The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street - Blackouts, Claude Akins (pre-Sensodyne) and Aliens prepping. 10:30 PM To Serve Man - It's a cookbook! 11:00 PM Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up - Which of the patrons of a roadside diner is an alien? 11:30 PM Nightmare At 20,000 Feet - William Shatner, post-nervous breakdown, sees a gremlin on an airplane wing and goes where Twilight Zone will boldly go again. Both he and John Lithgow, who reprised the role in the Twilight Zone movie, spoofed it on Third Rock from the Sun, which is similar in title to a Twilight Zone episode, Third From the Sun. 11:30 PM
Thanks R33, DirecTV was posting the title of the episodes on their schedule but stopped for some reason.
Same with Time Warner, R34. In the past, they listed the episodes in their on screen guide. Not this go round for some reason.
Dish Network stopped posting the titles and summaries, too. Any chance The Howling Man, Spur of the Moment, or Queen of the Nile will be shown again? Those were always my favorites.
They used to do a Honeymooners marathon on New Year's Eve on NY Channel 11. I miss it.
R36, Howling Man is on at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, in about 20 minutes. I must have skipped that one. The other two won't be repeated.
R33
Isn't the Howling Man coming up next? I love Queen of the Nile too and missed it yesterday. The Twilight Zone usually airs on Saturday and Sunday @ 2-3 am Pacific time.
[quote]I always watched with my dad. Since he's gone it makes me too sad to watch. I'm in the same boat. He was the only person I knew who loved The Twilight Zone and we would watch it together every New Year's Day. Mostly I'm ok watching alone, but it does make me emotional during certain episodes that we both particularly liked. I got kind of teary during the one about the masks.
R3 I am sorry but I have to dis agree. The ultimate Gay Twilight episode is the one with the woman in the hospital, covered in bandages, trying not to be "different"from the rest of her society. Either by accident on purpose thy use so many "Gay codes" and terms of the day that I could not help but notice them.That and it's message of pure tolerance to the point of acceptance make ti one of my favorites.
EMK
Thanks for the schedule, R33. But, it appears that Syfy is not following it.
In The Masks, the son's ugly face has been stuck in my head for years, but I had no idea that the recently deceased Alan Sues was the actor. Anyone else spend the day half watching the episode and half wandering around IMDB reading about the actors?
Thanks, R42. It appears they've been off by half an hour for the last hour or so. I wonder whether they changed their online schedule to reflect that? Willoughby is showing right now. As I mentioned earlier, I was slightly miffed that they even got the titles of some of the episodes wrong, as if they don't have any respect for what they're showing, which they probably don't. Of course, this is a channel that changed their name to SyFy to get away from being associated solely with science fiction and which shows films about deadly amoebas and the such starring Judd Nelson.
R33
It looks to me like they've been sticking to the posted schedule. My cable provider (Uverse) has also been accurate which I'm grateful for since some others have posted that theirs are wrong or incomplete.
http://www.syfy.com/schedule/
"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street". Still holds true today only now it would probably be called "The Muslims Are Due..."
It's a cookbook! It's a cookbook!
I know it's not the same, but if anyone still has Netflix - there are 180 eps of the original TZ streaming.
They're playing the real classics tonight.
Dears Netflix has the entire series on streaming...
I missed most of them. Did they show the ones with Anne Francis and Inger Stevens?
They sure did R51. Classics both!
Some of the later ones really aren't that hot. Also they seem to avoid showing the episodes that were done on tape. "It's a Good Life" is the best episode. Also the scariest. Whenever I think of the concept of an all-powerful, all-seeing God who demands to be worshiped, that's what I think of (I'm a nontheist myself.)
[quote]Anyone else spend the day half watching the episode and half wandering around IMDB reading about the actors? I find myself doing that with the Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes shown nightly on AntennaTV and Encores Suspense.
Bump for an update... There will be a marathon for Independence Day tomorrow. It's a shorter one that normal, probably because the holiday falls in the middle of a week. Looks like it starts at 8 a.m. and runs until 4 a.m. Thursday morning.
As usual with the holiday marathons, looks likee they aren't scheduling any of the less popular episodes. Since this is one is only scheduled for a day, some of the shows you'd be expecting to see aren't making the cut. Oh well, there is always Labor Day.
Queen of the Nile is classic: "I'm not her mother . . . I'm her daughter!"
I've already got all my favorites marked.
Trivia: The mother in "Queen of the Nile" is Celia Lovsky who was Peter Lorre's ex-wife. She later played the Vulcan matriarch T'Pau in Star Trek.
Nerd
[quote]Oh well, there is always Labor Day. More like New Year's Day for the next TZ marathon, R56, since SyFy only seems to run it on New Year's and July 4th.
Going my way?
SyFy also does mini TZ marathons every few weeks or so.
"This is the other place."
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DWnevk-6h6aI
Yes R62. One of the days midweek they run episodes from the start of their broadcast day until primetime. SyFy often runs marathons of lots of different shows during daytime hours on weekdays. I like to catch the V marathons. And it's during those that we are more likely to see some of the less well known episodes that they don't schedule during these holiday marathons. Also several days a week they start off their broadcast day (after the slate of overnight paid programming) with an episode or two. I'm sure most readers here already know all of that, but it never hurts to point it out for those that might not check the SyFy channel schedule that often.
Vincent
R64, I really love when I run into a TZ mini-marathon (especially one featuring the rarely shown episodes). This is one of those shows that I just find comforting to watch, even with its sometimes creepy themes.
R62
I'm with you on that R62. Isn't it odd that a show designed to twist our minds actually leaves us feeling like we've been given a warm embrace? And if you are like me, none of the remade/updated versions of the program have the same impact. I've never cared for anything but the original series. It's kind of a shame that they can't figure out a way to make new shows that capture that same feeling. I need a cup of instant smile. (I'm on the West Coast, so just watching the No. 12 Looks Just Like You episode now).
Vincent%20R64
R64/Vincent, the 80's version of TZ was atrocious - I did see one episode that I think was done by Spielberg that was better than the rest of the bunch, but overall it was quite inferior. I don't think anyone could recreate this classic show effectively or convincingly because the writing by Rod Serling and others on the original was first rate and the feel of the show can't really be reproduced. The 80's version was just so stale and sterile and lacked the genuinely creepy factor. It was like any other show on TV, whereas original TZ was something truly unique and timeless.
R62
It's funny that as often as I've seen some of these episodes, sometimes I forget what the twist is on a couple. "Where is Everybody" is a good example. It's usually not until the reveal where I remember what the deal is with his situation. Then I immediately curse myself for knowing it, but not being able to remember when I want to.
"80's version of TZ was atrocious" Of course it was. "Twilight Zone" was unique; no remake could ever hope to capture how special that show was. And a "Twilight Zone" without Rod Serling? He WAS that show. And of course that "Twilight Zone" movie was a travesty that killed three people. Don't mess with the "Twilight Zone." Nothing good EVER came of attempts to do that.
They just showed "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" and whose voice do I recognize? The little queen who played young Patrick Dennis in AUNTIE MAME in his only other imdb listed role.
I fell in love with Lois Nettleton when I was a tiny little lesbian child, and had a thing for her all my life. Watching The Midnight Sun tonight, I was so wishing I could lick every bit of sweat from her. She was still gorgeous on the episode of The Golden Girls. Aside from my lust, Twilight Zone was one of the best TV shows ever. I've been watching Night Gallery on Hulu lately, and that's the only thing that comes close to the remarkable acting and writing of TZ. I miss quality television. So sick of the redneck rage on every bloody channel.
R71, I second your lesbian Lois love. Always found her hot and that slip ep is still stirring. Excellent actress, too. Isn't that Lee Patrick as her elderly neighbor?
I just checked the SyFy schedule to see if they were doing the usual end of year marathon. They are. The entire schedule for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is all classic TZ.
Simply the most intelligent, thought-provoking show in TV history, no contest. I like the really dark ones that chill me to the bone: The Hitch Hiker, Judgment Night, The Grave, The Jungle to name a few. Rod Serling's opening/closing narration was pure, elegant poetry to listen to in every ep. The man really knew how to get acrobatic with the language.
I love Hitch Hicker, Judgment and The Jungle too. There are so many episodes that I watch over and over - Mirror Image, Walking Distance, And When The Sky Was Opened, The Parallel, Living Doll, Third from the Sun, Ring A Ding Girl, Death's Head Revisited, Night Call, The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms, Stopover in a Quiet Town, The Fear, The Odyssey of Flight 33, The Dummy, Perchance to Dream, The 16 mm Shrine, Queen of the Nile, In His Image, To Serve Man, The Last Flight, It's a Good Life, Elegy. And yes, Rod Serling was awesome. Can't wait for the TZ marathon!
He was a bad man so I turned him into a jack-in-the-box
Ilse, Ilse
Ah, yes, I forgot to mention "And When the Sky Was Opened." That was a seriously creepy one.
One of the best acting performances and best characters in the entire TZ was Robert Keith as the snarky old grandfather in "The Masks." I loved that old dude!
ALWAYS!!
"A Thing About Machines" about a man who believes all the electronics in his home are turning on him is another good one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D9NXwYI_dxRo
With the episode "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air," you can tell its plot was a creative precursor to "Planet of the Apes," which Serling also wrote.
When all is said and done it's just an obvious fact that Rod Serling was the most visionary genius in the history of the TV medium. Hands down. Period. No contest. Nowadays, there is nobody on TV (in any country) whose I.Q. and fancy, elegant verbosity could even begin to touch Serling's.
I totally agree R83. TZ episodes can be watched over and over and they still are compelling and never stale, a tribute to his brilliance.
[quote]The Odyssey Of Flight 33 - Plane tries to land at Idlewild (now JFK) without much success A family favorite as we are all pilots and can't get enough of that huge cockpit with numerous crew.
One of the things that makes TZ so timeless and eternal and aging so well is that tonally, it expresses and explores various human values and moral dilemmas that apply to any human time period and setting. It's as relevant today as it was 50 years ago. And the TZ will still be relevant centuries from now, I guarantee it. P.S. The B&W makes TZ all the better. It gave the show a spookier, colder, creepier ambiance than a color show could ever manage.
Well said R86.
I've even mostly memorized one of Serling's greatest narrations from the episode "He's Alive" (the one where Hitler himself becomes magically resurrected): "Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this ghost of a resurrected nightmare? Chicago, Syracuse, Vincennes, Indiana, Long Beach? Remember that. Remember that when he visits your town. Remember that when you hear his voice speaking through others. Remember that when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any unreasoning hatred and bigotry against any group of people. Remember that, he's alive because as long as these evils exist, we KEEP him alive." That Rod Serling narration in that "Hitler-resurrection" episode has chilled me for years. Honestly, I've never heard such a beautifully haunting speech on TV.
Bumped, in anticipation of tomorrow's new year's marathon.
Thanks R89.
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[quote]"Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" with Ur-supermodel Suzy Parker is starting. I had no idea Suzy Parker was in an episode of TZ. She was married (until death) to Bradford Dillman who starred in my favorite Lovecraft influenced Night Gallery episode: Pickman's Model.
bump. It's started.
Watching a really creepy, ghostly one right now: "Death's-Head Revisited." Definitely one of those TZs that packs a dark punch.
Now watching another dark one: "What You Need." The TZ is on a chilling roll right now.
That's one of my favorites R93, very unnerving.
Rod Serling had a sexiness about him. It was probably the sharp suits and the smoking.
Last night on MeTV they showed a TZ I'd never seen before... it looked like a live play shot on early videotape. At first I thought that maybe the master had been lost and all they had was a kinescope... but no. The bumpers were the traditional filmed ones but the story itself seemed to have been shot on video with multiple cameras and edited in the control booth as they went along. I was curious enough to look it up, and it turns out TZ did six episodes on videotape as an experiment in order to save money. Has anyone else seen these?
http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/archive/index.php/t-331721.html
"Eye Of The Beholder" is beginning aka pig faces are beautiful!
The%20Cookbook
Classic
"The Invaders" starting now - DL fave Agnes Moorhead silently fighting off tiny aliens
The one about the diner and the mysterious bus passenger was pretty creepy too.
Going my way?
It's a cookbook!
I am! William Shatner is freaking out on the plane.
"Living Doll" - Talky Tina and Telly Savalas!
R105 - and some of Telly's hair.
"The Masks" - Dying old man makes ungrateful relatives wear masks to reveal their true selves.
How much has been cut for the extra commercials, anyone know?
They've saved all the classics for tonight.
"I Sing the Body Electric"
Never really much a fan of "I Sing the Body Electric." The next one, where the Sun is moving towards the Earth, is a great episode! Really great twsit of an ending. M. Night Ramalamadingdong wishes he could come up with something that clever.
"The Midnight Sun" - The world is getting hotter for a young and old lady, or is it?
Anyone got a light?
the%20ghost%20of%20Rod%20Serling
I've watched these for years, and I would have sworn that I had seen all of them at one time or another, but this morning I've watched two episodes I've never seen before.
I just woke up, so I'm wondering if they showed "Judgment Night" or "When the Sky was Opened" yet? Those are the two darkest, coldest, scariest TZ's I've seen.
Right now they're showing that really trippy episode with that unmanned ghost DC3 airplane.
R115, they showed "When the Sky was Opened" last night and they may have shown "Judgment Night" already.
Why am I sitting here watching them filled with annoying commercials when any day of the year I could stream them on Netflix?
Wow, the multiple twist-ending mind fuck in that ghost-plane episode completely WIPES THE FLOOR with anything M. Night Shyamalan ever did.
Room for one more, honey.
YES!!! "When the Sky was Opened" is now playing. . . . .to fuck me up in a good way.
Rod Taylor looks good. And the guy in the hospital bed is fine too - Jim Hutton, Timothy Hutton's father.
I've always thought that Jim Hutton guy looked familiar. Now - major change of gears - they're showing the TZ's gentler, heartwarming episode, "The Hunt." I guess it helps the viewer cool down after such a disturbing episode like WTSWO.
A young hunky William Shatner. And a fortune telling machine.
"My name is Talking Tina, and I think I might hate you."
Roddy McDowall was cute. I could see hooking up with him. This episode feels like a lot was cut out though. Was it originally one of the hour long ones?
Glad to see some love for "And When The Sky Was Opened". It doesn't get a lot of attention, but it's truly one of the creepiest episodes ever of TZ and one of my favorites. And Rod Taylor was a hottie.
I bet a lot of us have seen TZ for so many years that we know the episode within seconds of the opening shot. They just ran the episode about the insane astronaut who declares himself a god on the planet of tiny people. In fact, it seems as if in many of the TZ space stories there's always at least one nutty or borderline hysterical crew member. In real life, astronauts are cool, calm, and a little boring. If TZ had imagined the moon landing, Neil Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin would have been duking it out over who got to be the first man on the moon. Armstrong wins and then gets eaten by a moon shark.
Awesome, they're showing "Third From the Sun." With that creepy gov't. agent the nerve-racking suspense was jacked up off the dial! And it has a twist ending that proves yet again that Shyamalan isn't even fit to carry Serling's jock strap.
In the epsisode Third from the Sun, is the daughter a person who went on to play a character on General Hospital?
She's Dr. Lesley Webber!
Next stop Willoughby!
God, I'm a nervous wreck just from that one scene where the sinister guy came to their house and starts looking at that paper on the table and making little innuendos about what they're up to. Deliberately mind-fucking the family.
Another great episode R133 and it's one I only recently started watching.
The dolls. The dolls in the donation bin. That was fucking awesome!
I think "Eye of the Beholder" is about the only thing other than "Hillbillies " I can recall Donna Douglas doing. And isn't her voice dubbed in that? Also, the guy at the end from the "ugly" colony is very hot even by our current tough standards. Had to add that just in deference to our DL core focus.
One thing you notice very quickly from these TZ marathons: Rod Serling had many, many times the vocabulary & I.Q. of M. Night Shyamalan. So Serling could write in such soaring, intricate verbal acrobatics, in ways that Shyamalan is completely incapable of.
Now good old Shatner and the fortune-telling machine! The toothy, sneering look on that fortune-machine's face is what I found creepy. For some reason that machine reminds of of that grinning clown doll in the movie Poltergeist.
"I think "Eye of the Beholder" is about the only thing other than "Hillbillies " I can recall Donna Douglas doing. And isn't her voice dubbed in that?" The woman in the bandages is not Donna Douglas. That was Maxine Stuart. Douglas was only the "unwrapped" Janet Tyler. They thought they'd have to dub Douglas's voice after the unveiling, but she did such a good version of Maxine Stuart's voice that they didn't need to do it. As for Douglas, you can see her in other things. She did an episode of "Night Gallery." She was in a movie with Elvis Presley called "Frankie and Johnny." And she had a cameo role in the film version of the musical "L'il Abner" as (what else?) a beautiful girl.
"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" - Blackouts, Claude Akins (pre-Sensodyne) and Aliens prepping
I always loved the episode "The Hitchhiker." The guy who played him was so perfect for the role! But I remember the ending differently. The one I saw during the marathon shows Nan getting back into the car, adjusting the mirror, and seeing the hitchhiker sitting in the back seat. He calmly says "I believe you're going my way." The camera then shows Nan's impassive face and then moves upward towards the night sky. But I remembered it like this: the camera moves overhead and show's Nan's car slowly pulling away, getting back on the road and disappearing into the darkness towards...? I don't know why I always remembered it like that. I like my ending better.
Maybe there's an alternate ending to the Hitchhiker that's as you describe R141, but I've never seen anything other than the one they showed last night.
"The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" is probably the most interesting, almost medically clinical study of group paranoia I think I've seen on TV, R140.
I hate the way Number 12 Looks Just Like You turns out. I need me a big glass of Instant Smile after I watch it.
Yes, R141, "The Hitch Hiker" is one of those really dark, cold-blooded episodes that seriously spooked me. In spite of Inger Stevens (the only truly bad acting I've ever seen on TZ), the story was so creepy it still worked.
Now that you mention that r141, that sounds familiar to me too. I don't remember him saying anything to her, but it seems like I remember seeing her adjust the rearview mirror, seeing him sitting in the backseat and just reacting like it was expected - no scream or quick-around or anything. ********** I tried to find a youtube link of the episode, but couldn't. But the wiki summary of the plot indicates that you are completely correct r141. Good recall!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitch-Hiker_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29
Yes, you remember correctly R146. It's also (!!! MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!) the episode where M. Night Shyamalan probably ripped off the idea of a dead person who doesn't know they're dead. But they already showed that creepy episode last night, I remember watching it.
That episode "Little Girl Lost" always reminds me of Poltergeist.
I always liked the one where Donna Douglas (Elly May Clampett) was undergoing plastic surgury because she was considered uglyin the world in which she lived. I love the episode where the elderly couple could trade in their bodies for young healthy ones but only had enough money for one transformation.
R15, that's the one that stands out in my memory, too. Kind of hamfisted script, totally un-subtle.
Yonkers Yonkers Yonkers!
I wonder how many cigarettes Serling went through in doing the introductions.
I'm still waiting for "The Grave." The little ghost-story, puzzler-gem episode that stars Lee Marvin as his usual badass, tough guy self.
I think they showed that one R153.
The Grave was on many hours ago R153. I saw it this morning. The wind was still blowing from the South.
Ah, now they're playing another gem I almost forgot: the camera that takes pictures of the future. It has a very multi-faceted twist endimg, if I remember correctly.
Did they show "One For The Angels" with Ed Wynn and Murray Hamilton as Death? Although Robert Redford made for a much cuter Death. "You see. No shock. No engulfment. No tearing asunder. What you feared would come like an explosion is like a whisper."
So, the episode that's on now on the East coast, "The Bewitchin' Pool". . .does it seem like all of that little girl's dialogue is badly overdubbed? Or is that little girl a young Andie McDowell?
Rod Serling was only fifty years old when he died. No doubt his prodigious consumption of cigarettes hastened his demise. Fuck cigs!
Isn't it "Scout" from To Kill A Mockingbird? She grew up a bit.
You are right, r158, the little girls voice was dubbed according to the wiki page. Also of interest is The Bewitchin Pool was the last episode aired in the last season of the original TZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bewitchin%27_Pool
Scout sounds like Rocky the Squirrel. I keep waiting for Bullwinkle to show up.
I remember Scout's voice in that episode sounding very bizarre and elderly.
Scout was clearly dubbed by an adult in the outdoor scenes -- but her mother seemed to have dubbed her own lines as well.
"The Dummy" is on now, another eerie one.
Scout's voice doesn't matter that much because it's one of the inferior, best-forgotten episodes anyways; it was too sappy and sloppily acted. I always prefer the leaner, meaner TZ episodes that pack a really twisted mental punch.
Jack Klugman in "A Game of Pool."
Funny r162, I was thinking earlier that the main character in the "A Kind of Stopwatch" (with Carolyn Abbleby in a supporting role) episode sounded just like Mr. Peabody. I even had to look it up.
Sherman
They're showing this episode even as I type this. And I have to day, that little girl's voice is Loathsome with a capital L.
My favorite episode is on now, "I am the Night---Color Me Black."
The original "Kick the Can" old folks' episode they're showing now is so much more thoughtfully done than Spielberg's obnoxious, in-your-face schmaltz-fest in "Twilight Zone: The Movie."
Bump (to get this ahead of all those resurrected "cunt" threads).
This Cunt is watching!
Cunts.
Anonymous
Just saw "The Purple Testament" for the first time. That was one gut-wrenchingly scary episode, it leaves one with a feeling of haunted doom.
What amazes me about all the Twilight Zone episodes is that they stand up to the test of time and the themes are still very relevant. This shows the genius of Sterling and the writers of this series.
Forgot to mention, Fritz Weaver's acting in "The Obsolete Man" was fiery, thunderous. It sure looked like he was having fun playing that dictator.
If I taught a writing class, I think I would make the students try to write a spec script for Twilight Zone. After 130+ episodes, I think it would be almost impossible to come up with a fresh idea.
"So, the episode that's on now on the East coast, "The Bewitchin' Pool". . .does it seem like all of that little girl's dialogue is badly overdubbed? Or is that little girl a young Andie McDowell?" I couldn't watch that episode. So many things about it sucked. Mary Badham's voice was indeed dubbed. Her speech was deemed unintelligible due to her Southern accent or something, so her voice was replaced with that of June Foray. June Foray was also the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, which is why Badham sounds so much like him. In "To Kill a Mockingbird" she was Jean Louise aka "Scout"; in "The Bewitchin' Pool" she's Jean Louise aka "Sport." How original and clever! The story was treacly and sappy and heavy-handed. This was not on of the best TZ episodes. Earl Hamner Jr., the creator of the Waltons, wrote it. He was displeased with it; he didn't like the performance of the actress who played "Aunt T." He thought she was too cutesy. But the episode as a whole was definitely below par.
R177, Fritz Weaver guest starred on an episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine many years later that paid tribute to "The Obsolete Man". He played a lawyer in Cardassia, a militaristic totalitarian society, whose job it is not defend his clients but to guide them through the trial process where the verdict is already a given. He plays a character much like his chancellor/judge character on TZ except that he is hapless. He's equally subservient to the state however until the end. The sets for the Star Trek episode were modelled on those for "The Obsolete Man".
Fritz Weaver played a Star Trek Cardassian, R180? Now I've really got to see that episode. The Cardassians were always one of my favorite, scenery-chewing Star Trek races so I can imagine Weaver must have gone wild playing one of them.
R181, his performance was actually rather restrained as his character was supposed to be meek and compliant, subservient to the state. Like his character on TZ, he describes the benefits to the public of witnessing "justice" carried out and the wisdom of the state. His anticipated end is much the same on Star Trek as in TX: he is now obsolete.
[quote]Earl Hamner Jr., the creator of the Waltons, wrote it. He was displeased with it; he didn't like the performance of the actress who played "Aunt T." He thought she was too cutesy. But the episode as a whole was definitely below par. It could have been saved if the children were seen living it up with Aunt Tee... and at the very end, the parents found their bodies in the pool and the viewer discovered they were dead. Not that it would have happened in early 1960s TV...
For some reason I always get the feeling that maybe those kids are in real trouble with "Aunt T," and maybe they would be better off back with the parents. Just something about her gives me the creeps.
R181, the Fritz Weaver Star Trek episode is "Tribunal".
Good, I'll keep an eye out for it.
Does anyone know where I can buy a gold thimble? Hello...
"DA-ADDY!!!"
name%20that%20episode
Which one is it, r188? I keep seeing the Silence of the Lambs flashback with the kid that played Clarice Starling as a little girl when she's sneaking up on her dad and says "Daaddy" with that accent.
r188, it is a little girl... crying for her father from far away...
Guess this TZ quote: "I am no longer sowing.......NOW I'M GOING TO REAP!!!!"
Guess this TZ quote: "Gaaaah! GAAAAAH!!!!" *CHOP CHOP*
Those clues aren't enough for me to ID the episodes. Remember several years ago SyFy Channel (before that name change) had a marathon where they let fans vote for all-time favorite episodes? Then they played them in a countdown order. It was kind of interesting to see what shows were most appreciated by fans. And those episodes always show up during the marathons. There are a handful of shows that don't get scheduled as much and never seem to make the marathons. This week I've been recording the shows that SyFy shows at end of night and beginning of their broadcast day. There have been some that aren't in regular marathon rotation. Nervous Man in a Four-Dollar Room Execution The Man in the Bottle Those are some that have been on this week.
My quote is from "Uncle Simon," which Constance Ford screamed in Simon's face as he was dying. I always liked the jolting manner in which she delivered that line.
I was trying to figure that out R194 because I knew I saw the episode it came from, but I just couldn't remember.
The episodes are so brilliantly conceived that I find myself rivited. And there are moments when I am about to break out in a cold sweat. Unbelievable. Much more engaging than present day offerings of the same genre. 10+ from me.
I've seen many of the episodes several times and they never seem stale or boring. I can watch them over and over and still find them fascinating. I'm glad TZ is a staple on Syfy - I notice it airs throughout the week and weekends now in the wee hours mostly, but I try to catch them when I can.
In my near 40 years of watching television I simply can't think of a show with more extravagant, passionate acting and flowery, complex dialogue than the Zone. No matter how wild/crazy the story idea, the actors and their interactions with each other really, really sold it to the viewers. No matter how bizarre the story idea was. By today's comparison, every one of M. Night Shyamalan's movies have been a thieving con of a mishmash of TZ episodes. But Shyamalan doesn't have a fraction of the vocabulary and verbose, poetic stylings of Rod Serling, so every last one of this thief's movies have been a dumbed-down, cheap copy of the TZ. Where everybody speaks to each other in whispers, for some weird reason. That's why I detest Shyamalan as much as I do. He is literally Serling's dumbed-down grave robber.
It's a true classic.
[quote] Where everybody speaks to each other in whispers, Probably to give the impression that something profound is happening. Apparently they can't just do it by writing a good script.
M. Night Shyamalan = wog Lower standards