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Post by the Scribe on May 11, 2016 21:29:08 GMT -5
Celebrate 'Twilight Zone' Day with Damon Lindelof's Favorite Episode
Kristen Baldwin
Editor-in-Chief
May 11, 2016
While the “national day” craze has gotten a bit out of hand of late — National Gumdrop Day? National Wiggle Your Toes Day? National Button Day? — today’s quasi-holiday is one we can get behind: Twilight Zone Day. Created to honor Rod Serling’s seminal TV series — which premiered in 1959 — Twilight Zone Day is the perfect time to revisit your favorite Zone moments. But don’t go in blind; there were 156 episodes, after all. Let Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers — two series that definitely qualify as spiritual descendants of The Twilight Zone — tell you his favorite episode first. Damon, take it away:
“My favorite episode is A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE, from Season 1.
Imagine an episode of Mad Men where Don Draper suddenly walks off the set of Sterling Cooper and finds a film crew standing there. Confused and alarmed, Don is told that he’s actually an actor named Jon Hamm. Now, picture if you will, the company for which Mr. Draper worked is actually called SERLING-Cooper and you have just taken a deep, meta-dive…. into the Twilight Zone.”
Watch “A World of Difference” here:
And when you’re done with that, might we suggest…
•The 1960 ode to the terror of technology, “A Thing About Machines”? (Get out of here, Finchley!)
•The 1961 attachment-parenting cautionary tale “It’s a Good Life” (featuring a young and gorgeous Cloris Leachman)?
•And, of course, Serling’s iconic fable about the arbitrary nature of beauty, “The Eye of the Beholder”?
There’s a signpost up ahead: You’re about to enter a YouTube rabbit hole. Before you do, vote for your all-time favorite episode below. Have a weird and wonderful Twilight Zone Day, everybody!
What's the best episode of 'The Twilight Zone' ever?
'A World of Difference' (1960)
'A Thing About Machines' (1960)
'It's a Good Life' (1961)
'The Eye of the Beholder' (1960)
'To Serve Man' (1962)
Other:
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Post by the Scribe on May 11, 2016 21:38:24 GMT -5
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Post by erik on May 12, 2016 20:01:36 GMT -5
I would be hard-pressed to name just one favorite of this show, which arguably the best dramatic program ever put on TV, not to mention the least easy to describe. It had so many other genres wrapped into a setting that was fantastic, and sometimes touched on horror (for what TV could do in that arena in the early 1960s).
But here's five just for starters:
"Nightmare At 20,000 Feet"--a nervous and unstable airline passenger (William Shatner) sees what he thinks is a monster on the wing of his plane during a storm. This episode was written by the legendary Richard Matheson.
"The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street"--Following what looks like the crash of a meteor, the power goes out in one neighborhood, and the people in that neighborhood turn on one another.
"Four O'Clock"--An obsessive man (Theodore Bikel) decides to try to expose evil people in the world, including of course Communists.
"Time Enough At Last"--A bank teller (Burgess Meredith) with a thing for books gets all the time he wants to read...when the Big One goes off.
"Nothing In The Dark"--An elderly lady (Gladys Cooper) afraid of dying meets up with a man (Robert Redford) who may be Death himself, but he's there to show her that Death need not be painful.
The ironic thing is that, like the later Star Trek, The Twilight Zone didn't last all that long in its network run (just five years, from 1959 to 1964); but it won a number of Emmys; and it introduced a lot of soon-to-be stars, and many good writers (Matheson; Charles Beaumont; George Clayton Johnson; Earl Hamner Jr., etc.).
One of Serling's classic introductions to his show:
'There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to Man. It is a dimension as vast as space, and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition; and it lies between the pit of Man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone."
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 12, 2016 21:21:01 GMT -5
The show was as great as advertised, and then some.
Some of my favorites.
Kick the Can - A moving study of aging and parental neglect, with an ending that manages to be both hopeful and heartbreaking.
Little Girl Lost - Every parent's worst nightmare with a little girl mysteriously lost in another dimension.
When the Sky was Opened - Classical existential horror with astronauts victimized by a relentless force beyond their understanding.
Mirror Image - An innocent young woman meets malevolent beings in a desolate bus station.
Static - An old radio gives a sad boarding house resident another chance.
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Post by erik on May 12, 2016 22:23:42 GMT -5
Quote by robertaxel:
Yes, another great one from the mind of Richard Matheson (and an episode that may have inspired Steven Spielberg to conceive the script for the 1982 horror film classic POLTERGEIST)
And furthermore:
The Grave--A western gunslinger (Lee Marvin) must confront the ghost of a deadly outlaw in a small-town graveyard.
You Drive--An anxious man involved in a hit-and-run accident is confronted by an eyewitness with a conscience---his own car.
The New Exhibit--A museum caretaker (Martin Balsam) finds out that his Murderers' Row wax museum exhibit has come to life...with deadly results.
To Serve Man--The Kannamits have indeed come to Earth to serve man...but it's not quite what it appears to be.
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Post by sliderocker on May 14, 2016 0:18:34 GMT -5
Rod Serling's original creation still remains the best of the three versions of the series. The second version tried to remain faithful to Rod Serling's and had several good episodes, with opening and closing narration with no onscreen host. Original Twilight Zone actor Charles Aidman supplied the original opening and closing narrations when the series aired in the 80s, yet when the series went into syndication (after being canceled by CBS) and produced new episodes for syndication, Aidman's narrations were removed and replaced by a nameless announcer, so the studio wouldn't have to pay residuals to the actors. The third version of the series was hosted by Forest Whittaker, who appeared on screen. The third version had the weakest shows of all and didn't last long. It too had a few episodes that were good but it was written with the view that it was the "Twilight Zone" for a new generation of 20-somethings. Their own TZ but producers didn't see the difference between their TZ and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. Serling likely would've cringed that the series ran closer to "Night Gallery," which he didn't create but thought he would have some creative control over since he was being paid to host the show. He referred to many of the "Night Gallery" episodes as being on the order of "Mannix in a Cemetery."
But, of his original episodes, these were among my favorites:
THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET
Sadly, still relevant today, the episode featured aliens manipulating cars and devices that run on electricity in order to turn neighbor against neighbor in looking for a scapegoat to blame for the problems. One neighbor goes walking to another neighborhood in town to find out if they are having problems, returning back to his own neighborhood, and killed after every neighbor has been made paranoid of each other. Two wonderful great actors, the immortal Claude Akins and Jack Weston shine as neighbors Steve and Charlie, one of whom is a reasoned voice (Akins), and the other (Weston) is quick to scapegoat others. It was Weston's character who killed the returning neighbor out of being scared and out of fear that he had something to hide. The aliens have succeeded in turning neighbor against neighbor through scapegoating, and as Rod Serling lamented in the closing narration, those things could not be confined to the Twilight Zone.
WALKING DISTANCE
How often have any of us wished we could return to the days of our childhood and relive those days once more? Rod Serling wrote his most poetic episode with "Walking Distance," about the pressures on a 35 year old advertising executive who wants to go back home by going back home in time, for which Martin Sloan (Gig Young) does. He sees himself as a child and scares his younger self, who thinks he is in trouble for carving on park property. Adult Martin just wants to tell his younger self to enjoy his time because he won't find things to enjoy when he's older. Martin as a child slips on a merry go round trying to get away from Martin as an adult and winds up with a limp for his trouble and being pushed back to the future by his dad. The closing narration was perhaps the best Serling ever wrote.
JESS-BELLE
What would you do for love? In the Appalachian mountains, one backwoods girl, Jess-Belle (Anne Francis) visits with an old backwoods woman (Jeannette Nolan) who is a witch for a love potion to cast over the man she loves (James Best), who is in love with another backwoods woman (Laura Devon) Jess-Belle's love potion works on Billy but it comes with a price, her immortal soul. She is doomed to prowl by night as a leopard, to attack the livestock of neighbors. When she is shot by hunters hunting her, her spell on Billy is broken and he marries Ellwyn. Jess-Belle returns to try and reclaim Billy. But, he has visited the witch who doomed Jess-Belle and found the way to kill her once and for all. After he does this by stabbing a silver hairpin through clothing Jess-Belle had worn, she dies for good. Billy and Ellwyn see a falling star, a sign a witch has died. This episode was written by Earl Hamner Jr and was the best of the hour long episodes. I was always a fan of Anne Francis and this was one of her best roles. It was one role I would like to have seen actress Susan Oliver in, a lovely vision, who would've just as good. Jess-Belle was really a sympathetic, tragic person, her soul supposedly extinguished yet still able to express buyer's remorse.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
British actor Donald Pleasence was 42 when he made this episode in which he plays an English literature professor who has taught young boys at a prep school for 50 years, and who plans to keep teaching to the end of his days. The prep school's board has other ideas, deciding it's time for the professor to retire. He is given the news on Christmas Eve and finds himself depressed and despondent over the forced retirement. He contemplates suicide because he thinks he hasn't passed on anything of merit that he taught to his young charges over the years. As he gets close to pulling the trigger, he hears the school bells ring and he puts off his suicide until he can investigate what's happening. What he finds are ghosts of the young boys he taught who died heroic deaths and whose lives were inspired by their professor. Having seen the error of his ways, the professor decides to accept the retirement, content that he was an inspiration to his students.
THE TROUBLE WITH TEMPLETON
Booth Templeton (Brian Ahern) is an aging actor of the theater, married to a younger woman but still missing and mourning his first wife Laura (Pippa Scott), who died many years before. Still suffering from melancholy over her death, he has agreed to take part in a new play but is running late, and runs afoul of the play's director (real life director Sydney Pollack, who also worked as an actor). The director insists he is in charge and he will not abide anyone being late to rehearsals. After the director scolds him for being late and asking him if he's in or out, Templeton panics and exits the theater straight in 1927, where he finds his ffirst wife is still alive, as is a mutual friend, Barney. Templeton is happy to see his long-dead wife and tries to tell her what he has been through. To his horror, he finds that Laura's not interested and seems to be everything she never was versus the Laura he knew. She slaps him and tells him to go back to where he came from, and he again retreats as 1927 fades to shadow, leaving only Laura looking on with much longing and sadness. Templeton returns to the present with a new script in which he discovers Laura and Barney acted the way they did for his benefit, to tell him to move on, don't live in the past. Now grateful, he returns to the theater of the present and proceeds to put the director in his place and to say he's in and the first rehearsal is the most important. He wins the director's respect as the episode fades out. Aside: Sydney Pollack switched back and forth on accents in this episode: from a southern accent when his character was angry to a northern accent. Polack actually was from the south, I believe and actually had a habit of switching accents unintentionally. It worked for this episode.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2016 18:38:24 GMT -5
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