Oh man, there’s so many to choose from. “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”, “Time Enough at Last”, the one with Talky Tina…but I think “It’s a Good Life” wins the award. It’s so chilling. The image of the guy turned into the jack-in-a-box, and the bit about the cornfield STILL creeps me out.
I really wish there was a “best of” collection on DVD.
I heard there is a Twliglight Zone DVD boxed set either available or coming soon that contains every episode. For $400.
[heresy]The New Twilight Zone was often as good as the original.[/heresy]
IMHO, “Eye of Newton” and “A Small Talent for War” rank with “To See the Invisible Man” as equal to anything Serling ever did.
Regards,
Shodan
Miss Mapp, wasn’t *I Sing the Body Electric[\i] written by Bradbury?
Ukulele Ike, Loved Burgess as the devil. Perfect casting! You think when we go down there he’ll (pun intended) be IT? 
As you travel on I-64 through Norfolk you come to an exit for “Willoughby.” It never fails to get “Next stop, Willoughgy” from me.
My favorite: The After Hours
Nah, I’m looking forward to Walter Huston in the main role.
You can tell that Meredith watched The Devil and Dan’l Webster VERY carefully before he played Mr. Smith. Lots of the Huston/Mr. Scratch mannerisms, but with his own personal twist.
Wow, I haven’t seen Miniature for years! Isn’t it true that this particular episode was excluded from The Twilight Zone’s syndication package of hour-long programs for years? Does anyone know the details of why this episode was “lost” for those many years, and why it has suddenly made a reappearance?
Thanks.
Favorite episode probably the ventriloquist one.
I actually don’t like Eye of the Beholder; too obvious and too slow. Nor any ending where the main character sits up & talks to the audience (I know three of 'em.)
I like to watch when the lead actor is a woman about as much as the content of the episode…recognizing plot lines taken from a short story, or redone later on the Simpsons. (It’s a Good Life, the gremlin). I won’t name my un\favorites since I only have seen so many. Do you know the titles of the non-speaking solo actress’s UFO episode, or driver seeing the same pedestrian from NY to California?
I just saw William Shatner during the marathon. It was the Airplane episode. His character is better than Captain Kirk! Russell Johnson said, in Here on Gilligan’s Isle, that T.Z. was a prestige show many actors wanted to get on. But it was still a surprise to see Shatner there. It was good even with the Hi-audience ending.
The “non-speaking solo actress” was Agnes Moorehead, who played in both “Citizen Kane” and “The Magnificent Ambersons” as well as “Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte,” and as Endorra on Bewitched (“Ah, how good to see you again, Durwood.”)
And the other episode was “The Hitch-Hiker” with Inger Stevens, who appears in another Twilight Zone episode, “The Lateness of the Hour” and made guest appearances on other TV shows. She is best known for her starring role in the TV series “The Farmer’s Daughter.”
…and the UFO episode with Moorehead was called “The Invaders.”
It’s have to say “It’s a Good Life”. Because its good, it’s real good.
(Also one of the first ones I saw as a kid and it freaked me out.)
The script of this episode was involved in a lawsuit because, before this script was written, a script was submitted to the production company about an old man who preferred the company of mannequins (who eventually come to life). The suit claimed that “Miniature” stole the idea. Ultimately the suit was thrown out because if any script was simular it was “The After Hours” and “The After Hours” had been written and aired long before anybody had heard about the second mannequin script. But the damage had already been done and because of the suit, “Minature” only aired once. And I guess it’s only recently been put back into syndication, although I’m not sure why.
Speaking of episodes never shown in syndication, has anyone ever seen “The Encounter” with George Takei? I heard it was taken out of syndication because of audience protest to the racist stereotype portayed.
I don’t know any of the names, so here are some brief, possilby spoiler-filled descriptions.
Charles Bronson and a young lady are the last survivors of an apocolyptic war, trying to decide if they should kill each other or not.
Most of the Burgess Meredit episodes. What a guy.
The one with Jack Klugman and… Jonathan winters? playing pool.
The monsters on Maple street. “Charlie, why are YOUR lights on?”
Terror at 20000 feet.
To serve man.
I love them all. My dad made sure that I watched that show every time it came on.
You might be able to find it on video, and it’s certainly on DVD. It’s about two veterans of WWII, an American and a Japanese man who realize that they have more in common then they thought. Lots of racial hostility. I’ve only seen it once, from the video I rented. I have it on DVD, but have never gotten around to watching it again. I suppose I should.
I watched 20 straight hours of TZ this year. Talk about a memorable New Year’s.
The Hitchhiker terrifies me. It’s always on late at night and the hitchhiking man creeps me out. I guess part of it is that I’ve seen one hitchhiker in my entire life, so the very idea of hitchhiking has a sort of frightening aspect to it–it’s something we “just don’t do” anymore, like eat raw cookie dough or become blood brothers. It’s bad for your health.
Time Enough at Last depresses me.
I think I could write a study on TZ’s writers based solely upon the many episodes I’ve seen. They have a really interesting preoccupation with non-human representations of humans…just think about all the episodes you’ve seen with dolls, ventriloquist’s dummies, mannequins, etc that didn’t behave as they were supposed to, or that turned out to be human, or something along those lines.
Also, my dad pointed out how many there were that explored the scary things that can happen aboard airplanes, which makes sense because air travel was still pretty new. Of course, we’re still scared of airplanes, but for different reasons now.
And the Cold War anxiety, of course. And despite the slightly sketchy science in the one in which the Earth was falling toward the sun, the picture it painted of a world getting gradually hotter and hotter was eerie. I was amused when, during that episode, they showed a man wearing a coat in 115-degree weather. As I said to my sister, “You’ve been in 115-degree weather. As have I. Let’s say in unison how alive that guy would be!”
She chimed in with a “Not very!”
I really like TZ.