The one I really hate is I Shot an Arrow into the Air. Even in 1960, the idea that a crew of astronauts would be so ignorant of planetary astronomy that they wouldn’t be able to figure out they were on Earth from its gravity and atmosphere was absurdly implausible.
listening to the 50s and early 60s radio science fiction dramas about space were humorous at times. stuff like a crew member took along their lucky rock, they where overweight and so burned extra fuel outgoing, now they didn’t have enough fuel to return and they must leave an astronaut behind and it can’t be the astronaut with the rock because he’s the ships engineer and the only one who knows how to control the rocket propulsion system (like a steam ship boiler room).
not having that technology much in people’s lives had audiences that might let it go and writers that could make up things without much consequence.
I think “absurdly implausible” could be applied to every episode of this show.
I loved Mr Dingle the Strong. The two-headed Martians were an absolute riot. I like the idea that they did some comical shows, like that one.
As for clunkers… I would go with at least part of The Bewitchin’ Pool: The parents’ acting was absolutely atrocious.
Pool was poor. In the Twilight Zone Companion, screenwriter Earle Hamner (of Waltons fame) says he had recently moved to LA, and was influenced by the shocking rate of divorce.
I have to differ with those naming A Passage for Trumpet as a bad episode. Klugman is IMO likeable, and totally believable as a talented musician who can’t tackle his substance abuse problem (ephemistically portrayed as alcohol). The frank debate on choosing whether to live or die was rare for TV of that era. But the visit from ‘Gabriel’ at the critical moment touches the sentimentalist in me. Incidentally, the Companion points out a striking effect as Gabriel is leaving - he turns back towards Joey and the streetlight forms a halo over his head, in case there’s any question of who he is.
I caught one last night that I’d never seen before that was pretty lame. I didn’t catch the name of the episode.
There’s a petty criminal, and he’s shot to death during a robbery. He ends up in what he assumes is heaven, because everything is great. There’s this old guy who is his guide, and gives him everything he wants… food, money, girls, a beautiful apartment, etc. The guy wants to gamble and ends up playing roulette. He can’t lose. Every bet is a winner. He plays a slot machine… same thing, wins a jackpot. He has everything he wants, beautiful women, easy gambling.
A while passes, and he’s bored. There’s no thrill in this anymore, not if there’s no risk. He has everything he wants, but life is boring without risk. He calls up the old guy, and tells him he doesn’t think he’s fit for heaven, he wants to go to the “other place”. “Who says this is heaven”, asks the old guy, and then laughs manically as the camera zooms in on him.
Just a big ‘eh’ from start to finish.
The “old guy” in that episode was Sebastian Cabot. I always suspected him of being evil on Family Affair.
I thought he looked familiar! But since I probably haven’t seen Family Affair in more than 30 years, that would explain why I couldn’t quite place him.
The lack of the goatee is also a recognition factor.
(I seem to have blocked bad or boring Twilight Zone episodes from my memory, as I cannot think of any specifics, but I have a general impression of overly earnest preachiness from some.)
I saw one once that had a guy running around an empty street at night and he kept hearing wild animal noises. I stuck with it thinking it had to get better or at least the end would be a good twist. Nope, nothing. Guy was just hearing wild animal noises in the Twilight Zone. The writers must have had a vacation coming up.
“Time Enough at Last” Though it’s usually on everyone’s list for best episodes, it’s just a gratuitously nasty exercise in futility. It’s really painful to watch.
“I Shot an Arrow Into the Air” is also pretty lame. They land on an unknown asteroid (after about a ten minute space flight) with an Earthlike gravity and an Earthlike atmosphere and a climate just like Death Valley on Earth and topology similar to the Death Valley on Earth and the twist is . . .
They are really on Earth! Wow. Couldn’t see that one coming. :rolleyes:
“Little Girl Lost” was pretty terrible. A little girl disappears under her bed, though the parents can still hear her. The father says to the mother, “I’ll call my friend Bill for help! He’s a physicist!”
I tend to agree that the longer episodes tended towards clunkers. However I do have a a sneaking affection for Of Late I Think of Cliffordville. But maybe it’s just Julie Newmar as Ms. Devlin ;).
She had the cutest little set of horns…
But it was quantum effect, so they needed a physicist! 
Still, that had to be a precursor of Poltergeist, no?
I can think of maybe a handful where the ending wasn’t blazingly obvious. Still fun to watch, though. I want more two-headed Martians! The cheesiness is hard to top.
I think “I shot an arrow into the air” was like a sneak preview at Planet of the Apes.
Really? That one was a Nice Place to Visit. It’s one of my all time faves. I nearly stayed up till 3:30 last night to watch it but was able to catch it on a friend’s DVR.
I thought that episode was great.
CROOK: Uh, this is nice, but why was I sent here instead of . . . the other place? I thought people who ended up here were, like, teachers and stuff.
PIP: Oh, we have plenty of teachers here.
I like “The Last Pallbearer”, in a bad movie kind of way. It’s where a spiteful billionaire builds a bomb shelter in his basement where he gathers together three people from his past whom he believes have done him wrong. He convinces them that nuclear war is imminent, and to save themselves, they must beg him for their lives. They all refuse, because they’re too noble for that sort of thing. For over-the-top preachiness, and grand declamatory speeches worthy of Edmund Kean, this episode cannot be beat.
I loved all of Pip’s ambiguous ways of agreeing with Rocky. Like when Rocky says, “So this is Heaven and you’re my guide, something like that?” and he responds, “Something like that, yes.”
Granted, as Hells go, this is no Inferno, but I always get a bit of a chill when Pip starts laughing hysterically at the end. I love Sebastian Cabot–have never seen Family Affair but I adore this episode.
I’ve only seen this one once but I do remember it being incredibly hammy and over the top.
Speaking of over the top, “The Fear” was on (the one with the big alien balloon) and some of the characters’ discussions on fear just seemed way too unrealistic. I could imagine Rod Serling delivering them in his monologue but not actual people in that situation.
“I Shot an Arrow in the Air” was another one I have fond memories of because I first saw it before I realized how silly it was.
Rod Serling was always more concerned about telling stories of the human condition than telling Science Fiction and because those stories mostly work so well, he gets a lot of leeway from me.
That said, even a few of those were so obvious that even the very young me saw them coming a million miles away (“Old Man in the Cave”, I’m looking at you!)