# NOT in praise of The Twilight Zone **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [November 20, 2025, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021 "2025-11-20T20:39:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/41 "2025-11-21T01:19:39Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Yes, many definitely were. It’s interesting that the Alfred Hitchcock series, which ran in approximately the same time period, had the same stress on morality and justice. If it wasn’t obvious from the ending, Hitchcock’s monologue at the end always made it clear that justice was served. I think it was a sort of required conformance to the mores of the times, when perfect idyllic families like _Father Knows Best_ and _Leave It to Beaver_ represented the American ideal. I’ve been watching the half hour shows, (up to season 5) and I think the “he didn’t get away with it” ending came from the network censors, who required that crime did not pay. Some of them were pretty absurd, so I think Hitchcock was not a great fan of having to do that. (And the stories themselves sometimes were clear about the “bad guy” winning.) As for TZ, I don’t remember “The Bewitching Pool.” I agree about the Art Carney episode. I dislike “Walking Distance” about a guy going back to the town of his childhood. I seem to remember others that were similar. But that may be because I did not grow up in a small town. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/42 "2025-11-21T01:34:23Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I seem to remember others that were similar Kick the can and A Stop At Wiloughby. I liked the latter, disliked the former. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/43 "2025-11-21T01:38:37Z")
Yes, “A Stop at Wiloughby” is definitely one of my least favorite. I can’t find my copy of the Twilight Zone book or I’d have figured that out. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/44 "2025-11-21T01:57:58Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Even if they had slept in science class and weren’t aware that asteroids were too small to have atmosphere or Earth gravity I mean, I don’t know what they were teaching in science classes in the ‘50s, but even Ray Bradbury and Heinlein assumed Mars would have earthlike gravity and a breathable atmosphere. > [@RealityChuck](#): > > the poem was very well known at the time (it was popular enough for it to be the basis of a “Bullwinkle’s Corner”) and gives everything away (it’s mentioned in dialog in the first scene). Perhaps if you read the word “earth” to mean “specifically the planet Earth” and not “the ground”, but I don’t think the former is what Longfellow had in mind. In any event, what makes that episode significant is that Serling borrowed the plot twist for his screenplay for Planet of the Apes, which is the much wider known version of it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/45 "2025-11-21T02:14:38Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I mean, I don’t know what they were teaching in science classes in the ‘50s, but even Ray Bradbury and Heinlein assumed Mars would have earthlike gravity and a breathable atmosphere. Expert observers assumed that the atmosphere of Mars was similar to that of Earth, until William Wallace Campbell in 1894 determined through spectral analysis among other evidence that it would more likely resemble the Moon. PDF: [CONCERNING AN ATMOSPHERE ON MARS](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/120876/pdf) Cutting to the end: > In conclusion, it seems to me that so far as the atmosphere of the planet is concerned, the conditions approach more nearly those existing upon the Moon than those existing upon the Earth. However, there wasn’t definitive proof until the [Mariner 4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariner_4) spacecraft was able to perform a flyby of Mars in 1964 and perform closer observation of the planet. So, I really couldn’t blame someone in the 50s for speculating that it could indeed have a surface not unlike that of Earth (if perhaps more arid and alien). ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/46 "2025-11-21T03:03:52Z")
Disagree. Seeing Shakespeare (no relation) deck Burt Reynolds (playing a Marlon Brando type) redeems it. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/47 "2025-11-21T03:17:08Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Disagree. Seeing Shakespeare (no relation) deck Burt Reynolds (playing a Marlon Brando type) redeems it. **Thou whoreson zed! Thou unnecessary letter!** _slaps Burt Reynolds_ (King Lear to Oswald) Funny (to me) as even after living in Ireland, UK and Australia, it’s “Z(eee)!” okay, so good line makes it not the worst. I’ll go back to “Bewitching Pool” > [@Voyager](#): > > Yes, “A Stop at Wiloughby” is definitely one of my least favorite. It’s kind of predictable (in syndication) yet to me this is a good one. I’m glad this thread wasn’t “All Twilight Zones sucked” and to me, it is hard to pick out the truly awful ones. After Classic Trek, it was either watch a good TZ / unfamiliar one / known cruddy one & earlier bedtime when I was 15 and working with my father." And maybe I’ll have to find “Cavender is coming”. Maybe it has a laugh track. Or needs one. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/48 "2025-11-21T03:28:42Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > I’m glad this thread wasn’t “All Twilight Zones sucked” Oh heck no. _Twilight Zone_ is one of my favorites of the era. Anytime I catch a marathon on TV, I can watch for hours. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/49 "2025-11-21T03:37:32Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Oh heck no. _Twilight Zone_ is one of my favorites of the era. Grand! And I’m halfway through “Cavender is Coming” and a young Carol Burnett is in it. I’ve read this was supposed to be a “pilot” or perhaps it would be known as a “backdoor pilot” even on an anthology show. Ths suckingness shows up early, with the cigar smoking Angels. ETA: Just having Carol Burnett in it raises the grade to a C+ easily. ETA2: I reckon the spin-off would also be an anthology. I reckon Carol Burnett deserved her own show. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/50 "2025-11-21T04:22:00Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > His next zone, “The Obsolete Man”, where he is a librarian sentenced to die in a dystopian society, still holds some relevance. That one was good, IMHO. > [@Smapti](#): > > If you’re willing to overlook the “atheists all secretly believe in God, by which I specifically mean the Christian God, and refuse to admit it because they’re mad at the world, but will beg for divine aid the instant they find themselves in danger” part. That wasnt in there at all. Sure the Chancellor begs “in the name of god”, but that worked on Woodsworth. > [@Smapti](#): > > Meredith’s crime is believing in God. He traps the inquisitor in a room with a bomb and agrees to free him once he begs God to save him. Nope- > **[The Obsolete Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Obsolete_Man)** > > "The Obsolete Man" is episode 65 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, starring Burgess Meredith as Romney Wordsworth, the accused, and Fritz Weaver as the Chancellor (and prosecutor). It originally aired on June 2, 1961, on CBS. The story was later adapted for The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas starring Jason Alexander as Wordsworth. > You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future, not a future that will be but one that might be. This is not a n... _In a future [totalitarian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism "Totalitarianism") state, Romney Wordsworth is put on trial for being [obsolete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolete "Obsolete"). His professed occupation as a [librarian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian "Librarian") is punishable by death, as the [state](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_(polity) "State (polity)") has eliminated books. His faith in God is taken as further proof of obsolescence, as the atheist state claims to have proven God does not exist._ His crime is being a librarian, an obsolete occupation. Believing in God was just extra evidence. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > One of my favorites is the Art Carney Christmas episode. He’s a drunk on Christmas Eve, and his bag is full of empty cans or great presents, depending… Good one! > [@Coriolanus](#): > > “Cavender is Coming” (a failed comedic pilot by Rod) are the worst, worst episodes. That one is really weak, I concur, but worst? > [@Atamasama](#): > > The intention of the episode was to demonstrate the **EVIL OF DIVORCE**. Weak, yes, but not the worst. > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I was looking through a list of episodes, and I remembered “The Changing of the Guard”, where a retiring Mr Chips-like professor is sad and thinks his entire life’s work is for nothing. Bittersweet, not one of the best, but okay. > [@Smapti](#): > > I mean, I don’t know what they were teaching in science classes in the ‘50s, but even Ray Bradbury and Heinlein assumed Mars would have earthlike gravity and a breathable atmosphere. Bradbury wrote either fantasy or Spec-fic, but IIRC RAH had them wearing breathers. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/51 "2025-11-21T04:40:15Z")
Still Valley: > **[Still Valley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Valley)** > > "Still Valley" is episode 76 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. > The time is 1863, the place the state of Virginia. The event is a mass blood-letting known as the Civil War, a tragic moment in time when a nation was split into two fragments, each fragment deeming itself a nation. The narration continues after dialogue between Paradine and Dauger. The plot twist is that a book of magic spells in the possession of a literal witch-man and that requires the wielder to align himself with Satan… also requires the wielder to renounce god. Seriously. That’s the twist. Like, it’s not just assumed that if you have to align with Satan, you’d be renouncing god (and we are of course supposed to take it for granted that god and Satan exist in this corner of the twilight zone), that needs to be made explicit. And we needed 20 minutes of padding (mostly exhaustive bewilderment at all the frozen soldiers, with a side dose of “hey, we just saw the same thing the audience saw, and can confirm it’s real even though the audience already knows it is!”) to get to it. The only grudging credit I will give this episode is for the nod to skepticism that comes with that last bit of padding. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/52 "2025-11-21T05:02:01Z")
Another vote for The Bewitching Pool being the absolute _worst_ episode. I hated when I’d be watching the marathon as a kid and that would come on. Such a waste of time. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/53 "2025-11-21T05:06:22Z")
You know what, following that string of posts and reading about _The Obsolete Man_… I’m casting my vote for _The Obsolete Man_ as worst episode ever. I have seen it, but it didn’t come to mind, probably because I tried so hard to forget it. It’s christian propaganda. Might as well have been written by C.S. Lewis. Was it written by C.S. Lewis? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/54 "2025-11-21T05:09:51Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Was it written by C.S. Lewis? Serling himself wrote it. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/55 "2025-11-21T08:10:40Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > “A Stop at Wiloughby” is definitely one of my least favorite. I’m very surprised to hear you say that. I’ve always thought it was one of the best episodes of the entire TZ series. It’s a variation on the theme of death that in different ways has long been a staple of literature and drama. Of course it doesn’t lend itself to a logical explanation, but neither does anything else in this strange land between light and shadow! ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/56 "2025-11-21T11:20:43Z")
And between shadow and substance. Inspired by this thread, I dug into my DVD library and am now watching the Twilight Zone, from the beginning. I’m only maybe halfway through the first season, and yes, there was “Time Enough at Last.” It holds up, I think, but it’s not the best of episodes. Burgess Meredith’s character is a little overdone, IMHO, and those Coke-bottle glasses are too much to believe. As I implied, it’s not the best, but also not the worst. One that I’ve reviewed so far and that I would recommend as being among the best (if that’s allowed in this thread): “The Lonely.” If you can get past a remote planet having Earth air and gravity, and a finned spacecraft “backing up” into a landing spot (Holy 1950s Sci-Fi, Batman!), there is a definite story there, one that demonstrates that we really are a gregarious species, we need each other, and we care for each other in many ways. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/57 "2025-11-21T12:00:30Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > For me, it would have to be the highly acclaimed episode “Time Enough At Last”. Meet Henry Bemis-A man too stupid to go to any glasses shop within a ten block radius, or even any drugstore in that same area with displays of reading glasses. Oh noes!! My personal glasses broke!! As I have remarked numerous times there’s an easy fix – He could make himself a pair of pinhole glasses. Pinhole glasses aren’t just a scam on late nite TV – they used to be one of the few ways doctors could treat some severe eye problems, like keratoconus. (Nowadays there are more sophisticated fixes). But a pair of cardboard glasses with a single pinhole for each eye works marvelously well, especially if getting plenty of light is no problem. If you want to you can punch multiple holes, but then you have t deal with multiple images – some people can deal with that and some can’t. This solution was proposed for hikers who lost or broke their glasses out in the wilderness in _Backpacker_ magazine in June 2007. I myself suggested that the use of “monocle” pinholes or “lorgnettes” with pinholes might have been used in the ancient world to correct failing vision – no need to make complex polished lenses. We might have scads of examples of these in museums that aren’t recognized for what they are. ,.. … …. My least favorite episode is _The Howling Man_ (season 2, episode 5), about a man trapped in a cell in a monastery who begs a visitor to let him out – he’s a prisoner, held there by the monks who believe him to be the Devil. Of course, it turns out that he IS the Devil. It’s a pretty stupid story. The episode was written by Charles Beaumont, based on his own short story. Beaumont was one of the most prolific writers for the original Twilight Zone, and most of his stuff is pretty good. Not this one, though. Not only is the idea pretty dumb, but the execution of it is really clumsy, with the released guy walking away and looking more and more like the stereotypical Devil as he passes each column. This episode is about as dumb as they come. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/58 "2025-11-21T14:28:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Charles Beaumont, For those that don’t know, you should read his wikipedia article. It’s a sad story. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/59 "2025-11-21T14:55:39Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > This includes all versions of the show, but not the movie. I remember being really disappointed with the Jordan Peele iteration, so I looked up the synopsis for each episode to find a real stinker but they all sound brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021/60 "2025-11-21T15:47:43Z")
I love the 1987 Twilight Zone, but I went through the episode list just to check, and I didn’t remember any that really stuck out as being bad. Except for two: They remade Night Of The Meek, and at best, I don’t remember it being any _better_ than the original. And they did The Cold Equations. I like the story, but I do know there is a large segment of the Dope that hates it. I will admit that the episode is worse than the story, but not that it sucks. (as an aside, I feel the 1987 version has some of the best ever episodes, and a higher percentage of good ones, compared to Classic, but that’s for another therad) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-in-praise-of-the-twilight-zone/1025021.md?page=4)