# Things I Learned Watching a Twilight Zone Marathon **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [July 4, 2023, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519 "2023-07-04T00:40:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**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:** [July 19, 2023, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/61 "2023-07-19T11:41:53Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > **Yeah, the hour long episodes didn’t work out well.** I’m sure they didn’t look for better stories to fill the hour with, just told the writers not to do too much editing. Even The Outer Limits which managed a few decent hour long episodes usually ran too long and didn’t have enough content to fill an hour. There seemed to be something about the TZ format that didn’t ‘scale up’ to an hour. It may be that the suspense element is harder to maintain for that long. Of course there are great feature-length movies that manage to keep the suspense up, but it may just have been too hard to do every week, on a TV budget. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2023, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/62 "2023-07-19T13:36:18Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > There seemed to be something about the TZ format that didn’t ‘scale up’ to an hour. It”s interesting to note that Rod Serling’s next show _Night Gallery_ had even shorter stories (three in one hour) although even Serling thought the 37 second one-gag stories that began in season 2 were a step too far. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/63 "2023-07-19T14:02:19Z")
Twilight Zone episodes were largely brief morality plays, usually with a twist at the end, but also highly predictable twists. Some of the best episodes ventured into science fiction territory setting them apart from murder or conventional horror anthologies. The worst all suffered from poor production. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/64 "2023-07-19T14:08:59Z")
Wasn’t William Shatner a Sky Marshall or something in that episode? ---
**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:** [July 19, 2023, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/65 "2023-07-19T14:36:50Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Wasn’t William Shatner a Sky Marshall or something in that episode? > [@tullsterx](#): > > Wasn’t William Shatner a Sky Marshall or something in that episode? No, a salesman, recovering from a nervous breakdown, apparently caused by his fear of flying. But I guess you could say he deputized himself as a sky marshall. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/66 "2023-07-19T17:15:00Z")
I think a big difference was that TZ was often based on twist, but _TOL_ was usually a monster story (sometimes with a twist at the end). With a twist story, the longer it goes, the more likely it is to telegraph the twist. For a monster story, you can come up with multiple ways for the monster to attack and reveal what they are before the end of the story. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/67 "2023-07-19T22:24:11Z")
> [@tullsterx](#): > > Wasn’t William Shatner a Sky Marshall or something in that episode? No, but the guy who was carrying the gun was a cop. ---
**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:** [July 23, 2023, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/68 "2023-07-23T12:19:36Z")
In the John Lithgow / George Miller movie remake, the guy with the gun is a sky marshall. Also in that movie Billy Mumy has s small role in the beginning of the remake of “It’s a good life” and about 20 years later in a sequel tv show he plays an adult Anthony, who has a daughter. Somehow Cloris Leachman reprises _her_ role from the original zone. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/69 "2023-07-23T13:50:54Z")
It’s a Good Life has a slightly star studded cast for a Twilight Zone episode. John Larch, Max Showalter, and Cloris Leachman were all seasoned veteran actors, and even Mumy has several credits under his belt. ---
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/70 "2023-07-23T20:52:52Z")
If you can ever find the original short story of **It’s a Good Life** by John Bixby, read it. It’s even scarier than the Twilight Zone teleplay. Your own imagination tends to make it a lot more graphic. Remember the part when Anthony turns Dan Hollis into a jack-in-the-box? In the story, it says he turns Hollis into “something like nothing anyone would have believed possible.” Then at his father’s begging, sends Hollis to the cornfield. Billy Mumy loved that role and said whimsically that he sometimes wished he could actually send nasty people to the cornfield. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/71 "2023-07-23T21:00:16Z")
The book was horrifying. As was the tv episode, it lived in my brain for decades ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/72 "2023-07-23T21:49:48Z")
In the TZ episode, Anthony looks like a regular little kid, but in the short story he’s a monster of some sort, right? I seem to recall the impetus for his isolating the town was the doctor who delivered him tried to immediately kill him. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/73 "2023-07-23T21:51:39Z")
Amen. I’m remembering him making a rat eat itself, starting at the tail until it dies somewhere north of the pelvis. And I doubt Anthony would be as cute as Billy Mummy, either. A wet, purple gaze is mentioned and the moment he was borrn the doctor tried to kill him with a scalpel which is when the village was transported to wherever it is, assuming it _was_ transported and not just what’s left when he destroyed everything else. Edit: Found it. > **[It's A Good Life: Jerome Bixby](http://ciscohouston.com/docs/docs/greats/its_a_good_life.html)** > > full, text, short, story ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/74 "2023-07-23T21:55:36Z")
And Anthony is described as having “crawled” out of his mother when he was born, so yikes ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2023, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/75 "2023-07-23T22:28:55Z")
I had found in a used book store an anthology that was every short sorry that had been turned into a TZ episode including that one. It was indeed well done. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2023, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/76 "2023-07-25T00:18:20Z")
the best 80s TZ story was about this frumpy chick who reads away too many romance novelsSHEacquired a cat who at night could turn into the stereotypical romance book lover aka pepe le pew after a grand romance, he was going to move on because cats…she convinces him to stay one last night and she knocks him out T the final scene is her handing him over tt to a vet tech to be fixed while he’s meowing and hissing …after reassuring her that they can do it even with his having a hissy the tech says"This will help the roaming around at night too" as the MC leaves with a big smile Note this one I’m not too sure if I have it right there’s another one where this song writer and this singer meet and convinces her to sing a song he wrote to some music industry friends at a party and she does and a short time right before he tells her shes getting a pro contract they get into a fight she runs out and gets killed in a accident …and years later he gets a chance to redo it … ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2023, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519/77 "2023-07-25T14:05:15Z")
The first one was “Cat and Mouse” and the final scene was much better than your memory. She takes him to the vet. And when asked why she was there, she says “I want to have him fixed.” Cut to a closeup of the cat giving an agonized meow. Credits roll [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-i-learned-watching-a-twilight-zone-marathon/986519.md?page=3)