I DVR’d a chunk of the New year’s Marathon & have been watching it. Last night my brother & I were talking about what were the most Iconic/Famous/Classic episodes of the TZ. “There are so many Classics you haven’t seen” he says. THis led to a discussion about what really were the Iconic episodes. I told him I’d turn it over to the hive collective.
So to you, what are the most classic TZ eps? Not necessarily your favorites, but the top 5 most well known.
( There might be a poll later)
The five that are probably best known and culturally references are:
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
“Time Enough to Last”
“The Invaders”
“To Serve Man”
“It’s a Good Life”
I’m not counting “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” as a Twilight Zone episode, as it was actually produced separately in France, not under Sterling’s Cayuga Productions.
“A Quality of Mercy” and “Kick The Can” were used as segments in the 1983 movie (infamously in regard to the former) but I don’t think they were particularly notable episodes, and were substantially reworked for the film. There are some other great episodes that regular watchers of the series would easily recognize, such as “The Long Morrow”, “Dead Man’s Shoes”, “A Game of Pool”, and “I Sing The Body Electric” (among others), but those above are the most known by the general public, I think.
Stranger
Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder has got to be one of the classics. Even people that have never watched any of the Twilight Zone seem to know that one as a pop culture reference.
Yep, Eye of the Beholder was one of the first I thought of as well. Stranger’s is a good list…maybe Beholder instead of Invaders?
I might put “Living Doll” in there too.
I’d go with that. And I don’t see the last two titles on his list not being on any Top 5 TZ iconic eps.
It’s a Good Life, Time Enough at Last and To Serve Man are the ones I knew by name before I’d even watched The Twilight Zone for the first time, so they’re definitely the first that come to mind for me.
I also liked “One for the Angels”. One of the less bleak episodes. Oh, and the one with the hypochondriac who sold his soul for immortality is one of my favourite Faustian bargain portrayals.
… Damn, just five? Twilight Zone did some common-as-dirt stories and tropes so much better than anything else.
A stop at Willoughby and the one where the children go under water in their pool and come out in an old-time swimming hole. I guess A stop at Willoughby would be the best example of this type.
Also, the one where the pioneer heading west goes over the sand dune and into a modern town to get medication for his sick boy.
And the one where the average American family and their friends are playing bridge or whatever and the guys are workers at the local space port and scheme to steal the ship before the world goes kablooie. And their destination is revealed at the very end:
the planet Earth!
Sorry I’m at work on my mobile and don’t have time to look up episode names.
Eh…so that would be The bewitchin’ pool, A hundred yards over the rise, and Third from sun (thanks to wikipedia’s handy episode guide.)
“The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”
suburban paranoia - love the Serling narration at the end of this one
It always seems to get a prime view spot on the annual marathon
Top 5???
“Nothing in the Dark”
“To Serve Man”
“The Fugitive”
“Little Girl Lost”
“The Changing of the Guard”
That one is Third from the Sun.
If you are talking Iconic, I don’t think I would name any that haven’t already been said. Best, is whole other subject (the subject of a recent thread actually).
“To Serve Man”
“Living Doll”
“It’s a Good Life”
“Eye of the Beholder”
“Time Enough at Last”
Three of these (“To Serve Man”, “Eye of the Beholder”, and “Time Enough at Last”)
rely on TZ’s patented “ironic twist” for their effect. You might count “Living Doll” in there as well if you found it unlikely a motionless doll could kill Telly Savales.
But “It’s a Good Life” is probably the best because of another TZ strength: The ability to build tension via dialogue and minimalist staging. Certainly the premise–which forces the dialogue to be rather oblique–and the disturbing but believable idea that, yeah, a child could be a ruthless tyrant if given the power pushes things in the right direction. But when you compare this version to the one made in the TZ movie–which, besides a happy ending, was staged completely over the top–there’s no doubt the smaller scale of the original is far more chilling.
In case anyone needed a reference guide. 
It was only the second episode, butOne for the Angelswas the most poignant episodes of the series. It featured the great Ed Wynn as a street peddler, and a skilled character actor Murray Hamilton as the personification of Death. It’s not science fiction, but it has the classic ironic twist at the end. I haven’t seen the episode in ages, but it stuck with me since I first saw it as a child.