So, IMO there are 5 different versions of the twilight zone TV series
The original 60s version
The 1980s remake
The 2002 remake
The Jordan Peele 2020 remake
The TV show night gallery. This one isn’t technically twilight zone, but Rod Serling hosted and wrote many episodes.
For me, I think the 80s version is the best. I know most people will probably prefer the original, but the 80s have some really interesting storylines. Maybe its just nostalgia from childhood, but the 80s version is my favorite.
80s remake, which concentrated on adapting excellent sf stories. It also avoided being gratuitously nasty and was happy to be dramatic and fun.
“Nightcrawlers” was the best TZ Horror story, and you had gems like “I of Newton,” “To See the Invisible Man,” and “Wordplay written by Rockne O’Bannon.”
The original series came in two versions: half hour and hour long episodes. I preferred the half hour ones so seasons 1-3 and 5.
"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices … to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill … and suspicion can destroy … and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. "
One nice thing about the 80s version is that the episodes of the first two seasons could be exactly the length they needed to be. No padding, no rushed endings. “I of Newton” only ran about ten minutes, which was just perfect for the story.
Also, in the original “Nightcrawlers,” the entire episode was shown without a commercial break, keeping the tension going throughout (the syndicated version breaks for ads).
“Charlie’s in the Light! Charlie’s in the Light!”
They also used some top-notch directors – William Friedkin, Peter (The Ruling Class) Medek, Wes Craven, Robert Downey (Sr.), Theodore J. Flicker (The President’s Analyst, Barney Miller), and Martha Coolidge, all of whom had already made features.
I’ve only watched the original ones. (I have them all on DVDs.) And I love them. One thing that strikes me is how good the cinematography is, especially when you consider when they were made (late 1950s / early 1960s).
Later versions had their moments, but for me it will always be the original. The writing, by the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Rod Serling and others, was top flight more often than not. And it had Serling himself, our guide to the world of imagination. The best episodes weren’t just good, they were outstanding, especially for television of that era. I was just an impressionable kid then, only 7 years old when the series began, and boy, did that show make an impression on me!
It didn’t always work that way because they couldn’t let a finished segment sit around indefinitely waiting for an episode with an exact-length open slot for it. “Teachers Aide” and “Time and Teresa Golowitz,” and I’m sure others, got chopped up because there wasn’t room for them in episodes that had to be finished. (I don’t recall about “Teacher’s Aide,” but the scenes cut from “Time and Teresa Golowitz” were included as bonus extras on the DVD.)
And of course we’re talking about the original hour-length episodes. When it was cut into 30-minute episodes for syndication, the longer segments really got sliced up like a steer.
