saramamlana- The Masks is the first one you mentioned. The other one is The Silence; the bet was actually made by a man who was tired of another man’s constant talking, which he felt was ruining the peace at his club. When the year is up he admits that he is unable to pay off the bet because he had lost all his money. Then the other man reveals that in order to win the bet he had had the nerves to his vocal cords severed, intending to have them reattached with part of his winnings.
Time Enough At Last gave me nightmares when I was a kid; the thought of finally having time enough to read all the books I wanted and then not being able to see terrified me.
My favorite is probably not the best episode, but for some reason it always resonated with me.
I’m thinking of the one (sorry, I don’t know the title) where an 18-year-old girl is resisting having surgery to turn her into a beauty. She can pick from any number of beautiful appearances, but she wants to keep her identity. In the end, she’s forced to undergo surgery to look like so many others. It appears that somehow during the surgery not only was she transformed to look like everyone else, but she also now thinks like everyone else.
I’m not sure why that one strikes a chord with me, but it always does.
The most touching episode has to be “The Trade-Ins”, starring Joseph Schildkraut and his wife, Alma Platt. He gets a new body to replace his diseased, pain-wracked one. They don’t have enough money for hers, so JS returns to his former body to spend what little time he has left with his beloved wife.
The most embarassing has to be the one with Buster Keaton, I don’t even want to look up the title, it was that bad. Couldn’t something better have been found for this iconic pioneer of screen comedy?
The creepiest stars Oscar Beregi rerurning to the concentration camp where he was a guard/commandant(?)
monstro:There was an episode starring Ivan Dixon[Sgt. Kinchloe from “Hogan’s Heroes”], he played a boxer who was idolized by a small boy.
So many good to excellent ones, and others that were mere throwaways. On the whole a great series. Glad I’ve got about half of them on tape.
Steel was pretty good, albeit very depressing. I also really liked And When the Sky Was Opened, which, now that I think about it, is also pretty depressing.
My absolute favorite episode is The Hunt–a rugged old country man and his beloved hound dog get killed in a hunting accident (to be more specific, the man dies while trying to save his dog), and find themselves wandering along a dirt road. The dog ends up saving the man, of course…
I’ve always loved Last Stop at Willoughby and The Miniature, too.
I saw Living Doll yesterday for the first time. It is much more disturbing than I imagined. Considering it was made in the 1950’s, it had to be quite original and groundbreaking for its time. It subtely hits on many taboo subjects that I am sure no TV shows at the time were exploring (remarriage, the struggle between stepchildren and a new parent, infertility on someone’s part, apparentlely Telly Savalas, abuse or, at the very least, the controlling nature of a husband over the wife). Its a psychiatric field day.
However, through the whole episode I had this one thought going through my mind : "Marge! The Doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's been laughing at me!" Cracks me up every time.
The Shelter and The Monster's Due on Maple Street are both very well done. They showed these back to back, which was a nice touch given the similar themes to the two shows.
monstro
The execution victim in “I Am The Night - Color Me Black” is Terry Becker - a white guy. He played Chief Sharkey in the “Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea” television series. Ivan Dixon was in the episode but portrayed the preacher.
Both “The Big Tall Wish” and “Kick The Can” are similar themed - never stop believing in the magic of childhood.
It’s hard to narrow it down to what my one favorite Twilight Zone episode would be. My favorite parts of the shows were Rod Serling’s intros and outros - what writing. In the “16mm Shrine”, he says the actress is 'a hit and run victim of the ravages of time … looking up from the unhappy pavement and trying to get the license number of fleeting fame". Or in “What You Need”, he says one of the characters has ‘a chip on his shoulder the size of the National Debt’. (I’m doing these from memory by the way so feel free to correct me).