The 14 Best Classic Twilight Zone Episodes
The Twilight Zone was such a groundbreaking series that it influenced our popular culture to a level many of us don’t even realize. From Rod Serling’s silky and smoke-filled introductions, to the inevitable twist ending, the Twilight Zone’s black and white years were doubtless its best. While many of the twists have become so well known in the ensuing years as to lost much of their sting, if you can imagine watching these broadcasts in the 60s on an old black and white set, you might just get a feel for how revolutionary it was. Here, in my humble opinion, are 14 of the best episodes of this series.
Oh, and spoiler alerts.
14. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Long before he was helming the Enterprise, Shatner was a legitimate actor. Not yet turned to King of ham-acting, he had two leads in Twilight Zone pieces, Nightmare and Nick of Time (discussed below). While Nick of Time was doubtlessly better, Nightmare is a far more iconic role for the actor — the man recovering from a mental breakdown, insisting he sees a gremlin on the wings of an airplane, which no-one else notices. It’s a segment that’s been parodied widely, by everyone from The Simpsons to SNL. It’s also hilarious to watch it and compare flying in the 60s to now — everyone wearing suits, smoking cigarettes, and in seats with ample legroom. Ah, a golden age!
13. The Invaders
There was some pretty seriously interesting film-making associated with the Twilight Zone, as you can see if you watch The Invaders. The entire sketch is shot almost without dialogue, with the only speech occurring in the closing minutes. There’s an old lady who lives in a sparse and poor country cabin, who is encounters two tiny aliens and a flying saucer. She manages to kill one and chases the other back to his spaceship. Just as she attacks it with an axe, we hear the alien broadcasting in American-English, warning of a planet inhabited by giants, who would be very difficult to defeat. As the ship is smashed by the giantess, we see the writing on its side: U.S. Air Force Space Probe No. 1.
12. The Midnight Sun
Okay, so the science might be a bit shoddy in TZ. Or maybe make that very shoddy…but let’s just go with it. The Earth is careening into the Sun, and the only two people left in an apartment building are Norma — a painter, and Mrs. Bronson — the landlady, everyone else has run for cooler climes. With looters roaming the streets, the power all but disconnected, water strictly rationed, and the heat ever increasing, the two ladies struggle with the mounting temperature. As it gets hotter and hotter, Mrs. Bronson collapses and dies from the heat, and Norma’s paintings explode. Just as things get get unbearable, the scene shifts to the apartment at night time, now bitterly cold. The thermometer sits at -10°, and Norma is in bed, with a fever dream, imagining her impending fiery doom. The Earth is in fact hurtling away from the Sun, promising an icy death to all its inhabitants. Waking up from her fever dreams, she asks Mrs Bronson “Isn’t it wonderful to have darkness, and coolness?” Mrs. Bronson replies with a sense of dread in her voice, “Yes, my dear, it’s….wonderful.”
11. To Serve Man
Okay, everyone knows how this one goes. Super smart aliens visit our planet, and fix everything. No more war, no more poverty, no more hunger. They just want what’s best for us! Government codebreakers frantically rush to translate a single piece of Kanamitian literature — a book called “To Serve Man”. Then, shock, horror! It’s a cookbook! They’re making us fat and complacent, and there ain’t jack shit we can do now! I’d just like to make two points at this juncture: we were doing fine on the fat and complacent field on our own, thank you very much; and doesn’t the whole twist here — the dual meaning of “serve” — seem to rely pretty heavily on the English language? That wouldn’t make any sense for an alien tongue! Regardless, it’s still a classic episode, and one of the few that breaks the fourth wall: at the very end of the story, the narrator turns to the camera and says, “how about you? Are you still on Earth, or on the ship with me? It really doesn’t make very much difference, because sooner or later, we’ll all be on the menu…all of us.”
10. Nick of Time
The second Shatner piece on here (who would have thought? He was once a good actor!), this time casting him as one half of a newly-wed couple, driving to New York City. Their car breaks down, and while waiting at a local diner, they find a small fortune telling machine that will dispense predictions for a penny. Of course, the predictions come true, and the pair must struggle with the lure of knowing the future, and the ironclad grasp it can have over their decisions. Shatner wants to ask the teller about every possibility of their actions, and his wife rails against relying on the seer. The two eventually leave, defying the will of the fortune teller, while another couple takes their place, stuck in its grasp for good.
9. Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?
The paranoid imaginings of Cold War America was the perfect breeding ground for Twilight Zone’s distinctive brand of chills. Swapping Communists for aliens was a common twist, as demonstrated in Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up. A small diner is packed with a bus-full of people during a snow storm, waiting to hear if a bridge ahead is safe to cross. Two troopers come in, following the tracks from a nearby UFO citing. Someone in the diner is secretly from another planet, and the people swiftly turn on one another. Yet as soon as they’re told the bridge is safe, they all leave, even though they no longer trust each other. Soon after, a single straggler returns, saying the bridge collapsed under them, and that everyone but him drowned. The cook mentions the traveller isn’t even wet, at which point the traveller reveals a third arm, and his Martian origins, as well as the plans to start a colony on Earth. Laughing, the cook pulls of his hat, showing a third eye, marking him as a Venusian. Earth already is a colony, and the Mars fleet was shot down in transit.
8. Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
Five people awake in a giant metal cylinder, none of them able to remember how they got there. A soldier, ballet dancer, hobo, bagpiper and clown. No, it’s not a weird predecessor to cube, though it certainly seems like it. The five are stuck in this room, with no exits whatsoever, occasionally blasted by a huge noise, an enormous clanging that shakes them to the core. They need no food, no water, and have no feelings at all. The soldier is determined to escape, even though the others are despondent. Creating a tower, one one top of the other, the army major escapes, tumbling into the light of day. Where a small girl picks up a doll in army uniform, puts it back in the barrel, and a lady rings a bell asking for donations for an orphans’ home.
7. The Masks
A dying millionaire meets with his family on his death bed — and on the eve of Mardis Gras he forces them to done masks while they discuss his will. His daughter, her husband and their two children are all horrible people, and he makes each of them put on masks caricaturing their personality: a sniveling coward to his daughter Emily, a miserable miser to her husband Wilfred, a twisted buffoon to the grandson Wilfred Jr., and a self-obsessed narcissist to the granddaughter Paula. As the ailing Jason dons a skull mask, he charges them all to leave the masks on until midnight, or receive nothing of the substantial will. Suffering under the uncomfortable masks, they all plea to take them off as the night progresses, as their patriarch rails against their shortcomings, eventually exclaiming “without your masks, you’re caricatures!”, before dying. The four pull of the uncomfortable masks in relief, only to find their faces are now permanently stuck in that shape.
6. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
Another prime example of tapping into Cold War paranoia, about a street in a small town that turns on its own when the power goes out, and talk of an alien invasion starts to surface. This story became so iconic, that it was used in classrooms as a perfect example of insular paranoia and auto-cannibalizing mistrust. The neighborhood dissolves under its own hatred and inability to trust people they’ve known their entire lives, and an angry mob forms, swiftly turning to murder and rioting. So where’s the twist in this story of small town hatred? The power fluctuations and general spookiness were caused by aliens, who plan to spread paranoia in order to take over the planet “one Maple street at a time”
5. A Stop at Willoughby
A businessman, stressed by his work, hounded by his wife, and unable to deal with the pressure from his boss. His only respite occurs on his daily train ride home, where he wakes up one day with the carriage transformed into one from the 1800s, pulled up at Willoughby, “a peaceful, restful place, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his life full measure.” As things progressively worsen at home and at work, his stops become longer, tempting him to step off the train and into a more peaceful era. Eventually after having a breakdown at the office and being abandoned by his wife, he takes the final step, and climbs out of the train at Willoughby, dropping his briefcase and being embraced by the inhabitants. The scene then cuts to a train conductor standing over his body on the side of the rails, saying that he yelled something about Willoughby before jumping from the cart. With that, his body is loaded into a stretcher, and taken to Willoughby & Son Funeral Home.
4. Time Enough At Last
Another classic episode, so well known that people are likely to know the end scene without having ever seen the episode or knowing the context. Burgess Meredith stars as a man who wants nothing more than to be left alone to read in piece and quiet, a treat denied to him at every turn. During his lunch break at the bank where he works, he retires to a vault to read undisturbed, only to be knocked out by a massive tremor. He awakes to find himself the only living person on Earth, having being saved from an atomic bomb by the vault. Wandering the wasteland he contemplates suicide, until he stumbles across a library. Overjoyed at finally having “time enough at last” to read, he trips and falls and shatters his glasses. OH SNAP! This is one of the most parodied scenes in TZ history, and one almost universally recognized, and with good reason! It’s a fantastic episode, and while the twist is now ruined, it originally had an immense impact.
3. Walking Distance
An episode J.J. Abrams once claimed as his favorite episode of TZ, and it’s easy to see why — time travel, logical paradoxes, and oddly sedate compared to many other episodes. Walking Distance lacks the plot twist of most other TZ segments, instead laying out the general premise early on: a man traveling across the country finds himself in his childhood, and meets his younger self. There’s no real realization or concrete ending to the story either. He accidentally injures his younger self at one point, causing old him to walk with a limp. Eventually he returns to the present, not really any wiser, just with the understanding that we all have a limited time on this planet, and to enjoy it. It’s a far more introspective and thoughtful episode than most, and remembered for it.
2. The Eye of the Beholder
Another absolutely amazing episode now ruined because the twist is so widely known. Okay, sure, it’s a bit telegraphed by the fact that the entire episode you don’t see anyone’s face until the dramatic reveal, but it’s still pretty freaking shocking. In this story, a lady is in hospital after massive facial surgery to try and make her look like everyone else. For most of the episode she’s bandaged up like a bondage mummy, and all the other people in the hospital’s faces are kept in the shadows. By now, being the intelligent readers that you are, I’m sure you’ve guessed the twist…that’s right, she’s gorgeous, and everyone else is terrifying looking! To our perceptions anyway. And then she runs away to live on an island of ugly/beautiful people, and lives happily ever after. Yayz!
1. It’s a Good Life
You know what? Kids are fucking scary. That’s why Children of the Corn works. That’s why The Ring works. That’s why Poltergeist works. Kids are fucking freaky, yo. So what happens when you take a small town, and place it under the thumb of a child with the powers of a God? Holy crap, it’s a creepfest! Why do so many TZ episodes happen in small farm towns? Because isolations is creepy too. Now you have a tiny town, where the inhabitants don’t even know if the outside world still exists, or was destroyed by their young tyrant, perpetually terrified and doing everything they can to please him. A mindreader, they must all smile and think happy thoughts, lest they be murdered or transformed. Eventually, at a party, one of the townmembers breaks down and calls the kid out on his behavior, only to be turned into a horrific jack-in-the-box. As punishment, the boy causes it to start snowing, a move that will kill at least half the towns crops, prompting his father to say, through a terrified smile, …but it’s a real good thing you did. A real good thing. And tomorrow….tomorrow’s gonna be a… real good day!” Yeah, that’s damn scary!
Written by Tim on March 26th, 2010 | Tagged as: Popular Culture
On April 28th 2010, Susan wrote:
One I would have loved to have seen on this list is “On Thursday We Leave for Home.” It is an excellent study on how people in positions of power react when they are threatened with losing their power.
On May 3rd 2010, Jo Tommy wrote:
Wow, Twilight ZOne was incredible was it not??
Lou
http://www.anon-web-tools.es.tc
On May 3rd 2010, Jon wrote:
I also would have included, “The Obsolete Man”, with Fritz Weaver and Burgess Meredith.
On May 3rd 2010, JesusRuiz wrote:
My #1 would be Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
On May 3rd 2010, Aaron wrote:
How about “the fear” in which a giant alien robot stalks the landscape, scaring the bejeezus out of the locals until a brave police officer fires one shot from his puny service revolver and the alien menace, shown to be literally overblown, simply deflates.
On May 3rd 2010, Brian wrote:
Additional ideas;
Rip Van Winkle Caper
in praise of Pip
self improvement of Salvadore Ross
the prime movers
the shelter
the prime movers
I shot an arrow in the air
a kind if stopwatch
the jeopardy room
On May 3rd 2010, Brian wrote:
Of the items listed in this article my two favorites are Time enough at last and Monsters are due on Maple st. Both are certainly classics.
On May 3rd 2010, KFL wrote:
Tough to distill to 14, no? Excellent writing (Richard Matheson, and even the-man-himself Rod Serling) made this a provocative show. I must admit, my favorites — The Howling Man, The Hunt, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, What You Need — are not on the list, but it’s a decent compilation. Really, so many episodes were incredible, it’s almost impossible to have a favorites list. Glad that someone still cares about this series, though: it had a lot to say about humanity.
On May 3rd 2010, Intercontinental wrote:
I was a 10 years old in 1963, we lived then in NYC, and I remember this “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” as if I had seen it yesterday (when the plane lands the wing on which appeared the “phenomena” is teared …). “Twilight Zone” and “One step beyond” where my favorite TV shows ! Gosh, that’s only roughly 50 years ago :)
On May 3rd 2010, Andy Rockwell wrote:
Uncle Simon is one of my favorites – “Barbara, Barbara – bring me some hot chocolate!”
On May 3rd 2010, davesworkout.com wrote:
Great article, one of my favorite shows. I still like “The After Hours” the best – where the mannequins in the apartment store all come to life. sooo eerie.
On May 3rd 2010, JackofKitemanTV wrote:
I would have included “What’s in the Box” with William Demarest and Joan Blondell. Yonkers! Yonkers! Yonkers!
On May 3rd 2010, Tony wrote:
Gosh. many great picks here, but i think a major icon was missed;
“King 9 Will Not Return” ..this is one of my alltime favorites, and i think it was a great early psych-drama.
On May 3rd 2010, Jeff wrote:
I second “The Obsolete Man” as one of the all-time best. Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver are amazing.
On May 3rd 2010, willowbee wrote:
Nice list, thanks for including some of my favorites.
Great to remember these episodes. Roald Dahl would be proud.
On May 3rd 2010, Kelly Davisson wrote:
Great episode picks. Unfortunately, the horrible grammar made it difficult to enjoy the article. Please use an editor next time!
On May 3rd 2010, Old TZ Fan wrote:
My favorite TZ episode is the one where the fella went back in time to stop the schoolhouse fire that killed many of the town’s children. Turns out, he was the cause of the fire by being there.
On May 3rd 2010, JoyMars wrote:
You forgot “Mr. Death,” a chilling script that introduced a young gorgeous Robert Redford in the lead.
Shame on you!
On May 3rd 2010, patty colello wrote:
I saw them all except the one about the masks.
the one about the old couple trading in their old
bodies for new was great. the old man couldn’t
be helped, so the old lady, his wife, refused the
new body. and they walked into the sunset.
On May 3rd 2010, Dan Peeler wrote:
It’s a Good life would not have been nearly as scary without Bill Mumy, one of the greatest child actors of all time.
On May 3rd 2010, mark99k wrote:
I could never, ever have picked only 14. ;)
On May 3rd 2010, apsutter wrote:
Very excellent list!! Especially “the midnight sun” and “willoughby” This list only lacks the on where the old man and his dog die during a coon hunt and the dog stops the old man from entering hell and my personal favorite “the lady anne” I think thats one of the sweetest tz episodes
On May 3rd 2010, Autoface wrote:
That was such an awesome show.
On May 3rd 2010, Jakatak wrote:
What about talking Tina. HI, IM TALKING TINA AND IM GOING TO KILL YOU.
On May 3rd 2010, zxcv wrote:
I can’t remember my fav. episode’s name, but it was about an hour long. It was about a reporter, I believe, who was going from (Nevada?) to Los Angeles, and somehow his car breaks down in this little, near deserted town (the whole town has a really weird look, like a plantation-type layout or something). Anyways, he heads into this hotel and the woman working there is reluctant to give him a room (telling him all the rooms are taken, even though there’s nobody there). While in the lobby he picks up a newspaper dated in the early 50′s. Confused, he starts going around town asking questions, etc (really long story). He finally ends up discovering the town has a machine that can do amazing things like cure cancer, spontaneously create water and food, and create any object on demand. Apparently it was the result of a scientist who the town appears to kind of worship. In the end, the journalist wants to report the story and revolutionize science, but the town refuses to let him leave, talking about humanity and how they couldn’t handle it). After they imprison him in a house that’s surrounded by a “forcefield”, he somehow gets up with the hotel clerk and falls in love with her. I can’t remember much from there, but I believe they try to escape, and the ending was very ambiguous. Trust me when I say the episode is much better than the way I’ve attempted to explain it! :D
On May 20th 2010, hal wrote:
The Thirty-Fathom Grave”
A Navy destroyer in 1963 discovers a sunken World War II submarine on the ocean floor that’s making noise!!
Glad to see people posting on here that grew up with this show. I was waiting for some 15 year old to chime in on this!
List of All The Twilight Zone episodes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Twilight_Zone_episodes
On May 20th 2010, canadaeh wrote:
Shadow Play with Dennis Weaver (the nightmare keeps reoccuring) ; Night Of The Meek with Art Carney as Santa (the series received alot of complaints about a drunk Santa) and Deaths Head Revisited (Nazi Commadant returns to a concentration camp)
On May 21st 2010, Drue wrote:
Gee..way to spoil every episode! Next time try not to give away the ending to those who haven’t seen them. I stopped reading after the second one when I realized every ending was thoughtlessly given away.
On June 12th 2010, Jacky wrote:
Hi everybody Does anyone know the episode when there’s a dad, mom and a daughter or son and the son got trapped in a cave a the mom went to the dad’s office and tell him to rescue their son but what he doesnt know was that the mom was dead…. IF ANY ONE PLEASE KNOW THE NAME OF THAT EPISODE PLEASE TELL ME.
On July 22nd 2010, pk wrote:
I always liked “A Penny for Your Thoughts”
On August 2nd 2010, Tom Kellems wrote:
My favorite TZ episode was “Living Doll”.
I just don’t understand why it isn’t listed anywhere as one of the top episodes……it should be #1 in my opinion!
On August 5th 2010, Rick Barr wrote:
Love this show. Hard tp pick favorites, though concerning the comment on “night of the meek”…i love Rod’s little epilogue at the end, its one of my favorite TV christmas moments and i try to somehow catch it every holiday season. He was such a great writer.
In fact, Rod Serling was such a genius that some of the greatest moments of the series came at the end in his commentary. I loved so many on these episodes…I really like the one where Russell Johnson (the guy who played the professor on Gilligans island) goes back in time to try to prevent the assasination of Abe Lincoln…chilling.
Also, i remember that episode that zxc describes in his comment…dont know the name…google it…there are several sites that list descriptions of tv show individual episodes.
On August 6th 2010, Kim wrote:
This list had almost every one of my fave eps listed!
On August 6th 2010, simplysandraluz wrote:
can’t believe the one with Talking Tina was left out. That one is classic! What about the one with the old man living in a rest home and everyone goes to play kick the can and he’s left behind while they become younger and he stays old?
On August 6th 2010, steve wrote:
Where’s the “Talking Tina” episode? That one is my fav.
On August 12th 2010, Brit wrote:
Back in the day, Shatner was miles better as Kirk than anything else he was in during that time (rivaled only by his performance in The Intruder).
He *used* to be a good actor? How many awards has he won on Boston Legal, again?
Oddly enough, Shatner was great with subtlety, weak with big emotions. It’s really sad how people will believe, and spread, any opinion without taking a good look for themselves. (And, no, watching thirty seconds of Spock’s Brain doesn’t count as a ‘good look.’)
On August 12th 2010, Hermitbiker wrote:
….. I used to watch every episode of TZ when I was just a lil hermit…. it was so great back then…. and only in B&W too !!
On August 13th 2010, Alekx wrote:
Oh my gosh!
My cousins and I used to watch the Invaders episode at my Gran’s house (she owned the VHS) when we were reallllly little.
It was so scary!
Great memories, nice list.
On August 26th 2010, Jay wrote:
I’m glad Nick of Time made the list. Very cool episode as it can be read differently depending on the perspective of the viewer. But like another poster I would like to see the Obsolete Man added to the list.
On September 8th 2010, sallm wrote:
I second “The Obsolete Man” as one of the all-time best. Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver are amazing.
On September 15th 2010, Siaarn wrote:
Thanks for spoiling all these episodes for me with screenshots, that’s just great, I always love it when people spoil entire episodes.
On September 15th 2010, Jared wrote:
“The Gift” has a similar story line to many other episodes but is by far my favorite, that was the episode in which Aliens come down to Mexico bearing a gift but in the confusion the Aliens are attacked and in return kill an officer. The people who fear the Alien man burn the gift and kill him before they have a chance to see what it is, which ends up being a cure for all cancer. I also absaloutely love “the trouble with templeton” in which an old dried up actor ends up in the past with all the people he no longer had in his life, but to his suprise they all treat him terribly, he then later realizes they were simply trying to make him realize life was still worth living and to not dwell on the past. Both episodes are incredible!!
On September 16th 2010, Avi wrote:
I’m surprised Deaths Head Revisted didn’t make it on here. While not as necessarily suspensful as some of the others, it’s probably one of the most powerful episodes I’ve ever seen.
On September 18th 2010, Morgan Barnes wrote:
The one with the wax figures is one of the creepiest! I think they should’ve included The New Exhibit on the list!
On October 7th 2010, Steven wrote:
How can you forget “the one man acting show” performed by the Great Mickey Rooney, in the episode entitled “Diary of a Jockey.” Or “The Hitch-Hiker”, what great acting my that hottie Inger Stevens!!!
On October 13th 2010, Jim wrote:
Three episodes not so far mentioned but very high on my list, “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim”, “A Passage For Trumpet”, and “The Trouble With Templeton”.
On November 19th 2010, Romain wrote:
What about “3rd from the Sun” and “Howling Man” ???
Spookiest TZ episodes as far as I’m concerned, with great camerawork to boot!
On November 23rd 2010, Dane Youssef wrote:
THE LEGACY OF RODMAN EDWARD SERLING… AND HIS “ZONE”
by Dane Youssef
Rod Serling was perhaps one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Not merely to his chosen major field of television, but in general. A man who defined a lot of what television stood for, even today.
He has such a legacy for a reason. Although he was best known for holding that smoldering cigarette, standing there in front of the camera, sanctimoniously talking of the poor souls in his universe. But he was so much more than just… “the host.” He was “The Zone.” He has so many memoriams in his honor–in his hometown, his old school, Hollywood’s Walk Of Fame… just to name a few. Why? He touched a lot… he did a lot, he DID change the world.
When you see a program of real weight and depth, social commentary and insight, that Rod’s inspiration you’re seeing. Like Elvis, James Brown and even Shakesphere, he had a rippling effect, touching every other aspect of the medium of TV around him.
One of the few precious men who made it so “the idiot box” didn’t have to entirely live up to its name. Television was mostly just saccharinely sweet light fluff with no weight or real meaning. Serling thought the small screen could do bigger, better things. And so he set out to prove it. The self-righteous stubborn little bastard set to raise the bar with scripts like “Patterns” and “Requiem For A Heavyweight.”
And with his incarnation of “The Twilight Zone” and “Night Gallery,” he started playing the keys on his typewriter like Beethoven at a grand piano, and he changed all that.
Not to mention the lesser-known “A Storm in Summer.” Damn it. The little bastard He just had to go out and make writing for TV a respectable profession and pursuit. He demanded quality. He made quality.
Week after week after week after… well, that’s usually where he skipped a week or so. He was the first to admit that writing on a deadline for a serial TV show forced him to crank out a few stinkers. But he was a true wordsmith. A craftsman like Woody Allen or Raymond Chandler. Little Roddy knew how to make one single sentence really sing.
He had as many powerful proverbs as the Bible. I put down a brief re-cap of some of his all-time greatest hits.
Which is your favorite?
“I don’t enjoy any of the process of writing. I enjoy it when it goes on if it zings and it has great warmth and import and it’s successful. Yeah, that’s when I enjoy it. But during the desperate, tough time of creating it, there’s not much I enjoy about it. It tires me and lays me out, which is sort of the way I feel now. Tired.”
“Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, a talent becomes a curse.”
“There is nothing in the dark that isn’t there when the lights are on.”
“Everybody has to have a hometown, Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive make-up of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat or a kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up. When I dig back through memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling—and that’s one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find—I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s gonna take away from me.”
“I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost everything I’ve written there is a thread of this: a man’s seemingly palpable need to dislike someone other than himself.”
“Imagination… its limits are only those of the mind itself.”
“I think the destiny of all men is not to sit in the rubble of their own making but to reach out for an ultimate perfection which is to be had. At the moment, it is a dream. But as of the moment we clasp hands with our neighbor, we build the first span to bridge the gap between the young and the old. At this hour, it’s a wish. But we have it within our power to make it a reality. If you want to prove that God is not dead, first prove that man is alive.”
“If you need drugs to be a good writer, you’re not a good writer.”
“Hollywood’s a great place to live… if you’re a grapefruit.”
(on being born on Christmas Day, 1924) “I was a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped.”
“Fantasy is the impossible made probable; science fiction is the improbable made possible.”
“Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn’t embrace it. I succumbed to it.”
“I don’t want to fight anymore. I don’t want to have to battle sponsors and agencies. I don’t want to have to push for something that I want and have to settle for second best. I don’t want to have to compromise all the time, which in essence is what a television writer does if he wants to put on controversial themes.”
(On the decision to cancel the “Twilight Zone”): “We had some real turkeys, some fair ones, and some shows I’m really proud to have been a part of. I can walk away from this series unbowed.”
“You’re travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination–next stop, the Twilight Zone!”
(during the third): “I’ve never felt quite so drained of ideas as I do at this moment. You can’t retain quality. You start borrowing from yourself, making your own clichés. I notice that more and more.”
(His reasons for less involvement on “The Twilight Zone” by the third year): “First is extreme fatigue. Second, I’m desperate for a change of scene, and third is a chance to exhale, with the opportunity for picking up a little knowledge instead of trying to spew it out.”
“Coming up with an idea is the easiest thing in the world… writing it down, that’s the hard part. I put the paper in the typewriter, I put my hands on the keys.. and I bleed.”
Words to live by. To die by. And to write by.
He once told the world that all he ever wanted was to be remembered as a writer…
Well… I remember.
Now… what’s your favorite?
Even as a child, little Roddy was the most popular
in school. Everyone looked at him as a bright shining star, shining brightly… right here on Earth.
Now… the star beams proudly right in Hollywood. Where it will ’til the end of time.
Now Rod’s greatness… is written in stone.
FOR THE RODMAN
–Eternal Love for God Serling, Dane Youssef
On December 31st 2010, dougx wrote:
i liked the Bunny Blake episode
On January 7th 2011, Mikey wrote:
GREAT list; but I would have included “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” – thought provoking and atmospheric; plus it was the inspiration for mini-me’s gestures!
On February 1st 2011, zortharg wrote:
#12, “The Midnight Sun”:
I have a problem with the topic sentence. If you wanted to say the science is a bit sketchy in the Twilight Zone, you couldn’t have picked a worse example to use. Ironically, whoever compiled this list and wrote these editorials was MORE ignorant than Rod Serling or whoever wrote this episode, I’d say. It’s VERY plausible for the Earth to suddenly change its course. All it would take would be for a black hole or a neutron star to come through the solar system at high speed, and that’s not only possible, it’s extremely plausible and I understand the odds of it happening are about 1 in 2 or 3 million in the time life has left on Earth (unlike, say, death himself coming for you). Although the scale of time would be longer than it was in the episode – it wouldn’t be over days to weeks, it would be over months or years or even centuries – unless the massive object was moving at a very high speed and therefore didn’t originate from within this galaxy.
On February 8th 2011, Will Trame wrote:
I have a number of favorite “Twilight Zone” episodes. Included herein:
1. “Stopover In A Quiet Town”. An unexpected off-kilter consequence of drinking and driving. Barry Nelson’s character reminded me of JFK. The concept of having an apparently wealthy couple stranded in a toy village draws a strong parallel to JFK’s Camelot; a fantasy realm often under a malevolent microscopic eye.
2. “Elegy”. Three astronauts land on a planet that is a cemetery. A caustic jab at a hateful war mongering world. Cecil Kellaway’s closeup as he intones “As long as there is man there can be no peace” is a classic example of in-your-face existential angst.
3. “Hocus Pocus And Frisby”. A comedy about a blowhard. the gist here is think before you spin a wild yarn.
4. “Death Ship”. An hour long story; Jack Klugman adds new definition to the term stubborn.
5. “On Thursday We Leave For Home”. the best hour long story. It deals with the acquisition of, need for, and consequences of a loss of POWER. James Whitmore put on a superb performance as a man whose rigidity dooms him to a solitary existence on a nightmare world.
On February 18th 2011, joanne wrote:
i liked” modern day warriors.” it is about modern militarymen at the actual site of custer’s last stand.
On May 29th 2011, iceyice wrote:
My #1 is the one where Sebastian Cabot is Mr. P.I.P., in ‘heaven’ who gives that criminal ‘Mr. Valentine’ everything he wants. The first time i saw it, i was blown away by the ending
On May 29th 2011, iceyice wrote:
How could i forget ‘the howling man’ or the one where that guy keeps hearing tribal/jungle sounds. i forgot how he got cursed. i think he left some artifact in a bar, but couldn’t get it back because it was closed. Then his ‘fun’ began!
On November 7th 2012, robyn wrote:
LOVED the twilight zone as a kid!!!!!