The Twilight Zone Thread

You mean whatever the hell that thing Forrest Whittaker was hosting and had the theme song done by the singer of Korn.

Bravo, Molt.

Count me in as a major fan of the 80s incarnation (with the theme by the Grateful Dead). The quality was, for the most part, right up there with the original incarnation.

Many thanks to Phil for alerting us to the fact that the Chiller channel is broadcasting these.

Keep your eye open for this one (I think it was called 'The Need to Know'): William Peterson stars in an episode where someone has figured out the meaning of life. The knowledge of it will drive you insane, however, so people are desperately trying NOT to know. People keep passing it on, leaving smaller pockets of society that are sane BUT in the dark. The episode deals the insatiable curiosity: what do you do when the NEED TO KNOW is overpowering? It has a great ending to it.

I have a vague recollection of so many 80's Twilight Zone episodes, but I remember some of them really scaring the crap out of me. The Gramma episode (based on the King short story) was traumatizing.

Does anyone remember the episode with the disfigured monsters that lived in (and were part of) haunted house drywall? Scary shit.

What was the exact difference between Outer Limits vs. Twlight Zone? Other than Outer Limits in the 90s showing tits every so often.

Outer Limits had some interseting ideas but the low budgets and bad acting really really hampered it.

'The Outer Limits' focused more on science fiction elements, I think.

This would actually be a question my dad could answer. The man grew up eating this stuff up in the 60s.

And then I'm reminded by a somewhat of a guilty pleasure episode of The Outler Limits (90s version) where this guy who is about to die or get his legs removed, injects himself with these experimental nanobots. The nanobots cure his disease and start improving him. Unfortunately they work too well and start doing all sorts of crazy shit like adding gills and eyes to the back of the head.

There was this one scene that cracks me up where the bots are working to protect the guy's body. So they proceed to give the guy double the number of ribs in the rib cage as indicated by an x-ray.

The guy then starts getting covered in this webbing but dies before we can see what creature the guy was to turn into. My guess, the budget ran out and they didn't want to keep ripping off the fly.

That sounds awesome. One of the things I love about Twilight Zone is that there always seems to be another one I've missed. I thought about trying to collect them on dvd but like occasionally "discovering" another on cable during a Sunday marathon or late at night.

"One for the Angels" is probably my favorite:

"Street scene: Summer. The present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: Pitchman. Lew Bookman, a fixture of the summer, a rather minor component to a hot July; a nondescript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. In just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival, because as of three o'clock this hot July afternoon he'll be stalked by Mr. Death."

About the only thing SciFi was good for outside of Galactica was the regular Twilight Zone marathons it would do on holidays.

I remember most of the episodes from the revival mentioned here and in the other thread. That was a damn solid series that did its predecessor proud.

Here's why The Twilight Zone was created. Serling, after winning a record five Emmys for Writing, was sick of his "serious" teleplays being altered and defanged by sponsors and censors, so he correctly guessed he could successfully smuggle his themes onto the air through fantasy and science fiction. The original Twilight Zone was mostly allegory, parable, morality play. The Outer Limits was an actual science fiction show, but the two would occasionally overlap.

The 80s show mixed it up quite a bit; one week you'd have Peter Coyote in a remake of the Dennis Weaver-starring "Shadowplay"; the next week you'd have Lane Smith as JFK's descendant sent back in time to watch his ancestor's assassination, which definitely felt closer in spirit to an Outer Limits episode.

"Need To Know" was on Chiller this morning. Oops.

I watch "Night of the Meek" every Christmas, and the complete box set of this is one of those that I always have to stop myself from buying every couple of months or so. Now that I own complete series of Buffy, Wire, and West Wing, that's the one I want.

I really liked "Night Gallery," too, especially the one about the concentration camp guard who is in love with the painting.

The best episode of the 80's TZ was the William Friedkin-directed "Nightcrawlers" about a twitchy Vietnam vet who stumbles into a late night care, babbling about a "lost platoon". At the time, it was probably the most intense 30 minutes I'd seen on network television. I also loved Joe Dante's "The Shadow Man" which has a great kicker ending.

I still maintain that the Lithgow segment of the TZ movie is the best single segment of any anthology film.

The Twilight Zone did an adaptation of Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" that for some reason is never aired. I saw it on a special edition VHS set, and it was outstanding.

I've found it on YouTube, broken into three parts, here.

They didn't really adapt it - they bought the film (after, I think, it won the Oscar for best live action short). It was the only time they used acquired material; it was left of of syndication packages for a long time.

Sorry for the know-it-all jerkoff routine; I'm a big Serling nerd.

Nothing wrong with demonstrating expertise, especially when you're not being a dick about it. Thanks for the info.

I recall a good 80's era TZ episode with Robert Klein losing his grasp of language. He continues to speak English normally (to the viewer), but the other characters start to react like he's beginning to use incorrect words; for example, when his son becomes sick his wife says he didn't eat his dinosaur, and when Klein tries to correct her (that he didn't eat his lunch) she tells him that "lunch" is a color. It gets progressively worse, and the end of the episode shows Klein reading a childs ABC book and relearning how to read and speak; the book is open to a picture of a dog, but the given word is Wednesday.

Also good is the Harlan Ellison story Paladin of the Lost Hour, with Tim Reid and Danny Thomas in his last role.

Wordplay. Also on Chiller yesterday morning. You guys are just barely missing all these!

another one that I remember: In the future, a young couple worries over their son who has to take a government mandated test that all children have to take. The nature of the test isn't revealed, yet everyone is worried about the child (who is oblivious to the apparently dire nature of it). He's not like other kids, but we aren't told as to HOW he is different.

Before the test, the government has the kid drink something that will force him to be truthful in his responses. The parents watch him go away, scared for him.

At the end, an official comes out and informs the parents that the child was terminated for being TOO INTELLIGENT for government standards.

eta: looked it up, the episode's called 'Examination Day'. here's a list of all of the episodes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._Zone_episodes
Many of these sound familiar from their descriptions, especially 'The Misfortune Cookie'.

Comcast doesn't carry Chiller.

Heh, that episode seems to be a take on "Harrison Bergeron".

There was an Outer Limits episode starring Brent Spiner that is probably my all time favorite OL. It takes place in a dystopian present/future where alien overlords have conquered the Earth. Spiner kidnaps a few fellow humans and trains them for a suicide attack on one of the overlords. It has a wicked surprise ending and was a great hour of television. Here's the wki link that will give it all away - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deprogrammers

As for the Twilight Zone, let me back up Trevor and say that the Gramma episode from the 80s version scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid.

There are few things on TV I look forward to more than the Twilight Zone marathons that they have on Sci-Fi on those occasional holidays i.e. 4th of July, Thanksgiving, et. al.

I'm going through the list of the "new" Twlight Zone episodes (the ones with Forrest Whittaker) and I'm really surprised the people in these episodes: Jeremy Sisto, Jeffrey Combs, Frank Whaley, Jeremy Piven, Jason Bateman, Christopher Titus.

This doesn't make up for the fact that the word on this show wasn't good at all.

I've seen few, if any, eps from the '80s and '00s runs of TwZ, but a quick review of the writers' credits from the respective runs demonstrates pretty clearly which version has the upper hand in the writing department.

Although I notice several writers from the '00s series who went on to write for the new BSG.

It seemed to change gears part way through and became, well, blacker. Not that I care, it just seemed to go after a different audience at some point during its run.

If you don't have Chiller, Youtube has several episodes uploaded. Here's "Need to Know."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HSNm9GBms

Much obliged, Clarence. I didn't even think of checking for these on youtube.

It looks like CBS.com has some (but not all) eps from Seasons 1-3 of the original available (you can also find them linked through Hulu, didn't know Hulu did that).

The only notable episode I've seen from the 00's series would be the follow up to the 60's episode about that kid who had god like powers starring the same guy. I remember it being pretty decent. Other than that, suck city.

Yeah, that was the spec script submitted by Rockne S. O'Bannon (ALIEN NATION) that convinced Harlan Ellison to not only hire him as a story editor but to finally let someone adapt his story Shatterday (starring a pre-Moonlighting Bruce Willis) into an episode.

That's what happens when you have Harlan Ellison adapting Stephen King.

Wow, blast from the past! I haven't thought about that one since it aired. remember being creeped out by the ending.

Anyone (I'm talkin' to you, Judas Booth) remember these classics from the 80's version:

1) An Alien race descends upon the U.N. Building in NYC with a mandate that humanity change it's warring ways or they will destroy us. After months of deliberation/negotiation, the World Leaders proudly present the Aliens with a huge tome full of treaties that have quelled all of Earth's international conflicts. The Head Alien flips throug it and laughs. He then tells them that his race wasn't going to eliminate us because we were too war like -- they were going to do it because we weren't war like enough. And more ships descend.

2) A guy takes a job to drive a truck full of people to an unknown destination. He soon realizes that his cargo is sinful people/souls and his destination is Hell! I remember one poingant scene where he opens the truck and he asks one guy, "What did you do?" The guy says, "I'm gay." And the driver lets him go. Don't remember how the story ends though.

3) This is one from the late 80's version in syndication. The budget was slashed, production moved to Canada, and J. Michael Strazcynski was story editor.

David Naughton starts as a regular guy who suddenly finds cameras hidden everywhere at his work and home. He discovers that his life is actually a TV show watched by millions. Shocked, he threatens to quit but the producer talks with him and he realizes the show must go on, so he stays.

I never saw THE TRUMAN SHOW, but from what I know about it, if I was the writer of this episode, I would've called my lawyers.

I never saw any of the Whitaker ones but this is the one episode I wanted to. It's a sequel to the 60's episode "It's A Good Life" starring Billy Mumy as a kid with extraordinary powers who holds an entire town hostage. Joe Dante remade it as a segment in TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE. I remember seeing it adverstised all over TV as a direct sequel with Mumy reprising his role and his daughter playing his offspring. Unfortunately, I never saw it. Can anyone tell me (without givibg away the ending) if it was any good?

The sequel was called "It's Still A Good Life", and it was actually pretty good. The town is still in limbo, Bill Mumy rules it with an iron fist, and his daughter is more powerful then he ever was.

Nice ending.

"A Small Talent For War."

Mumy wrote it, I think. I thought it was too gimmicky.

Just watched this one. Jefff Yagher looking nothing like Elvis hamstrings it a bit, as does the time-honored filmic tradition of being unable to NOT make period hair look accurate. This 1954 Elvis has the most 80s hair I've ever seen on an Elvis. They don't even try to give Bill Black anything but a sort of feathered jock haircut.

And matronly Marion Keisker is now a sexpot, looking at Elvis like he's a Christmas goose. Otherwise fun stuff. Elvis' actual pal/bodyguard Red West plays his boss in the episode.

There was also an episode of Amazing Stories that can be seen as the inspiration for The Truman Show. It was called "The Secret Cinema" and was directed by Paul Bartel.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0511115/

As for the Zone, my favorite episode of any version is "Nick of Time". The episode was written by the great Richard Matheson and features William Shatner as the lead. A young couple stop by a small diner while their car is being repaired. They pass the time by feeding change into a strange fortune telling machine that seems to always be accurate. It is quite suspenseful and can be seen as a commentary on people who suffer with OCD. Like the best Zone episodes, it has a very memorable ending.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734597/

I own the box set of the original series. I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode. Three of my faves:

He's Alive!: starring Dennis Hopper who plays a neo-Nazi that is visited and influenced by Adolph Hitler and his preachings; very terrifying premise, and the use of shadows and imagery makes for a nightmarish tone

The New Exhibit: starring Martin Balsam (of PSYCHO fame), who plays a curator at a wax museum; when the museum is closed down, he brings home the wax figures of five murderers that he loves so dearly; once this happens, the bodies start piling up

Dead Man's Shoes: a bum living on the streets inherits a pair of shoes from the body of a man who was a target of the mob; when he puts the shoes on, he takes on the identity of the man and all the things connected to his past, including his wife and the mob that thought he was gone for good; love this particular episode for the music alone; very catchy number that plays when the shoes are put on

I could go on and on and on. This series is brilliant. Don't care for the movie or any of the revival series.

Looking over the Wikpedia entry, a lot of the best episodes were in the third season. Not just "To Serve Man", "I Sing the Body Electric," and the "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" or "Dead Man's Shoes" one mentioned earlier, but others. I really liked "Death's-head Revisited," about the concentration camp guard visiting Dachau, and "The Dummy", with Cliff Robertson as a ventriloquist, both of which have endings stuck in my head, and the way that "Little Girl Lost" just stops midway through for a theoretical physics lesson.

I'm looking over some of these episodes via Wikipedia, and I'm remembering a lot of episodes I saw more than once via the SciFi marathons. I might have to buy that damn box now.

I had a book at one point that collected a huge chunk of the short stories that served as the basis for episodes of the original show. God, I loved that book.

If the Elvis ep is online, could someone provide a link? Not seen in it in years.

As for 80s ep favorites, for me, the one that was most traumatizing was The Burning Man. Jesus, that freaked me out as a kid. And it had nothing to do with Danny Cooksie starring in it.

I guess I'll be the Outer Limits (original series) advocate here.

As noted above, Outer Limits was more specifically a sci-fi show. It was also a full hour-- Twilight Zone experimented with longer eps in season 4 but was better-suited to 30 minutes. OL at its best was about developing characters and examining methods of conflict-resolution, whereas TZ was more geared towards 'short stories': hitting with an off-center concept, then running with a twist ending.

I would argue that OL had better acting all-around, and by bigger names. Check out Martin Landau in "The Man Who Was Never Born"; David McCallum and Claire Bloom in "The Forms of Things Unknown"; Landau, Sally Kellerman, Chita Rivera, and John Hoyt in "The Bellero Shield"; Carroll O'Connor and Barry Morse in "Feasibility Study".

Also, note how many episodes were lensed by the great Conrad Hall. Some of the best black-and-white ever shot for TV.

We now return control of this thread to you.

This episode haunted me for days after I saw it, particularly the ending. I even made a version of it as a film school project. It was also ripped off quite successfully for Radiohead's Just music video.

EDIT: as far as outer limits goes, I never watched the original series, but the recnt one was pretty abysmal. I remember thinking that the moral of almost every episode was exactly the same - "IF YOU ABUSE SCIENCE, SOMETHING IRONIC MIGHT HAPPEN!!!"

Yes, we know that, raspy voice-over guy...

I really want to see the remake of Night of the Meek with William Atherton as the asshole store manager now. Like right now.

No mention of the classic "Time Enough At Last"?

My favorite episode by a long mile.

Also in the TZ movie, the best segment is the Aykroyd/Brooks bookend, not the Lithgow Shatner update.

That is a great segment. I loved how humorous it starts out (Aykroyd and Brooks talking about tv shows and if a certain episode is Zone or Outer Limits) and how it slowly starts to get creepy at the end. However, the Lithgow segment is still pretty cool. The updated monster on the plane is much more scary compared to the original series teddy bear of doom.

The greatest-yet byproduct of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was the episode of Third Rock From the Sun in which the Big Giant Head arrives on Earth in the form of William Shatner:

Lithgow: How was your trip?
Shatner: Terrible. There was some creepy monster outside attacking the spaceship and nobody else could see it.
Lithgow: The same thing happened to ME!

One of the great, unsung jump scares. The theater went crazy when I saw this.

Not for me. The original black-and-white eskimo-looking teddy bear still freaks me out to this day. It's those eyes.

The updated monster was just a glorified Gremlin. Now it resembles your typical B horror flick monster that became the standard during the '80s.

Remake monster never got its own doll:

Oooh, I want one of those. I'll sit it right next to my bed. The perfect bedtime buddy

Oh jesus George Jefferson vs the Devil (Ron Glass with a Jheri curl and horns):

I don't know, the monster in Shatner's version always scared me. At least its face did when it popped up in the window. It's not so much menacing as weird, like a human who's "wrong" in some way.

The way Third Rock got away with stuff like this, that should have been cheesily terrible, is one reason I (occasionally) loved it.

Ok, I remember my grandparents had a tape of the 80's Twilight Zone that was a story about a kid who could see a kid no one else could see, I think. The tape cut out after the kid was in a treehouse or something in the middle of the forest and the treehouse crashed. Any idea what episode this could be?