The Twilight Zone (original series)

darkshadows38

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in (1992) when the Sci-Fi Channel was created they did a marathon and i had heard of the show before through the TIme-Life i think? Commercials they used to air all the time on tv and because of the (1983) film as well that got me curious to see the Original as well. i watched a bunch of them on that day until i got burnt out and we didn't have the channel until (1997) back when it was still a fantastic channel shit i would watch that channel for hrs on end now it's an awful channel and i haven't watched it since Haven ended in i think (2015) anyways, as for the show itself it has some good ones and some really bad ones too just like any show
 

Monzo

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If I didn't know "Time Enough At Last" is maybe the biggest episode of the entire show I might not even remember it. I always thought the reveal was predictable and a bit lame, but others just adore it.
 

DallasFanForever

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I enjoy “Time Enough At Last” very much although I agree it is very predictable. I had the end pretty much figured out long before the big reveal. I’m not sure why it’s considered the biggest episode to be honest cause it’s definitely not my favorite. Not even close. But I’ve noticed that if you talk to 10 fans I would say at least 7 of them mention that as their favorite episode so maybe it’s me.
 

darkshadows38

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you are thinking of how it is today, this is 2021 that aired in (1959) back than shows didn't have shows where you right away figured out the ending like we do now i 1st saw that in (1992) and i didn't see that ending coming at all but i also didn't think about it either. shows these days have it where you can guess who the killer is or what the twist is if that's what the ending is gonna be much like you can guess at times what character is going to be killed or shot at times. for example in NCIS: New Orleans a couple years back Pride got shot and i guess right away it was going to happen because the camera lingered on him and stayed with him it didn't have him go to the bar with the others so you knew something was going to happen that was predictable.

Twilight Zone is a show where yeah it had episodes you would guess right i know i have guessed how some of them would end but than there's some where you end up being surprised and there's still some episodes i haven't seen! a favorite of mine is Printers Devil Burgess Meredith that was his last episode from Season 5 i think.

that one is my favorite episode of his it's also the longest & that kinda had a predictable ending so there are some that do. Walking Distance was pretty predictable as well. that was from Season 1 but Where is Everybody the 1st time i ever saw that now that was an episode i did not see coming and i did think about it. see what i mean?

i love it cause though i don't read that much as i used to and should i was a bookworm growing up so i can relate to him in a way. though my family didn't keep me from reading i was picked on and ridiculed at school for reading just like he was in Time Enough at last. but i ignored them all i didn't care and still don't to be honest so him going into that vault would be something i would have done i think. i dunno what i would do if that did happen to me at the end it has i think a great ending that to some is predictable to others maybe not but it's still among my favorites & i think many love it for those reasons too
 

Willie Oleson

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The pilot episode Where Is Everybody? is already a great example of minimalistic horror - the threat being "emptiness" and "loneliness" - and the film itself looks absolutely gorgeous. The sound is impeccable too, especially through my expensive headphones.
The nighmarish situation turns out to be a hallucination, the result of an extreme test for an even more extreme purpose: to go to the moon.
At first I didn't get why the man suffered from amnesia since the idea of a bizarrely abandoned town was interesting enough, but I guess it explores the idea of identity in a world without (other) identities.
Is it possible to be "somebody" without "anybody"?

This was a surprise moment
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I think that even the weaker stories (and every anthology series has them) are going to be enjoyable if they look as good as this one.
What a great choice to start the Halloweenie season and I can't wait to reveal my fabulous Halloween forum name.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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The pilot episode Where Is Everybody? is already a great example of minimalistic horror - the threat being "emptiness" and "loneliness" - and the film itself looks absolutely gorgeous. The sound is impeccable too, especially through my expensive headphones.
The nighmarish situation turns out to be a hallucination, the result of an extreme test for an even more extreme purpose: to go to the moon.
At first I didn't get why the man suffered from amnesia since the idea of a bizarrely abandoned town was interesting enough, but I guess it explores the idea of identity in a world without (other) identities.
Is it possible to be "somebody" without "anybody"?

This was a surprise moment
View attachment 47933
I think that even the weaker stories (and every anthology series has them) are going to be enjoyable if they look as good as this one.
What a great choice to start the Halloweenie season and I can't wait to reveal my fabulous Halloween forum name.

Are you new to the Zone?
 

Willie Oleson

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Episode 2 One For The Angels feels a bit lighthearted because there doesn't seem to be an awful lot at stake. Nobody wants to die of course especially if they're feeling healthy, but the somewhat comical tone takes the sting out of it.
Mr. Bookman manages to cheat Mr. Death, but then without warning Mr. Death chooses Bookman's replacement, a young girl. And then it's not so lighthearted anymore.
I really love this episode with its unexpected little moments of poignancy, but what really sells it is the dialogue between Bookman and Death.
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It kinda reminded me of Jack and Verge in Lars von Trier's The House That Jack Built (2018).

Episode 3 Mr. Denton On Doomsday.....well, I just didn't get it. I liked Jeanne Cooper as the icy saloon girl with a heart of gold.

Episode 4 The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine should have been my cup of tea because I love that freaky stuff about people disappearing into paintings and snow globes and whatnot but the fact that former screen legend Barbara Jean simply wishes it makes it look random.
I guess I'm supposed to keep in mind that that very wish could only be granted in that particular "Twilight" moment, but the impact is experienced by outsiders, not Barbara Jean herself. And I hated it that Martin Balsam kept calling her "Barbie".

Episode 5 Walking Distance features a restless "Mad Man" who's going to learn that it's pointless to wallow in nostalgia, and that being grateful for the good things that have happened is more important than grieving the loss of it - and the only way to create memories is to live in the present, just like his younger self did.
Time travel was, is and always will be a fascinating concept but this is much more of a character drama. I find it impossible not to love it.
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Gig Young....yeah, he was also in one of my favourite films They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Episode 6 Escape Clause is the first truly nasty story in the Twilight Zone series, and also the first one with a big twist. And yet, it's also the funniest episode so far.
David Wayne plays a selfish hypochondriac who's constantly bitching at this suffering wife. I'm a nice person and that's why I felt sorry for her but at the same time I couldn't help but chuckle.
I thought the story was about to reveal that the wife was the real sick one since the doctor prescribed her vitamines - much to her husband's jealousy and outrage - but no, she wasn't. Well let's say there was no time to find out because she died when she tried to stop her husband jumping from the roof in order to prove his immortality.
A very entertaining episode.

Episode 7 The Lonely deals with the ongoing dilemma: is it possible to love and to be loved by a non-biological person? I think the most recent version was Spike Jonze's Her (2013).
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It's a shocking sight to see the hardware technology underneath that friendly face, although a human face been shot to pieces probably doesn't look much better.
In a strange way I found this episode more "Western" than episode 3, and I think I'm going to remember it.

And that was disc 1.
 

Snarky Oracle!

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Episode 7 The Lonely deals with the ongoing dilemma: is it possible to love and to be loved by a non-biological person?

Eerily prescient, too. A few years ago, after noticing how so many aspects of "Long Live Walter Jameson" seemed to come true (Estelle Winwood and Kevin McCarthy became the oldest active actors of the screen actors guild, the pertinent date of 9/11 turned out to be McCarthy's death date, etc...) I wondered if "The Lonely" would be similarly prophetic.

After watching TZ's "The Lonely" several times, I asked myself, "Gee, I wonder if Jack Warden is still alive..." (I figured not) "...and 46 1/2 years left on his sentence from November 1959 (when the episode aired) would be 2006 --- wouldn't it be funny if that's when he died??" (The episode starts out telling us that he's six months into his fourth year ---- which of course, technically, means 3 1/2 years.)

And it turns out that 2006 is indeed when he died.

I went to Jack Warden's IMDb page to post this, but two other people had beaten me to it!

Similar to the later episode, I forget the title, where Cecil Kellaway is a particularly odd mortician, who explains he started his burial business "in 1973" which is exactly the year Kellaway would die.



I really love the music score for "The Lonely" (and poor Ted Knight doesn't even get billing!)
 

Willie Oleson

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Episode 8 Time Enough At Last is the quirky story about a man who's addicted to reading, which makes him a lousy employee and (according to his wife) a lousy husband.
But addicts are resourceful, therefore he sneaks into the bank's vault to have some quality time with a newspaper.
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Literally one second later....H-BOOM! It's a fabulous and funny shocker, but the second and last twist was unnecessarily cruel in my opinion.

Episode 9 Perchance To Dream shows a man who's afraid to go to sleep because he believes that the frights of his nightmare are going to kill him. And then that happens.
I found it overwrought and a little exhausting (ironically).

Episode 10 Judgment Night is kinda similar in that it starts with lots of anxiety - a combination of amnesia and the feeling of impending doom - and the ending was sort of what I expected it to be except for the never-ending cycle.
It scores points for being surprisingly violent.

Episode 11 And When The Sky Was Opened is my favourite episode so far.
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It's the reality shifting story of three space pilots (that's not the same as astronaut?) who are being un-remembered out of existence.
The fact that it's both eerie and sad gives it a lot of oomph, and it neatly balances space-induced insanity and the possibility of a conspiracy - only to be upstaged by something worse.
Starring future FALCON CREST star Rod Taylor.

Episode 12 What You Need is nice, sort of a modern fairy tale.

Episode 13 The Four Of Us Are Dying is rubbish. A man can change his face just by thinking about it, like an X-men Man, but for whatever reason the narrator calls it a "talent". What follows is a series of random scenes and then a very predictable ending.

Episode 14 Third From The Sun feels simultaneously wacky and understated but it also has a great twist ending.
It reminded me of Gerry Anderson's Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun, but thankfully not as boring as that film. Not that this Twilight Zone episode is super-entertaining to watch, but it's one of those stories that lingers on. It could have been the pilot for a spin-off series.

Episode 15 I Shot An Arrow Into The Air features a psychopath austronaut (played by the handsome Dewey Martin) which makes the entertaining part self-explanatory, and the ending - again, a little predictable - was something like Stephen King's The Mist.
I have a feeling that the set (previously seen in episode 7) is going to be used a lot :lol:

And that was the mixed bag of disc 2.
 

Willie Oleson

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No, I stopped after disc 2. But that has everything to do with the return of NuDoctor Who on Prime, and last night I returned to Collinsport to watch new adventures of Victoria Winters & Co.
Of course I'm going to watch all the Twilight Zone episodes but life is all about priorities. Perhaps I'll watch some before I start with the classic Doctor Who stories.
 
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