Favorite Episodes: The Twilight Zone

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Let's take a stab at some more classic scifi, the show I know best, The Twilight Zone! 

 

Favorite, not necessarily best, though I imagine there will be some overlap. (As a superfan I can say my favorite episode, A Game of Pool, is not always on the best lists.)

 

[death tribble]

'There's Something On the Wing !'

 

This is the only answer.

[Tjack]

  “It’s a Good Life.”  
   Agree with my choice or I’m sending you all to the cornfield.   Before Billy Mumy was Will Robinson, before he was Lennier, he was the creepiest little kid in the world.

[Sundog]

I have two favourites both from the '85 version of the Zone: Paladin of the Lost Hour and I of Newton.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

41 minutes ago, Sundog said:

I have two favourites both from the '85 version of the Zone: Paladin of the Lost Hour and I of Newton.

 

I'll have to look those two up. Fortunately YouTube has most of the '85 series.

[Cygnia]

"I of Newton" was AWESOME~!

[Tjack]

55 minutes ago, Logan.1179 said:

 

I'll have to look those two up. Fortunately YouTube has most of the '85 series.

 

   Paladin of the Lost Hour was a short story by Harlan Ellison who was also a consultant on the show.  I think they gave him the title of “Ombudsman”.  I won’t go into the story itself so I don’t ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.  But I think it was wonderful. It also starred Danny Kaye in what I think was his final brilliant performance.
   I of Newton was one of the shorts the program used to fill time when the main story didn’t fill a full hour.  A fine idea because it not only kept well written story’s from being padded to fill time but also gave us little nibbles like this which still gives me a thrill when I remember it.  This one featured Ron Glass who later played Shepard Book on Firefly.

    Both are VERY worth the time it may take to find and watch.

Edited October 14, 2020 by Tjack
Damn Spellcheck!

[Starlord]

Which one had Burgess Meredith?  I liked that one.

[Cygnia]

21 minutes ago, Starlord said:

Which one had Burgess Meredith?  I liked that one.

• The Obsolete Man
• Mr. Dingle, the Strong
• Time Enough at Last
• Printer's Devil
• Twilight Zone: The Movie

[BoloOfEarth]

Time Enough at Last is the one I always liked.

[Hermit]

1 hour ago, Cygnia said:

• The Obsolete Man
• Mr. Dingle, the Strong
• Time Enough at Last
• Printer's Devil
• Twilight Zone: The Movie

 

Liked them all.

Special fondness for The Obsolete Man which is under rated in my view 

[BoloOfEarth]

 A Small Talent for War. 

[mattingly]

The After Hours (mannequins keep following a woman)

Where is Everybody (man in a deserted town)

Eye of the Beholder (still terribly ugly)

Nick of Time (fortune-telling machine)

To Serve Man (it's a cook book)

The Invaders (tiny aliens invade a woman's home)

 

 

[BoloOfEarth]

4 hours ago, death tribble said:

'There's Something On the Wing !'

 

This is the only answer.

 

I've always had a fondness for "Nightmare at 20,000 feet / There's Something on the Wing," not so much for the episode itself, but a funny memory about it.

 

When "Twilight Zone: The Movie" came out, I was a freshman in college.  One of my housemates worked at a local movie theater and got me a pair of tickets to the midnight premier of the movie.  For some strange reason, my girlfriend's parents gave her permission to stay out late enough to see the movie with me.  (She was several years younger than me, still in high school, and it was a 30-minute drive from my place to hers, so I was quite shocked her parents said yes.) 

 

I'm almost positive she never saw the original episode, so the remake was drawing her in completely.  You know the scene where John Lithgow keeps looking at the closed window shade, and you *know* he's going to open it quickly, and you *know* the creature is going to be *right there* with his face at the window?  A great shock moment.  Well, right when that happened, I clamped my hand down on her shoulder.  She stood up and screamed in the middle of the theater.  (It's a miracle she didn't punch me in the face then and there, and I don't know why the heck she still dated me afterward.)  God, I was a little s**t back then.

[Tjack]

14 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

I've always had a fondness for "Nightmare at 20,000 feet / There's Something on the Wing," not so much for the episode itself, but a funny memory about it.

 

When "Twilight Zone: The Movie" came out, I was a freshman in college.  One of my housemates worked at a local movie theater and got me a pair of tickets to the midnight premier of the movie.  For some strange reason, my girlfriend's parents gave her permission to stay out late enough to see the movie with me.  (She was several years younger than me, still in high school, and it was a 30-minute drive from my place to hers, so I was quite shocked her parents said yes.) 

 

I'm almost positive she never saw the original episode, so the remake was drawing her in completely.  You know the scene where John Lithgow keeps looking at the closed window shade, and you *know* he's going to open it quickly, and you *know* the creature is going to be *right there* with his face at the window?  A great shock moment.  Well, right when that happened, I clamped my hand down on her shoulder.  She stood up and screamed in the middle of the theater.  (It's a miracle she didn't punch me in the face then and there, and I don't know why the heck she still dated me afterward.)  God, I was a little s**t back then.

     The best line ever on Third Rock From the Sun happened when the aliens were going to be inspected by their leader “The Big Giant Head” and went to meet him at the airport he comes out disheveled and played by William Shatner.  They ask what happened and he tells them that he materialized on the plane and when he looked out the window “THERE WAS SOMETHING ON THE WING!!!!!”   The audience cracks up, long, long, laugh.  When it finally dies down John Lithgow’s character steps forward grabs him and says “THE SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME!!!!!” 
    I don’t know exactly when the audience stopped laughing but I’m still chuckling.

[slikmar]

ok, I have given props to the ones I agree with above and will add in a few more:

Nothing in the Dark - Robert Redford as an injured policeman (for those who haven't seen, won't say more)

2 of Jack Klugmans - A Passage for Horn and A Game of Pool

The Hunt - A man and his dog are on the road to Heaven

 

I am not a very religious person, but still love those episodes.

And although I have given props to ones above, Burgess Meredith's shows were awesome, but I agree that the 2 standouts were time enough at last and the obsolete man.

 

I also loved the ending twist on A World of His Own.

 

[Michael Hopcroft]

I haven't seen the original version, but the radio adaptation of Rod Serling's "Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room" is superb.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WdJlq8fB_c

 

 

[archer]

Not a huge fan of the show and i rarely remember episode names (if I had my way, all series would have names like Friends episodes "The One Where Chandler and Joey Get a Chicken".

 

But there was a Twilight Zone episode where a guy was looking forward to the end of the world so he could have peace and quiet to read. Back when I had more reading material, I very much sympathized with him.

[Ternaugh]

20 minutes ago, archer said:

Not a huge fan of the show and i rarely remember episode names (if I had my way, all series would have names like Friends episodes "The One Where Chandler and Joey Get a Chicken".

 

But there was a Twilight Zone episode where a guy was looking forward to the end of the world so he could have peace and quiet to read. Back when I had more reading material, I very much sympathized with him.

 

"Time Enough at Last". 

[Badger]

5 hours ago, Hermit said:

 

Liked them all.

Special fondness for The Obsolete Man which is under rated in my view 

Obsolete Man is my favorite.

Praise for pip makes me cry. I hate admitting when I cry.

1 hour ago, slikmar said:

ok, I have given props to the ones I agree with above and will add in a few more:

Nothing in the Dark - Robert Redford as an injured policeman (for those who haven't seen, won't say more)

2 of Jack Klugmans - A Passage for Horn and A Game of Pool

The Hunt - A man and his dog are on the road to Heaven

 

I am not a very religious person, but still love those episodes.

And although I have given props to ones above, Burgess Meredith's shows were awesome, but I agree that the 2 standouts were time enough at last and the obsolete man.

 

I also loved the ending twist on A World of His Own.

 

Yeah, like the hunt, too

[Badger]

6 minutes ago, Badger said:

Obsolete Man is my favorite.

Praise for pip makes me cry. I hate admitting when I cry.

Yeah, like the hunt, too

Think I meant In praise of pip

[Tjack]

I don’t remember the name of it but the one where Martin Landau plays a political defector placed in a booby-trapped room by his sadistic pursuer is a great nerve wracking story with a fantastic last line.

[death tribble]

9 hours ago, Badger said:

Yeah, like the hunt, too

[sarcasm mode]

well Badger likes the hunt. Who ever would have guessed ?

[/sarcasm mode]

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

17 hours ago, Sundog said:

I have two favourites both from the '85 version of the Zone: Paladin of the Lost Hour and I of Newton.

 

I watched these last night, Paladin is a sweet episode and it's nice to see Danny Kaye in it. Newton I had seen before but forgot the name, great little mini episode! 

[Sundog]

7 hours ago, Tjack said:

I don’t remember the name of it but the one where Martin Landau plays a political defector placed in a booby-trapped room by his sadistic pursuer is a great nerve wracking story with a fantastic last line.

The Jeopardy Room. Season five original series.