As mentioned in Part I, and Part II, the SyFy channel is showing the whole series -- all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone in order. This is twice as many as the usual 80-90 that they show, so I have had my work cut out for me!
Over the past 24 hours, we got through Season One's 36 episodes and twelve episodes of Season Two, which contained many more episodes that have not been aired in the Marathon than in Part I.
As always, at the top is a short list including the current Time Top 10, my personal favorites, other noteworthy episodes, and the episodes which have not been aired recently.
So, the categories are:
(1) Episodes on the Time Top 10 List – These are the acknowledged classics – in red.
(2) My Personal Favorite Episodes – These are underrated gems with strong scripts and beautiful performances – in green.
(3) Episodes Worth Watching – These have flawed scripts or execution, but often have compelling performances and/or ideas – in blue.
(4) Episodes That Haven't Been Aired Recently – These may or may not be good, but they are worth watching just because they have been off the air for so long – in purple.
Let's stay Zoned for 2016!!
My Favorites – Short List
(Click the time to jump to the episode description.)
7:00 PM – Back There
7:30 PM – The Whole Truth
10:00 PM – The Invaders
10:30 PM – A Penny For Your Thoughts
11:30 PM – The Odyssey Of Flight 33
12:00 AM – Mr. Dingle, The Strong
12:30 AM – Static
1:30 AM – Long Distance Call
2:00 AM – A Hundred Yards Over The Rim
3:00 AM – The Silence
3:30 AM – Shadow Play
4:00 AM – The Mind and the Matter
5:00 AM – The Obsolete Man
5:30 AM – Two
Full List – With Descriptions
7:00 PM – Back There – S2.E13 | Poor Russell Johnson (Gilligan's Island's Professor) can't seem to get enough of TZ-style time travel -- murder, mayhem, and unintended consequences. Just twelve hours before, we watched him lift convicted criminal Albert Salmi out of an Old West hanging, and now he transports himself back to the night of Lincoln's assassination -- and comes up against Doctor Who's Blinovich Limitation Effect: Some events just can't be changed, now an old saw of time trave fiction. Worth watching for Johnson's competent performance.
7:30 PM – The Whole Truth – S2.E14 | Enchanted Model A compels whomever owns it to tell the truth -- in this case, a used car salesman and a politician. This one hasn't been in the Marathon, and we haven't lost much from its absence: A hokey plot mixed with political ax-grinding makes this a must-miss.
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: WWF Smackdown
8:30 PM – The Invaders – S2.E15 | Agnes Moorehead's virtuoso 25-minute wordless monologue; riveting with a slick twist at the end. #7 on the Time list.
7:30 PM – The Whole Truth – S2.E14 | Enchanted Model A compels whomever owns it to tell the truth -- in this case, a used car salesman and a politician. This one hasn't been in the Marathon, and we haven't lost much from its absence: A hokey plot mixed with political ax-grinding makes this a must-miss.
8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: WWF Smackdown
8:30 PM – The Invaders – S2.E15 | Agnes Moorehead's virtuoso 25-minute wordless monologue; riveting with a slick twist at the end. #7 on the Time list.
10:30 PM – S2.E16 | A Penny For Your Thoughts – Not a classic, but one of my favorites, featuring a young Dick York (the first Darren from Bewitched.)
11:00 PM -- Twenty-Two -- S2.E17 | Recovering dancer is troubled by prescient dreams. "Room for one more, honey!" Shrill performances, flat writing. Mediocre tale best suited to Internet urban myth..
11:30 PM – The Odyssey Of Flight 33 – S2.E18 | A 707 picks up a freak tail wind and travels back in time. Run-of-the-mill by modern sci-fi standards, but notable for its realistic cockpit dialogue created by Serling's aviation writer brother, Robert Serling.
12:00 AM – Mr. Dingle, The Strong – S2.E19 | Loud-mouthed salesman pisses away alien gifts on trivial feats. Worth watching for an adorable Burgess Meredith and amusing (and very young) Don Rickles. [Note: This is incorrectly listed on the SyFy Schedule as S2.E20]
12:30 AM – Static – S2.E20 | A bitter aging bachelor retrieves his old wireless from the basement, which delivers the charmed and charming programming of his youth. Sweet story about nostalgia for old-time radio, true love, and second chances. [Note: This is incorrectly listed on the SyFy Schedule as S2.E21]
1:00 AM – The Prime Mover – S2.E21 | Compulsive gambler cajoles his telekinetically-enabled pal (an enjoyable Buddy Ebsen) into to helping him cheat Vegas. Doesn't work out too well, but could be worse. Moral: Be happy with what you have; know when to quit. [Note: This is incorrectly listed on the SyFy Schedule as S2.E22]
1:30 AM – Long Distance Call – S2.E22 | Creepy dead grandma wants her favorite grandson to be with her forever, and conveys her wishes via a toy phone. (Now if only Billy Mumy – TZ's favorite child actor – could wish her into the cornfield!) Nice performance by Philip Abbott as the kid's dad. [Note: This is incorrectly listed on the SyFy Schedule as S2.E19]
2:00 AM – A Hundred Yards Over The Rim – S2.E23 | Underrated episode featuring a very young Cliff Robertson as a pioneer dad who will go yards, miles, and years to heal his ailing son.1:30 AM – Long Distance Call – S2.E22 | Creepy dead grandma wants her favorite grandson to be with her forever, and conveys her wishes via a toy phone. (Now if only Billy Mumy – TZ's favorite child actor – could wish her into the cornfield!) Nice performance by Philip Abbott as the kid's dad. [Note: This is incorrectly listed on the SyFy Schedule as S2.E19]
2:30 AM – The Rip Van Winkle Caper – S2.E24 | It's Treasure of the Sierra Madre with suspended animation and blah writing. Good performances and a fun twist at the end make it sort of worth watching.
3:30 AM – Shadow Play – S2.E26 | A condemned man believes his trial and execution are all part of his recurring nightmare, and that once he is gone those around him will cease to exist as well. He offers some convincing evidence, but will they believe him? Well written and acted, this episode manages to be suspenseful in spite of its somewhat predictable plot. [Note: the SyFy schedule claims this will be the 80s version, but the original was aired.]
4:00 AM – The Mind and the Matter – S2.E27 | Misanthropic office worker Archibald Beechcroft (comedian Shelley Berman) reads a book on mind power and plays God. Another be-careful-what-you-wish-for morality play served up with some clever twists and fun performances. One of the few episodes done on video where the format doesn't diminish the story.
4:30 AM – Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up – S2.E28 | This was voted 8.5 on the IMDB, but I think it’s dopey and ridiculous. Bus passengers are stranded at a diner – but there is one too many. Oh, and rumor has it that a spacecraft crashed nearby. Give me a break.
5:00 AM – The Obsolete Man – S2.E29 | The superb Burgess Meredith is back to his book-loving ways, this time as a librarian in a dystopic totalitarian future, where both he and his books are declared obsolete.
5:30 AM – Two – S3.E1 | Apocalypse survivors Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery approach each other warily in this sparsely written, beautifully acted episode.
6:00 AM – The Arrival – S3.E2 | Mystery plane lands itself at airport. The flight inspector "with a perfect record of solving cases" brings in a team to investigate. Everyone sees different registration numbers, seat cushion colors, then all but the investigator disappear. Could it all just be the investigator's guilty conscience hallucinating? Ummm... maybe... Sigh.
6:30 AM – The Shelter – S3.E3 | "Maple Street" meets the lazy grasshopper. The industrious ant of this tale has built a bomb shelter for his (and ONLY his) family, and his neighbors scoff – until there is an emergency... Bloated prose and one-dimensional characters make this a must-miss.
2 comments:
Again, another excellent and MUCH better than the network running the shows post! I'm a bit ticked off that they're clipping the episodes so much more than I'd seen in the past. Some are missing the post credit titling that shows the writer and director, all have ANNOYING cuts to commercial (often during key transition scenes) and the edits to some scenes are just plain weird (people in one place suddenly being elsewhere post-ad block.
Between that and the horrid listing errors you've noted, I'd prefer another channel like Epix or Decades (who both show old shows in their original format and mostly edit-free) take the wheel and do the Zone as it's best presented. Epix ran double episodes of The Outer Limits for a few months last year and Decades runs 24-hour show blocks and moves on. I got to watch some Car 54, Where are You? (a show I'd always been curious about) and a few other old shows last year and yeah, I felt nice and creaky afterward (but happy!).
Thanks!! Glad you are enjoying the Guide. Agreed, the edits are annoying (and the digitization is a bit weird for me too), but showing the whole series is a step in the right direction. Here's hoping that one of the other the channels takes up the mantle.
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