Next stop, the Twilight Zone

[greatestescaper]

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."

Each New Year's Day growing up I spent the day with my grandmother, in our pajamas, playing board games and watching The Twilight Zone. Now, living in Texas, so far from my grandmother, my wife and I keep the tradition going with friends...ham in the oven, greens, black eyed peas, our favorite recipe of serving man, and Rod Serling on the television. I could care less as to whether we watch the ball drop or not, but without those great creepy classic episodes, and our favorite, cigarette smoking narrator, it just wouldn't be New Years. Anyone else tune in to the 5th dimension on New Year's Day?

 

[Fading Fast]

We also watch a bunch of episodes. Like you, we don't care about the ball dropping, but we'll always see several TZ episodes - that's how we know it's New Years.

 

[Feraud]

I never saw the draw of waiting hours packed in crowd of annoying drunks in TImes Square for a 30 second countdown. You can be sure to find me glued to the television watching The Twilight Zone marathon!

 

[Edward]

We used to go out, but everything is so expensive now on NYE, our friendship groups so splintered across different events... The hassle of people who get drunk and aggressive or depressive because the night never lives up to expectations.... Plus I think in academic years, so it's only a halfway point to me.

We went out yesterday afternoon to see the Nutcracker at Covent Garden, then late lunch at Zedel's in Picadilly. Thereafter, we came home, though there was absolutely nothing worth watching on television in the UK. Today, we're going to watch the second half of Fear the Walking Dead series one. Last few years, that's been our pattern: out early, home before the crowds.

 

[MikeKardec]

I haven't had regular service TV (if there is such a thing anymore) since I was a kid. I didn't realize TZ was run on New Years, maybe we just spent our time socializing and watching the Rose Parade. But for awhile I thought there was a TZ marathon on Thanksgiving ... I have memories of watching it with my father while mom and her friends prepared Thanksgiving dinner which was always served early, interrupting the end of the experience.

 

[HistoryCopper]

I do! I haven't had to work holidays for the past three years and on my first New Years Eve at home, I began my tradition of watching the Twilight Zone. I've always been a fan of it, but I LOVE the marathons. I've seen every episode multiple times (as I also own the DVD collection), but it really never gets old. My favorite episodes are The Changing of the Guard, The Hitchhiker, Time Enough at Last, and The Shelter.

I actually show The Shelter to my students now as it wonderfully illustrates both the Cold War and what can happen to people in an emergency.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My favorite TZ was always "Static," the story of a middle-aged man bitterly depressed over the emptiness of life in the early 1960s, who discovers his salvation in an old radio from his attic that mysteriously receives only programs of the mid-1930s. Interestingly the episode doesn't end with the predictable "learn to embrace the modern world and give up on the fantasies of the past" moral that you'd expect it to -- the radio owner is eventually absorbed back into his own past, where he presumably remains, happily ever after.

It's an episode not often shown in reruns because it was part of an experimental series of episodes shot as-live on videotape instead of film, and the kinescope recording in the syndication package is of poor visual quality. But I always enjoyed it, even though the poor dope liked to listen to Major Bowes.

 

[Spudman]

I don't recall seeing that one. (Static)

My favorite episodes are among the most popular:
To Serve Man
The other two I can't recall by title, but one has Telly Savalas and Talky Tina, and the other one has a young Billy Mumy as Anthony, the boy who wanted everyone thinking good things...


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[Fading Fast]

My favorite TZ was always "Static," the story of a middle-aged man bitterly depressed over the emptiness of life in the early 1960s, who discovers his salvation in an old radio from his attic that mysteriously receives only programs of the mid-1930s. Interestingly the episode doesn't end with the predictable "learn to embrace the modern world and give up on the fantasies of the past" moral that you'd expect it to -- the radio owner is eventually absorbed back into his own past, where he presumably remains, happily ever after.

It's an episode not often shown in reruns because it was part of an experimental series of episodes shot as-live on videotape instead of film, and the kinescope recording in the syndication package is of poor visual quality. But I always enjoyed it, even though the poor dope liked to listen to Major Bowes.

And it stars one of my favorite character actors (or non-leading-role actor), Dean Jagger. He is the glue in "12 O'Clock High," unintentionally stealing scenes from Gregory Peck and Gary Merrill and adding credibility and verisimilitude to many, many movies and TV shows.

 

[greatestescaper]

I don't recall "Static", however, I've not yet seen all the episodes of The Twilight Zone. It reminds me though, that one of my favorites is "Kick the Can", which has a similar happy ending...at least for most of the characters. Also, as a fan of all things cavalry, I love "The 7th Cavalry is Made Up of Phantoms" (an episode, like many others, that seems the inspiration for future science fiction. In this case, "The Final Countdown"). It is interesting to me to see how varied each episode could be, from one to another. And I find myself always amazed at the brilliance of it, the audacity of each episode. For me, my favorite part of The Twilight Zone is that the actors and actresses really strove to make the audience believe in the world we were being presented with. In science fiction especially that seems a treat. Too often have I watched a show or movie that would be great if the actors were taking their role seriously...

 

[Doctor Strange]

I've been a huge Zoner for as long as I can recall. In fact, when I was very young, I watched some of the original broadcasts of the last two seasons of the series. (My parents were NOT generally interested in fantasy and science fiction... but they were huge fans of Rod Serling's writing from back in the golden age of live TV drama.) Then later, I watched the show's endless reruns on NY Channel 11 for many, many years, and I picked up Zicree's The Twilight Zone Companion when it was first published. By the time the SyFy Channel marathons began, I already knew the series completely, so while I did make a point of watching (or recording) for my kids' sake, I would usually just drop in occasionally to watch a favorite episode.

Anyway, it's surely one of the all-time great shows.

George Clayton Johnson, who wrote a number of fine episodes (including Kick the Can, A Game of Pool, The Four of Us are Dying, and one my own favorites, Nothing in the Dark [where the old lady is afraid to open her door to "Mr. Death", but she lets in a wounded policeman played by an incredibly young Robert Redford... who is, of course, Death, and who frees her ever so gently from her failing body]) just died:

https://thenightgallery.wordpress.com/2015/12/23/george-clayton-johnson-writer-of-wisdom-fiction/

 

[Benzadmiral]

I don't recall seeing that one. (Static)

My favorite episodes are among the most popular:
To Serve Man
The other two I can't recall by title, but one has Telly Savalas and Talky Tina, and the other one has a young Billy Mumy as Anthony, the boy who wanted everyone thinking good things...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The latter one of your puzzles is "It's a Good Life," based on the Jerome Bixby story of the same title. Bixby later wrote a couple of episodes of Star Trek. That one was so memorable, it was one of the original series episodes picked for the 1982 movie (along with "NIghtmare at 20,000 Feet").

I just saw the other one, with Telly Savalas as an unlikeable stepfather, this weekend. It was called "Living Doll."

Hard to imagine that they produced so many episodes in a season (36!) in those days.

 

[green papaya]

one of my favorites is "WALKING DISTANCE" starring Gig Young from season 1

he's a businessman that goes back to his childhood hometown and discovers it's a different time, it's the same as it was 25 years ago, and he actually goes back home and see's his mother and father and himself when he was 10 years old.

 

[Spudman]

Nightmare at 20,000 reminded me I am also fond of the Shatner episodes. In fact, I have one of these at my house:

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[LizzieMaine]

The Twilight Zone is as much responsible for the creation of the "William Shatner" character/caricature as Star Trek itself. He was Shatnering to beat the band in both of those episodes, and he knew it.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The latter one of your puzzles is "It's a Good Life," based on the Jerome Bixby story of the same title. Bixby later wrote a couple of episodes of Star Trek. That one was so memorable, it was one of the original series episodes picked for the 1982 movie (along with "NIghtmare at 20,000 Feet").

I just saw the other one, with Telly Savalas as an unlikeable stepfather, this weekend. It was called "Living Doll."

Hard to imagine that they produced so many episodes in a season (36!) in those days.

The thing I remember most in "Living Doll" was June Foray doing the voice of the doll. I remember thinking at age 7 or 8 that the Talking Tina Doll (or whatever her name was) sounded just like Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I have to agree with green papaya, "Walking Distance" is also one of my very favorite episodes. I always find it extremely moving.

And It was a highly personal episode for Rod Serling, who put a lot of himself into the overworked Gig Young character who longs for the simplicity of childhood and stumbles into his past, and the setting with its park and carousel is reminiscent of Serling's own youth in Binghamton, NY. The episode also has an outstanding score by the great Bernard Herrmann that really brings out the emotion.

Robert Sloan: Martin.
Martin Sloan: Yes, Pop.
Robert Sloan: You have to leave here. There's no room, there's no place. Do you understand that?
Martin Sloan: I see that now, but I don't understand. Why not?
Robert Sloan: I guess because we only get one chance. Maybe there's only one summer to every customer. That little boy, the one I know - the one who belongs here - this is *his* summer, just as it was yours once. Don't make him share it.
Martin Sloan: Alright.
Robert Sloan: Martin, is it so bad where you're from?
Martin Sloan: I thought so, Pop. I've been living on a dead run, and I was tired. And one day I knew I had to come back here. I had to come back and get on the merry-go-round, and eat cotton candy, and listen to a band concert. I had to stop and breathe, and close my eyes and smell, and listen.
Robert Sloan: I guess we all want that. Maybe when you go back, Martin, you'll find that there are merry-go-rounds and band concerts where you are. Maybe you haven't been looking in the right place. You've been looking behind you, Martin. Try looking ahead.

Wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Distance

 

[Benzadmiral]

The thing I remember most in "Living Doll" was June Foray doing the voice of the doll. I remember thinking at age 7 or 8 that the Talking Tina Doll (or whatever her name was) sounded just like Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

June Foray was all over TV in those days. A few years ago, I was astonished to find hers was the sexy voice at the end of U.N.C.L.E. episodes who told us, "Our man from U.N.C.L.E. will be back in a moment with a look at next week's show."