Twilight Zone Marathon on SciFi Channel

[Doh!]

For those of you in the L.A/Orange County area, KDOC-56 is running this Mon. - Fri. The other night, they ran what I think is the most disturbing episode of all: "Long Distance Call."

In it, 5 year-old Billy Mumy's grandma gives him a toy phone right before she dies, and because she's lonely in the afterlife, she calls him and convinces him to commit suicide so they can be together!

The last few minutes of the episode have firemen gathered around the boy, trying to revive him and the entire time you can hear the hiss of the oxygen machine doing its thing. Creepy, creepy stuff.

 

[Feraud]

Although I did not see this particular episode recently, there is a good one about a dead man's shoes. I think the story goes a gangster is murdered in an alley. A homeless guy takes his shoes and becomes the gangster with the usual Twilight Zone twists.
I remember the guy having a really sharp pair of shoes.

 

[Hondo]

The Twilight Zone Companion

Check Amazon com or any book store.
A must for hard core Twilight Zone fans

The Twilight Zone Companion

Amazon.com
The Twilight Zone Companion is one of the finest examinations of a television series. Author Marc Scott Zicree spent five years researching and writing what is without a doubt the definitive look at this classic horror-fantasy-science fiction show. (The series originally ran from 1959 to 1965, but is still seen in syndication around the world.) Not only is the book an exhaustive episode-by-episode guide, but the author apparently interviewed every living soul who was ever associated with the show. It's quite likely that creator Rod Serling, who died before the book saw publication in 1982, would have been suitably impressed by the respect and dedication that clearly went into this labor of love. Zicree later revised and expanded The Twilight Zone Companion for a second edition in 1989, and discusses both the briefly revived series and the feature film based on the show. --Stanley Wiater

From Library Journal
From its signature theme song, to its many memorable images, to its very name, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone is ingrained in our collective conscious like no other TV show. In this 40th-anniversary, updated edition of his 1982 American Book Award-nominated volume, Zicree takes readers through every episode of the show's five seasons (1959-64). In addition to credits and plot synopses, the author provides background on each episode, along with numerous pictures. Essential for all Zone fansAand who isn't one?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Hondo, I've had the older edition since its first publication, and it was indeed an essential volume in its day (which was well before the full bloom of cable, home video, and the Web). However, I never felt that Zicree's research was very deep or his insights especially worthwhile... Nowadays, with enormous amounts of info about T-Zone episodes all over the Web (e.g, Wikipedia and fan sites), twice-a-year-marathons on the SciFi Channel, and the whole series available on DVD, I don't think that this book is the must-buy for Zoners that it once was.

Which doesn't mean that it's not worth checking out if your a dedicated student of the show - just that it's no longer the invaluable resource that it used to be before the insane amount of online TV info that we have available today.

 

[Hondo]

Same here, I have very old version, you never know when electricity goes out! But I understand where your coming from, that’s fine, its still a good reference book to review, Thanks

 

[goldwyn girl]

I love to watch the Twilight Zone when ever it's on and I don't think there's an episode I don't like. Three favorites are :
Mr Garrity and the Graves
Twenty two
A Stop at Willoughby

 

[PrettySquareGal]

A Stop at Willoughby

Also one of my favorites!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

A Stop at Willoughby.

I live a few miles away from Willoughby. It's a cool little town,...but not exactly like it was in The Twilight Zone.

 

[jamespowers]

Also one of my favorites!

Do I have to say that it is one of my favorites as well?

Regards,

J

 

[manton]

Episode 33: 'Mr. Bevis' with Burgess Meredith :eusa_clap
He was a great actor, and Rod Serling a great writer, I also admire.
Both are sadly missed, great program.

Burgess Meredith as a bank teller who breaks his glasses is called "Time Enough At Last." His name was Henry Bemis. "Mr. Bevis" starred Orson Bean as a lovable loser whose guardian angle tries to imrpove his life.

 

[manton]

On Zicree, I have both editions, and there's not much new in the second. I like the book more than posters here do, though.

On the DVDs of the show, they use Zicree's original taped interviews (for the book) in the '70s as commentary tracks. Some of them are interesting. The best commentaries, however, are tapes of Serling teaching a writing class where apparently they showed episodes of the show and then the students asked him about it after. Serling is unbelievably hard on himself. For instance, he trashes "Walking Distance." He didn't change my mind about the episode -- I still like it a lot -- but he made some good points.

 

[manton]

A Stop at Willoughby

First one I ever saw.

When I was a kid, before the ubiquity of cable, classic shows were syndicated on UHF stations that had no network. TZ was on at 11, as I recall, so I could only watch in summer. I remember well being blown away by any episode with a trick ending, in particular "To Serve Man," "Five Characters in Search of Exit," and "Person or Persons Unknown."

 

[jamespowers]

First one I ever saw.

When I was a kid, before the ubiquity of cable, classic shows were syndicated on UHF stations that had no network. TZ was on at 11, as I recall, so I could only watch in summer. I remember well being blown away by any episode with a trick ending, in particular "To Serve Man," "Five Characters in Search of Exit," and "Person or Persons Unknown."

Ah, to Serve Man---its a cookbook!

 

[manton]

I'm glad the show is still on TV with SciFi, and yet ...

They have it on at atrocious hours. The marathons are only twice a year. And they cut out little "irrelevant" parts to make way for commercials. On TV in my youth, you could see the entire epsiodes, as originally aired. Seeing the DVDs makes clear that SciFi has trimmed the episodes.

Unfortunately, SciFi's has exclusive rights to the show so cheesy stations like KOFY San Francisco can no longer air it. They used to have a marathon every Halloween, which I thought was perfectly fitting.

 

[Hondo]

Burgess Meredith as a bank teller who breaks his glasses is called "Time Enough At Last." His name was Henry Bemis. "Mr. Bevis" starred Orson Bean as a lovable loser whose guardian angle tries to imrpove his life.

Sitting in the dark at the keyboard,
I am not known for my typing skills :eusa_doh:
My bumble apoloiges
So friend take it as being fairly close.
Mr. Bemis!!!!

 

[imoldfashioned]

I love Twilight Zone--used to stay up until the wee hours of the morning to watch it and then be so freaked out I couldn't go to sleep--good times!

My favorite episodes:

A Thing About Machines--all the machines in a man's house try to kill him
Miniature--Robert Duvall breaks my heart
After Hours--the one about the department store mannequins
Living Doll--everyone knows this one!

There was also an episode called "Her Pilgrim Soul" on the 80s Twilight Zone revival that I loved. Still have it on VHS (I should convert it).

 

[Archie Goodwin]

I love it because it is black and white, primitive special effects (by today' standards), and amazing stories that still scare me or at least creep me out.

Additionally, from a purely satorial perspective, I saw Rod doing his intro in a 3rolled to 2, tweed, sack suit. Amazing.

 

[Lincsong]

Fascinating show. Can never get enough of it.

 

[Doh!]

There was also an episode called "Her Pilgrim Soul" on the 80s Twilight Zone revival that I loved. Still have it on VHS (I should convert it).

The 80s version had some really good episodes, actually. My favorite one was about the guy who was sentenced to be "invisible" for a year, which really meant a public shunning. He was free to roam around the city but it would against the law for another citizen to acknowledge his presence. Great episode.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I agree that the 80s Zone had some very, very good episodes. (I remember being surprised how much better the show was than its ultra-hyped, far more prestigious and expensive, contemporary Amazing Stories.) I had a bunch saved on VHS for a while. Some of my favorites:

"Shadowman" - the definitive monster-under-the-bed story, wonderfully creepy, with a truly shocking ending; very well directed by Wes Craven - or was it Joe Dante?

"Monsters" - the charming old vampire who moves next door (Ralph Bellamy) is no monster, but the mysterious, instinctual, antibody-ish transformation of ordinary people near him into vampire-destroying zombies at midnight means that WE are!

"Profile In Silver" - a college professor from the future (Lane Smith) returns to 1963 to try and save his ancestor, President Kennedy.

"The Once and Future King" - in another time-travel story, an Elvis impersonator is present when the real Elvis accidentally dies before a gig in the mid-1950s, and he must BECOME Elvis. As the flashback ends, now near the end of his life, nobody present understands why Elvis is muttering, "I did it all, just like HE would have..."

"Small Talent For War" - seemingly benevolent aliens arrive, but a tragic misunderstanding a la "To Serve Man" ensues.

"The Last Defender of Camelot" - a striking King-Arthur-meets-Highlander tale, where immortal knight Lancelot (Richard Kiley) still continues his fight against evil in the present day. Written by original-Zone writer Richard Matheson, I think.

"Minute By Minute" - it seems that if you could look behind time, you'd see an army of workers REBUILDING reality from instant to instant.

"But Can She Type?" - totally charming turnabout fantasy of an underappreciated secretary (Pam Dawber) who has a run-in with a magical Xerox machine and ends up in a parallel reality where secretaries are at the top of the food chain and executives are treated like dirt!

"The Star" - outstanding adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's brilliant short story about a Jesuit archeologist onboard an interstellar survey ship (Fritz Weaver) who must come to terms with the discovery that the incredibly sophisticated, artistically gifted, peaceful lost planetary civilization they have been studying was "put to the sword" when their sun went nova to become the biblical Star of Bethlehem. (Whoa...)

Anyway, yeah, at its best, the 80s Zone really lived up to Rod's original series - which is far more than you can say for the lackluster more recent revival!