A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Twilight Zone: Season One -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

While I can't tell you what night Twilight Zone ran when I watched it as a kid, I did watch it.

 

It was something that people just did.

 

I owned the original SD releases. There seemed to be about 800 of them, and they took up so much shelf space that they were eventually relegated to a closet shelf. I'm glad to be rid of them.

 

Image Entertainment has finally gotten around to bringing the first season to Blu-ray, and after the Handmade films, I was concerned.

 

I should not have been.

 

These are nicely transferred. The important point is that the entire first season takes up less space than a Buick.

 

For those who want to return to the wonderful "duck and cover" years, and re-live those interesting evenings when no one knew what Mr. Serling had in store, or for those new to the series, this is a decades old black & white series worth the visit.

 

Very nicely packaged in a single case (thank you) and with high quality image and video.

 

Recommended.

 

RAH

 

[Matt Hough]

I remeber it well. It ran on Friday nights. I, too, watched it as a kid and some of my most vivid memories are of watching those programs with my family, usually with our mouths gasping in surprise at what we were seeing.

 

[Charles Smith]

I LIVED for those Friday nights. No exaggeration.

 

[JoshuaB.]

I remember watching TZ reruns as a wee bairn in Saskatoon on the local CBC (before the Mulroney gov't killed regional programming) and despite my-then distaste for black and white, I was throughly mesmerized and scared by the shows I watched. There were never any Canadian stations airing reruns after awhile, so I had to make do with renting the odd VHS volume a video store might have or read Marc Scott Zicree's Twilight Zone book. When the SD DVD Definitive sets were released, I scooped them up and throughly enjoyed the episodes (even Season Five's clunkers) and the amazing AV quality of the sets. I most definitely will be purchasing BD sets of this grand series!

 

[TravisR]

I'm not old enough to have seen The Twilight Zone when it originally aired but I fell in love with the show during its resurgence (via reruns, the remake series, the Zicree book, the TZ magazine) in the 1980's. I can't wait to pick this set up.

 

[Robert Crawford]

God, I broke down and bought the first two seasons on Blu-ray which I swore I wouldn't do after buying them twice on SD-DVD. I'm such a sucker! Perhaps, I could've waited and got them at a cheaper price, but I got each season for 62.49 per season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crawdaddy

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks Mr. Harris for commenting on this TV series in your "A Few Words.." column.

 

[Craig Beam]

The current pre-order price for season 2 at Amazon is $56.99. That's almost 50% off the MSRP! It cracks me up that I'm paying less for the blu-ray sets than the Definitive DVD sets five years ago.

 

[Nelson Au]

Wish S1 was that price.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Does anybody know if they fixed the title sequence errors on Mr. Denton on Doomsday and A Passage for Trumpet?

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek

Does anybody know if they fixed the title sequence errors on Mr. Denton on Doomsday and A Passage for Trumpet?

I should know tomorrow...

 

[JayMacey]

I still have 2 seasons left to buy on DVD. Don't really see the need to upgrade to Blu-Ray for these.
I'll pass. Anyone else in the same boat.

 

[Craig Beam]

Originally Posted by Lord Dalek 's my blog post from June on the subject.

 

I'm happy to report that "The Time Element" looks stunning, and includes Desi Arnaz's closing remarks (which weren't shown in syndication). We also see Desi plugging a new "Desi Lucy" fridge from Westinghouse, and Lucy herself shows up. "The Time Element" alone makes the set worth getting.

 

I'm also happy to report that the show looks freakin' AMAZING in HD. Seriously. True fans of the show NEED this.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Craig Beam

"Mr. Denton on Doomsday" has the standard season 1 opening restored (rather than the alternate "eye" opening sequence, which appeared on the earlier DVD editions). "A Passage for Trumpet" also has the standard season 1 opening. My research a few months back led me (finally) to conclude (more or less) that the alternate "eye" opening is in fact the correct opening for "A Passage for Trumpet."

I don't have the Martin Grams book handy and I'm sure you've thought of every possible scenario already but did A Passage For Trumpet rerun that summer? Maybe the original intro was replaced for the rerun and that's why there's a version of the episode with the eye intro? Personally, I'm going with Grams and assume that Mr. Bevis was the first episode to have the eye into.

 

And for anyone unfamiliar with it, Martin Grams' book The Twilight Zone: Unlocking The Door To A Television Classic is excellent and a must have for anyone who wants to know ALOT of crazy, minute details about the production of the TZ.

 

[Craig Beam]

"A Passage for Trumpet" wasn't repeated until 2/17/1961 (during season 2). Even if it had been repeated during the summer after season 1, they wouldn't have changed the opening, since the only season 1 repeat to be altered in such a fashion (replacing the standard intro with the eye intro) was "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," and that was only done because it was repeated in the middle of the final four episodes of the season (when the eye intro appeared).

 

But hell, who really knows? I don't think we'll ever know for certain. I actually PREFER the eye intro with "A Passage for Trumpet," for what it's worth. For some reason the two seem suited to one another. The haunting image of that suspended eyeball marries perfectly (IMHO) to the limbo-state Jack Klugman experiences in the episode. I want to believe....

 

 

 

 

[Eric F]

I've seen most of them on broadcast TV while growing up and I'm only 41, so it's been running in syndication forever. As soon as the price of the sets get down to a reasonable price, say $30-$40 I'll probably pick them up.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Yeah, I heard from the TZ Cafe when the DE of Season 1 came out that Passage for Trumpet is supposed to have the "Giant Eye From Hell" on it instead of the original title sequence. The fact that the UPA flashing starfield used for the bulk of that season over the final seconds of Rod's outro has been replaced by the rather cheap looking pulsating light bulb effect created by Pacific Title for the Giant Eye episodes seems to confirm this.

 

Then again Zicree on the commentary for After Hours says the Giant Eye only appeared on those final four episodes starting with Mr. Bevis, so who really knows. I don't have the Grams book yet (I have ordered it) so I'm not sure who's right.

 

That said, I was relieved to see that Mr. Denton on Doomsday has been restored to its original broadcast version, as well as all the missing trailers (including that super rare one for Escape Clause that didn't even have just a soundtrack) with video again.

 

EDIT - Just finished your old blog post Craig, and for what its worth my tapes of The Mighty Casey and Mr. Denton on Doomsday dating back to KOFY 20's final TZ marathon on New Years Eve 1994 both have the eye. A Passage For Trumpet and The After Hours also shown on that marathon were the 1961 rerun versions.

 

[PianoPlayer]

Am picking this up based on these stellar reviews.

 

I know it's early to talk about Season Three, but I really want Image to restore the original laugh track to "Cavender is Coming" as a play option on the Blu-ray. That's a weak episode, but the laugh track adds an element of kitsch that makes it strangely watchable. Image: Are you listening?

 

[Lord Dalek]

Originally Posted by PianoPlayer

Am picking this up based on these stellar reviews.

 

I know it's early to talk about Season Three, but I really want Image to restore the original laugh track to "Cavender is Coming" as a play option on the Blu-ray. That's a weak episode, but the laugh track adds an element of kitsch that makes it strangely watchable. Image: Are you listening?

 

Well its possible they may include that as an "alternate audio mix" like the one they included with Walking Distance on this set (still not sure exactly whats so alternate about that one though) if it actually exists. I've only heard about this in the Zicree Companion and its not in syndication. Seriously though, Cavender is Coming was one of the biggest screwups on the DEs mainly because the Telecine Image untilized somehow pulled on the neg to the right causing heavy gate weave throughout the entire show. QC seemed to miss a lot on those sets.
 

 

[genomovie]

Robert Crawford,
Don't feel bad, I did the same thing. I 'll bet we won't be the only ones.