The Twilight Zone Season 4 and 5 (1 Viewer)

[Craig Beam]

Hey, does anybody out there have "The Time Element", either on VHS or DVD-R? Got a little proposition for ya. Drop me a line....

[email protected]

 

[JeffT.]

I also reflect TravisR's sentiments that THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE DEFINITIVE EDITION series is definitely one of the better tv series DVD releases on the market.

My order for the season five (1963-64) set is apparently being processed and I should be receiving it sometime next week. It's hard to believe that the entire series has now been made available in just a year's time.

So how about telling us something about the video transfers? Are all of the next week previews included? Did you finally get to "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (28/02/1964) and did you enjoy it? Were the mid-episode bumpers (assuming that they've been included) an annoyance for you?

I guess this set will be my next scheduled viewing for January 2006

Jeff T.

 

[Craig Beam]

Well, look who's discovered italics!

 

[TravisR]

Jeff, I'm up to The Brain Center At Whipple's and so far all the bumpers are there.

The video looks as good as the other four sets. I will say that, to my untrained eye, An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge looks a little dirtier than the other episodes but I assume that's due to its different origins. Keep in mind, it's only slightly 'worse' than the other episodes and is still leaps and bounds above the one on the old Treasures disc.

As for the next week's previews, as far as I remember two are missing. I wasn't keeping track of them but the preview for The Encounter (at the end of Stop Over In A Small Town) is definitely missing. I wonder if they just never shot previews for those episodes. I guess if it's not that, it's that the previews are lost to the ages.

 

[JeffT.]

The final season (1963-64) episodes of THE TWILIGHT ZONE (CBS 1959-64) definitely have a rapid pacing to them so that in viewing these segments one is left with the distinct impression of a show that is swiftly drawing to a conclusion.

There always seems to be some next week preview from the series that is errantly unavailable but so long as a substantial number of them are included I guess that's what really counts.

I was hoping that George Takei could have been secured in either a taped interview or providing an audio commentary for "The Encounter" (01/05/1964) which would have proved to be most interesting indeed. Yet another missed opportunity I'm sad to say.

In the wake of all the impending tv series DVD releases that will be coming out in the weeks and months ahead I'm afraid that THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE DEFINITIVE EDITION - SEASON FIVE 6-disc box set will be completely lost in the (mad) shuffle but at least it did have its (fleeting) moment of triumph on this discussion forum.

I'm mighty proud to have contributed to this in my own small way.

One last parting thought with BLU-RAY (and HD) coming into vogue this year before long we'll probably be purchasing this DVD collection all over again!

Jeff T.

 

[JeffT.]

"I remember going into the Villa Di Stefano offices and really pitching my heart out. I wanted to do THE OUTER LIMITS because (THE) TWILIGHT ZONE was a goner then."--Harlan Ellison.

Now wait a moment! I'm not finished with this discussion thread just yet.

I received my copy of THE TWILIGHT ZONE - THE DEFINITIVE EDITION - FIFTH SEASON 6-disc box set and (not surprisingly) was very delighted with it...and rightly so!

I watched all 8 episodes on Disc 4 mainly to view "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (28/02/1964) and it along with all the segments on this disc were presented in the exact manner that I remember when seeing them back in primetime on a local CBS Television affilate station (WBEN-TV, Channel 4, Buffalo N.Y.) on Friday evenings at 9:30 p.m. E.T. particulary with the inclusion of the mid-episode bumpers and Rod Serling's next week previews.

While the video transfer for "Caesar and Me" (10/04/1964) doesn't really appear to be any different (in quality with the identical signs of wear) than the earlier version released on DVD generally the other episodes looked like they came from superior source elements.

Reflecting on the 8 episodes that I viewed it left me with the distinct impression that the fifth year (1963-64) is by far the darkest season of the series. It's (abundantly) clear that Rod Serling (December 25th, 1924 - June 28th, 1975) had gone back to making frank, outspoken social commentary about the current global state-of-affairs and this is precisely the sort of serious, intelligent and provocative drama that the major tv networks would be loathe to have on their respective programming schedulings. I think this more than anything else ultimately contributed to the cancellation decision of THE TWILIGHT ZONE (CBS 1959-64).

Look at the events during the 1963-64 television season:

The assassination of John F. Kennedy,

The Civil Rights movement was polarizing and aggravating racial tensions throughout the nation,

The Vietnam War was ecalating,

Cold War tensions were at their zenith.

I'm sure that in Rod Serling's mindset (being a committed ideological liberal) the world situation would certainly appear to be steadily worsening and he probably felt that it was necessary to be much more direct with his TZ viewing audience in attempting to shape and influence their thinking and understanding about many of what he deemed were chronic social ills plaguing the country (see "I am the Night, Colour Me Black").

In watching these (extraordinary) presentations there is so much unabashed quality in their (overall) production in evidence (see "The Masks") that they really did make the rest of tv (at the time) look pathetically foolish and inept by comparison.

Take note of the 1964-65 television season (in particular) immediately following the cancellation of THE TWILIGHT ZONE where there was a flood of trivially superficial, noncommittal, lighter entertainment oriented sitcoms (much of which is tiresomely always enthusiastically brought up here) that literally inundated the broadcast airwaves (something that television in general hasn't really recovered from since then) and it makes one depressingly frustrated to really have to think about it.

Jeff T.

 

[Stephen PI]

"Caesar and Me" was re-mastered from the same superior source elements as all the other episodes.
It is possible that CBS accessed the original negs for the older transfers also and that the technology to produce state-of-the-art transfers was not available then. (I believe they were produced on 1" tape in the late eighties)These older transfers were used for broadcast and earlier DVD versions. A couple of episodes were re-mastered for the previous edition but had to be re-done again as they were only standard-def transfers.

 

[JeffT.]

Well whatever my opinion of the DVD video transfer used may be I thought that "Caesar and Me" (10/04/1964) was a particularly good segment nonetheless (despite TZ expert Mark Scott Zicree's opinion to the contrary) with a commendably fine performance by Jackie Cooper as the down-and-out ventriloquist Jonathan West.

His deeply profound (albeit misplaced) affection for Caesar was quite moving indeed.

This segment is typical of most fifth season (1963-64) TZ episodes in that it's very negatively downbeat (particularly in the denouement) an anathema to the generally more positively delineated tv shows that always conclude on a much brighter, happier note to be sure.

Frankly I found it to be a refreshing change-of-pace from the tritely humdrum television norm.

Jeff T.

 

[TravisR]

I always liked Caesar And Me too. Generally, I can see where Zicree is coming from (eventhough he is often way too harsh) but Caeser And Me was one that I found him to be way off on. I agree with him that West is kind of a chump but I thought that made the character more sad than anything else.

Plus, how can you not love an ending where a nasty little girl plans on killing her aunt and hitting the road with an evil dummy.

 

[todd s]

"I'm Talking Tina....And I am going to KILL YOU!"

That episode scares that crap out of me.

 

[Jeff#]

Since "Living Doll" is all make-believe as most episodes, it didn't scare me, but the first time I watched it in 1980s reruns I thought it was VERY cool. I watched it again this month, but with June Foray's audio commentary track.

By the way, it's Talky Tina.

 

[JeffT.]

Nice to see more TZ fans coming out of the woodwork!

In my opinion to really launch the fifth season (1963-64) off to a powerful start it should have debuted with "The Masks" (20/03/1964) which was actually the first segment that was filmed instead of "In Praise of Pip'" (29/09/1963) while admittedly a good, respectable episode was just too much like the over familiar social dramas that had been done many times before and I think this was keenly felt among both the viewing audience and the CBS Television Network executives.

By the time "The Masks" was (finally) broadcast the CBS program management cancellation order had already been made and it's a real shame for I feel that had it been shown much earlier it could have made all the difference.

Actually "The Masks" is more like a segment of BORIS KARLOFF'S THRILLER (NBC 1960-62) than it is THE TWILIGHT ZONE (CBS 1959-64) and it was probably not selected as the fifth season premiere because there was no name star in the cast further compounded by the fact that CBS-TV probably nervously considered it to be somewhat on the grotesquely horrific side.

Another highly entertaining episode I watched was "Queen of the Nile" (06/03/1964) a truly excellent effort (despite Mr. Zicree's hasty dismissal of it) which was adeptly directed by the late John Brahm (August 17th, 1893 - October 12th, 1982) and had a particularly effective music score by Lucien Moraweck.



A great landmark season and an excellent DVD collection.

Jeff T.

 

[Sam Favate]

I have the 5th season sitting under my coffee table, waiting for me to watch it, but I'm still on the 4th season! I've been watching TZ all year, but it's been hard to keep up. I really do like the 4th season so far (I'm about half way through) and I have not seen most of these (I have seen most of seasons 1-3, 5). The quality of the DVDs is great; easily some of the best collections of the year.

 

[todd s]

For anyone in the PA/NJ/NY area their will be a Twilight Zone convention in Cherry Hill, NJ. Its planned for Aug.12-13.

Here is the link: http://www.tzconvention.com/


Guests include:
James Best "The Grave" & "Last Rites of Jeff Mytlebank, plus he was Sheriff Roscoe P.Coltrane

Paul Comi "People are Alike all over", "The Odyssey of Flight 33" & "The Parrallel"

Margarita Cordova "A Thing about Machines"

Susan Gordon "The Fugitive"

Chuck Hicks "Steel" & "Ninety Years without Slumbering"

Tom Lowell "The Changing of the Guard"

Arlene Martell "What You Need" & "Twenty-two" also played Spock's wife in Star Trek

Ed Nelson "Valley of the Shadow"

Tim O'Connor "On Thursday We Leave For Home" and was Dr.Huer from Buck Rogers.

Peter Mark Richman "The Fear"

Mickey Rooney "Last Night of a Jockey"

Jacqueline Scott "The Parallel"

Fred Wayne "Twenty-Two" & "The Arrival"

H.M. Wynant "The Howling Man"

 

[TravisR]

I wonder if I ask him a question, if he'll cut me off and say "No! I don't remember!" or "No! Kids won't watch this!"

 

[Jeff#]

Hey, I'm from Cherry Hill, NJ -- that's my hometown!

I've been in California for the past 3 & 1/2 years, but I'm going back to NJ to visit the folks next month. It's too bad the convention isn't until August, but now I have a reason to make a return trip. It will be kind of cool to see all the vets. I'm surprised Bill Mumy isn't scheduled to be there.

By the way, Ed Nelson and Tim O' Connor are still alive??!

So it's just actors, and none of the writers or producers?

 

[Jeff#]

Oh, and the convention is August 12-13...my birthday is Aug 13th! How strange is that? I must be in The Twilight Zone!!

 

[Reagan]

Steve (Pickard),

I just finished with season 4 (will be getting season 5 soon) and just wanted to reiterate that I found the DVDs to be fantastic. Of course, the biggest assets are the episodes themselves and their tip top video.

As for the bonus stuff (and there is plenty of good stuff there), I find Rod's lectures and the billboards to be most fascinating. I know it sounds strange, but watching those 'brought to you by' messages takes me back - and I wasn't even close to being born then.

-Reagan

 

[michael_ks]

Guests include:
James Best "The Grave" & "Last Rites of Jeff Mytlebank, plus he was Sheriff Roscoe P.Coltrane

Paul Comi "People are Alike all over", "The Odyssey of Flight 33" & "The Parrallel"

Margarita Cordova "A Thing about Machines"

Susan Gordon "The Fugitive"

Chuck Hicks "Steel" & "Ninety Years without Slumbering"

Tom Lowell "The Changing of the Guard"

Arlene Martell "What You Need" & "Twenty-two" also played Spock's wife in Star Trek

Ed Nelson "Valley of the Shadow"

Tim O'Connor "On Thursday We Leave For Home" and was Dr.Huer from Buck Rogers.

Peter Mark Richman "The Fear"

Mickey Rooney "Last Night of a Jockey"

Jacqueline Scott "The Parallel"

Fred Wayne "Twenty-Two" & "The Arrival"

H.M. Wynant "The Howling Man"


From the above, I'd like most to meet Ed Nelson, Jacqueline Scott and Mark Richman, just to compliment them on their exceptional performances in the "The Outer Limits". Something about that series in how it brought out the very best of actors and actresses that starred in it.

I had the opportunity to meet Arlene Martel at a ST convention in 1976(!). Now I would tell her how wonderful she was in TZ and OL-63 (Demon With a Glass Hand). At that time I was gushing more over her performance as "T'Pring". Still recall the little mole on her plunging neckline after all these years...

 

[Ruz-El]

I just finished Season 4, and really enjoyed it. A lot of the episodes reallyt take advantage of the 4 hour format (Jess-Belle being one of them) that I don't think would of worked near as well in the 30 min format.

Can't wait to start Season 5!