The Twilight Zone (1 Viewer)

Hi eric,
Thanks for starting the thread!
I picked up the complete series and like the threads that allow us to share/comment on episodes. I have watched many episodes and still to this day these episodes capitivate me. It is hard to pick episode as my favourite as their are many. I have, however, watch some episodes that people on this thread have picked like hitchhiker. The hitchhiker was amazing episode, especially the ending!! I could also talked about the episodes with William Shatner as well, especially the fortune teller machine. The fortune teller machine was a great, especially how william shatner's character continue fascination with the machine.
I like also the episode with the actress going back to her home town and the ending!! Rod Serling did some right with how the plots solve themselves over the episodes.

younger1968 said:

I like also the episode with the actress going back to her home town and the ending!! Rod Serling did some right with how the plots solve themselves over the episodes.

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Ring A Ding Girl is an episode that many fans don't care for but I like it quite a bit.
While Nightmare At 20,000 Feet is a wonderful episode, I think Shatner's other episode (Nick Of Time) is one of the best lesser known TZs.

General rule of the Twilight Zone: If an episode is written by Earl Hamner and not titled "Jess-Belle", avoid like the plague. You'll end up either angry ("Black Leather Jackets"), confused ("A Piano in the House") or a combination of both ("Ring-a-Ding Girl", "The Bewitchin Pool")

In other news: last years "Fan Favorites" tin (which was actually a mere repackaging of the original gift set 1 from 1999 and included several episodes fans hate) is coming to blu-ray... http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Twilight-Zone-Fan-Favorites/16743

Lord Dalek said:

General rule of the Twilight Zone: If an episode is written by Earl Hamner and not titled "Jess-Belle", avoid like the plague. You'll end up either angry ("Black Leather Jackets"), confused ("A Piano in the House") or a combination of both ("Ring-a-Ding Girl", "The Bewitchin Pool")

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Probably 3/4 of Earl Hamner's TZ episodes are mostly average (The Hunt) and even down to terrible (Black Leather Jackets) but I think You Drive is a really good episode that he wrote.

Originally Posted by TravisR /t/158831/the-twilight-zone/30#post_3912672
Probably 3/4 of Earl Hamner's TZ episodes are mostly average (The Hunt) and even down to terrible (Black Leather Jackets) but I think You Drive is a really good episode that he wrote.

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Yeah that's probably the best of the half hour shows he wrote but 2 out of 7 ain't much of a record to hang your hat on.

TravisR said:

Probably 3/4 of Earl Hamner's TZ episodes are mostly average (The Hunt) and even down to terrible (Black Leather Jackets) but I think You Drive is a really good episode that he wrote.

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Eh, it's okay--Feels like the only good stories Hamner had in him were his Waltons-background backwoods stories like "Jess-Belle" and the fantasy scenes of "The Bewitchin' Pool", and "The Hunt" was his best remembered.
The Guide complains that Arthur Hunnicutt (one of my favorite bit actors, and I'd started spotting him in other movies after this episode) "ruins" The Hunt by playing it too straight, when the episode was supposed to be down-home Beverly Hillbillies humor--
But Hunnicutt plays hillbilly so craggily realistic, it feels like we're watching some real Appalachian-folktale version of the premise. One of my favorite episodes on the set, if not for the annual Christmas viewing of Art Carney in "Night of the Meek".

Buddy Ebsen played Beverly Hillbillies straight too.

TravisR said:

Probably 3/4 of Earl Hamner's TZ episodes are mostly average (The Hunt) and even down to terrible (Black Leather Jackets) but I think You Drive is a really good episode that he wrote.

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"Stopover In A Quiet Town" was totally remade for one of the early episodes of "Land Of The Giants", not surprisingly in light of the twist end of the original.

G C Johnson told me that originally Ray Bradbury was going to work with Serling as a partner, writing stories. But although Serling was excited about the possibilities, his people convinced him that Bradbury would try to eclipse him. It was probably for the best because although Bradbury was a great writer of novels and short stories, the verbal qualities of his style didn't always translate well to film, and he loved his words too much to shift the focus off of them to suit the medium.
Serling ended up pitching the show himself, and by contract he had to write the lion's share of the teleplays himself. Charles Beaumont was the primary freelancer, and he brought in many of the other writers who were part of his circle of friends. They knew each other from car clubs that would go out and race in the desert.
In the 60s, Beaumont had more work than he could do, so he ghosted out some scripts to writers in his circle of friends. G C Johnson said that everyone was worried about Beaumont's mental deterioration and thought it was Alzheimers, but later they realized it was bromide poisoning. Beaumont was addicted to bromo seltzer. He would pop tablets in his water at every meal. Eventually it killed him.

I was friends with Ray Bradbury for many years and he told me that there was a falling out with Serling, but neither of them ever liked to speak about it. From what I understand is that Bradbury had written an episode for the series which featured very extravagant settings and special effects, involving dinosaurs and other expensive ideas which the TZ budget, nor really any television show at the time, could produce. Serling rejected the script and that led to hard feelings between the two though Ray did do one script for the show, a modest and not all that cinematically interesting adaptation of his story I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC.

(I haven't had a chance to read this entire thread yet so if this information has already been posted, my apologies).

Professor Echo said:

I was friends with Ray Bradbury for many years and he told me that there was a falling out with Serling, but neither of them ever liked to speak about it. From what I understand is that Bradbury had written an episode for the series which featured very extravagant settings and special effects, involving dinosaurs and other expensive ideas which the TZ budget, nor really any television show at the time, could produce. Serling rejected the script and that led to hard feelings between the two though Ray did do one script for the show, a modest and not all that cinematically interesting adaptation of his story I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC.
(I haven't had a chance to read this entire thread yet so if this information has already been posted, my apologies).

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Hey Glenn,
Thank for posting! I am huge fan of Ray Bradbury and have purchased Ray Bradbury Theater along with martian chronicies and fahreheit 451.
TWZ along with Night Galley and Thriller are the best of anthology shows ever produced. You could also argue re-make of outerlimits as well should be on that list.

Originally Posted by Professor Echo /t/158831/the-twilight-zone/60#post_3914226
I was friends with Ray Bradbury for many years and he told me that there was a falling out with Serling, but neither of them ever liked to speak about it. From what I understand is that Bradbury had written an episode for the series which featured very extravagant settings and special effects, involving dinosaurs and other expensive ideas which the TZ budget, nor really any television show at the time, could produce. Serling rejected the script and that led to hard feelings between the two though Ray did do one script for the show, a modest and not all that cinematically interesting adaptation of his story I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC.

(I haven't had a chance to read this entire thread yet so if this information has already been posted, my apologies).

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Yeah that was going to be an adaptation of "Here There be Tygers" (later made as an episode of Ray Bradbury Theater, which I have not seen). I'm surprised Serling didn't suggest doing a version of "The Crowd" as a compromise.

I watch the devil and the printer last night and it was a great episode. Burgess Meredith does an amazing job as the devil. The story lines is amazing as the episodes progresses through the 52 minutes. I ranked the twilight zone (Original) as one of the best shows ever produced!