The Twilight Zone (1 Viewer)

[Nelson Au]

Interesting, Wikipedia and IMDB shows a January 9, 1970 air date for Sole Survivor.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I’m starting to study the music more and this episode’s score sounds like it is tracking the score used in The Lonely by Bernard Herrmann. It’s a great score!

Its not tracked. Herrmann wrote an original score for Eye Of The Beholder that just kinda sounds like The Lonely.

 

[TravisR]

Its not tracked. Herrmann wrote an original score for Eye Of The Beholder that just kinda sounds like The Lonely.

When they wrote a new score for a TV show back then, how many days did the composers have? I could be totally wrong but I'd have to imagine it was a few days at most.

 

[Nelson Au]

Thanks a lot Joel. I was wracking my brain because I couldn’t find the exact section of music on the Lonely or other tracks that matched Eye of the Beholder. I guess if I want that score, I need to buy the Joel McNeely re-recording CD. I did hear it on the isolated music score track on the blu ray.

It seems a lot of the tracks Herrmann wrote has a lot of similar bits or melodies or instrumentation. And it works since it’s for the same series, so a similar sound feels right. If he copied himself here and there due to time constraints I wouldn’t blame him.

 

[jayembee]

In looking it up, it came back to me that it starred Richard Basehart and William Shatner and Vince Edwards and is called Sole Survivor and aired on CBS in 1970. That means it was made in 1969 and probably one of the first things Shatner did after Star Trek. I found that there is a blu ray of that movie and I’d like to see it. But it’s a region 2 disc. . Maybe my blu ray drive can still read it? I’m very curious to see it on several levels, how it compares to the Twilight Zone story and what the TV movie’s idea is and to see those actors at that time period.

According to the product page at blu-ray.com it's Region B-locked. Sorry.

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Jerry. Yeah, it’s region B, I wanted to get a copy while I could. I’ll see if I can make it workout.

 

[Nelson Au]

I followed With Nick of Time. I’ve seen this episode many many times and it never gets old. I see for some it’s not as notable. I liked it similarly to other episodes I saw as a kid and it stuck with me. Like A Thing About Machines, the visuals of the razor were what stuck in my memory.

The Mystic Seer napkin dispenser is a cool prop and that stuck with me. It’s also fun to see such a young pre-Star Trek Shatner who goes from normal guy who’s a bit superstitious to full-on becoming so obsessed with what the seer will say. Someday I’ll make a replica of the napkin holder, I see it’s a popular prop!

I saw Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, I have never seen this episode before! I thought it was OK. Fun how the mirror is used as a metaphor to show his internal battle. I liked how he had made the switch and pulled his life together.

I had likely seen The Lateness of the Hour as I could see what the twist is coming. But it was new to me as I didn’t remember a lot of it. I just vaguely remembered the image at the end. Maybe because I saw it in a book. Inger Stevens is really good in it. I probably skipped rewatching this episode because it was video taped so I was surprised it looked pretty decent. Being so bound to one large set and staircase, I wondered if a filmed version would improve it much.

And I can say I’ve never seen The Trouble With Templeton or maybe just didn’t really pay attention. I was a little surprised it was again a story about a man who relishes in his youth and better times. The twist I did not see coming. But I liked how it played out.

More favorite episodes coming up!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I have never seen this episode before!

I wish I could still say that. I love revisiting the show, each and every episode, but it’s a little bittersweet that I’ll never be able to see one for the first time again.

 

[ScottRE]

I followed With Nick of Time. I’ve seen this episode many many times and it never gets old. I see for some it’s not as notable. I liked it similarly to other episodes I saw as a kid and it stuck with me. Like A Thing About Machines, the visuals of the razor were what stuck in my memory.

The Mystic Seer napkin dispenser is a cool prop and that stuck with me. It’s also fun to see such a young pre-Star Trek Shatner who goes from normal guy who’s a bit superstitious to full-on becoming so obsessed with what the seer will say. Someday I’ll make a replica of the napkin holder, I see it’s a popular prop!

I saw Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room, I have never seen this episode before! I thought it was OK. Fun how the mirror is used as a metaphor to show his internal battle. I liked how he had made the switch and pulled his life together.

I had likely seen The Lateness of the Hour as I could see what the twist is coming. But it was new to me as I didn’t remember a lot of it. I just vaguely remembered the image at the end. Maybe because I saw it in a book. Inger Stevens is really good in it. I probably skipped rewatching this episode because it was video taped so I was surprised it looked pretty decent. Being so bound to one large set and staircase, I wondered if a filmed version would improve it much.

And I can say I’ve never seen The Trouble With Templeton or maybe just didn’t really pay attention. I was a little surprised it was again a story about a man who relishes in his youth and better times. The twist I did not see coming. But I liked how it played out.

More favorite episodes coming up!

Nice of Time is amazing and very understated. Everything the seer says is open to interpretation and the conflict isn't supernatural, it's just how superstition plays on the mind. It's a great slice of human drama and Shatner is brilliant in the role. It's among some of his best pre-Star Trek Work.

The Lateness of the Hour lands like a dull thud. The orgasmic moans of the "mother" are so off putting, the performances to stilted, it feels like a high school play. The final twist is chilling, but it was a long ride to the finish line.

Nervous Man is a fine episode, but I love it for Jerry Goldsmith's nerve jangling original score.

 

[Nelson Au]

It is kind of surprising that there are episodes I just never got around to watching ever! They may been playing in the background and I never looked!

I have to say that part of the charm of The Lateness of the Hour is watching Inger Stevens. She was a knock-out then.

Yes! The Seer isn’t supernatural, that is true. But it seems to from how Don thinks it does.

The Nervous Man score is quite good! And I’m loving all the scores, especially Herrmann’s.

 

[Nelson Au]

Since Josh had such high praise for Night of the Meek, I watched it next as it was next in the queue. I paid closer attention. I had not seen it in quite a while and I’d only really seen it once. I had a tendency to pass on the video taped episodes in the past. It was quite a good episode. Sort of like What You Need, Santa had just the gift needed. And it made a mean Mr. John Fiedler a nice guy. Meg Wiley wasn’t too nice to him either.

I also watched Back There. I’ve always liked that episode and the “what-if” stories if one could time travel Amd try to alter events in the past. What it wasn’t clear how he went into the past, it was seen to be real as the professor had John Wills Booth’s handkerchief.

I also saw A Most Unusual Camera. It was a fun little comic episode which I had not seen in some time. I’d forgotten exactly how it ended.

 

[Harry-N]

I also watched Back There. I’ve always liked that episode and the “what-if” stories if one could time travel Amd try to alter events in the past. What it wasn’t clear how he went into the past, it was seen to be real as the professor had John Wills Booth’s handkerchief.

"Back There" has a great score by Goldsmith that's been used countless times since - even on THE FUGITIVE series.

 

[Nelson Au]

I went through quite a few more episodes and most were highly remembered by me and are favorites. Also I saw a few I had not seen before.

Dust is not an episode I’d seen before. So it was an interesting episode to watch. Again I was going to wonder if it would do something like Execution. The peddler whole sold the rope was such a slimy character! He was such a piece of work to prey on the condemned son’s father with the magic dust. So I didn’t exactly know what to expect how it would go except that I figured the hanging wouldn’t go as expected. I liked how it worked out.

I wasn’t watching in order, so I skipped to Penny For Your Thoughts, an episode I really liked and have seen quite a few times. Its good seeing Dick York as Hector Poole in something before Bewitched and like Purple Testament, he’s good here. The idea of a freak accident of the coin standing on end would give him the power to read minds was fun. He played his cards well when everything went wrong and he had a chance to fix things when Sykes was discovered to have gambled with company money, money he ended up not borrowing from Hector’s bank. And he ended up with the girl.

The Whole Truth wasn’t an episode I wanted to revisit, but I decided to re-watch it anyway. It was fun to see it again to see Hunnicut forced to tell the truth. I’d forgotten about the ending though with Khrushchev. It seemed odd because I knew this episode was from 1961. And I also knew JFK was inaugurated into office January 20, 1961. This episode aired on January 20th, 1961. So they must have known JFK would be President the day the episode airs, or timed it that way. What’s also interesting is from my history knowledge, I knew Kennedy was at odds with Khrushchev later. What I didn’t know as I wasn’t here yet, was if President Eisenhower was also having a Cold War moment with Khrushchev too. He must have been if incoming Kennedy had to deal with him too.

I watched Twenty Two for the first time about two years ago. So I don’t have a full memory of it, but I remember how it ended after Miss Powell is at the airport. Her dream was pretty creepy and Arlene Martel was the reason I wanted to see it, to see what her character was about. I thought this episode had some notoriety and Martel was scary with her line, Room for one more! Interesting way to show how someone could have a premonition. It was also fun to see Jonathan Harris as a creepy doctor.

I’ve seen photos from Mr. Dingle The Strong and I’m not sure I ever saw it before. So this was likely the first time I’d really sat down to watch it. I think I have seen it once before a long time ago because I remembered what the aliens looked like. It was fairly amusing how they wanted to examine humans.
Static is another videotaped episode I’d not seen before. I liked this episode. It is another story about revisiting our lost youth. And I liked how poor Mr. Lindsay was transported back and was able to be truthful to Vinnie.

I’m pretty sure I saw The Prime Mover before but it was so long ago I did not remember what happened. I enjoyed this one a lot and I was glad that Cobb’s friend Larsen wasn’t so greedy that he would turn on Cobb when he couldn’t fix the dice anymore. I think he decided it was enough and took it away from Larsen. It wasn’t right to win this way. I had to wonder, did Rian Johnson see this episode before?

By the way, the score used in The Prime Mover was a very cool one, by Rene Garriguenc. I wasn’t sure before, but it sounded like the style done by Goldsmith earlier and used in The Fever.

I’d seen The Odyssey of Flight 33 before. But as with all the episodes above, it was with my full attention so I was really getting into it. I didn’t remember the ending though so I didn’t expect them to not get back. John Anderson as Captain Farver was great and I remember him for his character in Star Trek The Next Generation.

The Invaders is an episode that stuck with me after I first saw it and I’ve seen it several times. The high quality of the Blu Rays were when I could really see the quality of the sets and Agnes Moorehead as she got more and more crazed fighting off the invaders. This is like Time Enough At Last in memorability and iconic stature. It’s got that set-up and follow through and then the ending. Moorehead was great in the role and you can really feel the tension build. The first time I saw the small aliens, I thought that was cool! I think there used to be a model of those available. Again the producers re-used the C57D model from Forbidden Planet. 5 stars!

I’d seen A Hundred Yards Over The Rim maybe twice before many many years ago. Probably when I was a late teen so it didn’t go into my brain like other episodes did. And I totally forgot how the middle section went. This is a really strong episode! The music is great and sounded so different from what I’m used to Steiner had done on Star Trek. I mainly remembered that Horn climbed over the rim and saw the highway. From there, I’d forgotten how it went. Cliff Robertson was really good in this episode. He was earnest and strong in his conviction to get his family and wagons to California. The sequence in the cafe was really good as Horn is taking in what the future is like and not knowing what is going on. The part where he finds out his son is a doctor was a surprise and gave him more drive to get back to save him. There’s great support from John Crawford and Ed Platt before he was on Get Smart. 5 stars for this episode.

Finally, I saved Long Distance Call last to watch in this binge. I’d seen this episode a long time ago as well. But I could never bring myself to watch it again or too often. Because the first time I saw it, it was really a wrenching episode for me. The grandma’s hold on her grandson was super strong. The bit that I’d forgotten was when Grandma says to Chris, that she lost her son to a woman. That was a strong sting! And her only son was Billy. That must have been crushing for Chris and Sylvia. The really unnerving part is how grandma was trying to get Billy to kill himself. And then when Sylvia sees Billy taking on the phone, she grabs it and thinks she hears Grandma! That gave me a chill! Was it real or did she imagine it?

The part that I really remember as wrenching was Chris’s plea to his mother to let Billy live. That was really strong in my memory. In rewatching it, it was still strong, but maybe since I knew it was coming, it didn’t hit as hard. In the end though, is it supernatural and a real connection Billy had to the afterlife? Or was it all in Billy’s mind and maybe he was thinking if he did die, he could find his grandmother? 5 stars still for a classic well done episode.

I didn’t plan to be sitting here writing so much about each episode, but it’s been fun to revisit the series. Something totally unplanned because I didn’t realize there was a yearly marathon on New Years! I’m enjoying these episodes a lot.

 

[Nelson Au]

Harry, that Goldsmith score from Back There does really sound familiar! It always sounds to me kind of gothic. If that’s the right term.

 

[ScottRE]

"Back There" has a great score by Goldsmith that's been used countless times since - even on THE FUGITIVE series.

Twilight Zone music such as this episode, and other library cues, were very liberally tracked over the William Shatner horror flick Kingdom of the Spiders. Much to my delight.

 

[Harry-N]

When I first saw the Varese Sarabande record for THE TWILIGHT ZONE in a store, they had only one in the series. It was the maroon-colored Volume 3, and the first score on it was "Back There". It was immediately familiar to me as I'd heard it in many episodes. The liner notes mentioned that it was also used wholesale in "To Serve Man".

 

[moviebuff75]

I forgot that when Season One was first re-run, not only were the openings changed to the Season Two openings, but the end credits were altered as well. UPA did the opening animation for Season One. Pacific Title did Seasons 2-5. PT was credited on the reruns.

 

[Sam Favate]

I convinced my kids to watch The Twilight Zone with me over the weekend. (They're almost 12, and balked at the black and white aspect of it.) We watched Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and one of them jumped out of his seat when Shatner opens the curtain and the creature's face is in the window. The other one said he'll never sit in the emergency row of a plane. When it was over they said "Can we watch another one?"

So, we watched It's a Good Life, since I have long told them to stop wishing us into the cornfield when they'd stare at us as little kids. They liked that one too. They asked "Can we watch another one?"

So, we watched To Serve Man. (You can see I was going for the classics.) At the end, they said "Wait. What was that? What did she say?" I told them. They were horrified.

I look forward to watching more with them.

 

[TravisR]

I convinced my kids to watch The Twilight Zone with me over the weekend. (They're almost 12, and balked at the black and white aspect of it.) We watched Nightmare at 20,000 Feet and one of them jumped out of his seat when Shatner opens the curtain and the creature's face is in the window. The other one said he'll never sit in the emergency row of a plane.

I've seen people criticize the thing on the plane wing for looking like a fat teddy bear but I always thought that made it creepier and its distorted face is gross too. The one in the movie is cool looking but the way it moves in the episode has always been much spookier to me. Even when he lands on the wing and it's clearly him being lowered on wires, it still looks odd enough to be 'alien' and scary.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I forgot that when Season One was first re-run, not only were the openings changed to the Season Two openings, but the end credits were altered as well. UPA did the opening animation for Season One. Pacific Title did Seasons 2-5. PT was credited on the reruns.

And yet the versions that ended up in syndication only have Pacific Title credited on three plastered episodes (not counting the final 6 which they did originally). Guess which ones!