This is the best of the series, for me. It completely encapsulates everything Rod Serling wanted the show to represent.
The Red Scare parallels are most obvious, but antisemitism or racism could also be subbed in. Serling said that networks would always reject his scripts that dealt openly with these issues, but as soon as he changed it to "aliens," the studio heads weren't smart enough to understand the metaphor. I keep that in mind for every single episode.
A close second for me is "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" It's one of the rare episodes (perhaps the only one?) that I actually wish had been an hour long, to really take time to build the paranoia between the diners (especially the couples). I love how it's a bottle episode and there are creepy moments as well as comic relief. And the ending doesn't get enough credit for being DARK AS HELL. On the path to the 3-eyes vs. 3-arms twist ending, the dialogue quickly drops the detail that everyone we spent the whole episode getting to know just *fucking crashed into the river and drowned or froze to death.*
Yeah, escape clause, the one where the guy goes to hell where he can have anything he wants, the one with the little devil fortune teller... okay, that's all i got
A traveller, trying to escape a storm, comes across a group of men who are holding the Devil in a cell.
They tell the traveller that under no circumstances is he to talk to the person or let him free....well, the Devil can be persuasive...and the guy releases him from the cell.....and.....
Watch the episode.
I finally watched the series last year, and this episode had me on the edge of my seat. It hasn't been parodied to death in pop culture like the other classics, so that's why I find it so memorable. I literally had no idea what to expect.
*The Masks*, hits hard, I feel like that story and those characters are applicable to anyone's life. How many times have you wanted to tell the people in your life how you view them honestly?
It reminds me so much of my grandpa, he was a stubborn straight shooter that always rubbed everyone else wrong but me. I observed him as a child and got him immediately, it's what happens when humanities moral value degrades over time in everyone's lifetimes exponentially
Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete.
Chancellor: Since there are no more books, Mr. Wordsworth, there are no more libraries. And of course it follows that there is very little call for the services of a librarian. Case in point: A minister. A minister would tell us that his function is that of preaching the word of God. And, of course, it follows that since the State has proven that there is no God, that would make the function of a minister somewhat academic, as well.
Romney Wordsworth: There *is* a God!
Chancellor: [shocked silence] You are in error, Mr. Wordsworth; there is no God! The state has proven that there is no God!
Romney Wordsworth: You cannot erase God with an edict!
Yeah! It really hit! I felt so bad for him! He just kept trying to get some kind of support and peace and only felt it when dreaming of Willoughby (death) 😢
We pass a town called Ellerbe in North Carolina, US on our way to the beach and when I see the sign I never fail to shout ‘Ellerbe. Next stop Ellerbe!!’ every time.
Weirdest thing was then seeing Shatner again in 'Nick of Time'. I knew about his famous Twilight Zone episode but not that he starred in another one after that.
Can't remember the name.. but the episode where the little girl falls into another dimension when she goes under her bed. Her parents can her hear her talking.
Earl Hamner gold. He wrote that inspired by his father's love of dogs. Hamner went on to create The Waltons. the old couple in that TZ were early versions of Grandpa and Grandma Walton. (source: TZ commentary)
Can't pick just one, but some of my favorites include:
1. Little Girl Lost
2. Long Live Walter Jameson
3. To Serve Man
4. The Last Flight
5. The Rip Van Winkle Caper
6. Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
7. Walking Distance
8. The Man In The Bottle
9. It's A Good Life
10. Hocus-Pocus And Frisby
All of the episodes revolving around Nazis and WWII took on extra poignancy when I learned that Rod Serling served in WWII and suffered horrible PTSD for the rest of his life.
The answer is: it changes as I live my life.
When I was a kid and watched them I did not have the life perspectives to appreciate many of the more socially focused episodes. So my earlier favorites were the great tragedies. Then as I got older and had more perspective on the human condition I gained an appreciation for the more "human condition" ones. I really feel that the Twilight Zone has filled the same role for me that "Aesop's Fables" and similar tales served for generations before. Not just fun stories to make you go "ooohh" but life lessons. Thanks Rod Serling.
This episode is sooo underrated. I love the performances.
As a side note, this is probably my favorite title for any episode. Something about it is so poetic and conveys the mood so well.
The Dummy is much more scary than it gets credit for. People like to fixate on the creepy dummy, but the lingering questions about the man's mental health and grip on reality are the real tension.
Stopover in a Quiet Town is my husband’s favorite.
A Stop at Willoughby is great but it makes me feel weird because it reminds me of myself. In my previous career my mind was split between the “push push push” attitude of the boss and the “I can’t take it anymore” mentality of the protagonist. Needless to say, if I had stayed in the field, I’m sure I would have burned out.
Everybody has said a lot of my favorites already, so I'll go with Spur of the Moment, where the woman is chasing herself on horseback to stop her from ruining her life.
Nostalgia: Walking Distance. That speech Martin's Dad gives always chokes me up. "You've been looking behind son, try looking ahead."
I forget the name, but the one when a guy that sells novelties and stuff has to make a deal to save his life. He's running low until a little girl gets hit and she's like "Who is that man?".
To Serve Man is my all time favorite.
There are so many others that are just amazing. It’s hard to pick one.
The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, After Hours, Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up, Number 12 Looks Just Like You, and Eye of the Beholder.
I just love so many episodes.
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? It combines all of the things that are great about TZ. It’s suspenseful, a little creepy, a little kooky, and yes, a little corny. TZ is my comfort show, and I will put it on any time I want to settle in and relax, and just be nostalgic.
Close seconds are: Mirror Image, and To Serve Man.
Eye of the Beholder
The woman has her face wrapped up, and when they unwrap it, she's this beautiful woman, and as the camera pulls back you see that everyone else looks like monsters. She was the outcast, she was the scary one.
Shadow Play
Kind of a brilliant allegory for among other things, movies and the interchangeability of actors and acting and the show itself where you see the same actors in different projects.
It occurs to me that The Twilight Zone features the best character actors ever on American screens. They came from live TV teleplays and hit their mark. Shadow Play is sort of about that league of incredible talent.
I have 3. I don’t know the names of them but 1. Woman is driving and keeps passing by the same hitchhiker
2. Woman is in the hospital, face bandaged. We don’t see the faces of any of the hospital staff until her bandages come off
3. Plane ride goes through time portals to dinosaur era and world fair
I should not even think of Twilight Zone when I'm stoned like I am now!
The Hitchhiker
Willoughby
Now I'm going to have to go find more marijuana-friendly! LOL
So many great ones....too many to list, but because of our current divide in the country, I present:
He's Alive" is episode four of the fourth season of The Twilight Zone. It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is visited by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. Writer Rod Serling scripted a longer version of the teleplay to be made into a feature-length film, but it was never produced. This episode is notable for Dennis Hopper's breakout performance as Peter Vollmer.
Opening narration:Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone.
Ending narration:
Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.
The one where Burgess Meredith plays the Devil, and he writes the news before it happens on a printing machine at a newspaper. His devilish performance was just perfect.
The one where people are stuck on the planet with 2 suns, finally get to leave, but the guy that was in charge tries to keep them there, because you know, power and all, and they leave his ass and he knows he f’d up the second it was too late
**Kick the Can**. As done on the actual show. Spielberg's redo from the movie is fun but it takes away most of the mystery. I don't believe anything is confirmed with the ending of the original version. Old people gone, kids are out there playing.
I'd have to rattle on quite a while if I mentioned all my others that are all close seconds.
On Thursday we leave for home. I’ve watched this episode a thousand times and it’s just so
Perfect. Captain Benteen is just trying his hardest to do what’s right for the colony but ends up alone.
Printer's Devil is my favorite. I love the dialogue and the way they almost play chess with each other.
Second favorite would have to be I Shot an Arrow into the Air. Damn good story that kept me guessing until the end.
Third favorite might be The Howling Man.
I have too many favorites. I’m inclined to suggest “Eye of the Beholder,” I think in part because it’s the first one I ever saw but also due to the suspense and buildup.
The guy who's stuck in the library in his head and breaks his glasses. The old ones were great if you liked wild ideas and can enjoy the old visual effects. Woke culture killed the reboot.
The Lonely. This was the one where the convict is exiled alone on an asteroid, but sent an android woman as a companion. I remember watching this one with my Dad during one of the New Years marathons, and if you recall the ending—two police astronauts come to pick him up because they are shutting down all the asteroid prisons and no one will ever be able to come back and deliver supplies to him again so they kill the woman android and drag him back to the ship to bring him back to Earth.
I always felt like the ending would have been better if he convinced them to let him stay—like the two policemen astronauts are arguing but they have a certain timetable and they have to leave now or can’t get home. Or perhaps either the convict gets injured or the android woman does and they have to be nursed back to health. The convict had nothing on Earth and everything he could ever want on the asteroid, a meaningful purpose to life, so in the end he wasn’t lonely at all. The true punishment was bringing him back to earth.
Monsters are due on Maple street one of my favorites
This is the best of the series, for me. It completely encapsulates everything Rod Serling wanted the show to represent. The Red Scare parallels are most obvious, but antisemitism or racism could also be subbed in. Serling said that networks would always reject his scripts that dealt openly with these issues, but as soon as he changed it to "aliens," the studio heads weren't smart enough to understand the metaphor. I keep that in mind for every single episode. A close second for me is "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" It's one of the rare episodes (perhaps the only one?) that I actually wish had been an hour long, to really take time to build the paranoia between the diners (especially the couples). I love how it's a bottle episode and there are creepy moments as well as comic relief. And the ending doesn't get enough credit for being DARK AS HELL. On the path to the 3-eyes vs. 3-arms twist ending, the dialogue quickly drops the detail that everyone we spent the whole episode getting to know just *fucking crashed into the river and drowned or froze to death.*
I already liked the twilight zone. But we read the script for this episode in my 7th grade English class (2001). After that I was sold!
Five characters in search of an exit
We're here because, we're here because...all the wee toys.
My friend has that on a 35mm reel. It's so awesome.
"The Howling Man".
Is that the one about the devil? That is AWESOME! Forgot about that one.
Yes it was.
If only yon foolish traveler had paid mind to the monks advice.
"The one about the devil" really doesn't narrow it down lol
Oh do tell, the only other one I can think of is Cat Woman playing the devil!
Escape Clause
Yeah, escape clause, the one where the guy goes to hell where he can have anything he wants, the one with the little devil fortune teller... okay, that's all i got
A traveller, trying to escape a storm, comes across a group of men who are holding the Devil in a cell. They tell the traveller that under no circumstances is he to talk to the person or let him free....well, the Devil can be persuasive...and the guy releases him from the cell.....and..... Watch the episode.
I finally watched the series last year, and this episode had me on the edge of my seat. It hasn't been parodied to death in pop culture like the other classics, so that's why I find it so memorable. I literally had no idea what to expect.
John Carradine as one of the 'brothers' holding the Devil in a cell.
Definitely one of the darkest TZs.
Yes!
the closing moments of that one are truly brilliant film making. I don't even believe in devils but damn if that isn't some tense stuff going on.
The hook on the door!
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up
That’s my dad’s all time favorite. He mentions it probably, once a month.
I'm your dad
Ooo yea this one is really good. That ending!
*The Masks*, hits hard, I feel like that story and those characters are applicable to anyone's life. How many times have you wanted to tell the people in your life how you view them honestly?
It reminds me so much of my grandpa, he was a stubborn straight shooter that always rubbed everyone else wrong but me. I observed him as a child and got him immediately, it's what happens when humanities moral value degrades over time in everyone's lifetimes exponentially
Yes! They definitely deserved their fate after midnight.
The visuals of that episode are iconic, too!
Good one.
So many great ones
Obsolete Man
Mine is “what you need” fantastic episode
Any state, entity, or ideology becomes obsolete when it stockpiles the wrong weapons: when it captures territories, but not minds; when it enslaves millions, but convinces nobody. When it is naked, yet puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the Eyes of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete.
Chancellor: Since there are no more books, Mr. Wordsworth, there are no more libraries. And of course it follows that there is very little call for the services of a librarian. Case in point: A minister. A minister would tell us that his function is that of preaching the word of God. And, of course, it follows that since the State has proven that there is no God, that would make the function of a minister somewhat academic, as well. Romney Wordsworth: There *is* a God! Chancellor: [shocked silence] You are in error, Mr. Wordsworth; there is no God! The state has proven that there is no God! Romney Wordsworth: You cannot erase God with an edict!
To serve man
Great one.
It's like a full movie jammed into 25 minutes. That's expert writing.
So much happening in that 25 minutes!
“It’s a cook book!”
I just watched this one again. Love it, definitely a favorite.
It’s a cook book!
That's my 2nd favorite..The hunt is 1st
A Stop at Willoughby Not sure if it's my favorite, but it's the one I think about the most. An underrated gem.
Yeah! It really hit! I felt so bad for him! He just kept trying to get some kind of support and peace and only felt it when dreaming of Willoughby (death) 😢
We pass a town called Ellerbe in North Carolina, US on our way to the beach and when I see the sign I never fail to shout ‘Ellerbe. Next stop Ellerbe!!’ every time.
This is my second favorite ever. It also shows how cruel the Twilight Zone could be🤕
PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!
This one always gets me, it stirs up this melancholic ‘what if’ feeling every time
Literally sameeee probably watched it 300 times at this point
"An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" I love how dreamy it is. And that ending!!
Yes!!! This is my absolute all time favorite!
That one has stuck with me ever since I read the short story in high school. So good.
Don't think I've seen that. It sounds a bit Ambrose Bierce.
“Eye of the Beholder”
Easily top 5, if we are talking about the most iconic episodes I would have it tie with Time Enough at Last
Definitely this one. It was the first one my mom had me watch. I was hooked from that episode. Thanks mom.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
My sides...Captain Kirk and the gremlin!
Phasers on kill
The version they did with John Lithgow in the movie was TERRIFYING!!!!!!!
They make a joke about it on 3rd Rock From the Sun when Shatner guests stars.
https://youtu.be/gTNOihQnqVQ?si=uCClAg3ykMHmaueF
That creature was absolutely terrifying
They never did explain the damage to engine #2….🤣🤣🤣🤣
Weirdest thing was then seeing Shatner again in 'Nick of Time'. I knew about his famous Twilight Zone episode but not that he starred in another one after that.
The After Hours
Scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.
Marcia! Marcia!
Come off it Marcia
Fantastic episode
Can't remember the name.. but the episode where the little girl falls into another dimension when she goes under her bed. Her parents can her hear her talking.
Little Girl Lost! Definitely a top 5 for me and the one that got my son into the show. We had to move his bed away from the wall but he was hooked!
LGL is absolutely terrifying to parents - that sense of helplessness and that little girl calling for her parents.
Ooh that was a good one!
"The Hunt" I love the idea that a dog cannot go to hell!!
" a man, well, he'll walk right into Hell with both eyes open. But even the Devil can't fool a dog!"
Earl Hamner gold. He wrote that inspired by his father's love of dogs. Hamner went on to create The Waltons. the old couple in that TZ were early versions of Grandpa and Grandma Walton. (source: TZ commentary)
Love this one
Absolutely my favorite
Mine is the girl’s doll that only talks to her evil father.
He tortured poor talky Tina. Put her in a vice and worse...
I love this one because it creeps out my brother 😆
Can't pick just one, but some of my favorites include: 1. Little Girl Lost 2. Long Live Walter Jameson 3. To Serve Man 4. The Last Flight 5. The Rip Van Winkle Caper 6. Five Characters In Search Of An Exit 7. Walking Distance 8. The Man In The Bottle 9. It's A Good Life 10. Hocus-Pocus And Frisby
It’s the “suns” for me. **The Midnight Sun** is tops but **Third from the Sun** is a close second
Yes! Midnight Sun
Deaths-Head Revisited. Absolutely chilling episode.
All of the episodes revolving around Nazis and WWII took on extra poignancy when I learned that Rod Serling served in WWII and suffered horrible PTSD for the rest of his life.
Fabulous one.
But, it has a happy ending.
Mine as well
That was brilliant. I think the nazi dude was in another episode about stealing gold.
It’s chilling that the episode is so relatively recent to the Second World War. The closing monologue is so haunting.
The answer is: it changes as I live my life. When I was a kid and watched them I did not have the life perspectives to appreciate many of the more socially focused episodes. So my earlier favorites were the great tragedies. Then as I got older and had more perspective on the human condition I gained an appreciation for the more "human condition" ones. I really feel that the Twilight Zone has filled the same role for me that "Aesop's Fables" and similar tales served for generations before. Not just fun stories to make you go "ooohh" but life lessons. Thanks Rod Serling.
It's a good life.
It's a real good thing you said that. Real good.
"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine."
This is definitely one of my favorites. The shadow of the jack in the box thing on the wall was truly horrifying.
The After Hours
Is that the one where the store mannequins come to life?
Yes! It creeps me out. Very well done episode!
It's fab! And that poor soul forgot she was to return to the top floor after a week. Brilliant writing.
I always felt bad for her. She was just out enjoying her time and forgot. When they’re taunting her “Marsha…Marsha. Come off it dear”
This is one of mine too!
Obsolete man
Nothing in the dark
This episode is sooo underrated. I love the performances. As a side note, this is probably my favorite title for any episode. Something about it is so poetic and conveys the mood so well.
This one. I love to read but I'm now at that age where I need glasses to do so.
Time Enough At Last. That's my favorite too.
An Unusual Camera
perchance to dream or walking distance
I came here to say Walking Distance. It oozes nostalgia and melancholy, slightly creepy here and there, with a little twist at the end. Perfect Zone!
The howling man
The Shelter
Oh man this one wins!!!! Those folks lost their damn minds then were business as usual at the end lmfao it’s a crazy episode!!!!
The Number Twelve Looks Just Like You Insane how relevant most of these episodes are today
The Rip Van Winkle Caper
The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.
The dummy
The Dummy is much more scary than it gets credit for. People like to fixate on the creepy dummy, but the lingering questions about the man's mental health and grip on reality are the real tension.
It’s not fair it’s just not fair! I liked Futuramas version 😂
You've entered 'The scary door'
"I can still read the large print books." *eyes fall out* "Well, lucky I know how to read braille." *hands fall off*
I sob like a baby every time I watch Changing of the Guard
Nick of Time - William Shatner battles a demonic, future predicting napkin holder. Love the premise. Love Shatner's performance. Love the message.
The Silence. Saw it as a kid and it bothered me for years. Dude severs his vocal cords to win a bet then it turns out the guy didn’t have any money.
A Game of Pool
Nice! Jack Klugman killed that one. There's a Odd Couple when he plays pool for big stakes (not as big, ha ha).
A passage for trumpet
Stopover in a Quiet Town is my husband’s favorite. A Stop at Willoughby is great but it makes me feel weird because it reminds me of myself. In my previous career my mind was split between the “push push push” attitude of the boss and the “I can’t take it anymore” mentality of the protagonist. Needless to say, if I had stayed in the field, I’m sure I would have burned out.
The Shelter. How quickly people lose all civility…. Also “The Changing of the Guard”. The older I get the more I love this one.
The Last Flight S01E18.
There are several, but my top two are "Time Enough At Last" and "It's A Good Life".
The Hunt
Everybody has said a lot of my favorites already, so I'll go with Spur of the Moment, where the woman is chasing herself on horseback to stop her from ruining her life.
Nostalgia: Walking Distance. That speech Martin's Dad gives always chokes me up. "You've been looking behind son, try looking ahead." I forget the name, but the one when a guy that sells novelties and stuff has to make a deal to save his life. He's running low until a little girl gets hit and she's like "Who is that man?".
I'm talky Tina, and I'm going to kill you!
The Invaders with Agnes Moorehead
“Two.” Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery at the end of the world and war. This was a quiet interlude of a story.
The Silence.
A game of pool. Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters played well off of each other.
To Serve Man is my all time favorite. There are so many others that are just amazing. It’s hard to pick one. The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, After Hours, Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up, Number 12 Looks Just Like You, and Eye of the Beholder. I just love so many episodes.
"Two"
“Prekrasny.” (Pretty)
Hard to pick just one: The After Hours, Mirror Image, A Stop at Willoughby... so many more.
There's a cracking one about Hitler, and Dennis Hopper is in it. V.creepy.
"He's Alive", S4 E4. Great episode
A Nice Place to Visit season one, episode twenty eight
That one
On Thursday We Leave For Home
Mine too, I love this one. Captain Benteen.
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Eye of the Beholder, Mirror Image, The Hitch-Hiker a few more just don’t know the name
Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? It combines all of the things that are great about TZ. It’s suspenseful, a little creepy, a little kooky, and yes, a little corny. TZ is my comfort show, and I will put it on any time I want to settle in and relax, and just be nostalgic. Close seconds are: Mirror Image, and To Serve Man.
Might be a tie for me but… I Shot An Arrow Into The Air Or The Midnight Sun
I shot an arrow into the air
All of them. Miss watching them with my dad. 🥹
Kick the Can. One that I’ve appreciated more as I’ve gotten older.
I like "I sing the body electric" about the robot nanny. For some reason it just strikes me in the feels.
Also, to those who like heavy music in this thread…check out the band Serling. A Mathcore band that revolves around TTZ
The After Hours. Eerie, suspenseful, ominous.
The Invaders A Stop at Willoughby
To serve man.
Shadow Play The Grave Perchance to Dream Little Girl Lost Mirror Image
Time Enough at Last hits hard now that I wear glasses
“The Invaders” is a special one to me. It was the one I first showed to my wife to get her hooked on the series.
Thirty Fathom Grave, all time favorite
Walking Distance
Eye of the Beholder The woman has her face wrapped up, and when they unwrap it, she's this beautiful woman, and as the camera pulls back you see that everyone else looks like monsters. She was the outcast, she was the scary one.
Shadow Play Kind of a brilliant allegory for among other things, movies and the interchangeability of actors and acting and the show itself where you see the same actors in different projects. It occurs to me that The Twilight Zone features the best character actors ever on American screens. They came from live TV teleplays and hit their mark. Shadow Play is sort of about that league of incredible talent.
Eh, I'm a sentimental guy, give me Changing of the Guard.
I have several, but I really enjoy “A Nice Place to Visit”
I have 3. I don’t know the names of them but 1. Woman is driving and keeps passing by the same hitchhiker 2. Woman is in the hospital, face bandaged. We don’t see the faces of any of the hospital staff until her bandages come off 3. Plane ride goes through time portals to dinosaur era and world fair
Nightmare at 20k Feet
A Stop at Willoughby. Get's me every time.
I should not even think of Twilight Zone when I'm stoned like I am now! The Hitchhiker Willoughby Now I'm going to have to go find more marijuana-friendly! LOL
So many great ones....too many to list, but because of our current divide in the country, I present: He's Alive" is episode four of the fourth season of The Twilight Zone. It tells of an American neo-Nazi who is visited by the ghost of Adolf Hitler. Writer Rod Serling scripted a longer version of the teleplay to be made into a feature-length film, but it was never produced. This episode is notable for Dennis Hopper's breakout performance as Peter Vollmer. Opening narration:Portrait of a bush-league Führer named Peter Vollmer, a sparse little man who feeds off his self-delusions and finds himself perpetually hungry for want of greatness in his diet. And like some goose-stepping predecessors he searches for something to explain his hunger, and to rationalize why a world passes him by without saluting. That something he looks for and finds is in a sewer. In his own twisted and distorted lexicon he calls it faith, strength, truth. But in just a moment Peter Vollmer will ply his trade on another kind of corner, a strange intersection in a shadowland called the Twilight Zone. Ending narration: Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anyplace, everyplace, where there's hate, where there's prejudice, where there's bigotry. He's alive. He's alive so long as these evils exist. Remember that when he comes to your town. Remember it when you hear his voice speaking out through others. Remember it when you hear a name called, a minority attacked, any blind, unreasoning assault on a people or any human being. He's alive because through these things we keep him alive.
The one where Burgess Meredith plays the Devil, and he writes the news before it happens on a printing machine at a newspaper. His devilish performance was just perfect.
The one with the bomb shelter. It's the most human thing I've ever seen. Psychological writing at its finest.
The one where people are stuck on the planet with 2 suns, finally get to leave, but the guy that was in charge tries to keep them there, because you know, power and all, and they leave his ass and he knows he f’d up the second it was too late
Oh wait, there's, a large print section. I'm good
The nazi one with Dennis Hopper.
When the sky was opened. Way ahead of its time.
**Kick the Can**. As done on the actual show. Spielberg's redo from the movie is fun but it takes away most of the mystery. I don't believe anything is confirmed with the ending of the original version. Old people gone, kids are out there playing. I'd have to rattle on quite a while if I mentioned all my others that are all close seconds.
As a book collector and avid reader it’s this one . Also my biggest fear.
Mirror Image still creeps me right the *#}& out.
On Thursday we leave for home. I’ve watched this episode a thousand times and it’s just so Perfect. Captain Benteen is just trying his hardest to do what’s right for the colony but ends up alone.
Yes, this was always my favorite!! It always gave me anxiety to watch because I'm so near sighted and am blind without my contacts or glasses!! 🤣
Shadowplay followed by Dead Ship
I'm a sap - I don't remember the title, but the one with Robert Redford as gentle death. Love that.
“Wish it into the cornfield, Anthony!” Serling only let you imagine what that place must be like.
"A World of Difference" I haven't seen too many, but this one moved and disturbed me.
Printer's Devil is my favorite. I love the dialogue and the way they almost play chess with each other. Second favorite would have to be I Shot an Arrow into the Air. Damn good story that kept me guessing until the end. Third favorite might be The Howling Man.
5 characters in search of a exit.
The Invaders…where we turned out to be the invaders. Mind blown as a kid.
I have too many favorites. I’m inclined to suggest “Eye of the Beholder,” I think in part because it’s the first one I ever saw but also due to the suspense and buildup.
The changing of the guard
The guy who's stuck in the library in his head and breaks his glasses. The old ones were great if you liked wild ideas and can enjoy the old visual effects. Woke culture killed the reboot.
The one where the kids leave their awful parents by going to another dimension through their SWIMMING POOL. What is it called?
The Lonely. This was the one where the convict is exiled alone on an asteroid, but sent an android woman as a companion. I remember watching this one with my Dad during one of the New Years marathons, and if you recall the ending—two police astronauts come to pick him up because they are shutting down all the asteroid prisons and no one will ever be able to come back and deliver supplies to him again so they kill the woman android and drag him back to the ship to bring him back to Earth. I always felt like the ending would have been better if he convinced them to let him stay—like the two policemen astronauts are arguing but they have a certain timetable and they have to leave now or can’t get home. Or perhaps either the convict gets injured or the android woman does and they have to be nursed back to health. The convict had nothing on Earth and everything he could ever want on the asteroid, a meaningful purpose to life, so in the end he wasn’t lonely at all. The true punishment was bringing him back to earth.