Calling all “Twilight Zone” fans!
Jan 3, 2021 18:54:05 GMT 1
AQUA JAR!™, taylorfirst1, and 2 more like this
Post by AQUA SALZ! on Jan 3, 2021 18:54:05 GMT 1
OK—who else here is a fan of perhaps the greatest TV show ever?
I always watch some episodes during the Sci-Fi channel’s New Year’s marathon, and even though I’ve seen many a bunch of times they always hold up. What Rod Serling et al. could pull off in spite of increasingly dwindling budgets and audience viewing numbers was amazing.
Almost every episode, too, feels like a mini-movie, no doubt helped by Serling’s hiring such great but down-on-their-luck Hollywood directors as Mitchell Leisen, John Brahm, Robert Florey, Norman Z. McLeod, Jacques Tourneur, and Ida Lupino to helm episodes. (He also hired some up-and-comers who would go on to hit it big: Richard Donner, Stuart Rosenberg, Elliot Silverstein. And Don Siegel kinda straddled both categories.) TV just usually doesn’t have this level of talent behind the camera, and that talent responded with some film-quality directorial work.
Many of the best scripts were, unsurprisingly, written by Serling. Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson turned in good work as well, I don’t want to minimize their contributions, but Serling’s tended to be so personal, reflecting the idiosyncratic mélange of pulpiness, liberal social allegory, nostalgia, horror, and whimsy that make the show unique. I’ve long bemoaned that none of the “reboots” can capture the brilliance of the original, and a major reason for that is that they may try for one or two of those qualities, but the original blended all of them, and with skill.
OK, so I’ve gone on long enough…but I’ll start things off in a splendidly unoriginal fashion with a Top 10 list. Chronological, not preferential, order.
“Walking Distance” (S1:E5)
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (S1:E22)
“A Stop at Willoughby” (S1:E30)
“The After Hours” (S1:E34)
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (S2:E28)
“The Obsolete Man” (S2:E29)
“Little Girl Lost” (S3:E26;
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (S5:E3)
“Number 12 Looks Just Like You” (S5:E17)
“The Masks” (S5:E25)
Huge number of honorable mentions, including a few that just missed out on my Top 10, but there’s my list—until I decide to change it again.
What say you?
I always watch some episodes during the Sci-Fi channel’s New Year’s marathon, and even though I’ve seen many a bunch of times they always hold up. What Rod Serling et al. could pull off in spite of increasingly dwindling budgets and audience viewing numbers was amazing.
Almost every episode, too, feels like a mini-movie, no doubt helped by Serling’s hiring such great but down-on-their-luck Hollywood directors as Mitchell Leisen, John Brahm, Robert Florey, Norman Z. McLeod, Jacques Tourneur, and Ida Lupino to helm episodes. (He also hired some up-and-comers who would go on to hit it big: Richard Donner, Stuart Rosenberg, Elliot Silverstein. And Don Siegel kinda straddled both categories.) TV just usually doesn’t have this level of talent behind the camera, and that talent responded with some film-quality directorial work.
Many of the best scripts were, unsurprisingly, written by Serling. Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson turned in good work as well, I don’t want to minimize their contributions, but Serling’s tended to be so personal, reflecting the idiosyncratic mélange of pulpiness, liberal social allegory, nostalgia, horror, and whimsy that make the show unique. I’ve long bemoaned that none of the “reboots” can capture the brilliance of the original, and a major reason for that is that they may try for one or two of those qualities, but the original blended all of them, and with skill.
OK, so I’ve gone on long enough…but I’ll start things off in a splendidly unoriginal fashion with a Top 10 list. Chronological, not preferential, order.
“Walking Distance” (S1:E5)
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (S1:E22)
“A Stop at Willoughby” (S1:E30)
“The After Hours” (S1:E34)
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?” (S2:E28)
“The Obsolete Man” (S2:E29)
“Little Girl Lost” (S3:E26;
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (S5:E3)
“Number 12 Looks Just Like You” (S5:E17)
“The Masks” (S5:E25)
Huge number of honorable mentions, including a few that just missed out on my Top 10, but there’s my list—until I decide to change it again.
What say you?