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The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 13th, 2016, 10:38 pm
by matmico399
I have noticed a trend among older video gamers (and perhaps younger). A lot of peeps are huge fans of the Twilight Zone! What are some of your fave episodes?

I will start off with just three that have stuck with me.....

1. A Passage For Trumpet
2. The Howling man
3. Walking Distance

What about you all?

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 7:24 am
by scotland
What a golden age for anthologies. They had so much source material from radio and magazines to draw from. If you have satellite radio, they play some of the radio anthologies like Dimension X and The Whistler. Rod Serling had a flair in adapting them for tv, and half a century later many still connect viscerally. Twilight Zone was amazing as the audience never knew what to expect. A few are even happy stories.

Some I really enjoy are:
    The After Hours
    A Game of Pool
    People are alike all Over
    A World of his Own
    Nick of Time.
Image

And special notice to the Outer Limits for The Zanti Misfits

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 8:44 am
by matmico399
Ah, a Game of Pool. Arguably the best one ever. Klugman is just brilliant and the dialogue just sensational

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 1:04 pm
by scotland
Apparently it was remade in 1989 for the revival series, with a different ending. its the ending the writer wanted, but then it loses Serlings Aesop completely.

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 4:24 pm
by Tron
TW is my favorite show of all time. I also love Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents & Tales from the Crypt.

My favorite episode is probably Last Stop at Whilouby. It's about a guy who is stressed out with an unhappy job and an even unhappier wife. He just wants the simple life in the imagined town of Whilouby. Eventually he gets to the town, but only in the Twilght Zone.

Another favorite is the boy who can wish people away into the corn field. He can read your thoughts and if you're thinking bad thoughts about him he'll turn you into a jack-in-the-box.

Honestly I've loved almost every episode.

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 4:51 pm
by matmico399
To me all the revival series were pretty poor Scotland. Serling's scripts and the other writers always put a twist on the end, but there was a point to the story, a moral lesson if you will. The rehashes were just bizarre endings without a point to them.

Speaking of other fave episodes....

-Nightmare at 30,000 feet.
-Eye of the Beholder
-Nick Of Time (as you stated)
-Night of the Meek (although the use of videotape instead of film brought it down a bit)

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 5:13 pm
by matmico399
Tron the episode You are thinking about with the boy is called It's a Simple Life. Another classic. And I agree TZ is my fave series of all time! Night Gallery is okay, but not a huge fan. Serling saw they were just going for the shock factor than telling a meaningful story. He disowned it.

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 7:08 pm
by scotland
I have not seen much of the revival series for TZ, so I am not going to vouch for its quality. The original with Jack Klugman is terrific, so I'll stick with Serling's take on the ending as well.

I did watch a lot of the revival of The Outer Limits though, and enjoyed many of those. A number of these anthology series are back on television on nostalgia themed channels like MeTV or COZI or others. There is a series called One Step Beyond I never heard of until it showed up on one of those channels. Boris Karloff also hosted one called Thriller, which has its moments. Alfred Hitchcocks sometimes seem too long, but there is one called "The Jar" which is mesmerizing. If you get a chance to see that episode, record it.

The Twilight Zone used to get a New Years marathon on the SciFi channel, but not sure if they still do that.

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 14th, 2016, 8:18 pm
by matmico399
They actually still do "Zone" marathons on Sci Fi and one other station. And on many holidays. Sometimes Memorial Day weekend, July 4th, Labor Day, New Years Eve, etc. Just check your channel guide on certain holidays. Just as Spike runs all episodes of Band Of Brothers on certain military holidays.

Re: The Twilight Zone

Posted: April 15th, 2016, 7:46 am
by Tron
Matimico- From what I read Serling and Jack Laird, producer, disagreed about the vision they wanted for Nigjt Gallery. Basically Rod wanted more Zone and Laird wanted horror/comedy. In the 1st season Rod had his way and the episodes resembled TZ, but either by the second or third season Laird really took control. Rod then quit.

I prefer Rod's style, but Laird did some good work, but unfortunately some of his work was dang awful as well.

Back to the picks- The Howling Man is quite possibly the scariest TZ episode. If you were raised in a Christian upbringing, it's possibly even scarier. It was a great episode and one of my favorites as well.

Another favorite is: Five Characters in Search of an Exit. As a kid I used to imagine what it would be like if toys were alive. That's why I love all the dummy and doll episodes as well.

Scotland- I've watched all the Ray Bradbury episodes. If my memory is correct I thougjt 1/3 of them were good & that maybe half of them just dang awful. They were bizarre, but not in an intriguing or creepy way. More like bizarre in the "what the heck was the point of that?" or "what the hay was Bradbury thinking?" Now I will admit that some episodes were great and that they could even rival that of the TZ. For example the episode with William Shatner was awesome. The problem is that you have to sit through the whole or at least most of the episode until you can realize that it failed abysmally. A lot of Bradbury episodes start off well enough and then the story progresses ok and then when it's over you're like, "Oh my goodness that was awful". At least with Fear the Walking Dead I can fast forward all the blah blah blah until a zombie comes on screen. With Bradbury you have to pay attention and most times it wasn't worth it.