Shark Bytes

The Twilight Zone is a real classic and a true gem of television history. It's also one of the best science fiction shows ever. This was the first show which featured real quality stories and "grownup" issues and not a spaceship fighting green Martians under the label of "sci-fi". It was like the quality S-F literature of the era in television form.

Although there are much less great episodes and much more turkeys in season 4 and 5 these seasons also have really well-done segments. "Living Doll", "Nightmare at 50,000 Feet", "On Thursday We Leave for Home", "The Old Man in the Cave", etc. Usually the more "comedy-oriented" episodes were much worse than the others. The lowest point of the show was the Carol Burnett one which was just a badly made rip-off of It's a Wonderful Life (it really stinks! really really!), the Bing Crosby's son singing episode and the last one (The Bewitchin' Pool).

Overall TZ never jumped!

My, how television has changed since the days of The Twilight Zone! I don't just mean the things the networks can get away with nowadays, such as soft porn and foul language, I mean in so many different ways. For one thing, there were several TZ episodes where religion was looked upon in a favorable light, whereas nowadays, sadly, if it's ever mentioned at all, it's usually done with the intention of making religious people look like fundamentalist zealots, fools or hypocrites.

Also, the whole idea of sponsors has changed. The original Twilight Zone generally had a single sponsor for the entire show. Because of this, the sponsor had a much starker influence on the show's content than it has nowadays, with several sponsors for every program. Rod Serling's major thorn-in-the-side was sponsors. Marc Scott Zicree, in his excellent book "The Twilight Zone Companion", tells about how the sponsors read each script prior to it airing and, if they found something, anything at all, that may affect their products in any way, they would demand that Serling change it or write it out completely. A case in point was the sponsors' censoring of a line in the excellent episode "Judgement Night." In the original script, Serling had the ship's first officer order a cup of coffee up on the bridge. The show's sponsor, General Foods, objected to this line because the product whose commercials were to be run during the show was Sanka decaffeinated coffee. Fearing a cup of 'regular' coffee meant competition, they ordered the line changed to 'a cup of tea.' There were several instances of sponsor interference of this nature.

If I had to choose a JTS moment, I probably would say it never jumped with the possible exception of the Earl Hamner, Jr stories. Never cared much for those. They were considerably weaker, IMO, than the majority of the scripts and almost all came, not coincidentally, in the final season, commonly regarded as the worst in terms of quality writing.

Peace.

Never jumped..

Caught the one on Sci-fi the other night that ends with the short order cook revealing himself to be an alien with a third eye, in front of his customer, who thought that HE was the only alien in town, showcasing his third arm..

Creepy..

Froug did NOT kill the series. All you have to do to find out the back story is read it from the horses' mouth in the book, "How I Escaped From Gilligan's Island". Sounds like this person has a personal vendetta against Mr. Froug.

AZ--Serling didn't discover the film An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge from France(at least not in the way you mean). William Froug, the show's last producer who made so many inferior eps but a few good ones too, was the one who had previously seen it and decided to pick it up for TZ when he found the show overbudget!

Never jumped

For those of you who are revealing the entire plot/ending of any given episode, or worse yet, multiple episodes, it might be a good idea to warn readers that you are about to do so. Cheers.

Eric, you really show true (yellow) colors.

As the Soviets were the biggest threat of Serling's generation, so are the Islam nutcases are of our's.

The scariest difference between yesteryear and today is SIMPLE: Neither the Soviets or Americans wanted to die.

Islamic terrorists WANT TO DIE.

Who attacked America numerous times before 9/11? Who are committing terror around the globe in the name if Islam?

We all better be scared--technology is much smaller/more powerful than that of 50 years ago.

One thing that not too many folks have mentioned was the quality of the casting. So many superb film and stage actors were featured on the show, often in role that really stretched and challenged them (e.g., Ed Wynn in a dramatic role).

I have to admit that I found some of the endings contrived and/or repetitive, almost as if the writers had come up with a terrific premise but couldn't think of a good resolution. But in general, I agree that TZ is one of the standards by which quality television will always be judged.

I have the enitre series on DVD. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) never "Jumped The Shark." While some episodes were, indeed, better than others, The series is as fresh today as it was in 1959.

This series could not be replicated today. No one has either the talent or sophistication to duplicate Rod Serling. The man was truly "one of a kind."

The ORIGINAL black and white version of "The Twilight Zone"was a TV classic,and in some episodes let the imagination ran riot-You wonder what is going to happen next.Two examples are from season one,(1959-1960)and are Rod Serling's classic "Mirror Image",wherein Vera Miles plays Millicent Barnes who thinks she sses her exact double in a bus stop,and no one believes her(the somewhat grouchy bus ticket taker,the friendly man Paul Grinstead (Martin Milner)waiting for a bus )UNTIL Paul Grinstead spies a double of himself at the very end.And Richard Matheson'svery good "A World of Difference",in which Howard Duff plays Arthur Curtis,who goes to his office,(or so he thinks)and suddenly and inexplicably finds himself in a world where those around him think he's an actor. The ending,when Arthur Curtis returns to his OWN world,and goes on a much-needed vacation with his wife,and "A World of Difference",like "Mirror Image",and others,make you wonder what's going to happen next.

Speaking of the first season classic episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street"(1960-with the much softer theme and closing music by the late Bernard Herrmann),there is a paperback book called "Stories from the Twilight Zone"with series stories all by Rod Serling,"Walking Distance","The Fever","Escape Clause","The Mighty Casey",and "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street".Although they differ a bit from the series' episodes,they are all pretty good tales,all written by Serling.Getting back to the episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street",in the book there is a part at the very end,in which all of the residents who resided on Maple Street are all dead,and the NEW residents arrive later,-and have TWO heads.This ending was NOT included in the episode(I do not know why),and if it had been included,it would have REALLY been chilling.The ORIGINAL CBS black and white version of "The Twilight Zone"was,with all its faults(when it was hourlong,sometimes bad episodes)was in its first two seasons,especially,a TV classic.

Amazing when you see the list of episodes how many of them were about nucleaur holocaust, the end of the world, totalitiarian regimes etc.

Amazing how terrified we were as a nation of the Russians and the bomb in the late '50's and early sixties (the Red Scare) and how effectively Serling used those fears to get dramatic points off to the American public.

Very analagous to today's times as our leaders (Bush, Cheney, Guiliani etc) and their media mouthpieces (O'Reilly, Hannity all of Fox News) constantly remind us that the "Islamofacists" and Islamic extremists "are the biggest threat this country has ever faced. They know the great power fear has in getting the public to comply to the diminishment of their own freedoms for their safety from perceived threats and exploit it for the benefit of themselves and their coconspirators.

Too bad Serling died so young, where is the Serling of the 21st Centurty to expose these frauds without them knowing it.

I would also like to add if you cannot see the GENIUS in this show you are blind to the truth. I was born in the early 80's and i think this show is the most intelligent amazing show ive ever seen in my life. It is perfection. The writers, including Rod Serling are geniuses. This is the greatest show of all time on so many different levels.

The best and the worst episodes of the Twilight Zone. This is the truth. The best episodes to the worst.

Best episodes:
Time enough at last
The Obsolete Man
What you need
The midnight sun
An Occurence at owl creek bridge
five characters in search of an exit
a piano in the house
one more pallbearer
the invaders
to serve man
deaths head revisited
the changing of the guard
walking distance
where is everybody?
escape clause
the hitch hiker
the shelter
miniature
a kind of stopwatch
the masks
nervous man in a 4 dollar room
the silence- the one where the guy gets his vocal cords cut


mid level decent-good
number 12 looks just like you
a quality of mercy
the dummy
eye of the beholder aka private world of darkness
the after hours
back there


Worst-
little girl lost
the bard
incredible world of horace ford
basically almost all from season 4
i also didnt care for the monsters are due on maple st.

These arent all them just an idea of my opinion on it.