I’m certain that I’ve totally bored many of you who follow this blog with my constantly sharing my love of old-school television and movies. And one of the things I’ve mention many-a-time is my fascination with the strange side of fictional writings and filming, such as my love of Rod Serling’s iconic Twilight Zone series or Quantum Leap, a fantastical time-travel science fiction series mixing humor, drama, romance and social commentary along with historical events and people, becoming, according to TV Guide, one of television’s most “Top Cult Shows Ever”.
My well-worn guide through the land of the weird and unknown regions of the mind.
But today I will dwell upon the Twilight Zone. During its five-year run on network television, there were a total of 156 episodes shot. For the first three years, they were the usual half hour length, but the fourth season episodes were of a one hour length. That created some problems for the production team in creating the same quality story that captured the imagination as well as setting up the sometimes O. Henry-like trick endings. But the one-hour experiment did not expand the audience as was hoped. Serling was unhappy with the results but, still, there were several truly good and rememberable episodes, and I’ve been fortunate to see them again as of late thanks to the syndication of them on METV, a channel on my cable that shows strictly old-time shows.
Of those 18 one-hour episodes, I have my own particular favorites. One of them is “Printer’s Devil”, starring Burgess Meredith. This was his final appearance in the Twilight Zone series. He was in four episodes and probably one of the most remembered would be in “Time Enough at Last”. But “Printer’s Devil” is just as memorable for he actually does portray Ol’ Nick, or Lucifer. But these appearances were just a couple of his pieces of work which covered a span of seven decades. In his early beginnings, Meredith portrayed George in the 1939 movie Of Mice and Men, a movie I highly recommend.
He also appeared in the first three Rocky movies as boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill. But other than the Twilight Zone, he did much other television work, including portraying the arch-villain Penguin in 20 episodes of Batman as well as in the 1966 movie based on the series. He also appeared in two episodes of Serling’s post Twilight Zone series, Night Gallery, one a fascinating story called “The Little Black Bag”. He even did the narration for Twilight Zone: The Movie. Regardless of the plot, Burgess Meredith was one of my most favorite actors with such a recognizable face and voice. He was one of the most famous character actors of all time.
As for other hour long Twilight Zone’s, outstanding ones were “Miniature”, featuring a rather young Robert Duvall. Then there was “Mute” starring a young, teenage Ann Jillian. Then there’s “Jess-Belle” with James Best and Anne Francis, a totally supernatural thriller written by Earl Hamner, Jr., just one of the eight episodes he did for the “Zone” before helping to create the monumental series based on his own life, The Waltons, and Falcon Crest.
Those are just a few of the 18 eerie tales created by some of the best writers of the era, such as Richard Matheson, the author of The Incredible Shrinking Man, as well as the short story “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” which was also turned into one of the most remembered Twilight Zone episodes starring a pre Star Trek William Shatner.
And that’s another thing that I so love about old television, seeing all the young actors who later became famous performing in shows written by some of the people who also became some of my favorite authors. But without a doubt, along with a few other old friends, Twilight Zone is one of my most, if not THE most favorite of all time. Of the 156 episodes, I’ve seen all of ’em, over and over, which includes the rare pilot episode “The Time Element“. There were also four episodes which weren’t included in the original syndication which I’ve been fortunate to see.
So, yeah, I do find myself dwelling in the “Zone”, and as long as I have a television, I always will.
My husband would love this! He’s the biggest Twilight Zone fan I’ve ever seen.
It’s one of the things that I enjoyed reading before! It sparks your imagination, and makes you think as well.
I grew up watching The Twilight Zone! I agree it is cool to watch them now and see the actors when they were young. Oh I also LOVED Quantum Leap!! Of all the Twilight Zone’s Nightmare at 20,000 feet stands out in my mind the strongest when it comes to childhood memories of the show for sure!
I personally have a couple of episodes that tie into my childhood memories. They come from the 2nd and 3rd season when I was only 8-years-old. The first one is “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” which starred Cliff Robertson. He was a pioneer traveling across the desert of New Mexico who went over a hill looking for water for his sick son and the first thing he saw was a highway and a semi truck. As a kid, that totally fascinated me and stuck in my mind for all these years, and most likely also fostered my love of time travel which carried me to my love of ‘Quantum Leap’. And then there was “The Passerby” which featured James Gregory as a Confederate Civil War soldier marching down a road on his way home from the war who stops and talks with a lady waiting for her husband to come home. As they sit and talk, so many others pass by on the road. Eventually her husband comes but the episode ends with the last person coming down the road: Abraham Lincoln. Yep, they were all dead. James Gregory even wore a belt buckle that upside down that said CSA (Confederate States of America). When questioned why by the director he told him they were dead and that signified it. Gregory went on to star in a major role in the fantastic cold war movie “The Manchurian Candidate” and later was a regular on another of my favorite old shows, “Barney Miller”. So, yeah, the ‘Zone’ was full of actors which I’ve followed my entire life.
I used to love watching Twilight Zone when I was a kid! It spooked me a little bit, but I also found it super intriguing.
I used to try to watch the twilight zone because my friend was a huge fan. I just couldn’t get into it but I am going to have to try again.
I remember when my dad used to watch the Twilight Zone and Quantum Leap. I never got into them, I was a tween around the time they were out.
Most likely you were a tween when “Quantum Leap” was on for that was 1989-1993. But “Twilight Zone” was originally on 1959-1964 so what your dad was watching was syndicated. But then, again, it’s been in syndication for over 50 years and will most likely be on TV forever!
I could never get into this show but my family used to love it when I was a kid.
I go on Twilight Zone binges on holidays when the tv show is on for marathons. So many great stories!
Oh I’ve never heard of this show before but it sounds like something my husband would like! He loves anything like this, Quantum Leap was a big hit here!