The Twilight Zone - Beware Spoilers

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Kitty
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The Twilight Zone - Beware Spoilers

Post by Kitty »

The Twilight Zone was more than a 'scary' tv show, as it is remembered by many today. It makes a person think... what if? Every single one of those episodes were intelligent, wonderful stories. It transports you to a world where anything at all can be.
I love the episodes Bewitchin' Pool, Walking Distance, Last Stop Willoughby, Kick the Can, Time Enough At Last (with the incomparable Burgess Meredith), One for the Angels (with Ed Wynn), and Penny for Your Thoughts, with a young Dick York who suddenly can read people's thoughts. These are just a few that come to mind first, I am quite sure I can come up with many others. What episodes stick in your mind? What do you think of them?
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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Mrs. Danvers
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Re: The Twilight Zone

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Best show EVER on TV. Every year around New Years the SyFy channel shows every single Twilight Zone episode in order! Twilight Zone really ran the gambit of emotions, I can remember crying my eyes out at a few of them, the old man with his dog trying to get to heaven, the Devil stops him on the way and tries to get him to come with him, but the dog is not allowed, so the old man knew it wasn't a place for him and he continues on down the road to Heaven.

I'm too lazy to look up the titles of the episodes...but here goes.

The one where a young Robert Redford is death coming to visit Gladys Cooper, she is holed up in her run down little apartment hiding from him.

The Billy Mumy one where he wishes the bad people into the cornfield. Cloris Leachman is his mom. "That's real good Anthony, that's real good."

How to Serve Man....oh boy that is about my favorite.

And the one where the aliens pick up Andy Devine from an old country store, because he is such a BS artist, they think he is the smartest man on earth.

No wait, it's the one in the Diner where the passengers of a bus are waiting out a storm, it ends up with a three armed Alien having coffee and a cigarette while chatting up the counter man, informing him they are invading Earth, but then the three armed Alien and the viewers get to see that he is too late, because the counter man pushes his cap back to reveal his third eye.

I'd be hard pressed to think of an episode that I don't like.
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

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Kitty
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by Kitty »

I loved The Twilight Zone so much that I knew all of those episodes I named offhand :lol: Yes, I'm that person. The one with Billy Mumy is It's a Good Life. I can think of only a few I didn't particularly like. One was the french short. It was just too out of place, and the other was the .... it pains me to say this.... Buster Keaton episode. I feel that they didn't capture the cleverness of Buster, and it was more like a Keystone Kops short than a real silent comedy short that Buster would have made in his heyday. This is going off my initial reaction of watching it the one time that I did. Perhaps a second viewing would change my mind.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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Mrs. Danvers
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by Mrs. Danvers »

I remember both of those too, The Owl Creek Bridge one, even though I am a Civil War buff and do like the writings of Ambrose Bierce and the Buster Keaton one was not so good either, I remember it as being a sad comparison of what he once was. I'd have to watch them both again too, sometimes I surprise myself when I rewatch something I thought I didn't like. Our tastes change a bit over the decades.

There is one with Jack Klugman I don't care for either, now that I really think about it, Jack Klugman and a trumpet.

All hail Kitty, I am humbled at your ability to remember the names of the episodes, I thought I was an obsessive fan.
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

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Kitty
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by Kitty »

Hahaha. Actually I really liked the Jack Klugman episodes. I think he appeared in 2 of them. Ed Wynn appeared in another awesome one concerning a grandfather clock.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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donnie
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by donnie »

It's amazing how creative that show was. Many of them I've not seen, though. I have seen the Owl Creek Bridge one, and did not particularly like it, either. I thought the one with William Shatner was good.

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Kitty
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by Kitty »

donnie wrote:
Sun Mar 05, 2017 1:51 pm
I thought the one with William Shatner was good.
Yes! Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, I think. That is the one people always talk about, with Time Enough At Last and Eye of the Beholder.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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Mrs. Danvers
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Re: The Twilight Zone

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The one where Shatner and his new wife are waiting in a Diner for their car to be repaired, there is a fortune telling machine, it's called Nick of Time. I had to look it up. It's a good episode, I like how most of the episodes are just regular everyday people in extraordinary situations. And a lot of the episodes really show the dark side of human nature. But I mostly love the fantasy/sci-fi aspects of the shows.
We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

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Kitty
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Re: The Twilight Zone

Post by Kitty »

I think that's exactly why they hold up so well--- human nature doesn't change throughout the years. It has been the same since the dawn of humans.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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Kitty
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Re: The Twilight Zone

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I think it's high time to rewatch all the episodes of The Twilight Zone! I'll give a review of each episode as I watch them! :)

Let's start with season one, because, well, isn't that the logical thing to do? :lol:
The first episode ever aired in 1959 and is entitled Where Is Everybody?. It opens on a man who enters a diner, and, upon looking for the cook, realizes no one is there. In fact, there is no sign of life anywhere in the entire town! The only thing that he is sure of is that he is American, as he has two dollars and eighty-five cents in American money to his name. (I guess he could have also known that from his accent!)
He looks all over for someone to talk to, and he thinks he gets his wish, for he sees a woman in a truck across the way. In an eerie yet clever plot point, he realizes he is not speaking to a living woman, but a mannequin. The side of the truck is revealed to the viewer to show that the truck is for a mannequin company.
He tries to use the pay phone, and soon realizes that the voice on the phone is just a recording. He goes to an ice cream parlor and serves himself a scoop of ice cream, and begins to talk to himself, looking into a beautifully clean mirror as he eats. This scene is shot in a neat way: one almost expects his reflection to move on its own, forgetting to mimic the movements of its source.
This episode is very eerie because everything is just as it would be -- the whole town is in working order. Water is running, the electricity is on.... and when he goes into the police station there is even a lit cigar in the ash tray -- but no one is found. He then enters a jail cell where he discovers the running water, and in an interesting simple scare, the door starts to swing shut. Luckily he gets out of the cell in time.
It's like he really is "The Last Man On Earth", as he goes into a shop and examines a rounder of books where every single one is named so.
Soon we see that he is very bored and lonely, playing tic-tac-toe. It is getting dark, and the lights around town come on, renewing hope that there is someone actually here. He goes into the movie theatre, where early in the episode you see on the sign above the entrance that Battle Hymn is playing. He looks at the poster outside for a moment, which him finally remember he is in the Air Force. In a wave of excitement, he runs all around the movie theater yelling, "Hey! I'm in the Air Force!" This scene taken out of context is kind of funny. It left me saying "Good for you, Buddy!" :lol:
After this, he sits in the dark theater for a moment, when suddenly the movie comes on. Surely someone is running the movie projector!! But what do you think? The projector is turning all by itself, no one in sight.
This really puts him off the deep end. In a frenzy, he runs all over the place in a crooked camera angle sort of nightmarish sequence.
The scene changes to show that he is in very small quarters. We learn that he was doing a test to see how well he could do in isolation so that he could attend a mission on the moon. We learn that he had undergone this test for over 400 hours before he cracked. He has done very well according to the commander. In a closing scene, our main character is shown talking to the moon, telling it not to go away, because he'd be up there soon.
Put into perspective, we were still ten years off to visiting the moon, so this was still a dream for America. It's interesting to think of it like that.
In all, although I have seen this episode before, as I have seen all the original run of episodes, I still found myself holding my breath and on the edge of my seat.
The Twilight Zone is the best.
You trying to tell me you didn't hear that shriek? That was something trying to get out of its premature grave, and I don't want to be here when it does. - Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

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