Twilight Zone fans: Do you prefer the quieter, less fantastical episodes?

[DerekG]

Nothing has diminished my enthusiasm for The Twilight Zone; even in the HBO era, I consider Serling's series the crown jewel of television drama.

What has changed are my preferences. When I was a boy, my love was for the more renowned, fantastical episodes (e.g., “Time Enough At Last,” “Eye of the Beholder”). Now, as I approach 30, I find myself drawn to the more subdued character studies, where the emphasis is not on the twist ending. Episodes like “Walking Distance” and “A Stop at Willoughby” enchant and haunt me. Serling had such a profound empathy for the lonely and unloved and wrote so beautifully about alienation and failure. These stories resonate all the more with each passing year.

Anyone else?

[tblue]

1. Hadn't thought of it that way.

The Willoughby episode really stayed with me. It's even become sort of an inside joke in my family. Not that it's funny, just that it's a metaphor for anywhere you don't want to go. Like when one of us is going to the dentist, we'll say, "Next stop: Willoughby!"

I'm trying to think of more examples like those you mentioned but the only ones I can think of are the ones with the twist. The Hitchhiker is one that still creeps me out. The one with the guy who escapes from his hanging and the one with the stopwatch. Sorry I don't know the titles. Also the one where the couple is trapped in the deserted town. I thought those were brilliant.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. There's one about a man who escapes from his hanging that is based on

the Ambrose Bierce story, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It's the only Twilight Zone episode that was made by an outside production studio and purchased for the series.

It's about a man who is being hanged for desertion/treason/something during the Civil War. The rope breaks, and he's off and running through the countryside...

[Ikonoklast]

11. I remember watching that episode when it first aired with my Mom.

It left a lasting impression on me.

[provis99]

3. I like his socialist\pinko episodes the best

you couldn't get away today with the moral tales he tells.

[PlanetBev]

4. I saw the debut on October 2, 1959

It was "Where is Everybody?" with Earl Holliman, Jr. I was just turning nine years old and I was hooked immediately. The show started up on Mondays, and then switched to Fridays. Thank goodness, my mother would have never let me stay up every Monday to see it.

My favorite episode will always be "The Shelter" the one about friends and neighbors turning into a mob, trying to claw their way into a bomb shelter when they thought they were facing a nuclear attack.

[pacalo]

5. My favorite has one of the creepiest actors in it from my childhood days...

...Edward Andrews.


"You Drive", in which a driver (Edward Andrews) hits a boy with his car but doesn't report it. His car serves as his conscience, terrorizing him until the not-so-surprising ending.

Here he is in the kitchen discussing the awful front-page hit-&-run story with his June Cleaver wife...





He was creepy-good in "Thriller", too.

In "A Good Imagination" he's a bookworm husband who has read a lot of mystery novels & has learned how to commit the perfect murder -- which he practices on his cheating, floozy wife.

Guess who's behind this newly-cemented wall in his basement?

[WinkyDink]

10. OMG! I was just about to post this in reply before I finished your post! I remember this episode so

clearly!

Edward Andrews. That made him one of my all-time faves.

[pacalo]

14. I always thought that the "Good Imagination" episode was from the Alfred Hitchcock show

but I found out it came from "Thriller" when I got Netflix.

Edward Andrews was one of my all-time creepy favorites, too.

[snagglepuss]

6. I liked and alike them all but one that has always stayed with me was about

horrific masks members of a family had to wear when a will was read. Later when the masks were removed everyone face's face conformed to the mask each was wearing. There was another story but I don't know if it was a TZ episode or some other show. The episode was called The Sin Eater, about the youngest child of a family who was required to eat the sin's of others so they could go to heaven. It was very tramatic. I'd be interested to know if this was a TZ episode.

[DerekG]

8. There was a Night Gallery ep. about a sin eater

I didn't see it, but this might be the one you're looking for.

[snagglepuss]

9. Thanks it was the Night Gallery, I got the two confused. It was called

The Sins of the Father. Absolutely terrifying.

[TuxedoKat]

15. Yes it was Night Gallery

and John Boy (Richard Thomas) was the star.

[Frank Cannon]

7. "Walking Distance" and "A Stop at Willoughby" are my two favorite episodes.

So I guess my answer is yes, I guess I do.

[texanwitch]

12. A lot of us here we young kids when we watched this show, a lot of the shows were scary to us.

I had few nightmares after watching a few of the shows.

The shows did make you think.

I would have to say I like the thoughtful ones better.

[Lionel Mandrake]

13. "Time Enough at Last"

Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis



Excerpted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Enough_at_Last

Finding himself totally alone in a shattered world with food to last him a lifetime, but no one to share it with, Bemis succumbs to despair. As he prepares to commit suicide using a revolver he has found, Bemis sees the ruins of the public library in the distance. Investigating, he finds that the books are still intact and readable; all the books he could ever hope for are his for the reading, and all the time in the world to read them without interruption.

His despair gone, Bemis contentedly sorts the books he looks forward to reading for years to come. Just as he bends down to pick up the first book, he stumbles, and his glasses fall off and shatter. In shock, he picks up the broken remains of the glasses he is virtually blind without, and says, "That's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was all the time I needed...! That's not fair!", and bursts into tears, surrounded by books he now can never read.

What a devastating ending! Rod Serling, you fiend, how could you?

According to the Wikipedia article cited above, the original story was written by Lyn Venable (Marilyn Venable) and published in the magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction in 1953.

[TuxedoKat]

16. I like the Walking Distance episode too

that's probably my favorite TW episode, it really resonates with me too. Partly because of the emotions evoked and also because I read a book about retrocognition once. Did you ever see the movie Peggy Sue Got Married? It's about a woman who goes back in time to when she was in high school. It's partially a comedy but there is one scene in it that just makes me cry buckets! I won't tell you in case you haven't seen it because if you do, you will figure it out for yourself.

The second or third time I watched Walking Distance I noticed that Homewood was set in NY state, and Serling was born and buried in NY. Makes me want to read more about him.

edited for typo

[petronius]

17. I like the ones with the sexy tweener vampires...

:yoiks:

[Auggie]

18. Little Girl Lost

Missing: one frightened little girl. Name: Bettina Miller. Description: six years of age, average height and build, light brown hair, quite pretty. Last seen being tucked into bed by her mother a few hours ago. Last heard--aye, there's the rub, as Hamlet put it. For Bettina Miller can be heard quite clearly, despite the rather curious fact that she can't be seen at all. Present location? Let's say for the moment--in the Twilight Zone.



One of my favorites