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Favorite Twilight Zone Episode?

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Favorite Twilight Zone Episode?

Old 10-05-05, 12:01 PM
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Favorite Twilight Zone Episode?

The only two I've seen were probably the most famous ones.

The one where the pig guys perform plastic surgery on the woman and the kid in the cornfield which freaked me out as a kid.

but what are yours?

and I know theres an older thread thats similar, but it's been a while and I figured I'd start a new one.
Old 10-05-05, 12:03 PM
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"It's a cookbook!"
Old 10-05-05, 12:07 PM
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Originally Posted by HN
"It's a cookbook!"
Yep.

Since you named mine, I'll name the ep I think was called "Time Enough at Last" -- it is my second favorite.
Old 10-05-05, 12:11 PM
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From the technical episode listing, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is my favorite. From the actual Twilight Zone shows, I'd have a hard time choosing, but some of my favorites are "Where is Everybody?", "Third From the Sun", "The Howling Man", "Nick of Time", "It's a Good Life", and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". I don't really go for the gimmick ones that much (watch "To Serve Man" again and laugh at how silly it is). I like when there's a real intensity to the writing and performances.

das
Old 10-05-05, 12:21 PM
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"Hi, my name is Talking Tina...and I don't like you very much"
Old 10-05-05, 12:23 PM
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For me, it's pretty hard to pick just one.
Old 10-05-05, 12:36 PM
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oh geez i'm sorry episodessssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Old 10-05-05, 12:38 PM
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Easy. "Time Enough At Last." Brilliant.
Old 10-05-05, 12:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
Easy. "Time Enough At Last." Brilliant.


Also enjoyed "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" and "Little Girl Lost" when I was a kid. There was another that creeped me the hell out, but I don't know the name. An old lady keeps getting prank calls, supposedly from her husband who has been dead for a year. At the end of the episode she visits his grave, only to find the telephone lines have been knocked down in a storm, and the end of the line is going into the grave.

Edit: "Night Call" is the episode I described above. Now, what was the name of the one where Robert Redford plays Death...

Last edited by johnglass; 10-05-05 at 12:58 PM.
Old 10-05-05, 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by lukewarmwater
The only two I've seen...
You've only seen two episodes of The Twilight Zone? Seriously?

An episode that I just saw for the first time a couple of years ago, and has quickly become a favorite of mine, is "A Piano in the House". It might be in part because it's one of the few episodes I didn't watch over and over again growing up. Fortunately, many of them hold up well to repeat viewings, but finding one I'd never seen before, and thoroughly enjoyed, was a real treat.

Rob
Old 10-05-05, 02:30 PM
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The Howling Man
Old 10-05-05, 03:00 PM
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Originally Posted by johnglass

Edit: "Night Call" is the episode I described above. Now, what was the name of the one where Robert Redford plays Death...
Nothing in the Dark. Good ep.
Old 10-05-05, 03:22 PM
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Originally Posted by das Monkey
From the technical episode listing, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is my favorite. From the actual Twilight Zone shows, I'd have a hard time choosing, but some of my favorites are "Where is Everybody?", "Third From the Sun", "The Howling Man", "Nick of Time", "It's a Good Life", and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". I don't really go for the gimmick ones that much (watch "To Serve Man" again and laugh at how silly it is). I like when there's a real intensity to the writing and performances.

das
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" gets another nod from me, I love that episode.

*Edit* Was "The Lottery" a Twilight Zone episode? I honestly can't remember it's been so long since I've seen it. I thought that was great also.

Last edited by kakihara1; 10-05-05 at 03:24 PM.
Old 10-05-05, 03:40 PM
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One that immediately came to mind was the episode where the guy was forced to have a mark put on his forhead so everybody would ignore him. If I recall right, it was a punishment because he didn't have enough compassion. He had to live the next year of his life invisible, unable to really go anywhere or buy anything, get a hair cut, or any of the things we just take for granted. It was an episode of the 80s series.
Old 10-06-05, 02:17 AM
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God I miss the holiday marathons...
Old 10-06-05, 02:47 AM
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I don't know what the episode is called, but my favourite is the one where the guy is stranded in the department store and the mannequins come to life.
Old 10-06-05, 04:10 AM
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I'm sure Anne Francis will be thrilled.

das
Old 10-06-05, 08:27 AM
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The one with the two kids living with two miserable parents who hate each other. The kids jump in the pool and are transported to a type of Never Never Land.

A funny one with Dick York as a harried bank teller. He gets the ability to read minds and makes his life better.
Old 10-06-05, 08:49 AM
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"Five Characters in Search of an Exit"

For the twisty-turny reveal near the end alone...
Old 10-06-05, 10:12 AM
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Wasn't there one episode (Carol Burnette may have been in it) that actually had a laugh track?

Or am I just imagining this in some sort of TZ type of moment?!
Old 10-06-05, 11:28 AM
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Originally Posted by Phil L.
Wasn't there one episode (Carol Burnette may have been in it) that actually had a laugh track?

Or am I just imagining this in some sort of TZ type of moment?!
Nope, you're not imagining it. It was with Carol Burnette and the episode was called Cavender is Coming. I believe it was the only one with a laugh track.

My favorites are The Hunt and Two
Old 10-06-05, 12:19 PM
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Room 22
"Room for one more, honey"

Cliff Robertson as the ventriloquist

Shatner on the airplane

Inger Stevens and the hitch hiker

"The Midnight Sun" where the paintings start melting from the heat
Old 10-06-05, 01:12 PM
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"Time Enough at Last" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" are my two favorites.

(edited to add...)
Of course, now that I think about it, "The Eye of the Beholder", "The Masks", and "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" are also excellent.

There are just too many great episodes to really narrow it down, I think.

Last edited by RoboDad; 10-06-05 at 01:17 PM.
Old 10-06-05, 01:21 PM
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The Living Doll - Talking Tina
The mannequins - not sure of the title
The Monsters are Due on Maple Street - paranoia gone crazy
Nightmare at 20,000 Feet


Hard to come up with just one.

Honorable Mention
Invaders - Agnes Morehead
To Serve Man
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Beyond the Rim
Time Enough at Last
Old 02-24-06, 11:55 AM
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"To Serve Man" is silly and gimmicky?!?!?!?!

Originally Posted by das Monkey
watch "To Serve Man" again and laugh at how silly it is
First things first. I've read your Definitive Edition reviews, and from what I gather you're not particularly fond of the show; while I didn't keep a tally, it seems like you dislike the majority of episodes.

Now, as for "To Serve Man" being silly...I think I smell a double standard; you name "The Howling Man" as one of your favorites. Sad to say, that is hands down, THE silliest and most overrated Twilight Zone episode. I think this can be attributed in no small part to Marc Scott Zicree fellating it at some length in his Twilight Zone Companion. *Why* is it overrated? How 'bout a wildly implausible plot, for starters? How exactly does one go about catching the devil? Is he flesh and blood? Does he shrink from crosses and sunlight like Dracula? In the episode, he disappears in a puff of smoke. By rights, that would all but preclude capture at the hands of mere mortals.

Then there is the heavy-handed moral timeline. Ellington stumbles upon the hermitage in between the World Wars. The devil has been held captive for a while so I guess we are to assume that he was loose and influenced the Kaiser and Franz Joseph during the Great War, just as it is none too subtly beaten into the viewer that the Devil's release is the cause of Nazism, Facism and World War Two (and the end of the first World War credited to The Howling Man's recapture).

With The Twilight Zone, the most effective episodes are the ones that minimize suspension of disbelief and require just a smidgen of imagination. In "The Howling Man" there is no subtlety at all. The viewer doesn't get to exercise any imagination, he is bombarded with not just improbabilities, but big inconsistencies. If the devil can change his appearance on a dime, how do you know whom to catch, or does he walk the streets in horns, pitchfork and cape? If he can teleport in smoke and fire how do you lay hands on him? You mean the creature who can cause catclysmic world conflicts can be snuck up upon at some intersection by guys wearing sackcloth and sandals, spirited away and locked up annonymously in a central European abbey? Is it the Devil, and the Devil alone who causes bad things to happen?

When a TZ episode requires multiple swallows of the fantasy pill it loses effectiveness. The genius of the best Zones is that out of situations of absolute normalcy, extraordinary things can occur. In fact this is how Serling described The Twilight Zone, ordinary people faced with extraordinary situations. "The Howling Man" just doesn't make it for me. I think the script is gimmicky and manipulative and the moral heavy-handed as opposed to subtle. The story requires no imagination at all, but hits one right between the eyes. The characters are stereotyped caricatures and the roles are hammishly overacted. Further the makeup is silly, the costumes even sillier (also the case with "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet") and the ending an utter cop-out.

das, do you still think "To Serve Man" is silly and gimmicky?

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