-Featured many soon-to-be-famous actors, such as Robert Redford, William Shatner, Burt Reynolds, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin and Peter Falk, as well as such Hollywood legends as Buster Keaton, Art Carney, Mickey Rooney, Ida Lupino and John Carradine
“The Obsolete Man” with Burgess Meredith is my absolute favorite; sad that we seem to be heading in that direction at warp speed...
Probably the most innovative television show of all time!
The very best episode of all, IMHO, is “Willoughby.” As in, “Will you be getting off in Willoughby, sir?”
“After hours” with Ann Francis, I had this mad crush on her.
The one where the pretty girl is considered ugly, in a world where everyone else looks like Helen Thomas on a good day or Michelle Obama on a bad one...
Another classic episode, submitted for your consideration: “To Serve Man,” starring Lloyd Bochner. “It’s a cookbook!”
My fav is the one with the atomic bomb and the guy is finally alone so he can read to his heart’s content but then breaks his glasses.
As big a fan as I am of “The Twilight Zone”, 1959 also saw the introduction of “One Step Beyond”. I always found that creepier because the episodes were supposedly based on actual events.
from a bygone era where talented people actually regarded television as literature. Nothing on the air today comes close to approaching this quality.
You better remember "It's a Good Life" or Billy Mumy will make this thread go to the cornfield.
When he thinks that a meeting has gone on too long and lost its focus, he's been known to walk to a back corner of the room, look into an imaginary camera and say "Submitted for your consideration......."
Needless to say, he has earned the gratitude of the participants many times.
Does anyone know how one could go about buying a DVD package containing most—if not all—of the TV programs?
I have not seen anything in the stores.
Oh, regarding my earlier post, post #12 won’t do me any good since I have dial-up and no video works for me.
I bet it would never make it to the air today with the same quality of writing.
One of the most overrated tv shows of all time.
The best 10% of the series ranks up there with the best 10% of all television ever produced.
That being said, the average TZ’s story could be conveyed in under 30 seconds. The stories are simple, though the best ones are not simplistic. When Serling wrote the episodes, the dialogue is stilted and heavy handed. When others wrote episodes (like Richard Matheson), the shows tended to be much better.
A typical TZ is a 30 second story stretched out to 30 minutes. It’s often painful to sit through. The one season when it was extended to an astonishing 1 hour per episode was torture.
I like the antholgy format, and to be fair TZ hit home runs now and then. As a series, it’s not a home run, let alone a grand slam.
The Outer Limits was much better tv science fiction with much more sophisticated plots and stories. Cooler aliens and monsters, too.
My faves are “to Serve Man” and “The New Exhibit”. For those with the Sci-Fi channel, the show is on sometime in the middle of the night, set up the DVR to record them. I actually watch them with my kids, they love them as well.
I ran into Rod Serling in the grocery store.