Posted on 09/22/2015 8:14:40 AM PDT by pabianice
Rod Serling served as a U.S. Armyparatrooper and demolition specialist with the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific Theater in World War II from January 1943 to January 1945 (Discharged stateside in 1946). He was seriously wounded in the wrist and knee during combat and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Serling's military service deeply affected the rest of his life and influenced much of his writing. Due to his wartime experiences, Serling suffered from nightmares and flashbacks. During his service in World War II, he watched as his best friend was crushed to death by a heavy supply crate dropped by a parachute onto the field. Serling was rather short (5'4") and slight. He was a noted boxer during his military days.
Rodman Edward Serling was born in Syracuse, N.Y., on December 25, 1924, and grew up in Binghamton, the son of a wholesale meat dealer. By his own account, he had no early literary ambitions...
(Excerpt) Read more at army.togetherweserved.com ...
Good on him. I’ll watch Twilight Zone with a new appreciation.
A very unique imagination. I watch TZ most times I see it on. I understand he regretted the following for the rest of his life. From WIKI:
“Serling sold the rights to The Twilight Zone to CBS. His wife later claimed he did this partly because he believed his own studio would never recoup the production costs of the programs, which frequently went over budget.”
"Apparently benign alien emissaries show mankind how to end the misery
of war, plague and famine. The Kanamits, nine-foot tall aliens, arrive on
Earth with one lofty goal: To Serve Man. They end war, they end famine.
They make the military wonder: what's the catch?"
I remember one Twilight Zone episode where a soldier could see who would die. He was shaving and looked in the small field mirror and the victim’s face would have a whitish glow. It was pretty creepy at the time and stayed in my thoughts for quite a while.
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man.
It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.
This is the dimension of imagination.
It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
Interesting stuff!
I think writing Twilight Zone script was “therapy” for Rod Serling that I understand he suffer from flasbacks and nightmare so those some of episodes were written at night
Nice work. Serling’s “To Serve Man” is what came first to my mind. Actually, that’s been happening a lot this year. Must be lunchtime again.
I think the “Pig Face” episode with Ellie May Clampett would be a good morph.
Bump.
Many Twilight Zone episodes are ingrained into our culture — sometimes with people not even aware it was the source.
To Serve Man, Monsters are Due on Maple Street (shot on what is now known as “Wisteria Lane”), Eye of the Beholder, The Invaders (not a single word is spoken by Agnes Moorehead), Its a Good Life (a great follow-up was filmed a few years ago, starring again Billy Mumy and Cloris Leachman), Nightmare at 20,000 feet (proof that Shatner has no top to go over) and so many others.
Shatner was also in an episode where he and his wife are at a diner in a rural town and cannot leave because a mechanical fortune teller would not let them exit.
Agnes Moorehead in ‘The Invaders’ is one of the most interesting acting performances I’ve ever seen.
-JT
The article never mentions Auburn, NY.
My grandparents lived at 32 Maple Street in Auburn and my grandmother used to babysit Rod Serling who lived next door. My grandparents lived the corner of Maple and Walnut. In a few of the Twilight Zone episodes, they even use the street sign and neighborhood in the background, including a shot of my grandparents home.
Season One:
1. Where is Everybody?
Airdate: 2 Oct 1959
A man with no memory of who he is finds himself stranded in a deserted town. He comes to the conclusion that he may be the last man alive on earth; a view that he changes when he feels himself being watched.
Main Cast: Earl Holliman, James Gregor
2. One For The Angels
Airdate: 9 Oct 1959
A pavement salesman, Lew Brookman, is visited by Mr. Death, who tells him that he has to die by midnight. Lew convinces Mr. Death to allow him to live until he has made one last big pitch.
Main Cast: Murray Hamilton, Ed Wynn, Dana Dillaway
3. Mr Denton On Doomsday
Airdate: 16 Oct 1959
When a clapped out retired gun-slinger, Al Denton, acquires a magic potion from a mysterious man going by the name of Henry J. Fate, it makes him, for a time, the fastest gunslinger in the West. The events he then experiences teach him some lessons about life.
Main Cast: Martin Landau, Doug Mclure, Malcolm Atterbury, Dan Duryea
4. The Sixteen Millimetre Shrine
Airdate: 23 Oct 1959
Barbara Jean Trenton, an ageing actress, stays in her private screening room watching her old films, trying to relive her past. Her agent, Danny Weiss, tries to arrange a new acting part for her in a movie, but this only serves to drive her into further introspection.
Main Cast: Ida Lupino, Martin Balsam, Ted de Corsia, John Clarke
5. Walking Distance
Airdate: 30 Oct 1959
When Martin Sloan is driving through the country, he makes a stop at Homewood, his hometown when he was a child. Strangely, he finds that things are still the same as they were in the past. Magically, he seems to have been transported back in time.
Main Cast: Murray Hamilton, Ed Wynn, Dana Dillaway
6. Escape Clause
Airdate: 6 Nov 1959
Walter Bedecker makes a pact with a Mr. Cadwallader; immortality for his soul. An escape clause is provided if he ever tires of his life. Bedecker soon finds that immortality is not as easy as he thought, and an escape clause may be just what he needs.
Main Cast: David Wayne, Thomas Gomez, Virginia Christine
7. The Lonely
Airdate: 13 Nov 1959
James A. Corry, a convicted criminal, is confined to solitary confinement on an asteroid nine million miles from Earth. Allenby, a supply ship captain, takes pity on him and leaves him a robot that looks like a woman. Eventually Corry falls in love with the robot.
Main Cast: David Wayne, Thomas Gomez, virginia Christine
8. Time Enough At Last
Airdate: 20 Nov 1959
Henry Bemis, a bankteller, has one passion in life - reading. When he skives off to the vault to read, the outside of the bank is hit by an almighty blastwave. Waking up, he finds that the Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war. Initially contemplating suicide, he spots a library. At last, he can do all the reading he wishes - or so he believes.
Main Cast: Burgess Meredith, Vaughn Taylor, Jacqueline deWitt, Lela Bliss
9. Perchance To Dream
Airdate: 27 Nov 1959
A highly fatigued man, Edward Hall, visits a psychiatrist and explains to him that if he falls to sleep it will trigger a nightmare and cause a fatal heart attack. He explains to the psychiatrist that in his nightmare a carnival dancer, Maya, beckons him onto a roller coaster in an attempt to frighten him to death.
Main Cast: Richard Conte, John Larch, Suzanne Lloyd
10. Judgement Night
Airdate: 4 Dec 1959
Having no memory of how he got there, German Carl Lanser finds himself aboard the S.S. Glasgow. Lanser fears that they are being stalked by a U-boat and that they will be killed at 1.15 a.m. He frantically tries to convince the crew, unsuccessfully, that an attack is imminent.
Main Cast: Nehemiah Persoff, Ben Wright, Patrick Macnee
11. And When The Sky Was Opened
Airdate: 11 Dec 1959
Three astronauts flying an experimental rocketship for the first time strangely disappear and then reappear from the radar. After they land, they find that all evidence of their existences are slowly being erased from history.
Main Cast: Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman, Jim Hutton
12. What You Need
Airdate: 25 Dec 1959
Pavement salesman Pedott has a strange ability; he can give people just what they need. He helps many people in his encounters. When he meets a man called Renard, a cheap hustler, Pedott finds his benevolence exploited.
Main Cast: Steve Cochran, Ernest Truex
13. The Four Of Us Are Dying
Airdate: 1 Jan 1960
Arch Hammer, a cheap nickel-and-dime man, has a talent he discovered at an early age; he can contort his face into any shape he wants. When he uses it to escape the demons of his past, he finds he must be careful who he impersonates.
Main Cast: Harry Townes, Philip Vine, John Gordon, Ross Martin
14. Third From The Sun
Airdate: 8 Jan 1960
When scientists William Sturka and Jerry Riden believe that a nuclear holocaust is imminent, they decide to escape with their families by stealing an experimental rocketship. What they do not know is that a fellow colleague is onto their game.
Main Cast: Fritz Weaver, Joe Maross
15. I Shot An Arrow In The Air
Airdate: 15 Jan 1960
The Arrow one, the Earth’s first manned spacecraft, crashes killing three of the eight astronauts on board. Believing they are stranded on an asteroid, and with only five gallons of water left, tensions lead to desperate measures.
Main Cast: Dewey Martin, Edward Binns
16. The Hitch-Hiker
Airdate: 22 Jan 1960
Nan Adams has a motor accident while driving across the country from New York to Los Angeles. She has a mechanic put a tyre on her car, and when she comes to drive it away she sees a strange man hitch-hiking. As she drives further on, she somehow sees the same hitch-hiker repeatedly turn up.
Main Cast: Inger Stevens, Leonard Strong
17. The Fever
Airdate: 29 Jan 1960
Franklin Gibbs loathes gambling. When his wife Flora wins a trip to Las vegas, he is forced to go. While there, he encounters a slot-machine calling his name and is slowly but surely dragged into a world of gambling fever.
Main Cast: Everett Sloane, Vivi Janiss
18. The Last Flight
Airdate: 5 Feb 1960
When his friend becomes surrounded by enemy planes during a World War I mission, Flight Lieutenant Decker deserts him and flies through a strange white cloud. He lands finding himself at a modern-day American Air base.
Main Cast: Kenneth Haig, Simon Scott
19. The Purple Testament
Airdate: 12 Feb 1960
In a U.S. Army infantry platoon, Lieutenant Fitzgerald discovers that he has the ability to tell when a person is about to die by seeing a strange light flash across their faces. After correctly predicting several deaths, he tells Captain Riker of his eerie talent, who then tells Captain Gunther, a doctor. Captain Gunther believes it must be fatigue, but is it?
Main Cast: William Reynolds, Dick York, Barney Philips
20. Elegy
Airdate: 19 Feb 1960
Out of fuel, three astronauts land on an asteroid. The place is similar to Earth, but no-one moves. Soon, they meet a caretaker, who tells them that the place is an exclusive cemetery for the departed.
Main Cast: Cecil Kellaway, Jeff Morrow, Kevin Hagen, Don Dubbins
21. Mirror Image
Airdate: 26 Feb 1960
Millicent Barnes is waiting at a bus station for a journey that will take her to her new job at Buffalo, New York. When the bus is late, she speaks to the man at the ticket counter, who tells her that this is the third time she has asked the same question. Subsequent events lead her to believe that she is being tormented by her double.
Main Cast: Vera Miles, Martin Milner
22. The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
Airdate: 4 Mar 1960
When a meteor flies overhead, Maple street undergoes a power-failure. Science-fiction reader Tommy causes widespread panic when he tells people that aliens are to blame. The paranoia that then infects Maple street threatens to set neighbour upon neighbour.
Main Cast: Claude Akins, Barry Atwater
23. A World Of Difference
Airdate: 11 Mar 1960
Arthur Curtis, a successful businessman, is living a normal life until he hears someone shout “cut”. He discovers that his office is a set on a sound stage. His real name is Gerry Raigan, an alcoholic movie-star in the middle of a messy divorce and an ever declining career. What sort of nightmare world has he entered, and can he escape it?
Main Cast: Howard Duff, Eileen Ryan
24. Long Live walter Jameson
Airdate: 18 Mar 1960
Samuel Killridge recognises his future son-in-law, Walter Jameson, in an old Civil war photograph. He later discovers that Kilridge has the gift of eternal youth and is in fact hundreds of years old.
Main Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Edgar Stehli, Estelle Winwood
25. People Are Alike All Over
Airdate: 25 Mar 1960
Sam Conrad and Mark Marcusson are two astronauts on a mission heading for the red planet, Mars. The landing proves to be so severe that Marcusson dies upon impact. The Martians, seemingly benevolent, build Sam Conrad a house just like the one he has on Earth. It soon becomes apparent that it has just one difference.
Main Cast: Roddy McDowall
26. Execution
Airdate: 1 Apr 1960
About to be hanged for murder, Joe Caswell disappears and finds himself in a modern-day laboratory. Professor Manion explains that a time machine that he has built pulled him from the past. How will inveterate criminal caswell fare in the modern world?
Main Cast: Albert Salmi, Russell Johnson
27. The Big Tall Wish
Airdate: 8 Apr 1960
When boxer Bolie Jackson breaks his hand prior to his fight, Henry, a small boy and his biggest fan, makes his biggest tallest wish. Later, as the fight reaches its conclusion, a magical event happens that Bolie can just not come to terms with.
Main Cast: Ivan Dixon, Steven Perry
28. A Nice Place to Visit
Airdate: 15 Apr 1960
Rocky Valentine, a career criminal, is gunned down by the police. Rocky revives and finds himself in the company of Pip, who tells him that he has been instructed to give him anything he should desire. Needless to say, ‘paradise’ proves not to be all it’s cracked up to be.
Main Cast: Larry Blyden, Sebastian Cabot
29. Nightmare as a Child
Airdate: 29 Apr 1960
When schoolteacher Helen Foley encounters a young girl named Markie on the stairs outside her apartment humming a nursery rhyme, she unlocks a traumatic childhood memory; a memory that she has long suppressed.
Main Cast: Janice Rule, Morgan Brittany
30. A Stop at Willoughby
Airdate: 6 May 1960
Put upon by his boss and nagged by his wife, Gart Williams retreats into the fantasy world of Willoughby on his train journey home. One day, he steps off the train to find that his fantasy has come true.
Main Cast: James Daly
31. The Chaser
Airdate: 13 May 1960
Wanting to win Leila’s affections, Roger Shackleforth purchases a love potion from Professor A.Daemon. He soon becomes tired of her never-ending adoration for him. Could another trip to the Professor solve his problems?
Main Cast: George Grizzard, John McIntire
32. A Passage for Trumpet
Airdate: 20 May 1960
Joey, a musician, convinced life isn’t worth living throws himself in front of an oncoming truck. He wakes up to find himself on the street at night, all alone. After walking around for a time, he finds he cannot see his own reflection and believes that he is a ghost.
Main Cast: Jack Klugman
33. Mr. Bevis
Airdate: 3 Jun 1960
Mr. Bevis suffers one of the most horrendous days of his life; he is sacked from his job, evicted from his apartment and his beloved car is trashed. His guardian angel appears, and he is allowed to start his day all over again. Will he like his newly transformed life?
Main Cast: Orson Bean
34. The After Hours
Airdate: 10 Jun 1960
After buying a gold thimble at a department store, Marsha White finds later that the floor on which she bought it doesn’t exist.
Main Cast: Marsha White
35. The Mighty casey
Airdate: 17 Jun 1960
A baseball team on a long losing streak hire Casey, a robot pitcher. He proves to be a superb player, throwing lightning fast pitches; but does he qualify as a person?
Main Cast: Jack Warden, Robert Sorrells, Abraham Sofaer
36. A World of His Own
Airdate: 1 Jul 1960
Gregory West can make anything happen by simply speaking it into his dictation machine. If he wants it to stop, he simply throws the tape into the fireplace. He conjures up a beautiful woman, but his wife, Victoria, comes home early and spots him with her. Will Victoria believe Gregory’s explanation?
Main Cast: Keenan Wynn
Season Two:
1. King Nine Will Not Return
Airdate: 30 Sep 1960 King Nine Will Not Return - Twilight Zone The year is 1943, the place Africa. James Embry wakes up amongst the wreckage of King nine, a medium bomber. He has vague memories of crashing with the crew, so he sets off to look for them.
Main Cast: Robert Cummings, Paul Lambert, Gene Lyons
2. The Man In The Bottle
Airdate: 7 Oct 1960
Arthur Castle, an unsuccessful antiques dealer, buys a seemingly worthless bottle in pity from a poor old lady. The bottle contains a genie who grants him and his wife four wishes. The genie warns that every wish has consequences and that they must choose them wisely. Will they?
Main Cast: Luther Adler, Joseph Ruskin
3. Nervous Man In A Four Dollar Room
Airdate: 14 Oct 1960
Jackie is ordered to kill a bar owner. Too nervous to carry out the hit, he sees a strange reflection in a mirror. It is of himself, but with one difference - the reflection is confident and self-assured, everything that Jackie is not.
Main Cast: Joe Mantell, William D. Gordon
4. A Thing About Machines
Airdate: 28 Oct 1960
To Bartlett Finchley machines are an anathema. He constantly abuses them and has come to the conclusion that they are conspiring against him. The people around him write him off as paranoid, but they are proven wrong as every machine he owns eventually turn on him.
Main Cast: Richard Haydn
5. The Howling Man
Airdate: 4 Nov 1960
Seeking refuge from a storm, a traveller chances upon a hermitage of monks. They are forced to take him in when he passes out. When he revives, he hears a howling sound and discovers an old man who says he is being kept captive by brother Jerome. Brother Jerome admits to the traveller that the old man is being imprisoned, but it is because he is really the Devil!
Main Cast: John Carradine, Robin Hughes, H.M. Wynant
6. Eye Of The Beholder
Airdate: 11 Nov 1960
Janet Tyler is in hospital waiting for the outcome of her latest operation to be revealed. If not successful, she will be forced into a segregated area where others of her kind are kept.
Main Cast: Maxine Stuart
7. Nick Of Time
Airdate: 18 Nov 1960
Waiting for their car to be repaired, Don and Pat, a honeymooning couple, take a meal at a diner. Don spots a fortune-telling machine and soon becomes entranced by its seemingly accurate predictions.
Main Cast: William Shatner, Patricia Breslin
8. The Lateness Of The Hour
Airdate: 2 Dec 1960
Dr. Loren’s house is staffed by androids. Jane, his daughter, believes that they have become over-reliant on their artificial servants and implores her father to dismantle them. After he agrees to her requests, she tells her parents that she wishes to leave and start a family.
Main Cast: Inger Stevens, John Hoyt, Irene Tedrow
9. The Trouble With Templeton
Airdate: 9 Dec 1960
Templeton yearns for the days when his wife Laura was still alive. After an altercation in the theatre with a young director, he finds himself back in 1927. He locates Laura, but his memories are not what he thought they were.
Writer: Jack Neuman
10. A Most Unusual Camera
Airdate: 16 Dec 1960
Chester and his wife Paula come into the possession of a camera that takes pictures of things five minutes in the future. When Paul’s brother shows up, they decide to take pictures at a racetrack to win some money. Later, they discover that the camera will produce only two more pictures. Will they come to an agreement about how to use their last two shots, or will the situation lead to their downfall?
Main Cast: Fred Clark, Jean Carson, Adam Williams
11. The Night Of The Meek
Airdate: 23 Dec 1960
Henry Corwin, a store santa, is fired on Christmas Eve after arriving drunk for work. Stumbling into an alley, he hears some sleigh bells and trips over a large bag stuffed with packages which has the magical ability to give out any item that is asked of it. What part will the bag play in Henry’s destiny?
Main Cast: Art carney
12. Dust
Airdate: 6 Jan 1961
A condemned man’s family buy some ‘magic dust’ from a dishonest peddler. The peddler tells them that it can turn hate into love. They sprinkle the dust around the gallows and over the crowd, but to no avail.
Main Cast: Thomas Gomez, Vladimir Sokoloff, John Larch
13. Back There
Airdate: 13 Jan 1961
Peter Corrigan and some friends are discussing time travel. He suddenly becomes dizzy and finds himself in the past at the date of Lincoln’s assassination. Can he change history?
Main Cast: Russell Johnson, Paul Hartman, John Lasell
14. The Whole truth
Airdate: 20 Jan 1961
Used-car salesman Harvey Hunnicut finds that he cannot tell a lie when trying to sell a Model A car he has just bought. His usual sales pitch has been brought to a shuddering halt.
Main Cast: Jack Carson, Loring Smith
15. The Invaders
Airdate: 27 Jan 1961
An old woman hears a noise on the roof of her house. Going up to investigate, she sees a small flying saucer with robot-like creatures coming out of it. The two creatures start to torment the woman.
Main Cast: Agnes Moorhead
16. A Penny For Your Thoughts
Airdate: 3 Feb 1961
Hector B. Poole wakes up one morning and finds that he has psychic powers after tossing a coin that amazingly lands on its edge. He also discovers that he has the power to read peoples’ minds. Could this prove to be a curse more than a blessing?
Main Cast: Dick York
17. Twenty Two
Airdate: 10 Feb 1961
Liz Powell, a professional dancer, is recovering in hospital from stress. Every night she has the same nightmare. In the nightmare, she wakes at midnight, accidentally smashes a glass of water and hears footsteps outside her room. It is a nurse who draws her down an elevator and to room 22. The nurse emerges from the room and says, “Room for one more, honey”.
Main Cast: Barbara Nichols, Jonathan Harris, Fred Wayne, Arline Sax
18. The Odyssey Of Flight 33
Airdate: 24 Feb 1961
After reaching a speed of three-thousand knots, an aircrew finds the radio to be dead. When they descend below the clouds, they are horrified to see dinosaurs roaming the planet. Have they somehow been flung back in time?
Main Cast: John Anderson, Paul Comi, Sandy Kenyon
19. Mr Dingle The Strong
Airdate: 3 Mar 1961
Luther Dingle has always been a weak and timid man. One day, as a scientific experiment, two invisible Martians decide to give him superhuman strength. Will the Martians be pleased with how Dingle uses his new-found abilities?
Main Cast: Burgess Meredith
20. Static
Airdate: 10 Mar 1961
Ed Lindsay is an irritable bachelor in his late fifties living in a boarding house. Annoyed by the mindless rubbish on the television, he decides to retrieve the old radio set from the basement which he enjoyed in his younger days. When he turns it on, he is amazed to hear the music and programs years ago. This propels him to re-ignite the flames of his youth with his fellow border, Vinnie.
Main Cast: Dean Jagger
21. The Prime Mover
Airdate: 24 Mar 1961
Jimbo Cobb inadvertently reveals his psycho kinetic abilities to his partner Ace when he saves the occupants of a car involved in a wreck. Ace reckons they could make a fortune in vegas.
Main Cast: Dane Clark, Buddy Ebsen
22. Long Distance Call
Airdate: 31 Mar 1961
Billy, a young boy, can communicate with his recently deceased grandmother using a toy telephone she gave him before dying. Soon, Billy tries to kill himself after receiving the instruction over the phone.
Main Cast: Philip Abbot, Lili Darvas, Patricia Smith, Billy Mumy
23. A Hundred Yards Over The Rim
Airdate: 7 Apr 1961
It is the year 1847, and Chris Horn is part of a wagon train travelling to California. When his young boy falls ill, he sets off for help and finds himself in the year 1961.
Main Cast: Cliff Robertson, John Crawford
24. The Rip van Winkle Caper
Airdate: 21 Apr 1961
Four thieves rob a bullion train. They plan to hide away in a cave with their loot for one hundred years in a state of suspended animation. When they wake, things do not go to plan.
Main Cast: Simon Oakland, Oscar Beregi, Lew Gallo
25. The Silence
Airdate: 28 Apr 1961
Colonel Archie Taylor dislikes Jamie Tennyson’s talkative manner. He bets him half a million dollars that he cannot stay mute for a whole year. Tennyson accepts the bet and agrees to be enclosed in a room and be monitored by microphones to ensure he conforms to the wager.
Main Cast: Franchot Tone, Liam Sullivan, Jonathan Harris
26. Shadow Play
Airdate: 5 May 1961
Convicted of murder, Adam Grant awaits his fate on death row. Not being able to get a decent night’s sleep, he tells those around him that they are all just a part of a recurring nightmare of his.
Main Cast: Dennis Weaver
27. The Mind and the Matter
Airdate: 12 May 1961
Archie Beechcroft hates his life. Even the commute to work becomes annoying. One day in the cafeteria, he is given a book entitled “The Mind and the Matter” by Henry, the errand boy. It tells him that the ability to concentrate is an underrated skill in the universe. It’s true, and he uses it eliminate all mankind from the world!
Main Cast: Shelley Berman, Jack Grinnage
28. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
Airdate: 26 May 1961
After being notified of a U.F.O sighting, some state troopers follow tracks from a pond to the inside of a diner. They find nine people inside. Is one of them the Martian?
Main Cast: Barney Phillips, John Hoyt, Jack Elam
29. The Obsolete Man
Airdate: 2 Jun 1961
Set in the future where religion and books have been deemed obsolete by the state, Romney Wordsworth, a librarian and religious man, is condemned to death by the state Chancellor. He is allowed three requests before he dies; only his killer will know how he is to die, he will die at midnight the next day and he will be granted an audience.
Main Cast: Burgess Meredith, Fritz Weaver
Season Three:
1. Two
Airdate: 15 Sep 1961
A man and a woman, two survivors of an apocalyptic war, encounter each other. They both recognise that the uniforms they are wearing are of opposing sides.
Main Cast: Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery
2. The Arrival
Airdate: 22 Sep 1961
Flight 107 lands with no passengers or crew. A man from the FAA, Sheckly, investigates. He believes that the plane is just an illusion and sets out to prove it.
Main Cast: Harold J. Stone, Noah Keen, Fredd Wayne, Bing Russell
3. The Shelter
Airdate: 29 Sep 1961
During a party, the radio announces that UFOs have been spotted and that everyone should hide in their shelters. When there are too few shelters to go around, friendships are tested to the limit.
Main Cast: Larry Gates, Jack Albertson, Sandy Kenyon, Joseph Bernard
4. The Passerby
Airdate: 6 Oct 1961
Confederate soldier stops at a woman’s house after the end of the civil war. While there, they both watch soldiers, Union and Confederate, pass by.
Main Cast: James Gregory, Joanne Linville
5. A Game Of Pool
Airdate: 13 Oct 1961
Jesse Cardiff wants to prove that he is the best pool player ever, even better than the late Fats Brown. Just then, Fats appears and makes him a challenge.
Main Cast: Jack Klugman, Jonathan Winters
6. The Mirror
Airdate: 20 Oct 1961
When Clemente becomes the new dictator after a coup, he is told by the deposed one that the mirror he has in his office will reveal the faces of his enemies. Clemente soon becomes overtaken by paranoia.
Main Cast: Peter Falk
7. The Grave
Airdate: 27 Oct 1961
Before Sykes died, he vowed that if the hired-gun Conny Miller ever got near to his grave, he would reach up and grab him. Miller accepts a bet to go to sykes’ grave and plunge a dagger into it.
Main Cast: Lee Marvin, James Best, Lee Van Cleef
8. It’s A Good Life
Airdate: 3 Nov 1961
In a small hamlet in Peaksville, Ohio, lives Anthony Fremont, a six year old boy with amazing powers. He uses his abilities to control anything he wishes, even the inhabitants themselves, who live in fear of him.
Main Cast: Billy Mumy, John Larch, Cloris Leachman
9. Deaths-Head Revisited
Airdate: 10 Nov 1961
Former S.S. Captain Gunther Lutze walks through an old concentration camp. He meets Becker, who he mistakes for a caretaker. Becker is actually a ghost of one of the camp’s former inhabitants, and he and other ghosts who haunt the camp put Lutze on trial.
Main Cast: Oscar Beregi Jr, Joseph Schildkraut
10. The Midnight Sun
Airdate: 17 Nov 1961
The Earth is heading closer and closer to the sun causing the temperature to rise inexorably. Two women remain closeted in their apartments, and outside people are frantically searching for water to quench their unbearable thirsts.
Main Cast: Lois Nettleton, Betty garde, Tom Reese
11. Still Valley
Airdate: 24 Nov 1961
Paradine, a Confederate officer, walks into a town full of Union soldiers who have been frozen in time by a man with a black book. Close to death, the man gives Paradine the book and tells him to use it to win the war.
Main Cast: Gary Merrill, Vaughn Taylor, Ben Cooper
12. The Jungle
Airdate: 1 Dec 1961
Alan Richard’s company is building a dam in Africa. He tells his board members that the local witch doctors have put a curse on the project. The board members scoff, but they find that they all have superstitious items about them.
Main Cast: John Dehner, Emily McLaughlin
13. Once Upon a Time
Airdate: 15 Dec 1961
A janitor, Woodrow Mulligan, uses a time helmet developed by his boss to move forward in time seventy-two years.
Main Cast: Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams
14. Five Characters in Search of an Exit
Airdate: 22 Dec 1961
Five characters, a ballet dancer, a hobo, a clown, a bagpiper and an army Major, find themselves trapped inside a cylindrical object with no memory of how they got there.
Main Cast: William Windom, Murray Matheson, Susan Harrison, Kelton Garwood, Clark Allen
15. A Quality of Mercy
Airdate: 29 Dec 1961
In World War II a young Lieutenant orders his troops to mount a suicidal attack on a group of weary Japanese soldiers. Sergeant Causarano tries to change the Lieutenant’s mind, but the Lieutenant will have none of it. Suddenly, the Lieutenant is transported back in time three years earlier as a Lieutenant in the Japanese army and gets a different perspective.
Main Cast: Dean Stockwood, Albert Salmi
16. Nothing in the Dark
Airdate: 5 Jan 1962
Wanda Dunn, an elderly woman, is afraid to venture outside her dreary basement apartment because she thinks “Mr. Death” is lying in wait. When a policeman is shot just outside her door, she manages to overcome her fear and drag him inside.
Main Cast: Robert Redford, Gladys Cooper
17. One More Pallbearer
Airdate: 12 Jan 1962
Paul Radin invites three people to meet him at his self-built bomb shelter. They are people that Radin feels have wronged him in the past. He fakes a nuclear war in an attempt to get each person to apologise for their past actions.
Main Cast: Joseph Wiseman
18. Dead Man’s Shoes
Airdate: 19 Jan 1962
Street bum Nate Bledscoe takes a pair of good shoes from a body dumped in the alley. The body happens to be that of a gangster who was the target of a mob hit. The shoes give Nate the personality of the victim, and he continues where he left off.
Main Cast: Warren Stevens, Richard Devon
19. The Hunt
Airdate: 26 Jan 1962
Hyder Simpson goes hunting with his dog Rip. During the hunt, his dog dives into a lake after a raccoon. Moments later, only the raccoon emerges unscathed from the waters. Next morning, Hyder and Rip find themselves lying down next to the lake.
Main Cast: Arthur Hunnicut, Jeanette Nolan
20. Showdown with Rance McGrew
Airdate: 2 Feb 1962
Television cowboy Rance McGrew is about to film a scene where he gets shot in the back by Jesse James. Just then, the real Jesse James walks into the saloon and explains that he and other outlaws are not happy with the way they are being depicted on his show. He challenges McGrew to a showdown.
Main Cast: Larry Blyden, Arch Johnson
21. Kick the Can
Airdate: 9 Feb 1962
Charles Whitley, the resident of an old peoples’ home, believes that the secret to youth is acting young. Other residents think he has gone mad.
Main Cast: Ernest Truex, Barry Truex, Russell Collins
22. A Piano in the House
Airdate: 16 Feb 1962
Fitzgerald Fortune, a drama critic, purchases a new piano at a curio shop for his wife. He finds that the piano causes people to reveal their true emotions.
Main Cast: Barry Morse, Joan Hackett, Muriel Landers
23. The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
Airdate: 23 Feb 1962
The members of a small town are amazed when Jeff Myrtlebank comes to life at his own funeral. The town’s doctor states that it must be a rare medical condition, but the townspeople believe he is possessed by demons. Jeff seems to be the same person, but he has become a hard worker and proficient fist-fighter.
Main Cast: James Best
24. To Serve Man
Airdate: 2 Mar 1962
The Kanamits arrive on Earth and seem to be full of good intentions, helping man in all sorts of ways. They leave a book. After scientists have decoded the title as “To Serve Man”, they frantically try to decode the rest of the book.
Main Cast: Lloyd Bochner, Richard Kiel, Susan Cummings
25. The Fugitive
Airdate: 9 Mar 1962
Old Ben is a grandfatherly gentleman with unbelievable powers who has become friendly with a group of children. Two strangers appear on the scene and start to ask questions about Ben. Just who is Ben, and where does he come from?.
Main Cast: J. Pat O’ Malley, Susan Gordon
26. Little Girl Lost
Airdate: 16 Mar 1962
Tina Miller disappears when she rolls under the bed. The dog runs after her, and he too disappears. Her father calls in a physicist friend to help.
Main Cast: Robert Sampson, Sarah Marshall, Tracy Stratford, Charles Aidman
27. Person or Persons Unknown
Airdate: 23 Mar 1962
David Gurney awakes to find that nobody knows who he is and that all evidence of his existence has mysteriously disappeared. He is put into an asylum, but then escapes to search for some proof that he existed.
Main Cast: Richard Long, Frank Silvera
28. The Little People
Airdate: 30 Mar 1962
Two astronauts, Peter Craig and William Fletcher, set down on an alien planet to make repairs to their ship. Craig stumbles on an alien civilization no bigger than insects. He starts to terrorise the people by stamping on some of their buildings and proclaims himself a god.
Main Cast: Joe Maross, Claude Akins
29. Four O’clock
Airdate: 6 Apr 1962
Oliver Crangle is a bigot and a charlatan. He keeps meticulous records of people that he deems to be acting in an evil way. He tries to get them fired from their place of unemployment, but is unsatisfied with his results. Frustrated, he proclaims that at four o’clock all the evil people in the world will be shrunk to two feet tall.
Main Cast: Theodore bikel
30. Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
Airdate: 13 Apr 1962
Frisby runs a small store and gas station and is known in the town for the ridiculous yarns he spins about all sorts of subjects. One night, he is asked to board a spacecraft by two creatures. They wish to take him with them as they believe all the exaggerated tales he tells them. When Frisby tells them that he lied, the aliens do not understand him as they have no comprehension of the concept of a lie.
Main Cast: Andy Devine
31. The Trade-Ins
Airdate: 20 Apr 1962
John and Marie Holt, an elderly couple, visit a company that offers new bodies to aging people. Unfortunately, they discover that they only have enough funds to pay for one body.
Main Cast: Joseph Schildkraut, Alma Platt
32. The Gift
Airdate: 27 Apr 1962
A humanoid alien crash lands, accidentally killing a police officer. Wounded in the incident, he staggers to a bar and collapses. A local doctor treats him, and while recuperating the alien befriends a young boy, Pedro. He gives Pedro a “gift” and tells him that he will explain all about it later.
Main Cast: Geoffrey Horne, Nico Minardos, Edmund Vargas, Cliff Osmond
33. The Dummy
Airdate: 4 May 1962
Jerry Etherson is a ventriloquist, and he performs with his dummy, Willy. When Jerry decides that he wants to change his act and perform with a new dummy, Willy is none too pleased.
Main Cast: Cliff Robertson, Frank Sutton
34. Young Man’s Fancy
Airdate: 11 May 1962
A newly married man and his wife move into his late mother’s home. While there, he finds it impossible to leave behind the memories of his childhood. So strong and intense are his memories that a vision of his mother reappears from the past.
Main Cast: Alex Nicol, Phyllis Thaxter, Wallace Rooney, Helen Brown, Ricky Kelman
35. I Sing the Body Electric
Airdate: 18 May 1962
A widower picks a robotic grandmother for his motherless children. All the children grow to love their new “grandmother” except Anne, who takes a dislike to her. Will she come to accept her transistorised grandma?
Main Cast: Josephine Hutchinson, David White
36. Cavender is Coming
Airdate: 25 May 1962
Agnes Grep, down on her luck and behind on her rent, is sent a guardian angel, Cavender, to make her happy in twenty-four hours and earn his wings.
Main Cast: Carol Burnett, Jesse White
37. The Changing of the Guard
Airdate: 1 Jun 1962
Elderly teacher Ellis Fowler is forced to retire by his school. After reminiscing about his time at the school, he comes to the conclusion that his time spent there has been a waste. He returns, in the depths of depression, once more to the school intending to kill himself.
Main Cast: Donald Pleasance
Season Four:
1. In His Image
Airdate: 3 Jan 1963
Alan Talbot hears electronic noises in his head which make him go crazy and give him the urge to kill. He attacks and kills a religious fanatic at a subway station, and then he picks up his girlfriend, Jessica. When he returns to his hometown with Jessica, his memory becomes a blank-slate.
Main Cast: George Grizzard, Gail Kobe
2. The Thirty Fathom Grave
Airdate: 10 Jan 1963
The crew of a U.S. Army naval destroyer investigate a sunken submarine. They start to hear tapping noises coming from its interior.
Main Cast: Mike Kellin, Bill Bixby, Simon Oakland, David Sheiner
3. Valley of the Shadow
Airdate: 17 Jan 1963
Philip Redfield makes a stop at a small town for gas. After his dog chases for a cat and extends his stay, he discovers that the townspeople are in the possession of devices that can transmute matter.
Main Cast: Ed Nelson, Natalie Trundy, David Opatoshu
4. He’s Alive
Airdate: 24 Jan 1963
Peter Vollmer receives advice from a mysterious man and becomes an articulate neo-nazi speaker. When a friend takes Peter to task at one of his speeches, the mystery man tells him that he must be shot.
Main Cast: Dennis Hopper, Ludwig Donath, Curt Conway, Howard Caine
5. Mute
Airdate: 31 Jan 1963
A couple experiment with telepathy hoping to raise their mute daughter in a world free of the spoken word.
Main Cast: Ann Jillian, Frank Overton, Barbara Baxley, Irene Dailey, Oscar Beregi Jr
6. Death Ship
Airdate: 7 Feb 1963
After landing, Captain Ross and his crew discover a crashed spacecraft identical to their own. They also find, killed in the crash, an identical crew.
Main Cast: Jack Klugman, Ross Martin, Frederick Beir
7. Jess-Belle
Airdate: 14 Feb 1963
Jess-Belle enlists the help of a local witch to draw the attention of a young man. Jess-Belle discovers at midnight the price that she has to pay for the spell.
Main Cast: Anne Francis, James Best, Laura Devon
8. Miniature
Airdate: 21 Feb 1963
Shy bachelor Charley Parkes falls in love with a doll he sees when he visits a local museum.
Main Cast: Robert Duvall, Pert Kelton, Barbara Barrie, William Windom
9. Printer’s Devil
Airdate: 28 Feb 1963
Douglas Winter hires a Mr. Smith when his newspaper is in financial trouble. He regrets his decision when he finds that Mr. Smith is the devil.
Main Cast: Burgess Meredith, Robert Sterling, Pat Crowley
10. No Time Like the Past
Airdate: 7 Mar 1963
Paul Driscoll is in the possession of a time machine. He tries to use it to change some calamitous events of the past, but he fails. He decides to use it to escape to the year 1881, where he cannot stop himself trying to change one last event.
Main Cast: Dana Andrews, Patricia Breslin
11. The Parallel
Airdate: 14 Mar 1963
Major Robert Gaines falls to earth in his space capsule. When he emerges, he comes to the conclusion that he is in a parallel world.
Main Cast: Steve Forrest, Jacqueline Scott, Frank Aletter
12. I Dream of Genie
Airdate: 21 Mar 1963
George Hanley comes into the possession of a lamp. After he rubs it, a genie pops out and grants him one wish. As usual with genies, any wish must be carefully considered, or you may come to regret it.
Main Cast: Howard Morris, Molly Dodd, Milton Parsons, Jack Albertson
13. The New Exhibit
Airdate: 4 Apr 1963
Waxwork museum curator Martin is told that the museum is closing down. He asks the owner if he can take some of the exhibits with him. The owner agrees, and Martin picks five figures, all mass murderers.
Main Cast: Martin Balsam, Will Kuluva, Maggie Mahoney
14. Of Late I Think of Cliffordville
Airdate: 11 Apr 1963
Aggressive and wealthy businessman William Feathersmith is bored with his existence. He makes a pact with the devil to return to the past so he can start all over again; but will history repeat itself in exactly the same way?
Main Cast: Albert Salmi, Julie Newmar, John Anderson
15. The Incredible World of Horace Ford
Airdate: 18 Apr 1963
Toy designer Horace Ford has a preoccupation with the past. He decides to visit his old neighbourhood, and finds that it hasn’t changed a bit. Even the children of his childhood are there, just the same as he remembered them. Over the next few nights, he returns to visit and relive his past.
Main Cast: Pat Hingle, Nan Martin, Ruth White
16. On Thursday We Leave for Home
Airdate: 2 May 1963
Captain Benteen along with expedition members have been stranded on a planet for thirty years. He keeps total control on the harsh and unforgiving planet and maintains that they should never give up hope of being rescued. When a rescue team finally does arrive, Benteen finds it difficult to give up his role and elects to stay behind.
Main Cast: James Whitmore, Tim O’Connor, James Broderick
17. Passage on the Lady Anne
Airdate: 9 May 1963
A young couple, Eileen and Allan Ransome, take a cruise on a ship to try to help their failing six-year marriage. It seems not to have worked when during the cruise they agree to a divorce. Then Eileen disappears.
Main Cast: Lee Philips, Joyce Van Patten, Wilfrid-Hyde-White
18. The Bard
Airdate: 23 May 1963
Screenwriter Julius Moomer is in dire need of a scintillating script - so he uses black magic to conjure up the spirit of William Shakespeare to write one for him. After completing a script, Shakespeare is horrified to see that the sponsors have mangled his beautiful prose!
Main Cast: Jack Weston, John Williams, Burt Reynolds
Season Five:
1. In Praise of Pip
Airdate: 27 Sep 1963
Bookie Max Phillips finds out that his son is dying in Vietnam. Feeling he could have been a better father, he returns some money to a punter and gets wounded by a boss’s hitman. Reeling from his injuries, he enters an amusement park and meets a young version of his son.
Main Cast: Jack Klugman, Bobby Diamond, Billy Mumy
2. Steel
Airdate: 4 Oct 1963
Prizefighting has been abolished. All boxing is now waged by robots. Former heavyweight boxer Steel Kelly finds that his robot, “Battling Maxo”, is damaged prior to a fight. He decides to disguise himself as a robot and enter the ring in its place.
Main Cast: Lee Marvin, Joe Mantell
3. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Airdate: 11 Oct 1963
Mr. Robert Wilson has spent the last six months in a sanitarium recovering from a nervous breakdown. Flying home, his nerves are about to be shattered once more when he believes he can see a creature on the wing destroying the engine.
Main Cast: William Shatner
4. A Kind of Stopwatch
Airdate: 18 Oct 1963
Braggart Patrick Mc Nulty befriends a man called Potts in a local bar. Potts gives him a stopwatch that can halt time at the press of a button. He decides to use it to rob a bank.
Main Cast: Richard Erdman
5. The Last Night of a Jockey
Airdate: 25 Oct 1963
A jockey has been banned from horse racing for doping horses. Conversing with his alter-ego in his room, he comes to the conclusion that all he ever wanted was to be respected. He wishes he was taller. Soon his wish is granted.
Main Cast: Mickey Rooney
6. Living Doll
Airdate: 1 Nov 1963
When his wife buys his step-daughter a doll, Erich streator takes an instant dislike to it. After the doll talks back to him and tells him that she dislikes him, he tries to get rid of it. This task proves not to be as easy as he first thought.
Main Cast: Telly Savalas
7. The Old Man in the Cave
Airdate: 8 Nov 1963
A group of survivors from a nuclear war have been guided by an “old man in a cave” for many years. After armed soldiers arrive and take over, Mr. Goldsmith begs them to listen to their protector and not eat food that has been contaminated.
Main Cast: James Coburn
8. Uncle Simon
Airdate: 15 Nov 1963
Uncle Simon falls to his death after trying to strike Barbara with his cane. His will stipulates that she must look after his newest invention - a robot. Unfortunately, the robot shares many of uncle Simon’s apalling characteristics.
Main Cast: Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Ford
9. Probe 7, Over and Out
Airdate: 29 Nov 1963
Adam Cook has landed on a remote planet and has just learned that his home planet has been destroyed. He spots a footprint that is not his own. Later, he discovers that it belongs to a woman.
Main Cast: Richard Basehart, Antoinette Bower
10. The 7th is Made up of Phantoms
Airdate: 6 Dec 1963
A National Guard tank crew see more and more evidence that they have somehow gone back in time while practising manoeuvers near the Little Bighorn battlesite, the site of Custer’s last stand.
Main Cast: Ron Foster, Randy Boone, Warren Oates, Greg Morris
11. A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain
Airdate: 13 Dec 1963
A woman’s youthful exuberance is proving exhausting to her older, wealthy husband. The man takes an experimental youth serum developed by his scientist brother. The serum works perfectly, and he grows younger and more vibrant. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there, and he gets younger and younger.
Main Cast: Patrick O’Neal, Ruta Lee, Walter Brooke
12. Ninety Years without Slumbering
Airdate: 20 Dec 1963
Sam, an old man, has owned a grandfather clock all of his life. He believes that if the clock should ever stop he will die. To please his granddaughter, he sells it to one of his neighbours.
Main Cast: Ed Wynn, Carolyn Kearney
13. Ring-a-Ding-Girl
Airdate: 27 Dec 1963
Bunny Blake, a film star, is sent a magic ring by her hometown fan club. When she looks into it, she sees her family and friends from where she grew up, and they implore her to come home.
Main Cast: Maggie McNamara, Mary Munday, David Macklin
14. You Drive
Airdate: 3 Jan 1964
Businessman Oliver Pope accidentally slams his car into a boy delivering newspapers on his bicycle. He flees the scene without stopping to help. The boy later dies from his injuries, but Oliver Pope’s car will not let him forget and keeps badgering him to admit his guilt.
Main Cast: Edward Andrews, Hellena Westcott, Kevin Hagen
15. The Long Morrow
Airdate: 10 Jan 1964
Prior to leaving on a space mission, Douglas meets a young woman and they fall in love. They realise that the relationship cannot work because on his mission he will be cryogenically frozen, and when he gets back she will be an old woman.
Main Cast: Robert Lansing, Mariette Hartley
16. The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross
Airdate: 17 Jan 1964
Salvadore Ross finds that he can trade any personality trait or physical condition with anyone else. He tries to use it to win the affections of a young woman.
Main Cast: Don Gordon, Gail Kobe, Vaughn Taylor
17. Number 12 Looks Just Like You
Airdate: 24 Jan 1964
In a society of the future everyone undergoes a “transformation” procedure when they are nineteen which makes them beautiful and immune to disease. After reading her father’s diaries, Marilyn Cuberle decides to refuse the operation.
Main Cast: Collin Wilcox, Suzy Parker
18. Black Leather Jackets
Airdate: 31 Jan 1964
The front-runners of an alien invasion force disguise themselves as a leather clad motorcyle gang. They plan to poison the Earth’s water supply because they believe that all men are intrinsically evil. One of the vanguard falls in love with a girl named Ellen and starts to change his mind about their mission.
Main Cast: Lee Kinsolving, Shelley Fabares
**********************
The Bewitchin’ Pool
Two unhappy children find a happy escape in a swimming pool.
The Fear
Two people in a remote cabin find signs of an extraterrestrial.
Come Wander with Me
A singer’s song becomes tragically real.
The Brain Center at Whipple’s
A factory CEO replaces human workers with machines.
Mr. Garrity and the Graves
Jared Garrity arrives in the Old West town of Happiness, Arizona, proclaiming he can revive the dead.
The Encounter
A World War II veteran and a Japanese-American gardener battle each other over a war that ended more than 20 years ago.
Stopover in a Quiet Town
Bob and Millie wake up to find they are in a strange town. Everything appears to be props - trees, animals even cars.
The Jeopardy Room
Trying to defect, Major Ivan Kuchenko is trapped inside a hotel room with Commissar Vassiloff, a hitman, and Boris, his assistant, in the room across the street. Vassiloff has planted a bomb in the room and Ivan must find it within three hours or be blown to bits.
Caesar and Me
A ventriloquist’s dummy goads him into committing burglaries.
Sounds and Silences
A man’s wish to listen to loud noise backfires.
I Am the Night - Color Me Black
On the day an unpopular idealist is to be executed for the killing of a racist bully, the townsfolk are shocked to see the skies have turned pitch black.
The Masks
A dying man demands his family wear masks that he’s given them at a Mardi Gras party.
What’s in the Box
A cheating husband sees his secret revealed and its horrible consequences on his just-repaired TV set.
Queen of the Nile
Columnist Jordan Herrick is startled to learn that a famous movie actress hasn’t aged in years. Intrigued, he investigates... and soon learns a terrifying secret.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
A Confederate spy is spared death when the rope meant to hang him miraculously breaks. Or does it?
Spur of the Moment
After being chased on horseback by a terrifying, unidentified figure in black, Anne Henderson faces the biggest decision of her life.
From Agnes - With Love
A computer technician must deal with the queen of all femme fatales: a computer named Agnes who wreaks havoc on his love life.
Night Call
Mysterious phone calls haunt a disabled woman.
>>Shatner was also in an episode where he and his wife are at a diner in a rural town and cannot leave because a mechanical fortune teller would not let them exit.<<
I LOVED that one — the ending was, as always for TZ, masterful!
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