Decades Ago, an Infamously Dark Sci-Fi Anthology Concluded With a Happy Ending

Inverse ^ | June 19, 2024 | Jon O'Brien

[fwdude]

After five seasons and 155 episodes of macabre twists and turns, the original run of the CBS anthology The Twilight Zone concluded with an uncharacteristically happy ending.

First screened 60 years ago, “The Bewitchin’ Pool” centers on Sport (Mary Badham) and Jeb (Jeffrey Byron) Sharewood, two affluent young siblings seemingly unperturbed when a straw-hatted boy suddenly emerges from their swimming pool, the latter poetically described by creator and narrator Rod Serling as “a structure built of tile and cement and money, a backyard toy for the affluent, wet entertainment for the well-to-do.” The pair subsequently accept his invitation to follow him back to his homeland, and after diving in after him, find themselves in a fantasy world that evokes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[logi_cal869]

All 5 seasons on Paramount.

Watching this one now (haven’t seen it or most of the others; now on my list).

I had no idea that they made 156 episodes in those 5 seasons...MANY still to see for me.

[daniel1212]

The problem with a world in which abuse of the gifts of God in disobedience to His word - which the constant, warring, discouraging snipping by parents is - always quickly becomes rectified by a home of perfect or better parents/government, is that it avoids the issue of the freedom of the delivered to become like the parents they escaped from.

If the straw-hatted boy is a type of savior, and the fantasy world is to represent Heaven, then the premise is that no child should endure, learn and overcome from faulty parents, but that physical deliverance from such should always quickly take place.

And by extension, that the negative effects of wrong choices by men should never be allowed have an extended effect, and a purpose that history can and eternity will reveal.

As it is, this TZ episode could be used by socialists to support a norm of children being raised by the state if parents are judged to be somehow unfit.

[Dr. Sivana]

Charles Bronson was pared with Elizabeth Montgomery in “Two.”

I believe Elizabeth had already won a Best Guest Actress Award for a role she played in "The Untouchables". She was REALLY GOOD in both "Two" and "The Untouchables". She has an incredible range of acting chops. Bronson did have his own forgettable series a few years earlier ("Man with a Camera"). The forgettableness of the show is not due to him.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Loved this episode.

What I remember most about that episode is that the little girl Sport sounded like anything but a little girl. As the article details, sound problems meant the show had to be overdubbed, and Sport's voice was delivered by the grown woman who played Rocky the Flying Squirrel. It was distracting enough to be all I really remember about the episode.

[Jet Jaguar]

Night Gallery Trilogy of Fear.

The little monster who lost his captive necklace. And then he got tho chefs knife.

That was the one the scared the crap out me.

Thanks for the memory!

[telescope115]

I am going to have to watch the original series. I have seen quite a few, but not the one described. Night Gallery was great, too.

Another writer whose work I enjoyed, and quite a few of his stories were tv productions and movies, was Ray Bradbury. The Twilight Zone episode described loosely reminded me of his I Sing the Body Electric .

A similar anthology from the British was Tales of the Unexpected .

[telescope115]

“The Obsolete Man” is one of my favorites.

[Robert DeLong]

I can’t really remember the show, but I’m sure I watched some of them. Because I loved Twilight Zone, so I would have watched Night Gallery. I was out of the country in Japan as my dad was stationed in Tokyo at an Air Force base, so I had missed the first episodes. We returned stateside in 1960. 1970 I was old enough to drive, so watching TV kind of became a more sporadic activity, and we had no machines to record shows to watch later back then. 🙂

[Robert DeLong]

The episode that really sticks out in my mind was the guy who loved to read, but couldn't enjoy it enough because of work. He wakes up one morning to the realization that he was the only remaining human on earth. He was overjoyed at this development. So he goes to the library and helps himself to several books. At some point in time he somehow steps on his glasses, and his nirvana evaporates to his horror. M

Then there was the episode where a plastic surgeon doctor and his nurse are treating a very disfigured woman, and contemplating if they can possible fix the disfigurement as it was so severe. We are unable to see any of these three people other than their bodies. Then it comes time to remove her bandages only to react in horror as she is even more disfigured after the surgery and recovery then before they had done the surgery. The camera than pans up to her face and she is a good looking woman, and then the camera pans across the faces of the doctor & the nurse and they are gruesome. I think it was called: Beauty in the eyes of the beholder.

[Inyo-Mono]

The episode that really sticks out in my mind was the guy who loved to read, but couldn't enjoy it enough because of work. He wakes up one morning to the realization that he was the only remaining human on earth. He was overjoyed at this development. So he goes to the library and helps himself to several books. At some point in time he somehow steps on his glasses, and his nirvana evaporates to his horror

One of my favorites too, that was Burgess Meredith playing the part.

Does anyone remember the only TZ episode that was not produced by Rod Serling? "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" a French short film about a Rebel spy about to be hung by Yankee soldiers on a bridge during the Civil War. They spring the trap, the rope breaks and he falls into the river to escape. As he is running away and just about to reach his wife with open arms, the scene suddenly jerks back to him actually being hung.

[Deaf Smith]

Mine that stuck was Examination Day.

[Robert DeLong]

One of my favorites too, that was Burgess Meredith playing the part.

Yes indeed, that was who it was, now that you mention his name.