Favourite Twilight Zone Original Series Episodes

[kbx 295]

The Twilight Zone in it's original incarnation, was arguably not just one of the finest genre based shows ever conceived and televised, but amongst the very best shows of any kind, produced for the small screen. It certainly is the benchmark by which all other anthologised formatted programmes, must be judged. The quality of it's storytelling and scripts was relatively high across it's original run - all the more remarkable, considering the small group of writers, who gave their creative input towards it, plus the large amount of episodes which were produced. Fans have a rich bounty to pick from, when it comes to choosing favourite stories. Here I list a few of mine. Some have achieved critically high reputations in fan circles, others are equally deserving, I feel, of being given such a status. It will be interesting to see what other, forum members, favourite moments, were as well.

Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
The Trade-Ins
The Old Man In The Cave
Nightmare At 20,000 Feet
Time Enough At Last
To Serve Man
Living Doll
Incident At Owl Creek Bridge (not originally produced by TZ team, but taken from a French, Ambriose Bierce derived anthology movie)
Eye Of The Beholder
A Nice Place To Visit
One For The Angels
It's A Good Life

Considering there were so many episodes, can other forum members, help me to clear up the titles of some of these. It would be much appreciated.

The one with Kevin McCarthy as a near immortal being.
The one with Ciff Robertson as a 19th century frontiersman/settler who goes through a time warp, and ends ups in the next century.

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by kbx 295

The one with Kevin McCarthy as a near immortal being.
The one with Ciff Robertson as a 19th century frontiersman/settler who goes through a time warp, and ends ups in the next century.

Very nice list mate.

The First one is possibly Long Live Walter Jameson from the first season.

The second sounds like A Hundred Yards Over The Rim. Can't recall whether it's second on third season that one. Another good one though.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Nice list indeed.
It amazed me how one week TTZ would chill you to the bone and the following week would give you a warm,almost happy tale!
Variety is the spice I suppose!

It's influence can be seen in MANY genre films of the seventies and eighties.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

TO SERVE MAN has to be up there as one of my favourites.Chilling and thought provoking.

'....an ingredient in someone's soup.....'

[kbx 295]

Thanks for clearing up those titles. Your right about it's influence on other sources, not just cinematic either. The 200AD comic, ran an anthology strip called Tharg's Future Shocks, which with it's tales with a climatic twist ending to them, definitely seemed to owe some credit to it. Two movies which spring to mind from the sixties that have the feel of TZ to them would be Carnival Of Souls (1962) and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (1969). They both used ideas, that seemed to turn up frequently on the show.

[Stephen@Cult Labs]

All of the TZ episodes mentioned rank as some of the best the series produced. Another favourite of mine was A KIND OF A STOPWATCH. Watching it as a boy really made an impression. After all, who wouldn't want to be able to stop time. Think of all the mischief you could get up to. A great ending too. Can't wait to see this one again.

[kingofwitches666]

Although I've not seen many episodes, Eye of the Beholder is the one episode that always sticks with me.

I also remember an episode with a man, an astronaut I think, who ends up as an exhibit in an alien zoo.

Can't remember what the episode is called, not even sure it's a TZ episode, it could have been an Outer Limits episode but I enjoyed it all the same.

Maybe someone could shed some light on it for me.

[TwilightZoneTom@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by kingofwitches666

I also remember an episode with a man, an astronaut I think, who ends up as an exhibit in an alien zoo.

Can't remember what the episode is called, not even sure it's a TZ episode, it could have been an Outer Limits episode but I enjoyed it all the same.

Maybe someone could shed some light on it for me.

From the sounds of it I'd guess you're talking about 'People Are Alike All Over', a season one episode starring Roddy McDowall.

That's one of my earliest TZ memories too.