Author Topic: The 10 best classic â€˜Twilight Zoneâ€™ episodes of all time (Read 1612 times)

Right_in_Virginia · « **on:** March 29, 2019, 10:49:58 pm »

The 10 best classic â€˜Twilight Zoneâ€™ episodes of all time
NY Post, Mar 29, 2019, Michael Starr

In honor of Jordan Peeleâ€™s revival of â€œThe Twilight Zone,â€ premiering Monday on CBS All Access, here are my Top 10 all-time favorite episodes from the original CBS anthology series, which aired from 1959 to 1964. (Note: All of these classic episodes are available for streaming on CBS All Access and the official â€œTwilight Zoneâ€ YouTube channel.)

â€˜A Game of Poolâ€™ (Oct. 13, 1961)

This parable of life and death, decided in a seedy pool room (city unknown), features two actors with terrific chops and even better chemistry: Jack Klugman as Jesse Cardiff, the self-proclaimed best pool player on Randolph Street, and Jonathan Winters as the dead pool legend James Howard â€œFatsâ€ Brown (â€œThe best who ever wasâ€). Fats materializes from pool-player heaven and challenges Jesse to a game. The stakes? If Jesse wins, he lives. If he loses, he dies. The banter between Klugman and Winters (stepping outside his comic comfort zone) is priceless. (And the timing was perfect: The episode aired shortly after the big-screen premiere of â€œThe Hustler,â€ co-starring Jackie Gleason as pool legend Minnesota Fats.)

â€˜The Monsters Are Due on Maple Streetâ€™ (March 4, 1960)

Suburban mob-mentality panic turns deadly when strange things begin to happen on Maple Street one summer night after something crashes nearby, cutting the power. Lights flicker on and off, cars start by themselves and, before too long, neighbor turns on neighbor when teenage Tommy suggests itâ€™s the work of aliens from outer space.

More: https://nypost.com/2019/03/29/the-10-best-classic-twilight-zone-episodes-of-all-time/

Cyber Liberty · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2019, 12:24:39 am »

Oh my! I used to work at a TeeVee station that ran these back in the 80's, and I've seen them all...many times. I liked "to Serve Man."

Ghost Bear · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2019, 01:03:57 am »

The episode "One For the Angels" should have been on the list, IMHO.

By the way, the entire run of the original Twilight Zone is currently available on Netflix. Also, CBS All Access.

GrouchoTex · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2019, 03:26:41 am »

Willoughby
5 characters in search of an exit

2 of my favorites

EasyAce · « **Reply #4 on:** March 30, 2019, 05:21:36 am »

They left out the arguably most touching Twilight Zone episode of all . . . "I Sing the Body Electric."

dfwgator · « **Reply #5 on:** March 30, 2019, 05:51:31 am »

While not technically a Twilight Zone episode, they did show "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge".

SZonian · « **Reply #6 on:** March 30, 2019, 05:55:23 am »

I like them all, lots of twists and turns in each one. How can one select 10 as the "Top Ten"? IMHO, impossible to do so.

EasyAce · « **Reply #7 on:** March 30, 2019, 06:08:34 am »

Quote from: SZonian on March 30, 2019, 05:55:23 am

I like them all, lots of twists and turns in each one. How can one select 10 as the "Top Ten"? IMHO, impossible to do so.

@SZonian
Well, for one thing, they couldn't (and didn't) do it without naming, too, "The Masks."

Victoria33 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2019, 06:14:24 am »

Quote from: Cyber Liberty on March 30, 2019, 12:24:39 am

Oh my! I used to work at a TeeVee station that ran these back in the 80's, and I've seen them all...many times. I liked "to Serve Man."

@Cyber Liberty

Because I am a "Prepper", I liked the one where the man with wife/think there was a kid, had his basement prepared with what they needed if there was an emergency. His neighbor friends kidded him about it; then there was an announcement that a nuclear bomb was on the way and the neighbors got to the point they would kill him to get his basement with food and water. Then there was another announcement there was no nuclear bomb. It showed what people would do if the bomb had been true.

Texas Yellow Rose · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2019, 12:11:51 pm »

Eye of the Beholder (1959) and Time Enough At Last (1959) I was 11 and have never forgotten either of them.

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2019, 12:13:42 pm »

Interestingly, they chose "Twenty-Two," which was a cheapie by Twilight Zone standards.

240B · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2019, 12:57:31 pm »

Applewood · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2019, 05:17:24 pm »

Quote from: jmyrlefuller on March 30, 2019, 12:13:42 pm

Interestingly, they chose "Twenty-Two," which was a cheapie by Twilight Zone standards.

That episode is one of my favorites. The line "Room for one more, honey" gave me the creeps.

***

What is fun about watching Twilight Zone now is seeing famous actors in these episodes, often long before they became household names. For example, a young Robert Redford in Nothing in the Dark or William Shatner in Terror at 20,000 Feet. I was just a kid when the Twilight Zone series originally aired, so no one in those episodes was familiar to me.

corbe · « **Reply #13 on:** March 30, 2019, 05:31:11 pm »

Grabbed 'It's a Good Life' off my DVR, just this morning. I always thought James Mason was in that one, as the Jack in the Box.

berdie · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2019, 08:55:18 pm »

Quote from: corbe on March 30, 2019, 05:31:11 pm

Grabbed 'It's a Good Life' off my DVR, just this morning. I always thought James Mason was in that one, as the Jack in the Box.

That was actually my favorite episode. But I like the one about the kids with the divorcing parents that dive into a swimming pool and come up in the old lady's house.

Ghost Bear · « **Reply #15 on:** April 01, 2019, 04:49:19 pm »

Quote from: berdie on March 30, 2019, 08:55:18 pm

That was actually my favorite episode. But I like the one about the kids with the divorcing parents that dive into a swimming pool and come up in the old lady's house.

The one with the kids escaping their unhappy home through the swimming pool was "The Bewitchin' Pool", written by Earl Hamner Jr. (creator of The Waltons). It was the last new episode of the original series to air, according to Wiki.

XenaLee · « **Reply #16 on:** April 01, 2019, 05:22:14 pm »

Oddly enough, I don't remember ever seeing the "A Piano in the House" episode. And I thought I had seen them all dozens of times.

One of my favorites was the one where the old man thought he couldn't take his dog into Heaven, so he refused to enter....

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Ghost Bear · « **Reply #17 on:** April 01, 2019, 06:03:18 pm »

Quote from: XenaLee on April 01, 2019, 05:22:14 pm

Oddly enough, I don't remember ever seeing the "A Piano in the House" episode. And I thought I had seen them all dozens of times.

One of my favorites was the one where the old man thought he couldn't take his dog into Heaven, so he refused to enter....

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"The Hunt", another classic episode written by Earl Hamner Jr.

Machiavelli · « **Reply #18 on:** April 01, 2019, 06:13:19 pm »

I may have posted this before, but I don't remember.

The true first episode of The Twilight Zone - The Time Element

On October 2, 1959, Rod Serling's landmark television series, The Twilight Zone debuted with the pilot episode, Where Is Everybody? However, this was actually the second pilot. The first pilot was an episode of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. The episode, written by Serling, was The Time Element. The original air date was November 24, 1958.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6e9b0k

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0745802/

verga · « **Reply #19 on:** April 03, 2019, 02:59:56 pm »