Celebrating Independence Day in the Fifth Dimension (videos).
Eye of the Beholder: Season 2, 1960
In this memorable vignette, a woman wrapped in bandages fears her latest operation to be made “normal” won’t be a success. She is right, but you’ll be surprised at the results. A brilliant take on 1950s conformist society.
The Monsters are Due on Main Street: Season 1, 1960
A happy suburban neighborhood devolves into mob violence and chaos as its denizens suspect a black-out is more than meets the eye. A particularly edgy look at not only the paranoia of the time, but the thin veil of civility in quiet small town life.
Number 12 looks just like you: Season 5, 1964
This take on “beauty” and anti-intellectualism could be written today. Think plastic surgery and the celebrity magazines at the checkout counter, then enjoy the episode.
Science Fiction Treasures-Miniature (1963) The...by AngelcraftcrownsciencefictiontreasuresThe Miniature: Season 4, 1963
Robert Duvall was stealing scenes even back in the early sixties, and this is a prime example. Poor Charley Parkes is a misfit, a square peg in an office full frat boys and unsympathetic bosses. He finds refuge in a simpler time — it just so happens to be a Victorian doll house, in a museum.
Old Man in a Cave: Season 5, 1963
A nuclear war has left only pockets of survivors behind and the land a barren wasteland. Food stores are contaminated. Only the “old man” in the cave knows how to keep one sad community alive. That is, until a bully played by James Coburn comes to town — a clash of superstition and technology, the sheep and the wolves.
Third from the Sun: Season 1, 1960
Their planet is about to be destroyed by a nuclear war, so two employees at a government aeronautics lab decide to gather their families and escape on a stolen space ship. What is interesting here is not only the twist at the end, but the oppressive, paranoid world they struggle to leave.
The Shelter: Season 3, 1961
This classic episode features all reoccurring Twilight Zone motifs: paranoia, lizard brain panic, a nuclear scare and neighbors who have have carefully built up enough familiarity and goodwill to call themselves friends — that is, until something goes wrong. Rod Serling, who wrote the episode, throws in a dash of racial tension and xenophobia for good measure.
A Stop at Willoughby: Season 1, 1960
Gart Williams could easily be Mad Men’s Don Draper — an advertising executive who is about to crack. Aside from the “push, push world” of the office, he has a sour, unforgiving wife “with a big appetite” for the finer things, rattling around their suburban Connecticut home. The classic man in the Gray Flannel Suit, he yearns for a simpler time. But the cost may be more than a train ticket home.
The Lonely: Season 1, 1960
Jack Warden plays a convict of the future, forced to do his time in solitary on a dry, inhabitable planet. This take on loneliness and love in a “technologically advanced” era comes to a head when his “companion” has to be left behind.
Science Fiction Treasures - The Midnight Sun...by angelcraftcrownentertainmentThe Midnight Sun: Season 3, 1961
There is no nuclear war here, but the dirge of Armageddon runs through this unforgettable episode of two neighbors struggling to survive after the earth jumps its course and moves closer each day to the sun. An examination of human survival in an era of atomic fears and Cold War brinkmanship.
The Obsolete Man: Season 2, 1961
In this fictional fascist state, books and God have been outlawed by the state, and so librarian Romney Wordsworth, played by Burgess Meredith, has been declared obsolete. Written by Rod Serling, this episode not only captures the fear of totalitarianism carried over from WWII, but it’s an overt warning against group think, anti-intellectualism and intolerance that science fiction writers like Aldous Huxley, Ray Bradbury and George Orwell were raising, too, in popular science fiction.
Probe 7 Over and Out: Season 5, 1963
Col. Cook crash lands on another planet only to discover his own Earth is on the brink of nuclear annihilation. Knowing he will likely be stranded forever, his last exchanges with “base” back home are some of the best in the series: “We wiped them out, they wiped us out,” the command center general tells Col. Cook. “The only question now is the matter of death, very quick or very slow … Silence or cries. That’s the sound from our world, silence or cries. Over and out.”
Walking Distanceby KronaGenesisWalking Distance: Season 1, 1959
Here is another examination of a generation at middle age, hurtling ahead in a New Frontier but nostalgic for a less complicated past. Serling writes about Martin Sloan, who takes a walk and ends up back in his own childhood. But he soon finds he really doesn’t belong. The town is based on Serling’s own childhood home of Binghamton, New York.
The Twilight Zone - 001-Where Is Everybodyby dm_522d498639e45Where is Everybody? Season 1, esisode 1, 1959
This very first episode of The Twilight Zone must have made a real impact: the story of a man who wakes in a nightmare of isolation in an empty town, not fully knowing who he is or how he got there. It not only evokes the “end of days,” but the fragility of the human mind, too.
Kick the Can: Season 3, 1962
Charley hates getting old: especially since he feels young in an old man’s body. When his son rejects his appeal to move out of the rest home “for the aged,” he decides a little magic is in order. A heartrending take on how society then — and now — rejects our elderly, pushing them off to the shadows to count time.
The Howling Man: Season 2, 1961
What if you had the devil in chains — could you keep him? This parable explores not only the evil of this world, but how the ignorance of man lets it happen. The scene where said devil is released from his cage is probably one of the best in Twilight Zone history.
A Kind of Stopwatch: Season 5, 1963
McNulty is the world’s greatest bore, according to Serling’s arch introduction. In reality, everyone has an annoying McNulty in their lives: unrelenting in tall tales, self-importance and useless factoids. But this McNulty is also venal and suffers from that old Twilight Zone vice — greed — as he finds out in a very ironic way, with a gifted stopwatch.
And When the Sky Was Openedby KronaGenesisAnd When the Sky was Opened: Season 1, 1959
Possibly one of the most frightening Twilight Zone episodes, this is certainly no selling point for space travel. As three astronauts return to earth, one by one they “disappear” leaving no trace of their existence behind. Beyond pure science fiction, this gem is also a metaphor for our fleeting time on earth.
Submitted for your approval: While not an exhaustive collection, the following are episodes featuring the best, prevailing themes in the 1960s Twilight Zone series: nostalgia for the past, conformism, man’s journey into space, nuclear war and the degradation of humanity.
