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The Twilight Zone: Season 05
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The Twilight Zone [TV Series] [1959-1964]
"You're traveling to another dimension...a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind...a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone." Originally telecast on CBS from October 2, 1959, to September 18, 1964 (not counting a brief spate of network reruns in the summer of 1965), The Twilight Zone was one of the foremost filmed dramatic anthologies on TV and one of a precious few that specialized in fantasy and science fiction. Created by Rod Serling, whose previous TV writing credits included such classic live dramas as Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, the series specialized in concise, economical playlets dealing with the offbeat andsupernatural, many of them with surprising and ironic climactic twists. Many of the individual episodes have stood the test of time as indisputable classics, among them "Eye of the Beholder," "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," "The Invaders," "It's a Good Life," "To Serve Man," "The Invaders," and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Rod Serling served as the series' host and narrator, and also wrote most of the dramas. Other noteworthy contributors included Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and, on one memorable occasion (the episode "I Sing the Body Electric"), Ray Bradbury. A veritable constellation of guest stars brought the stories to life; among those making multiple appearances were Burgess Meredith, Jack Klugman, William Shatner, Martin Landau, Anne Francis, Bill Mumy, Ed Wynn, and Lee Marvin, while many more showed up for memorable single performances including Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, James Coburn, Mickey Rooney, and Dennis Hopper. The series' famous theme music (heard from the second season onward) was composed by Marius Constant with unforgettable incidental music provided by the likes of Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith. Although the series' title has become a household word and many of its episodes are acknowledged masterpieces, Twilight Zone was never a huge ratings attraction during its network run. Indeed, after only three seasons, CBS decided to yank the show. It was saved at the last minute and brought back as a mid-season replacement, expanded from 30 to 60 minutes per week in the process. For its fifth and final season, Twilight Zone returned to its familiar half-hour format, still playing to appreciative but comparatively small audiences. It was not until the series went into off-network reruns that Twilight Zone truly built its fan following, which has increased many times over in the ensuing years. Twilight Zone was revived twice with new, full-color episodes, first as a CBS (and later syndicated) weekly in 1985, then on UPN in 2002. Rod Serling was not involved with these revivals, having passed away in 1975; the 1985 version had no host, though its narrators included Charles Aidman and Robin Ward, but the 2002 version was hosted by Forest Whitaker. In addition, a theatrical feature, Twilight Zone: The Movie, was released in 1983. ~ All Movie Guide

Includes Seasons:
The Twilight Zone: Season 01
Even non-devotees of The Twilight Zone are able to distinguish the series' first-season episodes from the later installments. Instead of the familiar "dee-dee-dee-doo, dee-dee-dee-doo" theme music by Marius Constant, each season-one Twilight Zone was introduced with a more lugubrious, string-dominated theme by the great Bernard Herrmann, who also composed the incidental music for such classic first-season episodes as "The Lonely" and "Walking Distance." Also, series creator and host narrator Rod Serling does not appear on camera to deliver his opening and closing narration -- except for a delightful gag appearance at the end of the season's final episode, "A World of His Own." The series' two most frequent guest stars make their inaugural Twilight Zone appearances in the course of season one. Burgess Meredith is poignantly cast as a myopic bookworm who ends up a sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust in "Time Enough at Last," while Jack Klugman is seen as a luckless musician whose life is turned around by a remarkable near-death experience in "A Passage for Trumpet." Other notable actors appearing in this season's 36 episodes include Martin Landau, Fritz Weaver, Ed Wynn, David Wayne, Vera Miles, Ida Lupino, Anne Francis, and Roddy McDowall. Among the best and most memorable episodes of the first-season Twilight Zone crop are "Third From the Sun," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," "People Are Alike All Over," and "A Stop at Willoughby." Lesser episodes, though still worthy of special mention, include the series opener "Where Is Everybody?," one of the few Zones with a "logical" rather than supernatural ending; "The Hitch-Hiker," a haunting adaptation of Lucille Fletcher's classic radio play; "The Mighty Casey," a baseball fantasy which had to be filmed twice so that Jack Warden could replace the original story by Paul Douglas, who fell ill during shooting and died shortly afterward; and "Mr. Bevis," which Rod Serling intended as the pilot for a series about a bumbling guardian angel. ~ All Movie Guide

The Twilight Zone: Season 04
Canceled by CBS at the end of its third season, the weekly, half-hour fantasy anthology The Twilight Zone was at the last minute revived for a fourth year on the air, though it would not return to CBS' prime time manifest until after a four-month hiatus. Also, the series was expanded from 30 to 60 minutes per week for season four in keeping with an industry-wide trend for hour-long programs (the better to attract more sponsors). Unfortunately, the added length did more harm than good for Twilight Zone, with several episodes that would have played just fine in the 30-minute format seeming attenuated and strained when expanded to twice that length. Wisely, when the series returned for its fifth season, Twilight Zone's original half-hour format was restored. Despite the above-mentioned artistic and esthetic problems inherent in the 60-minute Zone, a handful of the fourth-season installments can be ranked among the series' better efforts. These include "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville," a comic episode starring Julie Newmar as a curvaceous female Satan; "Jess-Belle," featuring Anne Francis as a mountain girl who will go to any lengths to win back her sweetheart (this episode is distinguished by an original ballad, which is heard at the finale in place of host Rod Serling's traditional narration); "Printer's Devil," in which Burgess Meredith makes his only villainous Twilight Zone appearance; "Death Ship," a Pirandellian nightmare starring another frequent Zone guest star, Jack Klugman; and "The Bard," a wild spoof of TV commercialism co-starring a young Burt Reynolds as a Marlon Brando wannabe. One of the best hour-long Twilight Zones is "Miniature," a bittersweet fantasy starring Robert Duvall. Due to a legal entanglement, this episode was long absent from the series' syndicated package but was reissued in the mid-1980s in a semi-colorized version. ~ All Movie Guide

The Twilight Zone: Season 05
Although CBS' decision to rescue Rod Serling's classic fantasy anthology The Twilight Zone from cancelation and bring the series back for a fourth season in January of 1963 enabled the property to be renewed in the fall of that year, everybody realized that expanding the half-hour series to a weekly sixty minutes was a mistake. Thus, Twilight Zone showed up for its fifth and final season in its familiar 30-minute format, much to the relief of its fans. Rod Serling of course is back for season five as both host/narrator and frequent scriptwriter; also making return appearances this season are such past Twilight Zone guest stars as Jack Klugman, Lee Marvin, Ed Wynn, Bill Mumy, Martin Landau, and William Shatner, the latter starring in what is regarded as the fifth season's best and most terrifying episode, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (more popularly known as "The Thing on the Wing"). Not all of the series' episodes during its terminal season are on the same leval as "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet;" in fact, there are arguably more misses than hits in the series' final 36 installments. That said, one cannot deny the excellence of such fifth-season efforts as "The Last Night of a Jockey," a solo tour de force for star Mickey Rooney; "Number Twelve Looks Just Like You," featuring both Richard Long and Suzy Parker in multiple roles; "From Agnes-With Love," a comic episode in which Wally Cox is tormented by an amorous computer; and "The Masks," directed by former Twilight Zone leading lady Ida Lupino, wherein four greedy relatives get their just desserts from their disillusioned wealthy benefactors. Until very recently, four of Twilight Zone's fifth-season episodes were withheld from the series' syndication package. Both "A Short Drink From a Certain Founain" and "Sounds and Silences" were removed for legal reasons, while "The Encounter" was withdrawn because of its (unintended) overtones of racism. The fourth "missing" Twilight Zone episode was "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," which was not actually filmed for the series but instead was adapted from an award-winning French short subject directed by Robert Enrico. (Both the edited Zone version and the original uncut short subject are currently available on the public-domain market.) ~ All Movie Guide

Includes Episodes:
The Twilight Zone: People are Alike All Over
Having scoffed at his colleague Warren Marcusson's (Paul Comi) assertion that "People are alike all over the universe," Astronaut Sam Conrad (Roddy McDowall) is given the opportunity to find out if Marcusson was telling the truth when his spaceship crash-lands on Mars. Though Marcusson is killed, Sam survives and is given the "red carpet" treatment by the humanlike Martians. Falling in love with the beautiful Teenya (Susan Oliver) and provided with a fully furnished luxury apartment, Sam is willing to concede that people everywhere are the same -- but just as the episode comes to an end, he realizes that this "sameness" is not an altogether good thing. Vic Perrin, who later provided the "control voice" on The Outer Limits, plays one of the Martian elders. Scripted by Rod Serling from Paul Fairman's short story "Brothers Beyond the Void," "People Are Alike All Over" made it Twilight Zone debut on March 25, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Twilight Zone: Valley of the Shadow
Stranded in the remote mountain town of Peaceful Valley, reporter Philip Redfield looks on in amazement as a dog and cat seemingly vanish into thin air. Apparently, Peaceful Valley houses some sort of deep dark secret -- which has naturally aroused Redfield's journalistic instincts. He may, however, have trouble filing his story -- the locals have made certain that he is unable to leave town, now or ever. This hour-long Twilight Zone installment also features future Star Trek regular James Doohan and child actress Susanne Cupito, who went on to adult prominence as Morgan Brittany. Written by Charles Beaumont, "Valley of the Shadow" first aired January 17, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Twilight Zone: Black Leather Jackets
Three leather-jacketed motorcyclists converge upon a small town and immediately take up residence in a vacant house. Though everyone considers the cyclists to be nice, quiet boys, they are in fact the vanguard of an invading army from a hostile planet. Things get dicey when one of the "boys" (Lee Kinsolving) falls in love with Earthling Ellen Tillman (Shelley Fabares). In his haste to come up with an intriguing gimmick, Twilight Zone scripter Earl Hamner failed to answer a vital question -- if the three invaders hoped to blend in and avoid drawing attention to their activities, why did they dress up like second-rate Marlon Brandos? Denver Pyle, Irene Hervey, and Michael Conrad play key supporting roles in "Black Leather Jackets," which originally aired January 31, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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TWILIGHT ZONE V24 (DVD) DOLBY DIGITAL MONO(EPS 25/105/138) DVD

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