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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 02
Although The Twilight Zone suffered from anemic ratings and a certain degree of sponsor dissatisfaction during its first season on CBS, the network could not ignore the prestige value of a series created and largely written by Rod Serling -- nor could it ignore the millions of loyal fans who demanded that the series return for a second season...which, of course, it did. Due to budget cutbacks, only 29 episodes were produced for season two; six of these were economically shot on videotape, an experiment that proved esthetically unsatisfying and was not repeated. Even so, the six taped installments yielded at least one imperishable classic: The Christmas Fantasy "Night of the Meek" starring Art Carney as a drunken department-store Santa who experiences quite an epiphany on Christmas Eve. Twilight Zone's second season saw the introduction of the series' now-immortal "dee-dee-dee-doo, dee-dee-dee-doo" theme music composed by Marius Constant. Also, host Rod Serling began making on-camera appearances as he introduced the various playlets. A number of guest stars from season one make return appearances for season two, among them Burgess Meredith (seen twice this season), Inger Stevens, Dick York, Russell Johnson, and Fritz Weaver. Others make their first (but definitely not last!) Zone appearances during this season, including William Shatner, Bill Mumy, Jonathan Harris, and Cliff Robertson. And finally, a handful of celebrated performers show up for their only Twilight Zone gigs, notably Shelley Berman, Richard Haydn, Jack Carson, and Bob Cummings. Of the season's 29 episodes, at least three can be designated as imperishable classics: "The Howling Man," a grim gothic tale of demonic deception; "The Eye of the Beholder," in which a young woman designated as "hideously ugly" by a totalitarian government undergoes a grueling session of plastic surgery; and "The Invaders," starring Agnes Moorehead as a terrified farm woman who single-handedly fends off an army of tiny extraterrestrials. ~ All Movie Guide

The Twilight Zone: Season 03
Surviving several defecting sponsors and vacillating ratings, Twilight Zone manages to survive for a third season on CBS -- a season that many aficionados regard as the anthology series' best. With Rod Serling as narrator and frequent scriptwriter, season three offers 37 half-hour playlets, many of them regarded today as classics of the sci-fi fantasy genre. The best of the batch includes "It's a Good Life," starring Bill Mumy as a deceptively angelic-looking youngster who holds the power to destroy the world; "The Midnight Sun," a nightmarish scenario of solar energy run amok; "Once Upon a Time," a delightful time-travel comedy (largely shot in silent-movie fashion) starring Buster Keaton; "Kick the Can," with Ernest Truex as a senior-home resident who gets a new lease on life by reverting to the games of his childhood; "Little Girl Lost," a dizzying foray into The Fourth Dimension, brilliantly underlined by Bernard Herrmann's musical score; and the unforgettable "To Serve Man," the title of which also serves as the episode's grimly ironic punchline. Among the guest stars from previous seasons making return appearances are Jack Klugman, Larry Blyden, Cliff Robertson, and John Dehner. Prominent newcomers to the series include Jonathan Winters, Donald Pleasence, Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson, Joseph Schildkraut, Andy Devine, and Carol Burnett, the latter appearing in "One for the Angels," which was intended as the pilot for a spin-off comedy series (complete with laughtrack!) Twilight Zone's ever-growing legion fans were disheartened by CBS' decision to cancel the series at the end of season three; however, the property made a dramatic comeback the following season in a brand-new hour-long format. ~ All Movie Guide

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 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: Long Distance Call
The last of the six videotaped Twilight Zone installments of the 1960-61 season, this episode also featured the first of three series appearances by child actor Billy Mumy. In this one, Mumy plays Billy Bayles, a 5-year-old boy with a strong attachment to his grandmother (Lili Darvas). Using a toy telephone he'd received for his birthday, Billy communicates with his beloved Grandma -- several days and weeks after her death. Philip Abbott and Patricia Smith costar as Billy's distraught parents, who are convinced (rightly, as it turns out), that Grandma wants to inveigle the boy into joining her in the Next World. Cowritten by William Idelson and Charles Beaumont, "Long Distance Call" was originally telecast March 3, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Twilight Zone: I Sing the Body Electric!
Though he'd originally intended to write several scripts for the original Twilight Zone, Ray Bradbury's sole contribution to the series was this sensitive adaptation of his own short story "I Sing the Body Electric!" Hoping to fill the void left by the death of his wife, a widower (David White) takes his children to Robots Unlimited to purchase an "electric grandmother" for the kids. The younger children (Charles Herbert) and Dana Dillaway) are delighted with their robot granny (Josephine Hutchinson), but older daughter Anna (Veronica Cartwright) is sullen and resentful -- until "Grandma" proves herself to be more human than most humans. Though the episode is generally successful, no one connected with it was satisfied, least of all director James Sheldon, who felt that star Josephine Hutchinson was not quite right in the leading role. In addition, an earlier scene with June Vincent as the kids' aunt Nedra didn't "play" on film, necessitating an expensive reshoot, directed by William F. Claxton, with Doris Packer replacing Vincent. All in all, however, "I Sing the Body Electric!" pleased the crowd when it first aired on May 18, 1962, though a much-later 60-minute TV version, "The Electric Grandmother" (1980), was closer to the spirit of the Bradbury original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Twilight Zone: The Lonely
Discounting the pilot "Where Is Everybody?", "The Lonely" was the first Twilight Zone episode to be produced, though not the first to be shown. Jack Warden stars as futuristic convicted murderer James Corry, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment on a lonely asteroid. Out of compassion for Corry, Captain Allenby (John Dehner), leader of the supply ship that makes biannual stopovers at the asteroid, presents the prisoner with a "companion" -- a beautiful female android named Alicia (Jean Marsh). Future Mary Tyler Moore Show regular Ted Knight appears unbilled as a hostile crew member. Blessed with a poignant Bernard Herrmann musical score (which incorporates the first-season Twilight Zone theme music), "The Lonely" originally aired November 13, 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Twilight Zone: Probe 7-Over and Out
Having embarked upon a long-range space probe, astronaut Col. Cook (Richard Basehart) discovers via radio contact that a nuclear war has broken out on his home planet. Landing on a distant and barren planet, Cook despairs over the notion that he might be the last living person in the universe. He then meets a beautiful young woman (Antoinette Bower) who has recently escaped a nuclear holocaust on her own world. Let's cut to the chase -- Cook's first name is Adam, and the girl's name is Eve. One of the more heavy-handed of the Rod Serling-scripted Twilight Zone episodes, "Probe 7-Over and Out" was originally broadcast November 29, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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TWILIGHT ZONE V05 (DVD) (LONG DISTANCE/BODY ELECTRIC/PROBE 7) DVD

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