Search Results for: twilight zone zone
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 13: “To Serve Man” and “The Dummy”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “To Serve Man” and “The Dummy”
“To Serve Man”
Kanamits, nine-foot-tall creatures from outer space, promise they have come to our planet, “above all things, to help the people of Earth.” They have no ulterior motive, they reassure: “We ask only that you trust us.” Which leads to The Twilight Zone’s darkest and most famous punch line. This episode is also notable for inspiring the aliens Kodos and Kang on The Simpsons.
“The Dummy”
It’s a battle of wills between Jerry (Cliff Robertson), a second-rate nightclub ventriloquist, and Willie, 24 inches of timber, who Jerry is convinced is alive. “He talks when I don’t talk. He tells jokes I’ve never heard before,” he insists to his long-suffering agent (a pre-Gomer Pyle Frank Sutton). Unsteadying expressionistic camerawork by director Abner Biberman anticipates which personality will win out with an absolutely creepy final shot.
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matthew and Daniel
-
Twilight Zone Zone Episode 12: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “Nothing in the Dark.”
“Five Characters in Search of an Exit”
The setup is a little bit Saw and a little bit Waiting for Godot: an Army major (William Windom) finds himself in a circular enclosure with no doors, no windows, and no ceiling. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. And he’s not alone; present, but more resigned to their situations, are a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bagpiper. This episode gives new meaning to the eternal question, “Why are we here?” Your mileage may vary as to the ultimate answer, but the questions posed (“How long will we be here?” “What’s up there?”) are profound in or out of The Twilight Zone.
“Nothing in the Dark”
Many actors got their start on the Zone—none more famously than Robert Redford, who appears here as a policeman who is shot outside of the door of an elderly woman who refuses to leave her condemned apartment for fear of being taken by “Mr. Death.” For more before-they-were-big moments, see Robert Duvall in “Miniature,” Burt Reynolds in “The Bard,” and Charles Bronson in “Two.”
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel
-
Twilight Zone Zone Episode 11: “Deaths-Head Revisited” and “The Midnight Son”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Deaths-Head Revisited” and “The Midnight Son”
The Obsolete Man”/“Deaths-Head Revisited”A tie: these are two Serling-penned episodes whose messages feel distressingly relevant. In the first, Burgess Meredith stars as a librarian deemed obsolete by the totalitarian state and sentenced to death, though he gets to choose his manner of execution. In the second, a former SS captain returns to Dachau, where he encounters a former prisoner. These episodes are Serling at his most impassioned. When it comes to ideologies that fail to recognize the rights and dignity of man, or a race determined to “turn the Earth into a graveyard,” metaphor alone won’t cut it.
“The Midnight Sun”
The Earth has changed its elliptical orbit and is headed toward the sun. In an abandoned New York apartment building, two women try to stave off their fate and retain their humanity. This is one of the most viscerally felt Twilight Zone episodes. You jump when a precious can of fruit juice is accidentally dropped; you sweat when the power operating the air conditioning is shut off; and you melt like paint on a canvas as a thermometer shatters. And then comes the episode’s switcheroo, which is so, so cold.
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matthew and Daniel… Read the rest
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 10: “The Grave” and “It’s a Good Life”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “The Grave” and “It’s a Good Life”
“The Grave”
Months before Lee Marvin, Strother Martin, and Lee Van Cleef starred in John Ford’s classic Western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, they co-starred in this episode, a Western ghost story (ghostern?) about a gunman who is dared to make a midnight visit to the grave of the freshly gunned-down killer he relentlessly pursued but failed to capture. It boasts a great script, eerie atmosphere, and Lee Marvin at his Lee Marvin-est (“I don’t get my nerve from this gun . . . I had it long before I could even pick one of them up”). And the ending is a real grabber.
“It’s a Good Life”
The twist is revealed right up top: the monster who has made the world go away, save for his rural Ohio village, is a six-year-old boy (Bill Mumy) who can read thoughts, control even the weather with his mind, and transform those who would wish him harm into “grotesque walking horror.” Demon kids are always creepy, but this episode plays like the ultimate nightmare of a society destroyed by the spoiled children of overindulgent parents. (Yes, The Simpsons did this one, too, with Bart as the monster.)
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matthew and Daniel
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 9: “The Obsolete Man” and “A Game of Pool”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “The Obsolete Man” and “A Game of Pool”
“The Obsolete Man”
Burgess Meredith stars as a librarian deemed obsolete by the totalitarian state and sentenced to death, though he gets to choose his manner of execution.
“A Game of Pool”
A sure-bet episode featuring two stellar performances by Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters, playing it straight and cool as the late “Fats” Brown, a champion pool player who takes Klugman’s Randolph Street pool jockey at his word when he says he would do anything for just one game against the dead legend. This episode boasts some great dialogue (“Nothing’s impossible; some things are less likely than others”), and sage observations about the risks needed to become a champion and the responsibilities of carrying on a legacy.
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matthew, Jeremy and Daniel… Read the rest
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 8: “The Long Distance Call” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “The Long Distance Call” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
“Long Distance Call”
You can explore the vast reaches of The Twilight Zone and not find an episode as profoundly messed up as this one. On her deathbed, a five-year-old boy’s grandmother bemoans how lonely she will be “far away,” and wishes aloud that her beloved Billy could go with her. Worst. Grandma. Ever.
“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
Take mysterious footprints leading away from a pond where an unidentified flying object has crashed, a snowbound diner, and six (or was that seven?) stranded bus passengers, and you’ve got yourself a “regular Ray Bradbury.” Which one of them is the monster from outer space? This entertaining episode plays like a supernatural William Saroyan play (complete with a colorful coot portrayed by Jack Elam), with one of the series’s most famous reveals.
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Matt and Daniel… Read the rest
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 7: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and “The Living Doll”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and “The Living Doll.” We are always joined this week by guest Ben Worcester (co-host of the Hooked on TJ Hooker Podcast, check it out for more William Shatner talk!)
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
The Twilight Zone knows what scares you—like flying, or the desperation you might feel when when you’re the only one who knows of an impending disaster, but no one believes you. One of the series’s most famous episodes mostly gets its rep from the before-he-was-Kirk casting of William Shatner, as a man just released from a mental hospital who tries to—wait for it—klingon to his sanity when he spies outside his window seat a monster tearing at the airborne airplane’s wing. The costumed boogeyman hasn’t aged well, but Shatner is first class.
“Living Doll”
June Foray, the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel and Natasha Fatale on The Bullwinkle Show, was the also the original voice of Chatty Cathy, the iconic pull-string talking doll released by Mattel in 1959. Chatty Cathy said sweet things like, “Let’s play house.” But Talky Tina, also voiced by Foray, says things like, “My name is Talky Tina, and I’m going to kill you.” This she says to Telly Savalas, a grumpy new stepdad who resents his stepdaughter’s new doll. Like Tina warns, he’ll be sorry.
In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere? Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other TV Shows).
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Ben Worcester
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 6: “Eye of the Beholder” and “Twenty Two”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “Eye of the Beholder” and “Twenty Two.”
“Eye of the Beholder”
A desperate woman, her face encased in bandages, is awaiting the outcome of her 11th operation to make her look “normal.” “I want to be like everybody,” she pleads. In a state where “ugliness” is a crime, she faces segregation to a ghetto with other unfortunates like herself. Douglas Heyes’s artful misdirection keeps the quintessential Zone reveal under wraps.
“Twenty Two”
This episode offered a plum role to Barbara Nichols, often cast in films as brassy comic relief (as in Where the Boys Are). Here, she plays a stripper (excuse me; professional dancer) hospitalized for a nervous breakdown. She is haunted by a recurring dream—or is it?—that brings her to the door of room 22, the hospital morgue, where a nurse greets her by saying, “Room for one more, honey.”
In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere? Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other TV Shows).
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Daniel and Jeremy… Read the rest
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 5: “A World of His Own” and “The Howling Man”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “A World of His Own” and “The Howling Man.”
From the Article:
“A Nice Place to Visit”
The Twilight Zone also delighted in dicking around characters in need of retribution. Another case in point: Rocky Valentine, a petty criminal shot to death. A jovial guide (Sebastian Cabot) in the afterlife tends to his every desire, giving him a swinging pad, sure-thing bank robberies, and beautiful dolls on demand. Sounds like heaven, right? This was the first episode to employ a classic Twilight Zone trope, in which the come-upper gets the last maniacal laugh at the eternal expense of the come-upped. (See also on this list: “The Grave” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”)
“The Howling Man”
You’re lost in a torrential storm. You seek refuge in a foreboding castle. Inside are members of some kind of fanatical religious cult that is keeping a man imprisoned. The cult leader insists the man is actually the devil himself. Who are you going to believe: the desperate man pleading to be set free, or a staff-carrying John Carradine?
In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere? Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other TV Shows).
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Daniel, Jon and Matthew Quinn
-
The Twilight Zone Zone – Episode 4: “A Nice Place to Visit” and “The After Hours”
Every week on The Twilight Zone Zone,we go down Donald Liebenson’s list The 26 Episodes We Talk About When We Talk About The Twilight Zone from Vanity Fair, chronologically by release date and compare two episodes and choose which one to recommend. This week we watched “A Nice Place to Visit” and “The After Hours.”
This week, there is going to be a Patreon bonus! Regular Jon called in for a special Mission Briefing episode! Sign up for the Patreon for 1967’s Casino Royale for the Patreon only! Join us, for all the back catalog, special episodes, and monthly newsletter! There will even be an additional full movie episode this month!
“A Nice Place to Visit”
The Twilight Zone also delighted in dicking around characters in need of retribution. Another case in point: Rocky Valentine, a petty criminal shot to death. A jovial guide (Sebastian Cabot) in the afterlife tends to his every desire, giving him a swinging pad, sure-thing bank robberies, and beautiful dolls on demand. Sounds like heaven, right? This was the first episode to employ a classic Twilight Zone trope, in which the come-upper gets the last maniacal laugh at the eternal expense of the come-upped. (See also on this list: “The Grave” and “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”)
“The After Hours”
A.k.a. the “Marsha episode.” Anne Francis stars as a department-store shopper who gets some very off-putting service by a strange clerk when she purchases a thimble on the otherwise-completely empty ninth floor. Her eerie odyssey begins when she complains to management, only to be told that the store has no ninth floor. Locked in overnight, she will come face to face with her reality.
In the meantime, please continue to rate and review us! We are on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and now Spotify and could use the support; the more ratings you give the easier it is for others to find us. Also, do you follow us elsewhere? Facebook? Twitter? Myopia? Also, for those of you who are truly film folks, I have created a Letterboxd page! Check out what episodes we have done here (including other TV Shows).
There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…
Host: Nic Hoffmann
Panel: Daniel and Matthew Quinn