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.

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There are many paths in life, but which one will you travel down in the Twilight Zone, Zone…

Host: Nic Hoffmann

Panel: Ben Worcester