What better way to get prepped for the Twilight Zone Marathon than with a recap and some banter about the pilot episode, “Where Is Everybody.”. This is going to be a fun and rather unconventional journey as we plan on doing this over all 156 episodes.  We do this out of much respect and love for the most groundbreaking television show of all time. Hope to see you in the 5th dimension.

Thank You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwp4B1rchcc

Sharing this blog post about letters that Rod Serling sent to JFK.

JFK… in the Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Letters to President John F. Kennedy

I'm revisiting season 4 of the original and I have to say - Twilight Zone stories work so much better in small doses. 23+ minutes is enough time to establish the characters, the situation, and have a twist/reveal/resolution.

Hour long episodes really drag on, although some of these episodes aren't great regardless of length.

Let’s see who can solve this particular mystery. Harlan Ellison is advertised as having a story in this T-Zone anthology. His name even appears on the cover of the book. I bought the ebook on Amazon and looked through the table of contents. No Ellison story, not even an introduction by him, since I know he’s famous for his intros. (the introduction is handled by Carol Serling). Does anybody know the story?

Just watched the queen of the Nile and realized the pool in this episode is the same as the bewitchin pool.

sigh

Google's A.I.sucks so I want to verify the episodes with people who really know the original series.

What are the Twilight Zone episodes where you actually see snow at some point on screen? ("What's In The Box?" does NOT count! That's a different kind of snow.)

The one's that I immediately recall are "Night Of The Meek" ; "The Changing Of The Guard" ; "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?" ; "Five Characters In Search Of An Exit" ; It's A Good Life"

Any others that I am forgetting?

[Google A.I. didn't list a single episode from the original series]

I like a few of these episodes Shatterday reminded me of nervous man in a four dollar room. Paladin of the lost hour The last defender of Camelot Eye of Newton What are friends for Dealers choice

• At any point during the episode, does the audience actually witness the real crash? The crash that kills them? Or do you think, at the start of the episode, we are dropped into the middle of this never-ending purgatory loop (after the crash has occurred)? Or can it work both ways?

• Why does the captain bring them back down to the planet after they’ve safely escaped? He’s the one person you would think wants to escape death the most. His excuse about completing the mission doesn’t seem to fit.

I still can’t believe it.

I don’t subscribe to streaming services so I didn’t have the privilege of watching season 4 on demand.

I remember when some of the older stations would sometimes announce they were including the elusive “hour long” episodes in their marathons. That made season 4 even more special to me! Now, we can watch it whenever and Pluto now has a dedicated TZ channel!

Truly, these are gifts from God! 🥹😂

I'd have to go with Person or Persons Unknown

I don't understand the ending of him shooting Ross. Is it that the father has no compassion bc he sold it to Ross?

Anybody else see all this insanity about drones and can't stop thinking about this episode? Sterling was such a great observer of human character. It's amazing how often you can use a certain episode to relate to current events.

And he definitely had reason to be concerned. Putting a B2 in a fighting match with a B7 would be like pairing up a lightweight with a heavyweight.

I love this episode though, just because it is exceptionally creepy.

Why didn't the alien tell the doctor about the cure for cancer straightaway? I mean, there was no reason to ask Pedro to hide the book when the alien simply could have turned it over to the doctor, a man who was treating him for a gunshot wound nonetheless. This episode is somewhat indicative of season three shitting the bed near season's end. A lot of stinkers in there.

I know that Season 4 gets a lot of flack in general because of the slow pacing, I prefer the other seasons as well, but doubling the episode length also came with some advantages in my opinion.

The season was this unique filmic quality that the others lack, and the attempts at character development are better implemented. After moving on to season 5, I really started to notice just how much information is repeated in the shorter episodes. The truth is, a lot of episodes could really be 5 minutes long, they introduce a scenario, and in the last few minutes they flip it on it's head. But in getting to the reveal, characters often have nothing to talk about, except repeat the setup of the episode to other characters, very slowly nudging the mystery forward.

Season 4, despite it's inconsistency, felt different. With some episodes you can really feel that it was originally a 25 minute script that they had to stretch out, but others I found to actually benefit from the length. Take the episode "No Time Like the Past", for instance. The first half introduces the concept, and then explores it in a fun sequence where the main character repeated tries and fails to change key events in world history. The meat of the episode, him wanting to take residence in the 19th century town, only happens in the latter half. Here we get to see him develop an actual relationship with the teacher character, and I thought it to be effective overall. It's not something that would have been possible without the 50 minute runtime.

During the shorter episodes, the romance storylines are quite uneffective because there just isn't any time to get to know these people, while the concept is explained to us. They have no opportunity to talk about anything that's not pertinent to the episode's gimmick. In such, a lot of the 25 minute episodes ironically end up feeling even more repetitive than the ones from Season 4.

What do you think about Season 4?

What is this twilight zone marathon I keep hearing about? I love the show but know next to nothing about this famous new year's marathon. Please tell me everything, someone

Forgive the rough description, I had a coworker long back who described to me an episode of TZ where essentially a man who is terrified of death or the pain of experiencing death undergoes an ordeal where suddenly people don't recognize him or see him. A companion appears a la It's A Wonderful Life who guides him through some dialogue until eventually he finds his own body on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. What I remember the coworker telling me was the companion then revealing himself to be either an angel or Death and essentially saying, "See, Death isn't so bad. Come with me." I've tried searching Google over the years multiple times but I haven't gone so far as to watch all of the series to figure it out. There are a few search results but nothing that fits quite the way he described it to me. Anybody?

Edit: That was solved quickly! Nothing in the Dark looks right to me. My coworkers memory was admittedly hazy but this fits the bill. Thank you!

This might be the first year in a while wherein I miss it since I’ll be working

I've been running through TZ on a new streaming subscription, and have taken further advantage of Season 4 finally being included. I was struck by just how excellent the episode Death Ship is. It's an episode that works as both science fiction and horror, with an underlying existential dread that is strengthened by the longer format. I'd call it best of season 4, one of the best from Richard Matheson and the most awesome appearance of the regularly sighted Forbidden Planet saucer model. What do you think?

IMO, in One for the Angels, death deliberately comes to reap the soul of the little girl early so that Bookman has a chance to make the "Pitch for the Angels." You can see him smirk ever so slightly when Bookman begins his pitch. He wants to be late so Bookman can save the girl, and fulfill his dream of the big pitch.

Piano in the House for me. Better than I remembered it!

My memory is of their marathon starting the day before NYE and lasting thru the early hours of Jan. 2. Maybe I'm misremembering.

Hello! New to the group as I am finally watching the show from beginning to end. Just watched Shadow Play last night. For those who have seen it, it's about a guy in an endless nightmare loop where the "lives" of the characters are dependent upon his dream. An element of the episode are these characters struggling with their reality. One line struck me in particular, when the DA's wife enters a scene, he asks her if she's up (thinking she was sleeping). She replies with something like, "No, I'm down like the rest of you." What did she mean by that? Is she cognizant of her "reality" using the the word down like dream or sleep? Or, I'm I reading too much into this, and she was just saying she's literally down stairs?