The Twilight Zone (1959) Season 1
SPOILERS TOTAL. You've been warned.
101: Where Is Everybody? 1959 October 2
(First watched 2023-05-20) It wasn't even an intentional part of the episode, but to me personally the most unsettling part of the episode was when this guy was walking around wondering what's going on and suddenly it all seems very familiar... dude is walking around Hill Valley, about 26 years before they filmed Back to the Future there.
Situations that test how people react to space-travel-like conditions is a realistic thing, though they seemed to take it a bit far in this episode, positing a moon trip with a single astronaut in an ultra-cramped capsule. Also, even in that situation wouldn't they expect the guy to have radio contact with Earth and thus not be in total isolation?
102: One for the Angels 1959 October 9
(First watched 2023-05-20) Mr. Death seems a bit of a pushover if he was that easily persuaded to go along with the unfulfilled dream of making a big pitch... but with supernatural entities, who can tell what was part of the plan all along?
103: Mr. Denton on Doomsday 1959 October 16
(First watched 2023-05-20) Hey, Doug McClure. Even in a fantasy anthology series, they had to stick him in a western.
If you ever worry you're naming a character too on-the-nose, just remember this episode's Henry J. Fate.
104: The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine 1959 October 23
(First watched 2023-05-22) Didn't care much for this one. We see a past-her-prime actress who's obsessed with reliving the days of her past, and what's the moral of the story? If you unhealthily obsess over something, maybe you'll get what you wanted? I guess that happens sometimes... in the Twilight Zone.
105: Walking Distance 1959 October 30
(First watched 2023-05-22) This one strikes me as a better take on the ideas of the previous episode. A man who misses the fond memories of his past gets an unexpected opportunity to revisit them, but in the end comes to know he has to be looking for the new fond memories of the future.
Also, I'll be damned, Ronnie Howard.
106: Escape Clause 1959 November 6
(First watched 2023-05-23) I feel this episode failed at what it was going for. It was a story about being careful what you wish for, and not making deals with the devil... but the main character was a stupid prick, so the impression it left me with was "Gee, this dipshit couldn't make the deal work for him, but I could do a hell of a lot better!"
Dipshit apparently craved a life of excitement that totally went away when he no longer had a fear of death. But for a guy like me who craves a life of, like, watching 60 year old television shows? Not an issue. Even if I did want to fear, there's plenty of not-me things I would feel fear about going away! People, places, things, all the best nouns. But this jackass only cares about himself, so even the death of his wife meant nothing to him.
He hoped for the electric chair, but was dismayed when he only got life imprisonment instead. What was he expecting to happen? That they'd fail to kill him in the chair and just let him go? Being stuck in prison as a freak of nature was the best he could've been hoping for. And if he hated being in prison so much... dude, you've potentially got eternity and a body impervious to damage that makes your chances of escaping from a 1950s prison pretty damn good. If you're potentially on the run indefinitely? There's your damn excitement.
107: The Lonely 1959 November 13
(First watched 2023-05-24) This episode would probably do more for me if in my 40 years I hadn't already watched or read more stories about the gray area between man and machine than possibly existed by 1959. But, still kind of amusing that everybody pronounces the word "robut" like Zoidberg.
108: Time Enough at Last 1959 November 20
(First watched ?, now watched 2023-05-29) Take a mostly harmless guy with a depressing life. Put him in an even worse situation. Give him a glimmer of hope. Then kick him in the balls. The twilight zone can be a real dick. And given what he was doing before he realized he was near a library, we can imagine that shortly after the cameras turn away he goes and eats a bullet. Tune in next week!
109: Perchance to Dream 1959 November 27
(First watched 2023-05-29) Maya the Cat Girl dances a lot like Elaine Benes.
A guy with a bad heart and a good imagination manages to scare himself to death... I guess the most surprising thing is he made it to his mid-30s. I note the actor was 49, so I was right when watching the episode to think that the 35-year-old seemed pretty old.
This is maybe the first episode where something _technically_ made it feel really aged. And that is the simple rear projection used for the roller coaster ride looking really fake.
110: Judgment Night 1959 December 4
(First watched 2023-06-05) I feel like beyond the first few minutes when I was like "Are we just watching some poor dope who's had a stroke?", the gist of the thing was a bit obvious even without all the specifics yet given.
To me this is another case of something being interesting for reasons beyond what they intended. To me, both this show and World War II are pretty ancient history, but from the perspective of this episode it's a story of recent history.
The way "hell" is repeating your own believed wrongs eternally reminded me of the way things worked on the Lucifer TV show.
111: And When the Sky Was Opened 1959 December 11
(First watched 2023-06-06) This veered a bit close to Caveman Science Fiction for me. Because these people did something that hadn't been done before, a weird awful unexpected thing happened back to them.
I was curious about the never-seen plane. Did it change as people disappeared, too? Because certainly experimental aircraft/spacecraft of the day weren't built for three if they only needed one or two to operate them.
Based on a story by Richard Matheson, there's a familiar name.
112: What You Need 1959 December 25
113: The Four of Us Are Dying 1960 January 1
114: Third from the Sun 1960 January 8
115: I Shot an Arrow into the Air 1960 January 15
116: The Hitch-Hiker 1960 January 22
117: The Fever 1960 January 29
118: The Last Flight 1960 February 5
119: The Purple Testament 1960 February 12
120: Elegy 1960 February 19
121: Mirror Image 1960 February 26
122: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street 1960 March 4
123: A World of Difference 1960 March 11
124: Long Live Walter Jameson 1960 March 18
125: People Are Alike All Over 1960 March 25
127: The Big Tall Wish 1960 April 8
128: A Nice Place to Visit 1960 April 15
129: Nightmare as a Child 1960 April 29
130: A Stop at Willoughby 1960 May 6
132: A Passage for Trumpet 1960 May 20
134: The After Hours 1960 June 10
135: The Mighty Casey 1960 June 17
136: A World of His Own 1960 July 1