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As I've learned
this year, there are still people out there who haven't seen "The
Twilight Zone" and are not aware of the often brilliant and shocking
twists hiding within the mysteries that master storyteller Rod
Serling composed in the fifties and sixties. As many know "The
Twilight Zone" is one of the best and more influential anthology
series of all time, a show that was at times scary, funny, and
compelling while also serving a purpose to comment on issues like
poverty, death, the war, the holocaust, crime, infidelity, greed,
and the debate of heaven and hell along with theology and the flaws
of the human soul. At rare times it was merely a form of escapism,
and not every episode was a bonafide masterpiece, but almost all of
the time Serling's seminal science fiction show was about something.
It had a statement to make, it was important and that's why it
continues to be look at as the standard for modern pop culture
influencing thousands of television shows, authors, and musicians
across the world and is basically larger than life. It's garnered
two pretty underwhelming feature films, a respectable but mediocre
eighties reboot, and a very bad, and quickly cancelled millennium
reboot, all of which have paled in comparison to Serling's original
series. While we left out many good episodes of Serling's science
fiction horror series, these are the episodes we consider the best
of the best and our absolute favorites. Warning: If you've
yet to fully indulge in the entire legacy of the series, be cautious
there will be spoilers within this list as we offer up our ten
favorite episodes of "The Twilight Zone" of all time.
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On
Thursday We Leave for Home
1963
Directed by: Buzz Kulik
Written by: Rod Serling
The
hour long episodes of "The Twilight Zone" are awfully
sub-par and quite dull and tedious. Heck in an interview
with Rod Serling even the man himself admitted that most
of the hour long episodes produced for the series were
rather poorly made and forgettable. But he mentions that
"On Thursday We Leave for Home" is the only stand out,
and he's not wrong. Sure the episode is a little too
padded, and lacks any sort of commentary or twist
ending, but what it accomplishes is a rich story about
what power and desperation can do to one person, and the
madness that eventually takes its toll. |
He's not so much
contemplating the loneliness of his people in the
face of Earth's populace, but his own loneliness in
the face of the populace not to mention he is also
facing that his delusions of grandeur will otherwise
be dwarfed by people of actual importance once he
reaches Earth as he'd originally planned. It's never
indicated if main character William Benteen was of
any sort of importance when he was on the planet
Earth, but he makes up for this inferiority complex
by deeming himself a god with tales of home and
promises of great fortune should their goals ever be
reached. When confronted with an actual source home
that isn't reliant on him the power struggle
continues and the final scenes are a sad sign of a
man who got what he wanted all along: a planet where
he's the ruler. With no one to rule over.
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The
Midnight Sun
1961
Directed by: Anton Leader
Written by: Rod Serling
You
have to give it to "The Twilight Zone." There is an
actual reason why it's basically been an immortal
fixture of pop culture and that's because in many
respects it was quite prophetic. In a time where all the
world is watching the walls come down with the failing
economy, worldwide catastrophes, random violence, and
the increasing worries over "global warming," even the
most cynical viewer can't watch this episode without
feeling incredibly uneasy. In fact I dare even the most
stable viewer to see this episode without feeling a bit
uncomfortable. It seems the Earth has gone out of orbit
and is now gravitating closer and closer to the sun
which is growing larger and larger by the day. |
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As a result the
planet Earth is becoming a molten hot wasteland
where its residents are dying or retreating to
colder climates in droves. We meet Norma and Mrs.
Bronson, two remaining residents of the city
struggling with the heat and desperately clinging to
their sanity until confronted by an equally
desperate man who is anxiously trying to get in to
their house and grab on to their remaining cold
liquids they refuse to hand over. Filled with vivid
descriptions left to our imaginations and a constant
state of perspiration in our cast mates that create
an aura of horrible sweltering steam, "The Midnight
Sun" closes on a shocking surprise twist that you
will never see coming and is slight nod to the
growing fear of our one reliant source of heat and
energy turning on us or turning away from us.
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The
Monsters are Due On Maple Street
1960
Directed by: Ronald Winston
Written by: Rod Serling
A
metaphor for communism and the ugliness of the human
soul, "Maple Street" is a look at the world around us
and how easily we can destroy one another when all of
our security, luxuries, and technology has been cut off
at the source while our imagination and own sense of
paranoia completes the cruel circle of destruction and
anarchy that bring down the walls around us. Set in the
late summer night on Maple Street in a seemingly serene
neighborhood, its residents are interrupted by a roaring
engine over head and a flashing light they can't
explain. |
Maple Street fades
to black and its residents struggle to find out why
their electronics and vehicles are not working. With
their imaginations running wild thanks to the
stories of alien invasions and ordinary humans
posing as an alien family within calm neighborhoods
from their seemingly disturbed children, and
unwilling to venture outside their neighborhood to
investigate this phenomenon, the neighbors quickly
turn on one another as cars start and turn off on
their own, radios blur on and off, and lights
flicker to the shock of many of the residents
prompting finger pointing, raucous paranoid
arguments, old wounds re-opened, and inevitable
violence that asks the audience to question which
among these people are the actual monsters? And more
importantly, who is the beast? When you view the
final scene of this classic Serling side swipe, you
won't be able to catch your breath at how shockingly
easy it is for us to claw at one another when
something as easily lost as electricity is no longer
with us.
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Nothing in the Dark
1962
Directed by: Lamont Johnson
Written by: George Clayton Johnson
This
episode is not so much about fighting a monster, or
hiding out from the world, it's basically about the most
fundamental human emotion: coming to grips with your
mortality and ultimately accepting death as an
inevitable. Whether we acknowledge it or not in our best
of times, humans are afraid of death and we're all
horrified to see what's waiting for us after we've
stopped breathing. If there's anything there at all.
Which ever option is truly a harrowing and intimidating
prospect and one many of us are scared to fathom. |
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As an extra
precaution, Wanda Dunn has taken to hiding out in
her building away from the world avoiding people and
looking out for Death, who she explains is hiding in
the form of a man or a woman waiting to pounce on
her at any given time. One day after a shoot out
outside her apartment building, Wanda hears the
cries of a handsome young police officer outside her
door who is wounded and begging for her help in her
alleyway. Wanda is horrified and refuses to let him
in, but the clean shaven and welcoming young
man--played by a young Robert Redford--begs the
woman to help him and slowly gains her trust. What
we learn with their confrontation and exchanges
about life and mortality is that death may not be
something to fear, after all. It may just be nothing
to really fuss over, another part of life that we
must all face sooner or later and simply can not
avoid no matter what measures we take in the end.
Like breathing or sleeping, it may just be a natural
bodily function, and one we can't really put much
weight on, in the end. Suffice it to say Redford and
Cooper's performances are magnificent, but the real
power is in the message of accepting fate and
learning to appreciate life while we all have it
here.
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One
for the Angels
1959
Directed by: Robert Parrish
Written by: Rod Serling
I first
saw this episode when I was a little kid and yes, I
cried. Like a baby. Because not only is it one of the
most heartfelt episodes of the series ever made, but it
features one of the most gripping finales ever made. Lew
Bookman as played by the lovable Ed Wynn is a local
salesman who is a master at walking around neighborhoods
and creating the ultimate show to sell trinkets and toys
for the kids and adults who pass by. As is the case with
the ultimate salesmen, people find it impossible to
resist his enthusiasm and sales pitches. |
Lew also sports
something of an admirable relationship with the
local children, all of whom love Lew, and he loves
them back with childlike exuberance and an open-mind
they appreciate. Lew is told by death that he is to
die at midnight, but unwilling to go so easily, he
makes a sales pitch, "one for the angels" that keeps
him alive after midnight. Sadly, one person must die
and a local little girl who was hit by a truck is
doomed to suffer death's touch at the stroke of
midnight. Lew makes the final sacrifice by pitching
the ultimate sale to death distracting him with the
appeal of trinkets and elixirs. Death is incapable
of resisting Lew's unstoppable sales enthusiasm and
is distracted for literal hours keeping the girl
from the throes of her fate. But Lew makes one last
pitch for the angels and learns that sometimes it's
worth offering up your own life in exchange for
another's, if you have the right pitch. The final
scene is truly heartbreaking and yes, it made me
burst in to tears. Don't mock me.
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Part Two of Our Favorite
The Twilight Zone Episodes of All Time >>
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