Favorite The Twilight Zone episodes that are not so common?
March 29, 2011 10:33 PM   Subscribe

What are some of your favorite The Twilight Zone episodes? I've watched some of the most famous ones, but I'm wondering if there are any others that are great to watch.
posted by antgly to Media & Arts (31 answers total) 32 users marked this as a favorite
 
I don't remember the episode title, but the one where the guy discovers a stopwatch that stops time. I love how it ends.
posted by AlliKat75 at 10:34 PM on March 29, 2011


the one with the boxer? and the amusement park. gorgeous photography

which ones have you watched? i'm assuming Time Enough At Last, To Serve Man, the Monsters are Due On Maple Street, Eye of the Beholder?

the AV Club ran a Gateways to Geekery on this subject
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:46 PM on March 29, 2011


The Hitch-Hiker is a great episode, and is not one of the famous ones, as far as I know... "Are you going my way?" (Season 1, Episode 16).

I also like "To Serve Man," which might be one of the more famous ones. (Season 3, Episode 89).

"The Obsolete Man" is also good, but I was a librarian, so I might be biased. (Season 2, Episode 65).

If you liked watching LOST, "The Odyssey of Flight 33" is a fair episode of T-Zone. (Season 2, Episode 54).
posted by k8lin at 10:55 PM on March 29, 2011


"Nightmare as a Child" is another not-famous episode that's pretty good; I couldn't remember the title and had to do some searching. (Season 1, Episode 29).

And "Kick the Can" is decent as well. (Season 3, Episode 86).
posted by k8lin at 11:02 PM on March 29, 2011


"The Midnight Sun"! I saw it once when I was seven and still think about it.
posted by timshel at 11:04 PM on March 29, 2011 [2 favorites]


See, now that everyone else is gone, finally he has time to read, but....
posted by orthogonality at 11:05 PM on March 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


Nightmare at 20,000 Feet with William Shatner

To Serve Man (seconded! what an ending!)

The Chaser (this is the one with the Love Potion for $1)
posted by dixon1e at 11:06 PM on March 29, 2011 [2 favorites]


See, now that everyone else is gone, finally he has time to use the chat function, but....
posted by pracowity at 11:07 PM on March 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


Which ones did you see? Which ones did you like? If we're just listing favorites...
A Stop at Willoughby
Walking Distance
The Hitch-Hiker
After Hours
22
And looking at that list I can see where I picked some of my phobias around driving at night and department stores.
posted by betweenthebars at 11:14 PM on March 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


"Judgment Night," "Nick of Time," and "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" are all worth catching.
posted by Vervain at 11:19 PM on March 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


Oh, and "Nothing in the Dark"!
posted by Vervain at 11:57 PM on March 29, 2011


One For The Angels is predictable and a bit corny in places, but the ending is just so gentle and sweet. There's sort of an association of The Twilight Zone with cynicism about human nature and our place in the universe, but there are also a few that show startling optimism and hope (Nothing In The Dark is another one of these)

Nick Of Time is kind of relegated to "that other episode Shatner was in", but I think it's actually better than Nightmare At 20K.

If you like scary-TZ, look up the one with the dopplegangers. I would wiki it for you, but I want to sleep at some point tonight.
posted by kagredon at 1:27 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I really like The Fever; it totally freaked me out when I saw it late, late one night, particularly the bit where the pokies aka slot machines were calling to the guy and the voice was made to sound like the chink chink of coins falling into the tray.
posted by h00py at 5:12 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


After Hours is one that I hadn't seen until last year, never heard of it, so it was completely new to me and I had no idea how it was going to go. Very suspenseful.
posted by litnerd at 6:06 AM on March 30, 2011


So many of the ones mentioned above, and also Little Girl Lost.
posted by methroach at 6:40 AM on March 30, 2011


These are my favorites. I have left out the ones I think are the most famous, and therefore ones you've seen, as well as ones I don't particularly care for. So, it's a long list. (I watched a lot "Twilight Zone" when Toddler Zizzle was a newborn.)


Season 1:
The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine
Walking Distance
Perchance to Dream
Third from the Sun
The Last Flight
A World of Difference
The Big Tall Wish
A Stop at Willoughby
The Chaser
The After Hours

Season 2:
Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
The Howling Man
Eye of the Beholder
The Trouble with Templeton
A Penny for Your Thoughts
Twenty Two
The Odyssey of Flight 33
A Hundred Yards Over the Rim
The Silence
Shadow Play

Season 3:
Two
The Shelter
The Passerby
The Midnight Sun
A Quality of Mercy
Nothing in the Dark
The Hunt
The Fugitive
Little Girl Lost
The Gift
The Dummy
Cavender is Coming
The Changing of the Guard


Season 4:
He's Alive
Mute
I Dream of Genie
On Thursday We Leave for Home


Season 5:
Living Doll
The Old Man in the Cave
The Long Morrow
Spur of the Moment
Stopover in a Quiet Town
Mr. Garrity and the Graves
posted by zizzle at 7:04 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


PS. A fair number of "Twilight Zone" episodes are available on IMDB or Hulu right now.
posted by zizzle at 7:05 AM on March 30, 2011


A couple that I like:

The Midnight Sun
The Silence
The Rip Van Winkle Caper
A Penny for Your Thoughts (a more lighthearted episode)
The Obsolete Man (any episode with Burgess Meredith is a good one)
posted by BiffSlamkovich at 7:07 AM on March 30, 2011


zizzle, wow, there are some on your list that I totally forgot about!

*plans a Twilight Zone marathon for the near future*
posted by methroach at 7:27 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Did you see "The Masks"? That one is my absolute favorite of all time. Don't read anything about it. It's spoiler sensitive. I still remember being six and having my mind blown away by it. Awesome!
posted by hecho de la basura at 7:48 AM on March 30, 2011


methroach, my list probably contains most of the series. :)

The thing about "The Twilight Zone," which may actually be of use to antgly, to know is that many, many of them are not scary. Some cause the viewer to think and to reevaluate our understanding of the world. Some have just plain old happy endings, and still yet, some are scary to think about for long or otherwise upsetting.

I think more than any other series of this sort (short story and episodic), "The Twilight Zone" carries a variety that is not usually attributed to it because of the shock-factor associated with the more famous episodes. But, for example, "A Penny for Your Thoughts," and "I Dream of Genie" don't have that shock-factor to them at all but in their own way are really excellent episodes.

Anyone expecting all "Twilight Zone" episodes to be like "To Serve Man" are in for a bit of a disappointment. It's better to watch a bunch of them without thinking of what should be expected at all.
posted by zizzle at 7:57 AM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I am still pretty consistently terrified by "Little Girl Lost," and I couldn't really say why.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 8:46 AM on March 30, 2011


Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
The Midnight Sun
Number 12 Looks Just Like You
I am the Night - Color Me Black
Come Wander With Me
posted by coffeefilter at 9:11 AM on March 30, 2011


Aaaahhh!! I LOVE TWILIGHT ZONE. A lot of really great suggestions here already, to which I'll also add:

The Invaders
The Howling Man
The Shelter
Death's Head Revisited
Where is Everybody
I Sing the Body Electric

There are just so many good ones, though, you kind of just have to watch them all.

I've only gone to New Years' parties two or three times in my life, and each time I was sorry I wasn't hunkered down at home watching the marathon on SciFi. If you can wait another 9 months, that's a good place to get your fill of the greats.
posted by phunniemee at 9:14 AM on March 30, 2011


Oh, oh, oh, and Escape Clause. Definitely Escape Clause.
posted by phunniemee at 9:16 AM on March 30, 2011


Oh, also The Little People. (Several of these, as I've googled for titles, appear to be on Youtube in their entirety...if you hadn't figured that out already.)

Note to self: collect thoughts, then hit post.
posted by phunniemee at 9:21 AM on March 30, 2011


I love Spur of the Moment. It's creepy as hell, and doesn't go where you're expecting.
posted by mumblingmynah at 9:50 AM on March 30, 2011


The Jeopardy Room with Martin Landau is one of my favorites; I always hope to see it on New Year's Eve.

Also, Cavender is Coming with Carol Burnett. The only TZ episode I ever saw that had a laugh track, although they don't seem to air that version when I've seen it in recent years.
posted by mefireader at 2:30 PM on March 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I still remember my first Twilight Zone. It was 'The Midnight Sun.' It's not my favorite TZ, but it made such an impression on me that it's cemented in my mind more than twenty years after I first saw it (I remember I saw it late night on PBS, and the next morning I ran excitedly out of my room to tell my Mom that I had seen the greatest show on tv the night before, ha..)

My favorites are:
Eye Of The Beholder
The Hitch-Hiker
Living Doll (and the Simpsons spoof .. also, if I recall correctly, there was a Stephen King 'adaptation' for the X-Files)
Nick Of Time
posted by Mael Oui at 9:44 PM on March 30, 2011


Don't click on the Wiki links mefireader linked if you want to see the episodes unspoiled... (sorry)
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 11:50 PM on March 30, 2011


My favorite episode is most certainly "The Invaders"
posted by jrb223 at 1:57 PM on March 31, 2011


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