{"id":3622,"date":"2018-07-20T06:53:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-20T10:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=3622"},"modified":"2018-07-20T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-20T13:00:38","slug":"the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every summer the SyFy Channel features an enormous number of Twilight Zone episodes for no apparent reason.\u00a0 And every year I watch way too many of these episodes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a moral failing of mine.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s because the show was on too late for me to watch when I was young so I felt deprived and therefore overvalued what I couldn\u2019t get.\u00a0 And watching these episodes every year drives home one fact, that most Twilight Zone episodes are stunningly bad.<\/p>\n

To be fair, there is a small number of actually good episodes.\u00a0 A debate can be had as to whether there are five or ten good episodes.\u00a0 Opinions and tastes differ but it\u2019s somewhere in that range.\u00a0 Then there are another twenty or so that are watchable.\u00a0 The plots are predictable and the acting is mediocre at best but watchable.\u00a0 That leaves well over a hundred episodes that are actually painful to watch.\u00a0 Let me give an example.<\/p>\n

In the episode “King Nine Will Not Return” a man regains consciousness next to his crashed bomber aircraft somewhere in the North African desert during World War II.\u00a0 By the end of the episode you find out this is a dream this man has as a result of his feelings of guilt for missing the mission where the bomber was shot down.\u00a0 So far so good.\u00a0 Psychological pain, some kind of manifestation where he physically visits this time and place and is allowed to heal.\u00a0 Sure, why not.\u00a0 Now what is the scene?\u00a0 You have the protagonist standing around in what must be the California desert yelling and emoting about his anguish for his missing crew mates.\u00a0 It\u2019s like some unscripted improvisational method acting workshop.\u00a0 Five minutes in you\u2019re heading to the kitchen to get some snack or drink just to avoid the whole embarrassing spectacle.\u00a0 I found myself pitying the actor doing the scene and wondering if the experience of performing this drivel might have driven him out of acting and into some honest profession like loan sharking or leg breaking.\u00a0 But every time I returned my attention to the tv screen there he was yelling and grimacing and crying. \u00a0Mercifully it finally ended and I have sworn a mighty oath to never watch that episode again while there remains any hope at all for intelligent human life to continue on this planet.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, not all bad episodes are that horrible.\u00a0 Some are just stupid and annoying.\u00a0 These usually involve mannequins or robots that think they are human.\u00a0 They even did this to Anne Francis in an episode called \u201cThe After Hours.\u201d\u00a0 She\u2019s in a department store and by the end of the episode she remembers that she\u2019s an escaped mannequin.\u00a0 I think we\u2019re supposed to be glad she\u2019s found her way back to where she belongs.\u00a0 But it\u2019s all so pointless that you really can\u2019t be sure.<\/p>\n

So, most of the episodes stink, but which ones do I admit liking?\u00a0 Here they are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet<\/li>\n
  2. Nick of Time<\/li>\n
  3. To Serve Man<\/li>\n
  4. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?<\/li>\n
  5. It\u2019s a Good Life<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And now I\u2019ll tell you what I like about them.\u00a0 The first four episodes I find comical.\u00a0 The first two have William Shatner starring.\u00a0 You can\u2019t go wrong with Shatner.<\/a>\u00a0 He was born to act on the Twilight Zone.\u00a0 The terrible dialog and nonexistent direction actually seem to jibe with Shatner\u2019s bizarre overacting tics.\u00a0 \u201cNick of Time\u201d can\u2019t compete with \u201cNightmare at 20,000 Feet\u201d for over the top hilarity but even in the lesser vessels the Shatnerian touch is still a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

    \u201cTo Serve Man\u201d and \u201cWill the Real Martian Please Stand Up?\u201d are surprise ending stories that I can only think of as jokes.\u00a0 For each, the whole episode is the set up for the reveal.\u00a0 I find them amusing.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say personal preference.<\/p>\n

    And that brings us to the best and maybe the only truly original story in the whole series, \u201cIt\u2019s a Good Life.\u201d\u00a0 The short story is even better than the teleplay but both are very effective.\u00a0 Definitely worth viewing.<\/p>\n

    So that\u2019s it.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a Burgess Meredith or a Jack Klugman fan there are a couple of episodes you can add and if you\u2019re sentimental there is Christmas episode with Art Carney as Santa Claus that\u2019s kind of cute.\u00a0 But I\u2019d be kidding myself if I said I watched them out of anything other than force of habit.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary but this is my take.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Every summer the SyFy Channel features an enormous number of Twilight Zone episodes for no apparent reason.\u00a0 And every year I watch way too many<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240],"tags":[1196,1199,1197,1195,1194,17,838,1198,837],"class_list":["post-3622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","tag-000-feet","tag-its-a-good-life","tag-nick-of-time","tag-nightmare-at-20","tag-rod-serling","tag-to-serve-man","tag-twilight-zone","tag-will-the-real-martian-please-stand-up","tag-william-shatner"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every summer the SyFy Channel features an enormous number of Twilight Zone episodes for no apparent reason.\u00a0 And every year I watch way too many\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\"},\"wordCount\":784,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"000 Feet\",\"It\u2019s a Good Life\",\"Nick of Time\",\"Nightmare at 20\",\"Rod Serling\",\"To Serve Man\",\"Twilight Zone\",\"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up\",\"William Shatner\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Reviews\",\"Science Fiction \/ Fantasy\",\"SF&F TV Show Reviews\",\"TV Reviews\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\",\"name\":\"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"description\":\"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg\",\"width\":4022,\"height\":1419,\"caption\":\"Orion's Cold Fire\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\",\"name\":\"photog\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg\",\"caption\":\"photog\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire","og_description":"Every summer the SyFy Channel features an enormous number of Twilight Zone episodes for no apparent reason.\u00a0 And every year I watch way too many","og_url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/","og_site_name":"Orion's Cold Fire","article_published_time":"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00","author":"photog","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_site":"@orionscoldfire","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"photog","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/"},"author":{"name":"photog","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3"},"headline":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review","datePublished":"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/"},"wordCount":784,"commentCount":4,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["000 Feet","It\u2019s a Good Life","Nick of Time","Nightmare at 20","Rod Serling","To Serve Man","Twilight Zone","Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up","William Shatner"],"articleSection":["Reviews","Science Fiction \/ Fantasy","SF&F TV Show Reviews","TV Reviews"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/","name":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review - Orion's Cold Fire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-07-20T10:53:23+00:00","dateModified":"2018-07-20T13:00:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/20\/the-original-twilight-zone-tv-series-an-sff-tv-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Original Twilight Zone TV Series \u2013 An SF&F TV Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","description":"All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization","name":"Orion's Cold Fire","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSC06141.jpg","width":4022,"height":1419,"caption":"Orion's Cold Fire"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/orionscoldfire"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3","name":"photog","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/photog-image.jpg","caption":"photog"},"url":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/author\/photog\/"}]}},"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3622"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3632,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions\/3632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}