To Serve Man: Why Was This Classic Twilight Zone Episode Filmed Twice?
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- Опубліковано 2 жов 2024
- Based on a short story by Damon Knight and adapted for television by Rod Serling, "To Serve Man" story is arguably one of the best and most remembered of the entire series.
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To Serve Man: Why Was This Classic Twilight Zone Episode Filmed Twice - • To Serve Man: Why Was ...
WHY THIS ONE TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE WAS BANNED FOR 52 YEARS - • Why This One TWILIGHT ...
Why This One Episode of THE OUTER LIMITS was CENSORED For Being TOO DISTURBING - • This Episode of THE OU...
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"It's a cookbook!" Has to be the greatest one-liner in Sci Fi history!
Or maybe "Soylent Green is People!"
@@americaninstituteofphiloso1588 Okay that one HAS to top the list too!
@@americaninstituteofphiloso1588 .....I am your father.
ABSOLUTELY!!! NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.
the tv version has a better ending than the short story (by Damon Knight) - the short story ends with the reveal ("it's a cookbook") coming as two men sit in a lounge - while in the tv show - the effect was amped by the man boarding the spaceship - and being prevented from escaping
This was one of the best episodes. My all-time favorite is "Eye of the Beholder" because it was so thought-provoking. And my Dad played the doctor. That probably has something to do with it, too.
Was your father the distinguished actor (as on Lucille Ball tv shows) Gale Gordon?
Great story 👏🏻
Cool!
I call BS, everyone knows actors eat their young.
Lol 😎👍
When the alien was taking the polygraph test he doesn't actually lie when he was asked about his motives. The clip in the video doesn't include the full context. He didn't say, "We have come to bring peace and prosperity." His response was crafted to be a truth. What he said was, "I hope that the people of Earth will believe that we have come to bring peace and prosperity."
a good point - but it's another weakness in the story to assume that aliens could be subjected to a lie detector - tho it worked dramatically - it only requires an extra dose of suspension of disbelief - if a viewer even notices
(edit) - i just read the Damon Knight short story (found it on the web) - the lie detector is tested to show that it works on the aliens - but one of the characters believes the aliens fooled the lie detectors - the phrasing "i hope that..." doesn't appear in the short story - and doesn't have to - aliens advanced enuf to cross the universe are probably capable of defeating die detectors
@@johneyon5257 Those subtle nuances may have been added in for the viewers to key in to see how clever and meticulous the Twilight Zone authors were.
@K Cheng Correction, the Majority of US politicians and many other tyrants and dictators around the world. Biden, Castro, Maduro, Xi, North Korea leader,
Zelensky, the Pope, etc......etc...too many to name. Not just Putin cupcake.
They are all crooks and lie like hell to their people.
The reset agenda is beginning👎
@@johneyon5257 There are several weaknesses in the story, as there are in many of the episodes. But attention to detail was not necessary to make the TZ so great. For example, why do the aliens need to come to earth at all? If they are so sophisticated and intelligent, can't they manufacture their own delicious food? After all, they make earth a paradise, so why not do the same on their own planet?
@@meltzerboy - it's called "suspension of disbelief" - when readers/viewers deliberately suppress logic analysis at illogical passages - but the theme of this thread was the use of the word "serve" in the title of the book - the pivotal point in the story - anglophones without a second language were probably dumb-founded at the twist - they were probably unaware of the issue it posed in other earth-bound languages - and intersteller ones
as for nutrition - Larry Niven's short story "Bordered in Black" handled that more deftly
My favorite was "Little Girl Lost". The idea of walls that weren't REALLY there and being lost in another dimension (which was still a difficult concept for a pre-teen 60s kid to grasp) scared the crap out of my brother and I, who went to bed testing all the walls.
Bernard Herrmann wrote the score for this episode.
One of my least favorites. Sorry
"This is like that twilighty show about the zone."
While you and your brother were testing all of the walls, did you find the fourth wall by any chance?
That was a magnificent episode. Very thought provoking!
My favorite is when Anne Francis forgot she was a department store dummy. I saw this as a child. It really scared me. The elevator guy took her up to "the 13th floor", which wasn't supposed to be there but was there for her. Yikes
“Climb off it” - Great episode!!
Agreed 👍🏻
Maybe our existence is simply our turn to be real.
@@dyenahh oooohhhh. how could we really perceive that our reality is just a pocket universe that could blink out at any moment.
Ninth floor. ✌
'To Serve Man' was definitely one of the most memorable Twilight Zone episodes of all time. Another episode I rank right up there with it was 'The Howling Man' starring John Carradine as Brother Jerome where by a traveler due to a storm stops by an abbey of Monks for the night and comes across a prisoner the monks have jailed. The prisoner talks the traveler into freeing him and once the traveler does, he learns he just released the Devil back into the world then spends the rest of his life trying to undo what he has done.
Good one!
Loved "The Howling Man". Scared the hell out of me as a kid.
Let's not forget that ninety-nine percent of the time , the acting in the Twilight Zone episodes was brilliant
Well… as good as it got in those days. Acting “naturally” was almost nonexistent until the late 1970s. The actor was supposed to look and sound like he was acting back then. Different art form entirely.
@@Frankie5Angels150 I don't think this was an improvement. Later acting styles grew out of method acting, which Humphrey Bogart called "the scratch your ass and mumble" school of acting.
And it featured early performances by Robert Redford, Robert Duval, William Shatner as well as veteran actors like Mickey Rooney & Art Carney.
Lloyd Bochner sure sold this story!
@@jenniferrogers2492 the list is amazing because it just goes on and on
One of my favorites is the one with Agnes Moorhead as the lady living in a rooftop room that was being invaded by little spacemen.
🤣🤣
And she didn't even speak but delivered a grand performance.
@Account NumberEight yes!
@@KimberlyLetsGo that's right
Especially when they show the spacecraft on her roof at the end.......surprise, surprise!
The greatest science fiction show in history. Nothing will ever come close.
How about "Outer Limits", and before those on radio, "Dimension-X", "X Minus One"
While I love The Zone, Black Mirror is also a very good modern take on the SF thriller genre.
Junji Ito comes close
@@RARufus Eh, BM was pretty good before it became mainstream getting with Netflix. TZ was a bit more consistent in quality and overall tone.
I see your gambit and raise you 'The Expanse'
“Time enough at last” with Burgess Meredith is my favorite. I was probably eight years old when I saw it. I cried when he broke his glasses. I thought it was so mean for the episode to end that way. I cried because of the way he said the line “It’s not fair”
@@chiefline7084 yes. Cruel is the best description for that show
At least he could read the large print books. (lol)
He was the last man on earth. There weren’t spare glasses or a magnifying glass around somewhere? He has all the time in the world to fix his problem unobstructed.
Agreed. It was also unusual in that in the TZ it's usually an evil character that gets ironic justice rather than a sympathetic character getting a raw deal.
Hey, his eyes weren't THAT bad, he could read large print books. And in case he would loose eyesight, he could read braille...
All Twilight Zone episodes are true classics. These shows are an lost art. Most of them gave me goosebumps, and up all night as a young child, teenager. Yup. This guy was before his time. His critical thinking, brainstorming was phenomenal. Love them all.
Yes, I have the whole series on DVD. One of the greatest TV series of all time.
I'd love to see a poll rating all these series (sci-fi/shock anthologies) from best to worst. There are so many of them floating around out there (the various TZ incarnations, Night Gallery, Outer Limits, Karloff's Thriller, Tales From The Crypt, Creepshow, the various such-and-such Playhouses, all the way up to the surprisingly amusing one from Bobcat Goldthwaite and the more parodic ones like Really Weird Tales) that it's hard to know where the quality lies without having the benefit of the trusty "Serl of Approval"
Id say maybe 20% werer very good, the rest just moronic junk.
It was posted earlier... there was space dust
Classics because no matter how dated they may be in presentation, they deal with the same philosophical concepts mankind has struggled with since forever. And will struggle with for forever.
I was 10 years old when I first saw this episode and I was afraid of hungry aliens for 2 years after! The scariest story EVER!
Sorry, they’re still eating us.
Ruskin’s voice was perfect as the alien. …”thus the voice you hear is totally mechanical…”
Ruskin also played the master thrall Galt in the star trek episode "the gamesters of triskelian", a fun if silly episode.
This is definitely one of my favourite episodes!! 👍🏻
@@nunyabizness6595 And Monique Pettyjohn in the foil bikini.I was 12 and thought I would like to see more of her.
I thought it was Vincent Price when I first saw this episode.
I always thought "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is the scariest because it really highlights some of the worst aspects of human nature and shows what really could happen in, say, a nuclear emergency.
That one was amazing for the reasons you specified.
Yeh reminds me of the last 3 yrs
That's my personal favorite episode
To Serve Man is definitely one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes. I also love The Obsolete Man with Burgess Meredith. This episode has much in common with what’s happening in the country right now. The networks should show this episode on prime time now.
If you only new this crapp really took place !!
1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451...
@@tablescissors look up frank strangers and Val valient thor
@@jimmyrodasmolestina979 ... from Venus (the planet)
@@jimmyrodasmolestina979 Are you don't the English good? Your grasp of logic is as good as your grammar.
Rod Serling was a ww2 currahee airborne vet. Fighting in the pacific and the Philippines .His experiences in the war helped him gather info for his writing and film career. Astonishing story. Rip.
This has such a great twist ending. Much like the Invaders did.
I think the Invaders had the better twist,
Spoiler
You are rooting for the alien all along
@J LA No the invaders was about a old lady on a farm, tending it by herself, while she as accosted by two 'spacemen'
@@restionSerpentine Endora from Bewitched
I hope if aliens ever do show up they understand why we are so skeptical of their generosity as we should be we should pay particular attention to how they react to the Heavier amongst us-Especially ifThey’re poking us the Way cattle ranchers Do cattle
@@GeorgeWashingtonLaserMusket yes. The little "monsters" were American astronauts.
i am almost 64 now. the last 10 years occasionaly i have been searching for this episode which i saw when i was a really small boy in the 60ths. Did not now where to look, had only fragments of memory. Still remember the fear this short film imposed on me. Was skipping thrue so many old science fiction films to find what it was. The term " Medusa" sticked on me, still don"t know why. Really thanks for giving this back to me. "To serve man", i will remember now. Best regards, Leo.
I remember when Lloyd Bochner who played Professor Chambers reprised his role in The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and he ran into a room yelling, "It's a cookbook!".
He's running around the room panicking like everyone else.
For years-I didn't know what the reference was too!
My favorite TZ episode after “The Monsters are due on Maple Street”.
So dang good! Clever writing and reveal at the end worth rewatching.
Richard Kiel was a friend of my uncle. He was a very kind man.
He was great in The Longest Yard--"I think I broke his freakin neck" !! lol
@@gdobie1west988 Richard was the longest 2-1/3 yards.
His best role was in happy Gilmore when he told shooter mc Gavin and I'll be seeing YOU in the parking lot. 😂
Go read Kiel’s autobiography - its really great! He was a success on screen, in life as a store owner, principled in the face of Hollywood - a wonderful, kind man led by his faith.
Did he try to bite you with his metal teeth? I heard those got him in trouble as they couldn't be removed after the James Bond flicks and he was always trying to bite people.
This is one of my favorites, along with the postapocalyptic man with the thick glasses which break as he is just about to start his dreamy life of uninterrupted reading.
My favorite that I rarely hear from others 'A Nice Place to Visit' A reflection of what every man desires, all the money, women and everything else he could ever want but once he gets them from his mysterious 'friend' gets bored and goes crazy realizing there's nothing left to live for since the excitement of trying to acquiring them was gone. Then the perfect twisted ending finally realizing he is really dead and must be in heaven but it was really hell and Sebastien Cabot's diabolical laugh when he reveals it to him. An eternity of boredom. I was that type, always craving that lifestyle but always thought if I acquired them, then what? The moral? Be happy with what you have!
Its in my top 10.I will never forget Cabots evil laugh at the end.
One correction: He knew he was dead from the beginning. It was just his eternal destination that he was wrong on.
On a personal note, I'd be quite content in such a setting. Ditto with the ST:TNG episode probably based on this, with Ryker, Data, and Worf in the hotel and the dead American astronaut.
I wasn't scared or too upset by this episode when it was new, despite being a kid. I remember the narrator guy saying that it didn't matter where you were when the news got out, because whether you'd already gotten to the other planet, or were en route (as he was), or were back on earth - everyone was going to meet the same fate.
I'm sure a lot of people were able to hide away pretty good until they died of old age, etc, but of course life as they knew it was over.
I love this episode! My other fav was the one where a poor woman on a different planet never says a word, but fights for her life from an alien that lands on her home. Her acting was superb!
That would be the 'Agnes Morehead', episode. Can't recall the title 🤔, but that's it!! Want to see her at some of her best, view a pic titled "DARK PASSAGE", with Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Becall!! Or just watch almost any episode, of "BEWITCHED" (She played Samantha's, mother)!!!
It’s called The Invaders, terrific episode.
@@rogerrendzak8055 She was also part of Orson Welles' Mercury Players. She played Charles Foster Kane's mother in "Citizen Kane."
That was Agnes Moorhead from Bewitched.
Yes, where the humans are just tiny little mice!!
In the opening scene, Bochner's character asks "What time is it?" and the alien answers that te question is meaningless, as they're in space. Bochner, not caring for scientific explanations, impatiently asks, "What time is it on Earth?" and is told that on Earth, it's Noon.
This satisfied me when it was originally shown (I was maybe 7 or 8 at the time), but when I watched it 20-some-odd years later, I stood up and shouted "WHERE?"
Since then, when someone asks me the time, my first inclination is to say, "On Earth, it's Noon."
That always got me too...could the writers have intentionally put that in there like that, since it's hard to believe no one would have caught that it makes no sense? lol
@@djhutcherson6761 Maybe the alien knew from which area the human was
@@lkrnpk good point, never thought about that
All that mattered, was that it was lunchtime (Michael Chambers' now, the Kanamit's later)
That's how I interpreted the line when I was older 🤷♂️
Not really nonsensical, would just be time at station of departure on Earth which seemed to be in USA, perhaps New York since the city shown where aliens flew in and appeared at UN
When it comes to outer limits and twilight zone, there is no favs. They all were outstanding.
I agree
THE OUTER LIMITS was my favorite TV show.
Even Rod Serling said 1/3 were great, 1/3 were fine, and 1/3 were crap. It’s in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre. There were quite a few clunkers, but when they were good…WOW!!!!
@@johndorcic4488 - agreed - i'm one who would rather be honest than adulatory - even towards a tv series that i'm very fond of as a whole - many plots seemed to follow the Twight Zone formula established by the early shows - how many wound up coming full circle - ending at the time and place it started - some stories were drear or ludicrous or boring or etc - but the series as a whole is held aloft by a few memorable episodes
@@johndorcic4488 Yes I remember reading that in Danse Macabre. I agree with his opinion as well.
Every episode was great, but two of the scariest, in my opinion, were "And When The Sky Was Opened" with Rod Taylor. The feeling of terror as each crew member disappeared, and the others knowing it was going to happen to them as well was truly scary. The second one was "Mirror Image" with Vera Miles as Millicent Barnes and Martin Milner. The buildup was scary enough, but the ending scene when Martin Milner was running after his own double, and the double looks back at him with the creepiest grin on his face gave me the heebie-jeebies for days. Serling was a master craftsman and storyteller. One of the all-time best TV series.
Regarding "And When the Sky Was Opened," I couldn't agree more.
Hard to believe that when the show was "current", it was nearly cancelled twice, the ratings were marginal at best. And Serling worked so hard on the show and his follow-up Night Gallery, it exhausted him to the point of eventually costing him his life.
@@adotintheshark4848 Cigarettes we’re a contributing factor to his demise, if I recall correctly.
Loved that first episode you describe. Absolutely terrifically done! And there was that feeling of paranoid terror that can make for such an impactful story but isn't easy to do right. I also loved the episode where the lady driving comes to realize she's already dead.
@@derbeh he was a heavy smoker, true. But he died of heart failure, not lung disease.
One of my favorite episodes is Jack Klugman as a pool hustler who wishes he could have played a famous but deceased pool player (Jonathan Winters).
Me too. The lesson I got from, "A Game of Pool" was, beware what you wish for, becasue being "the best" is not all that it's cracked up to be.
Also a good episode. The one with Art Carney and the Santa bag that he finds is sort of the other bookend to this.
@@josepherhardt164 "The Night of the Meek." Another classic. My two favorites are "Time Enough at Last" and "The Obsolete Man," both starring Burgess Meredith playing two different types of "bibliophiles."
@@seminolefantodd4736
Jack Klugman appeared in at leat 4 Eps. Trumpet player, father of Pip(Billy Mumy), the spaceship crash landing over and over and of course the pool match with Johnathon Winters.
Are there others?
He was also great in In praise of pip,where he was a hustler and took his kid to the famous POP in Venice, amusement park,torn down in the 70s,so he's shot,dying his kids in Viet nam,injured and he asks God to take him instead...next scene the kid is at the park,trying to win a prize at the shooting range,klugman had so much soul.
My favourite is still A Stop At Willoughby. The final scene where the funeral wagon is next to the train gives me chills.
I love that one too. It shows Serling's radical side.
I was 10 when this episode came out and it scared me and my slightly older Sister to death. I can vividly remember it and I’ve never seen a rerun of it.
I was same age and scared to death 💀 just like you!
Slightly?
I was about 10 when I saw it, and it scared the poop out of me too. This was the second episode of the Twilight Zone I saw, the first being '"The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank." My dad and I wee hooked on the series from then until it ended.
The Hitchhiker, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Nick Of Time, and Will The Real Martian Please Stand up are my top favorites of this classic series.
Yes! Will the real martian please stand up,the end where the last two guys never got on the bus that crashed,was like a alien throw down,all those arms were so creepy,but the third eye won.
First here... this and Eye of the Beholder" and "Time Enough At Last" are my TZ favorites.
It's a cookbook!
This is without question one of my favorite episodes. Top 3 or 5 atleast.
One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.
"To Serve Man" was definitely one of my most memorable and favorite episodes. That final line, "It's A Cookbook" still gives me chills. ... Yikes !
Classic episode! I met Richard Kiel about a year and a half before he died. Shook his hand, (I have big hands) his hand engulfed my hand. Richard was a very nice man. R.I.P.
I had a similar experience. I met RK at a convention in NJ some years ago. I’m 6’5 and he made me feel tiny. When we shook hands my hand disappeared in his. It was a day I’ll never forget.
I had the opportunity to attend the six-week-long Clarion Science Fiction Workshop in 1986 overseen by the writer of 'To Serve Man,' Damon Knight, and his wife Kate Wilhelm, two of the nicest people I've ever known. Only a couple dozen students were chosen to attend and it was a real honor for me, even if I was more into horror and fantasy stories at the time. My story 'Adam Finitum' was voted best story. I also had a story that was voted the worst. Alas, neither story was published. I was never a serious writer, as it was a hobby and I much preferred to play music and write poetry.
Each week there was a different author who taught us about the craft of writing. I've forgotten most of their names except for Harlan Ellison (The Deathbird) and Thomas M. Disch (Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars). During the final week, each attendee got face-time with both Damon and Kate during which time they evaluated the progress of our writing skills. I had worked very hard and I had improved very much so that I was given a letter from Damon Knight to send to Ed Furman the editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which I promptly misplaced on to find it years after he was no longer the editor.
Meeting the author of To Serve Man was one of the high points in my life
"The Twilight Zone" was of course famous for its shock endings, and "To Serve Man" was certainly had a shock ending. But, in my view, no episode beats "Third From the Sun" in this regard.
That was a great episode. I like how the cinematography showed the fender of the turbo car as it was driven, plus the sound effect.
Yes another great 👍🏻
@@nicholasforrester8587 It is especially so if -- like me -- you first watched it during the darkest days of the Cold War. Regards.
The ending of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was the biggest shocker imo
Any way to catch these full episodes on UA-cam,free?
I forgot to say,the one where two kids went into a swimming pool at home,but surfaced in a different world,where the were cared for by a grandma type,loved it.
I once got to meet the late Fred Pohl at a convention in Dayton; when I told him that one of his stories, "The Hated," would have made a great Twilight Zone episode, he told me, "You knew I knew Rod Serling..." He went on to tell me about him. What a great memory. I wish I could have met Rod.
A colleague in my writers group once got to meet Isaac Asimov at a book signing, but told me she was so excited to meet him that she totally flubbed the encounter. I said, "OMG--you didn't go up to him and say something like, 'I've always wanted to meet you, Mr. Clarke!'" And she said it was much worse--she couldn't talk at all and just giggled like a schoolgirl. Asimov smiled at her and did sign her book.
@@josepherhardt164
:)
I love everything I've ever seen Lloyd Bochner in! And now I can hear Joseph Ruskin's voice at the end, now that I know it's him...
FANtastic episode…one of the shows best. One of my favorites. The stories from “The Twilight Zone” - original are eternal. Today TV is laughable 💩!! Compared to shows of the past like Star Trek, The Outer Limits & many others that well thought out, interesting, intelligent & challenging.
You hit the nail on the head there Kyle!
@@normanperkel139 Today’s TV programming is unwatchable
@@kylecurry577 Better Call Saul is pretty good though..
@@normanperkel139 that’s true.
No wokeness, just great storytelling
This the 1st Twilight Episode I Watched in the 70's as a kid. Loved it.
I like all of the twilight zone episodes, and since i was 5 when the series started I've been watching for a long time. They just don't make them like this anymore.
Time Enough At Last with Burgess Meredith was a good one. Loved them all......
Rod Serling had a great way to have awesome twists in his Twilight Zone episodes. "To Serve Man" and "The Invaders" were at the top of my favorite episodes to watch. And still watch them today. Thanks for this video.
I'll always have a special place in my heart for the episode "Twenty Two" with the infamous "Room for one more honey." line as spoken by Arlene Martel who portrayed the mysterious nurse/stewardess (Same actress would later play Spock's Vulcan bride-to-be on the original Star Trek). Another ingenius, surprise ending!.
Listen to your gut feeling...
I really like Eye of the Beholder, Number 12 Looks Just Like You. But my favorite is The Midnight Sun. It has such an amazingly, and literally dark twist in the end.
That's my fav too!
I love the "Midnight Sun" episode, too. Creeped me out! A great twist ending--
Number 12 always makes me laugh. On it, it's supposed to be the year 2000. And there's ways to make people beautiful. LOL
Number 12 makes me laugh like crazy. On the show, it wasb
@@sarahwade6720 I know that number 12 is supposed to have a dark ending, but the ending narration is funny, and I wonder if it’s supposed to be. I also wonder how many models the public was allowed to choose from. There were only 2 actress hired to play the different female models, but only one actor hired to play the male model.
"Eye of the Beholder" left an indelible dent in my brain as a 10 or 11-year-old kid. It freaked me out so much that for months, I had to look back at my parents while watching TV to make sure they still looked human. I remember when the revealing scene was displayed, the blood was running out of my head as a 10-11 year old kid.
It was the soundtrack that made it so intense ! If they played some other music , they could have turned it into a comedy ! LoL 😆
“Indelible?”
My recollection of the original printed story was that the alien's book title was translated as, "How to serve man".
The original short story was also called "How to Serve Man".
The cast in "To Serve Man" was great. The look of sheer terror on Lloyd Bochner's face when he finally understands what the title of the book really means is one of the greatest single moments in film or TV history, ever.
"Miniature" is my favorite episode of The Twilight Zone. "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain’ is a close runner-up. "Stopover in a Quiet Town" is another. "To Serve Man" has never been one of my favorites.
A drink from a certain fountain,was that the Cleopatra episode,where the young writer interviewed the real queen of the Nile?
@@517oceanfront no, it’s about an older man who feels he can’t keep up with his wild young wife. He begs his scientist friend (brother?) for the experimental anti-aging drug he’s invented. It does reverse his aging, making him young again, but with terrible consequences.
@@517oceanfront No, you're thinking of "Queen Of The Nile." "A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain" stars Patrick O'Neal as a rich old man married to a much younger woman who's in it for his wealth. Desperate to be young again, he gets his doctor brother to inject him with an experimental youth serum, only to have it work so well he eventually reverts back all the way to infancy. The brother then threatens to cut the young wife out of any family money unless she raises her now-child husband as her own.
How do you pick only one favorite 'Twilight Zone'? There are so many good ones, and this is one of the best. I can and do watch 'Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?' as often as I can. But the same is true of 'Printer's Devil' , 'Third from the Sun', 'The After Hours' (which scared the bejeezus out of my Jr. High School classes), 'A Game of Pool' - you can go on & on. Thank God that Rod Serling figured out he could mostly get around the censors by using this format of sci-fi & fantasy. And that Mr. Serling was such a committed human being. I learned a lot from him.
There are so many good Twilight Zone episodes that it’s hard to rate them, but To Serve Man is one of the better ones.
My favorite episode ever. When I was a little kid !
"To Serve Man".
I met Richard Kiel in Covina, California back in the 90s. Really a nice guy. Shaking his hand 🤚 was like grabbing a baseball glove…… Huge !!!!!!
I remember watching the trailer of The Twilight Zone on television when I was a kid. The episode To Serve Man was featured and the scene in which the woman tells Lloyd Bochner’s character that To Serve Man(the book that was translated)was a cookbook and Bochner struggling to get off but was sealed into the spaceship, was memorable and stayed in my young mind for the longest time before I had the chance to watch the episode years later.
Another interesting episode that is one of my favorites is The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.
Dead Man’s Shoes was also a very good episode among others.
In terms of anthology shows, The Twilight Zone is the first and the greatest.
TZ was not the first anthology show (ie "anthology" meaning different story & cast each episode) - television programming began with many anthology series - it wasn't even the earliest scifi anthology - some (eg "Tales of Tomorrow) appeared in the early 50s
@@johneyon5257 True. I have never seen Tales Of Tomorrow. Not a single episode. I do remember One Step Beyond, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits and Thriller. There was an early anthology series that was hosted by Boris Karloff called The Veil(it was produced by the Hal Roach Studios) it was like One Step Beyond with the tales of the supernatural and ghosts. It wasn’t a bad show.
@@garyreid6165 - i just checked and was surprised to find episodes of Tales of Tomorrow on youtube - it was broadcast live - before videotape - so it's on kinescope (filmed by a movie camera setup to film a tv set) - so the image is dark & contrasty - - i see one with Rod Steiger in the lead and James Dean in a small part - there's one based on a HG Wells story - guess i'm going to have to work my way thru them
Yes, "To Serve Man" is my favorite Twilight Zone episode. I think it was the first episode I ever saw when they started airing them again in reruns when I was maybe 7 or 8, and I was absolutely terrified! Other favorites include Eye of the Beholder (what great acting!) and The Midnight Sun.
The episode called "Talking Tina" was my favorite.... easily one of the most powerful evil dolls and possibly the most powerful evil doll ever created. Based on events it would be able to easily win against Chucky, Annabelle or Slappy... simply because it appears to be indestructible.
My name is talking Tina,and I don't like you!
The Twilight Zone is simply the best TV show that has ever been made, and ever will be. Pure genius and still holds up to this day. My fave is "Still Valley" as it was the first episode I saw when i was about 10 years old in the 80s. I'd decided to see if I could stay up all night and it was on BBC2 at about 3am. It absolutely blew my mind and still sends shivers down my spine.
was the still valley the one where the man is walking along looking for his dog and is invited to hell, but waits instead finds heaven?
@@bonesf200 nice to meet you Alan, my name is Jamie Allen, still valley is top five for me
@@JamieAllen1977 "Still Valley" takes place during the US Civil War around 1864. A Confederate scout comes across a small town where nothing moves, frozen in motion. An old man living in the town shows the scout a book of black magic and how he used it to freeze a whole company of Union soldiers passing through the town.
The old man is dying and passes on the book to the Confederate scout, saying that the South can win the war if they use the book. The scout takes the book back to his camp and tells his superior officer the story of the old man and the book. The scout hands the book to his commander and implores him to use it against the Yankees. After a brief moment of temptation, the commander throws the book into the campfire, saying that winning the war is not worth selling their souls to Satan.
The episode of the Twilight Zone about the hillbilly and his trusty hound dog is titled "The Hunt".
Both of these episodes were excellent.
@@kenkesler3087 oh then i had it backwards. the hunt is top five; i remember everything about the still valley then, except the ending.
@@kenkesler3087 The guard at the entrance to hell took the job because he got tired of not having to repair Maytag appliances.
The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street is my favorite. My teacher had us read the short story in Jr. High. Thank you Ms. Keys.
This is such a great episode with such an interesting ending!
Such classic story telling,the likes of which we will never see again.
I love this episode! This scared the heck out of me as a kid, actually it still freaks me out. 😳
You know what, as a fan of the Twilight Zone, having seen most episodes at least 3-4 times, I remember it dawning on me at some point that the distinctive voice of the Genie sounded a lot like the voice of the Kanamit, and that they must have been the same person.
see the Joseph Ruskin entry at IMDb
This episode was one of my favorites as a 6 year old child , But the ones that gave me nightmares .
#1 Nightmare at 20,000 Feet When Shatner pulls the shade up and the gremlins face is smooched against the window . . . . Still gives me the me the Willie's .
#2 The living Doll My sister had a similar doll and I had an older brother . . . That's easy to figure out.
#3 The Masks Pigman Baby . . . . Pigman
'The Howling Man' also has a character who directly speaks to the viewers.
I remember one episode that the title escapes me. It was a two part story with actor Richard Long who woke up one morning next to his wife who she freaked out not knowing him. Later in the show we see him waking up next to his wife not knowing her. Both wives were played by two different women. One blond, the other brunet. One show he was a regular on was The Big Valley in the role as the family attorney on their big ranch with an office in town.
Person or Persons Unknown, Number 12 looks just like you
Reminds me of the one where once actors left a studio, everything went dark,and one guy thought the show was his real life...
I met him. I met him a channel 10 WPLG in Miami when I was there with my boyfriend who is the director and I was in awe. you need to see a documentary about him and what a struggle it was for him to break in as a writer.
I rewatch the series every few years. I'm amazed by how good the production quality is, especially on Netflix - looks pretty sharp: better than some modern shows.
Anthony sending the whole town to the "cornfield " was one of the creepiest ever.
T.Z was just one of the best...period.⚡️
This is superb reporting on this episode. As an author, I have researched this period of TV history and it is pure gold. We were spoiled by world-class writing in those days. And you are right: if we knew how utterly crappy TV would be today, we would have appreciated it more. I'm like everyone else; I like a great story, good direction, and competent performances. I wish young people today would get a taste of these old anthologies, if only so they could understand that if you have a good story, you don't have to have explosions every 22 seconds.
Very true. This whole woke thing going on now in Hollywood has caused terrible writing to be elvated. And i think it was an over-reaction by liberals to Trump's Presidency. I refused to watch Discovery and Picard for these agendas but i am hopeful that Strange New Worlds may course correct the horribilness.
Or sex or bad language!
My favorite Twilight Zone episode is "A Stop at Wiloughby". I don't know what it is, but I just love how tragic and depressing it is. Also, I LOVE the twist ending to the episode! It's one of the best in the show in my opinion.
That was always my favorite too (along with A Hundred Yards Over the Rim)
I live in Stamford Connecticut. I've falling asleep on that Metro-North train more than once.
Next stop Greenwich, next stop Stamford, next stop Darian.
next stop "Willoughby "..
Willoughby is a made up town , but back then there were a lot of Willoughby,s through that stretch of Connecticut.
I think about that episode a lot going back and forth to the city.
One that really got to me was "Little Girl Lost". Why? Because it showed that you weren't safe even in your own bed at home.
Also I loved "The Invaders." I'll never forget when my father saw it for the first time. Upon seeing the ending he asked, "Why did they make such a small spaceship?" I replied .... "who says they're on Earth?" He then put 2 and 2 together and his reaction was priceless.
Little Girl Lost had me staying away from walls at home for several days.
(Spoiler alert:) I guess your father did not, at the end, see the little Invader crew men in mylar astronaut suits with "USA" emblazoned. Turns out, Agnes Moorehead's character (whose dialogue throughout the episode had been just grunts, and her gestures just broomstick pokes at the little alien sounds she heard) was a denizen of a seeming circa 19th century American farmland, but on an unspecified alien planet.
@@JudgeJulieLit I saw that episode when I was five years old, but I was so stuck on the idea that Agnes Moorehead was living in the Appalachians that I thought the ship from Earth must have gone through a space warp and come back reduced to tiny size. Yes, at the age of five, I had quite the SF writerly brain.
This episode was very well done,the twist ending was SUPERB. Twilight Zone is a classic tv series,ahead of it's time,really. I also think Star Trek TOS was ahead of it's time.
Good old Rod was a lover of irony! And a clever writer against political dictatorships and war. My favorite episode is " And when the sky was opened. " Top notch acting. music and direction.
I remember first watching this episode as a kid and how shocked I was by the outcome. I was also disappointed in Bochner's inability to get away. I remember the saucer used in other episodes as well as recognizing the film clip from "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
1x01 Where is Everybody, 1x05 Walking Distance, 1x07 The Lonely, 1x16 The Hitch-Hiker, 1x20 Elegy, 1x22 The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, 1x30 A Stop at Willoughby, 2x24 The Rip Van Winkle Caper, 3x04 The Passersby, 3x08 It's A Good Life, 3x10 The Midnight Sun, 3x11 Still Valley, 4x06 Death Ship, 4x11 The Parallel, 4x16 On Thursday We Leave For Home, 5x03 Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, 5x30 Stopover in a Quiet Town. My top three are It's a Good Life, A Stop at Willoughby, and Death Ship. ALL of these episodes to me feel as though they exist and you can enter right through your television set, and live there.
Favorites, the mannequin, to serve man and I sing the body electric. Love the entire series though.
Oh, yeah the body electric was like a made to order Mary poppins.
Two of my favorites are "The Bars" (very funny, including Burt Reynolds impersonating Marlon Brando and annoying Shakespeare to the point where he punches him). And one that's called, I believe, "The Turning," in which a young woman is chased by a furious older woman. It turns out the older woman is her older self, trying to warn her not to marry her fiance.
I remember seeing this for the first time when I was eight years old. I was pretty portly so when Chambers speaks to the audience at the end it really fucked with me. Outside of some bad dreams seeing Nightmare on Elm St. 4 this episode was the scariest thing I've ever seen. I don't know if seeing the current timeline in the beginning helped its overall narration watching as an older teenager and adult but this episode is pretty good. It also occurred to me that not having an abundance of muscle probably would make me less desirable to eat.
Richard Keil looks like he's stoned for most of the episode.
Written by Richard Matheson. One of my dad's friends growing up. I was 5 and a true horror/sci fi fan at the time. Very cool.
Joseph Ruskin also played the head thrall in the Star Trek episode "Gamesters of Triskelion." A great episode, along with this one from the Twilight Zone.
This IS my All-time Favorite Twilight Zone. Loved Rod , as a kid this series intrigued and enhanced my "childish imagination " so nice you gave this series Major props!!!! Ty and happy,Blessed Friday!!!🙂
Certainly one of the most memorable and also a favorite. If I'm honest it holds a little less replay value than some episodes, but as an adult part of the fondness is in seeing the wonderful Richard Kiel once more. This was a fun and informative commentary, thank you!
Two episodes that always stuck in my mind wree, "A Kind of a Stopwatch", where the man was given a stopwatch that could stop time, add "Once Upon A Time", with Buster Keaton, where the opening and closing scenes are in the past as a silent movie. But, there was really no bad episode of The Twilight Zone, ever.
The one with the Christmas toys trying to escape is the one I remember the most.
Definitely one of the best TZ episodes.
And if you've never seen "EEGAH!", Boy, are you living a sheltered life 😜
The MST3K riff is one of their best episodes as well, IMO.
At last... a fan comment I can relate to.
Yessss!!! MST3K forever!!!!
@@stephaniemorrissey5114 ........NO! I want those two buffoons to drop off the face of the Earth, or at least the highest cliff. Like the one the little bushman walked to in "The Godz Must Be Crazy" [spelling right off the theatre poster. Or "......Crazy 2"
Now those were funny.
"Watch out for snakes!"
I loved this episode. Another one of my faves is the one about the department store mannequins on the top floor; existence of which is unknown to all. Apologies if that wasn’t Twilight Zone but pretty sure it was.
I was old enough to watch all of them. It's hard to pick out a favorite, even now. I agree they don't make shows like that anymore. No violence, no sex, no deaths on screen. Just great, thought-provoking stories. sometimes sad, weird, scary, happy, or you just wondered if it would really happen sometime in the future. Wonderful, wonderful show. I do miss it.
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Ridge" showed a hanging, but the video was produced by someone else. It had won an award for "Best Short Subject" at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, and Rod Serling showcased it on "The Twilight Zone".
Ok boomer
The Bernard Hermann sound track episodes were the most intense !!!! Like Eye of the Beholder ! You should make another special on Bernard Hermann!
My all time favorite is “Mirror Image” I’m still freaked out by its impact on me
My top fav is with Agnes Moorhead and the "aliens". She never says a word. Excellent performance! Elizabeth Montgomery's wordless episode is good too.
One of my favorites as well. Talk about surprise endings!
You didn't metion Charles Bronson. Come on pal!
I love the dramatic performances by the amazing actors and actress
There is a style to their performances we don't see anymore
Richard Kiel lived in my neighborhood when I was a child in the early 70s I have no clue mr. Kill with an actor in those days I was in the 10th grade he worked at Highland Park Toyota as a manager car dealership and ate food at my favorite fast food place it's hard to believe he was in so many movies as I look back he was definitely a gentle giant 🙂
The cinematic qualities of TZ were at the very pinnacle of the art form- photography, lighting, sets, make up and effects. Amazing quality for 1959.
To me, this is one if, if not the scariest episode of the series
1. To Serve Man
2. Living Doll (Talky Tina)
3. Steel (Lee Marvin, awesome)
4. The Invaders (Agnes Moorehead never speaks)
5. It's a Good Life (Anthony and the cornfield)
6. Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (so true today! incredible closing words from the aliens)
7. Little Girl Lost (stuck in the wall, almost!)