THE TWILIGHT ZONE: SEASON 1
Rod Serling once calculated that “a third of [the Twilight Zone episodes] have been pretty damn good shows. Another third would have been passable. Another third are dogs—which I think is a little better batting average than the average film show.”1 In this spirit, Serling’s episodes of the show are rated as follows:
*=“dog”
** = “passable” (good in the eyes of someone less critical than Serling)
*** = “pretty damn good” (classic)
The first pilot script that Rod Serling submitted to Bill Self, whom CBS had assigned to oversee the project, was “The Happy Place,” about a totalitarian state that euthanizes the sick and the elderly. Self declared the story too depressing for a pilot, which needs to persuade a sponsor to underwrite the series. In response, Serling quickly wrote a new pilot, “Where Is Everybody?”
“Where Is Everybody?”
***
Air Date: October 2, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
2. Produced as “Waar Is Iedereen?” (Netherlands), December 14, 1970
3. Illustrated version in Elias and Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
Directed by Robert Stevens
Cast: Earl Holliman: Mike Ferris; James Gregory: Air Force General; John Conwell: Colonel; Paul Langton: Doctor; Jay Overholts: Reporter #2; James
McCallion: Reporter #3; Carter Mullally Jr.: Captain; Jim Johnson: Staff Sergeant; Gary Walberg: Reporter #1
The One Where: A man finds himself alone in a deserted town, unable to remember his name and unaware of how he arrived there.
It Turns Out: He’s an Air Force officer who has been subjected to a prolonged period of solitary confinement to determine whether a human being can withstand the long periods of loneliness necessary for deep space travel. This isolation has finally taken its toll, resulting in delusions that he is the last man on Earth.
Notes: Though it could not be described as upbeat, “Where Is Everybody?” had one story element that made it an effective pilot: its situation could happen, at least theoretically. It was grounded in just enough reality to avoid scaring away sponsors and conservative network executives and sell the series. Serling’s opening narration (“The place is here, the time is now, and the journey we are witnessing could be our journey.”) seems explicitly intended to frame the story in relatable terms. Even the fact that it is essentially a one-man show facilitates the audience’s ability to identify with the protagonist’s predicament.
To keep the rational explanation for the situation intact, Serling resisted adding a final twist. Serling later wrote a short story version in which Mike Ferris is removed from the isolation booth and discovers that he still has a ticket stub from a movie theater he visited only in his delusion. Earl Holliman, who starred in the episode, first met Serling while filming Playhouse 90’s “The Dark Side of the Earth.” Holliman contends that this unused twist was his idea, suggested to Serling during filming. Serling rejected the idea because it might make the pilot too fantastic.
Critical response to the premiere was almost universally positive. Ironically, one element that generated negative critical response was its ending, which critics saw as a cheat. According to Variety, “Serling lets down his audience by providing a completely plausible and logical explanation” rather than opting for more of “a science fiction ending.”2 But Serling knew what he was doing: “Where Is Everybody?” placated sponsors, pleased critics, and intrigued audiences. The series had begun on a most promising note.
“One for the Angels”
***
Air Date: October 9, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Early draft produced on The Storm, 1952, as “The Pitch”
2. Second draft produced on Danger, September 14, 1954
3. Anne Serling-Sutton’s short story adaptation in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone
Directed by Robert Parrish
Cast: Ed Wynn: Lewis J. Bookman; Murray Hamilton: Mr. Death; Dana Dillaway: Maggie Polansky; Merritt Bohn: Truck Driver; Jay Overholts: Doctor; Mickey Maga: Little Boy
The One Where: A kindly old sidewalk salesman, Lew Bookman, is visited by Mr. Death. Unwilling to accept that his time is up, Bookman tricks Death into allowing him to stay alive long enough to accomplish one truly big sales pitch.
It Turns Out: Bookman’s bargain forces Death to choose a replacement for Bookman’s soul: a six-year-old girl who is struck by an automobile. The only way the girl can survive is if Mr. Death does not return in time for his midnight appointment to finalize the arrangements. Bookman delivers the most mesmerizing sales pitch of his life, distracting Death so that he misses the appointment. The girl is spared. And Bookman keeps his end of the bargain, leaving with Mr. Death.
Notes: Though this story had been produced twice previously, when rewriting it for The Twilight Zone, Serling tailored the main character for Ed Wynn, partially as apology for having doubted his abilities during the production of Playhouse 90’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” Serling had been pleasantly surprised by Wynn’s performance in “Requiem” but was disappointed by his performance in “One for the Angels,” writing in an interoffice communique that “Wynn’s performance let us down terribly.”3 Regardless, Wynn would again appear on The Twilight Zone in the fifth season’s “Ninety Years without Slumbering.”
At a 1966 memorial service for Wynn, his “Requiem” costar, Jack Palance, delivered a eulogy written by Serling.
“Mr. Denton on Doomsday”
**
Air Date: October 16, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Working titles: “You Too Can Be a Fast Gun” and “Death, Destry, and Mr. Dingle”
Directed by Allen Reisner
Cast: Dan Duryea: Al Denton; Martin Landau: Dan Hotaling; Doug McClure: Pete Grant; Malcolm Atterbury: Henry J. Fate; Jeanne Cooper: Liz Smith; Ken Lynch: Charlie
The One Where: Al Denton, once a legendary gunslinger but now the town drunk, is given a chance to regain his dignity thanks to a magic potion sold by Mr. Fate. The potion restores Denton’s quick-draw prowess, which almost immediately attracts a young gunslinger who challenges Denton to a duel.
It Turns Out: When Denton drinks the potion in preparation for the duel, he sees that his opponent has swigged from a vial of the same stuff. The two draw and fire simultaneously, each wounding the other’s shooting hand. Neither will ever fire a weapon again, which, Denton explains to his young counterpart, means they’ve both been blessed.
Trivia: Dan Duryea portrayed a former fast gun in another Serling script, The Loner’s “A Little Stroll to the End of the Line.”
“The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine”
**
Air Date: October 23, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation, “The 16-Millimeter Shrine,” in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Ida Lupino: Barbara Jean Trenton; Martin Balsam: Danny Weiss; Ted de Corsia: Marty Sall; Alice Frost: Sally; Jerome Cowan: Jerry Hearndan; John Clarke: Younger Jerry Hearndan, on Film
The One Where: An aging actress endlessly watches her old films, continuously pining for her glory days.
It Turns Out: Unwilling to live in the mundane present, she finds the perfect Twilight Zone escape, transporting herself into the perfectly glamorous world of one of her films.
Notes: Responding to a viewer’s letter, Serling admitted that this was one episode that he “disliked intensely in every department.” When asked by the series’s advertising agency for an explanation of where he got the idea for the story, he reiterated this feeling: “I don’t where the hell I got this idea, but I wish I’d never gotten it.”4
The source of Serling’s dissatisfaction is difficult to pinpoint. “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” contains nothing that seems worthy of so negative a reaction. The story’s concept is obviously derivative of the film Sunset Boulevard, but it is more importantly a riff (and a relatively well-done riff) on Serling’s oft-repeated theme of an aging star struggling to accept that her best days are behind her and yearning for an idyllic past. If nothing else, “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” provides a refreshing chance to see how Serling handles this theme from a female point of view. The performances are uniformly good (Ida Lupino’s reaction to being confronted with the reality of time’s passage, in the form of the “real” Jerry Hearndan, is a particularly fine moment), and the image of the actress escaping into the world of her films while her manager pleads for her to return is memorable. It may pale in comparison to the following week’s episode, but “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” is a perfectly acceptable first season entry.
“Walking Distance”
***
Air Date: October 30, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
2. Illustrated version in Elias and Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
3. Illustrated version by Mark Kneece (2008)
Directed by Robert Stevens
Cast: Gig Young: Martin Sloan; Frank Overton: Martin’s Father; Irene Tedrow: Martin’s Mother; Michael Montgomery: Martin, Age 11; Byron Foulger: Charlie; Joseph Corey: Soda Jerk; Ronnie Howard: Wilcox Boy; Pat O’Malley: Mr. Wilson; Bill Erwin: Mr. Wilcox
The One Where: An overstressed advertising executive, Martin Sloan, travels back in time to the peaceful hometown of his youth, where he meets his long-dead parents and himself as a young boy.
It Turns Out: He’s tempted to stay in this world of carnivals and cotton candy until his father convinces Martin to return to his proper time, reminding him that he can find wonderful things in his future if he stops living in the past long enough to look for them.
Notes: In a 1963 interview, Serling spoke of the inspiration for “Walking Distance”:
I’m the kind of a guy who is now in that aging, late-thirty early-forty bracket, in which suddenly there is a tremendous, bittersweet, poignant feeling about wanting to go back to another time. In my case it would be the prewar, early teens time, which was particularly happy for me. And on occasion I will go back to my old hometown and walk through the streets and the places that I grew up in and feel a sense of great loss that I wish I could recapture it. And this, as I say, has evidenced itself in a lot of themes that we’ve used on The Twilight Zone. And I think the answer is, much as Wolfe said, you simply cannot go home again—it’s quite impossible.5
While summering with his wife and daughters on Cayuga Lake in Upstate New York, Serling would feel compelled to drive to Binghamton to get another look at his childhood home at 67 Bennett Avenue and to walk through Recreation Park just a few blocks away. A carousel in the park is now adorned with artwork that pays tribute to several Twilight Zone episodes, and a nearby bandstand, has a concrete marker acknowledging the location as the inspiration for this story.
Late in his life, Serling said that this episode “never works for me now. Every time I watch it, I die.… The writing was really second rate.”6 Serling made this observation while teaching, a venue in which he tended to be even more critical of his own work than usual, partly as a means of giving his students license to freely offer their opinions. Serling found one aspect of this particular script objectionable: the moment when Martin Sloan first sees his long-dead parents. In hindsight, Serling regretted not delaying this moment until later in the story, when it would have been more emotionally powerful. In a letter written just over a week before the episode aired, however, Serling expressed his overall feelings for “Walking Distance”:
From the standpoint of story development, performance, and film technique, it’s my honest feeling that “Walking Distance” stacks up as one of the most meaningful and poignant half hour dramas ever produced. It dramatizes with flavor, color and dimension a kind of wondrous, bittersweet attachment the human being has for the past. Bob Stevens’ direction and Gig Young’s performance prove that the half hour television form can also be a legitimate story telling form. When my name was attached to this one—it was put on with pride!7
“Walking Distance” remains the finest and best-known example of the most prevalent theme in the Serling canon.
“Escape Clause”
*
Air Date: November 6, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
2. Illustrated version in Elias and Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Cast: David Wayne: Walter Bedeker; Thomas Gomez: Cadwallader; Virginia Christine: Ethel Bedeker; Raymond Bailey: Doctor; Wendell Holmes: Mr.
Cooper
The One Where: A hypochondriac, Walter Bedeker, sells his soul to the devil in exchange for immortality. He quickly grows bored of living a life without risk, however, and when his wife accidentally falls off the roof of their building, he confesses to killing her so that he can experience the excitement of surviving a trip to the electric chair.
It Turns Out: Without Bedeker’s consent, his attorney gets his sentence reduced to life in prison. Faced with an eternity in a cell, he invokes his escape clause. The devil appears and gives him a fatal heart attack, then claims his soul.
Notes: “Escape Clause” does not warrant deep analysis, and its lighthearted tone discourages any attempt at serious criticism, but its ending poses a logical conundrum that must be noted nonetheless: Bedeker faces a choice between an eternity in a prison cell (from which he could likely escape by virtue of being immune to any physical deterrents) or an eternity of hellish torment, and he chooses the latter? “Escape Clause” seems constructed solely to facilitate its ironic ending. It has not aged well.
“The Lonely”
**
Air Date: November 13, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
2. Teleplay in Marjorie J. Smiley, Mary Delores Jarmon, and Domenica Paterno, eds., Something Strange (1969)
Directed by Jack Smight
Cast: Jack Warden: James A. Corry; Jean Marsh: Alicia; John Dehner: Captain Allenby; Ted Knight: Adams; James Turley: Carstairs
The One Where: James A. Corry, serving a sentence of solitary confinement on an uninhabited asteroid instead of in a prison, is given a gift to ease his loneliness: Alicia, a robot in the form of a woman.
It Turns Out: Corry is ultimately granted a pardon and allowed to return to Earth, but the ship can’t accommodate the robot, whom he has come to accept as human and with whom he has fallen in love. To convince him to board the ship, the man who had given Corry the robot destroys it, exposing a mass of mangled machinery within. This graphic display reminds Corry that he is not leaving behind a woman—he is merely leaving behind loneliness. He stoically boards the ship to return home.
“Time Enough at Last”
***
Based on Lynn Venable’s short story, “Time Enough at Last”
Air Date: November 20, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Lynn Venable’s short story in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone Directed by John Brahm
Cast: Burgess Meredith: Henry Bemis; Vaughn Taylor: Mr. Carsville; Jacqueline deWit: Helen Bemis
The One Where: A book-loving bank teller, Henry Bemis, wants nothing more out of life than to have enough time and privacy to read without interruption. After accidentally locking himself in the bank’s vault, he emerges to find that an atomic bomb has been dropped while he was inside, and the world is now a postnuclear wasteland.
It Turns Out: Desperately lonely and on the brink of suicide, Bemis discovers a library amid the rubble. He now has all the books he could ever want, all the time he could ever need to read them, and a reason to continue living. He organizes his reading material and sits down for what he hopes is a long future of reading. But as he bends over to pick up a book, his glasses slip off of his face and smash on the ground, leaving him nearly blind. He can only stand amid the ruins and cry, “It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all.”
Notes: The climax of “Time Enough at Last” is one of The Twilight Zone’s most iconic moments, and Henry Bemis is one of the series’s most pathetic and tragic figures. To most viewers, Bemis’s fate represents one of the few occasions in which The Twilight Zone’s sense of poetic justice went awry and a character received a punishment that he did not deserve. To have Bemis break his glasses may be poetic, but to most it is not justice, as Serling acknowledged in a response to one viewer: “We were attempting irony and in the view of many of the audience, we created only sadism.”8
Author Mark Olshaker, who was a friend of Serling’s, suggests an alternative interpretation, however: “One of the things Rod may have been getting at was, if you are so self-involved, so insular, so uninvolved with other people, then there is going to be a reckoning for that. And so, once all the other people in the world are destroyed—the people you didn’t care about—then you can’t just relax and read after that.”9
This interpretation, which is not uncommon, seems strongly discouraged by what actually occurs on screen. Bemis tries to share his love of reading with customers at the bank, with his wife, and even to some extent with his boss, Mr. Carsville. When Bemis attempts to share his love of literature with his wife, she not only rejects his attempts but ridicules his nature. The mocking reactions of Bemis’s wife and boss suggest that even before the bomb is dropped, reality is slightly askew in “Time Enough at Last.” Bemis’s world looks like our own but is actually an exaggerated version of it. It is a virulently anti-intellectual dystopia, a place where reader is an epithet. In “The Obsolete Man” (which also stars Burgess Meredith), a totalitarian government has banned books. In Bemis’s world, to uncover a reader’s hidden book, to use a pencil to cross out every word on every page, and to then tear these pages from the book while referring to the poetry that it contains as “doggerel,” is a reasonable set of actions. In Bemis’s world, the antiliterate Helen Bemis is, in the words of Mr. Carsville, “an amazingly bright woman.”
The true poetic justice delivered in this story is that a world that does not recognize the value of words or the beauty of literature destroys itself.
**
Air Date: December 4, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Rod Serling’s The
Twilight Zone
Directed by John Brahm
Cast: Nehemiah Persoff: Carl Lanser; Ben Wright: Captain Wilbur; Patrick MacNee: First Officer; James Franciscus: Lieutenant Mueller; Hugh Sanders: Mr. Potter; Leslie Bradley: Major Devereaux; Deirdre Owen: Barbara
The One Where: A German man finds himself aboard a British ship during World War II, with no recollection of how he got there and a haunting premonition that the ship is about to be attacked by a German U-boat.
It Turns Out: The man is (or was) the commander of the attacking U-boat, now cursed to continuously relive the horror of being aboard the ship that he sunk without warning, without giving quarter or taking prisoners.
Notes: In “Judgment Night,” James Franciscus plays a blond-haired Nazi who expresses misgivings about attacking a British ship without warning. This “Nazi with a conscience” can be seen as a predecessor to Robert Redford’s role in “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” which aired five months later on Playhouse 90 and which brought Serling considerable criticism. The fact that Serling was willing to present a German soldier as anything other than a purely evil automaton exposed him to accusations of anti-Semitism. The fact that he had previously trod similar ground without provoking umbrage is further evidence of the freedom Serling enjoyed while working in the fantasy genre. In the same way that Serling’s closing narration in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” was literal and not allegorical, this character was literally a German soldier serving aboard a Nazi ship. The simple fact that the character inhabited a fantasy story (with no allegorical aspect) meant that fewer people were offended by the implication or that fewer people were paying enough attention to take offense.
“And When the Sky Was Opened”
***
Based on Richard Matheson’s short story, “Disappearing Act”
Air Date: December 11, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Richard Matheson, “Disappearing Act,” short story in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone
Directed by Douglas Heyes
Cast: Rod Taylor: Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes; Charles Aidman: Colonel Ed Harrington; James Hutton: Major William Gart; Maxine Cooper: Amy Riker; Gloria Pall: Girl in Bar; Paul Bryar: Bartender; S. John Launer: Mr. Harrington
The One Where: Three astronauts return to Earth from space, each with an odd feeling that they were not supposed to have survived the mission.
It Turns Out: One by one, the astronauts disappear, leaving no trace that they had ever existed or that their mission had ever taken place, as if the universe has belatedly corrected a cosmic mistake.
Trivia: Charles Aidman, who plays Colonel Ed Harrington, served as narrator for the Twilight Zone reboot that aired on CBS beginning in 1985.
“What You Need”
**
Based on Lewis Padgett’s short story
Air Date: December 25, 1959
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Lewis Padgett’s short story in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone
2. Short story produced on Tales of Tomorrow, February 8, 1952, teleplay by Mel Goldberg
Directed by Alvin Ganzer
Cast: Ernest Truex: Pedott; Steve Cochran: Fred Renard; Arline Sax: Girl in Bar; Read Morgan: Lefty; William Edmonson: Bartender
The One Where: An old sidewalk peddler has the ability to provide exactly what a customer is going to soon desperately need. This gift attracts the attention of a violent man, Fred Renard, who intends to exploit the peddler’s ability for his own gain.
It Turns Out: When the peddler sees that his life is in danger, he gives Renard something that the peddler needs—a pair of slippery shoes. Renard slips while crossing the street and is mowed down by an oncoming car.
Trivia: Much of Serling’s opening narration was recycled into the opening narration of the first segment of 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie.
***
Based on George Clayton Johnson’s unpublished story, “All of Us Are Dying” (a.k.a. “Rubber Face”)Air Date: January 1, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. George Clayton Johnson, “All of Us Are Dying,” short story in Johnson,
Twilight Zone
Directed by John Brahm
Cast: Harry Townes: Arch Hammer; Ross Martin: Foster; Phillip Pine: Virgil Sterig; Don Gordon: Marshak; Beverly Garland: Maggie; Peter Brocco: Pop Marshak; Bernard Fein: Penell; Milton Frome: Detective
The One Where: A man has the power to drastically change his facial features to resemble anyone he sees.
It Turns Out: He eventually changes his face to resemble a man who had betrayed his father. The father wants to kill his son—and does so.
“Third from the Sun”
**
Based on Richard Matheson’s short story, “Third from the Sun”
Air Date: January 8, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Richard Matheson’s short story in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone
Directed by Richard L. Bare
Cast: Fritz Weaver: William Sturka; Joe Maross: Jerry Riden; Edward Andrews: Carling; Lori March: Eve Sturka; Denise Alexander: Jody Sturka; Jeanne Evans: Ann Riden
The One Where: Two families steal a spacecraft to escape their planet before an impending nuclear holocaust.
It Turns Out: They are fleeing to, not from, Earth.
Notes: The twist ending of this story, first published in 1950, ultimately became one of the most dreaded clichés among editors of science fiction magazines, regularly showing up in slush pile submissions from amateur writers for decades to come.
Trivia: The characters of Jody and Ann are named after Serling’s daughters.
“I Shot an Arrow into the Air”
**
Based on Madelon Champion’s story
Air Date: January 15, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Working title: “The Conquerors”
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Dewey Martin: Flight Officer Corey; Edward Binns: Colonel Donlin; Ted Otis: Flight Officer Pearson; Leslie Barrett: Brandt; Harry Bartell: Langford
The One Where: Shortly after departure, a spacecraft disappears from radar and crashes on what appears to be a lifeless asteroid. The three-man crew has little water and little hope that anyone will know where to look for them. Desperate and frightened, one member of the crew, Corey, kills the other two for their water and continues to search for signs of life.
It Turns Out: Corey discovers that their ship actually crashed back into Earth—the “lifeless asteroid” is the Nevada desert. He has murdered his shipmates only a dozen miles away from civilization.
Notes: Madelon Champion, the wife of Serling’s longtime friend, John Champion, shared this story idea with Serling, and he encouraged her to write it out and submit it to the series. “The Conquerors” was her story synopsis (and partial teleplay).
“The Hitch-Hiker”
***
Based on Lucille Fletcher’s radio play, “The Hitch-Hiker”
Air Date: January 22, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Produced on Suspense, September 2, 1942
2. Produced on Philip Morris Playhouse, October 15, 1942
3. Produced on Mercury Summer Theater on the Air, June 21, 1946
Directed by Alvin Ganzer
Cast: Inger Stevens: Nan Adams; Leonard Strong: Hitch-Hiker; Adam Williams: Sailor; Lew Gallo: Mechanic; Dwight Townsend: Highway Flag Man; Russ Bender: Counterman; Mitzi McCall: Waitress; George Mitchell: Gas Station Attendant
The One Where: During a cross-country drive, a woman’s car has a blowout and she drives off the road. After getting the tire fixed and resuming her trip, she notices that she keeps passing the same creepy hitchhiker by the side of the road.
It Turns Out: The hitchhiker is Death, come to claim the woman, who has not yet realized that she died in a car crash.
Notes: The protagonist of Lucille Fletcher’s original radio play is a man. Serling rewrote the part as a woman and named her after his younger daughter, Anne (known as Nan).
“The Fever”
**
Air Date: January 29, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
2. Illustrated version in Elias and Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone Directed by Robert Florey
Cast: Everett Sloane: Franklin Gibbs; Vivi Janiss: Flora Gibbs; William Kendis: Public Relations Man; Lee Sands: Floor Manager; Arthur Peterson: Sheriff
The One Where: A rigidly moral old man reluctantly accompanies his wife on a trip to Las Vegas and becomes addicted to gambling on a particular slot machine, which may or may not be taunting him. When the machine jams after he deposits his last dollar, the man has a mental breakdown, convinced that the machine broke down deliberately to avoid paying his jackpot.
It Turns Out: That night he hallucinates that the machine is chasing him. Fleeing from his hallucination, he crashes through his hotel room window and falls to his death, at which point, with no witnesses, the slot machine rolls to his side and spits out his dollar.
Notes: Serling claimed, “I got this one about three o’clock in the morning in a Las Vegas gambling casino. I’d been about sixty minutes battling a one-armed bandit and I got a feeling of what an extension of this kind of weakness might be to somebody a little different than I am (making an assumption, of course, that there is someone weaker than I in this nefarious area).”10
Serling’s short story adaptation of “The Fever” includes a coda not found in the televised version. In the short story, Flora Gibbs returns home alone after her nightmarish trip to Las Vegas and tries to move on with her life. A year later she attends a church bazaar, where “someone brought in an old used one-armed bandit. It had taken three of her friends from the Women’s Alliance to stop her screaming and get her back home to bed.”
***
Air Date: February 12, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited
Directed by Richard L. Bare
Cast: William Reynolds: Lieutenant Fitzgerald; Dick York: Captain Phil Riker; Barney Phillips: Captain E. L. Gunther; Warren Oates: Jeep Driver; Michael Vandever: Smitty; William Phipps: Sergeant; Marc Cavell: Freeman; S. John Launer: Lieutenant Colonel
The One Where: An army lieutenant sees an ominous light shining on the face of any member of his platoon who will not survive their mission.
It Turns Out: Before returning to HQ for a psychological exam, he glances in a mirror and sees the telltale light shining on his own face. Resigned to his fate, he climbs into a jeep, which travels only a short distance before striking a land mine, fulfilling his final prophecy.
Notes: With “The Purple Testament,” Rod Serling’s nightmarish combat experience in the Philippines found its way into the Twilight Zone. The story begins with Lieutenant William Fitzgerald and the other surviving members of A Company returning from an encounter with the enemy that left four dead and twelve wounded. The dead men—Hibbard, Horton, Morgan, and Levy—share names with members of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment with whom Serling served in the Philippines and who were killed in December 1944.
“Mirror Image”
***
Air Date: February 26, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Walter B. Gibson’s short story adaptation, “The Mirror Image,” in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Revisited
Directed by John Brahm
Cast: Vera Miles: Millicent Barnes; Martin Milner: Paul Grinstead; Joe Hamilton: Ticket Agent; Naomi Stevens: Washroom Attendant
The One Where: While waiting in a bus depot, a woman encounters an exact duplicate of herself. When she tries to convince a man of what she has seen, he is initially sympathetic, but when she wonders aloud whether this duplicate has crossed over from a parallel dimension intending to replace her, he calls the police, convinced she is psychotic.
It Turns Out: Shortly after the police cart the woman away, the man discovers that his duplicate has arrived to replace him.
Notes: Serling, got the idea for this story in an Ohio airport “when I noticed a person walking past me carrying a bag very similar to my own. I looked up and saw the person from the back. The build, the back of the head, etc., were identical to my own, and while I never did see who the unlucky guy was, it provided a springboard to an idea whereby a woman keeps seeing evidence of a twin to herself and ultimately seeing herself.”11
“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”
***
Air Date: March 4, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
2. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Trout, Unknown Worlds
3. Remake (“The Monsters Are on Maple Street”) produced on The Twilight Zone, premiered February 19, 2003
4. Illustrated version by Mark Kneece (2008)
Cast: Claude Akins: Steve Brand; Jack Weston: Charlie Farnsworth; Barry Atwater: Les Goodman; Joe Handzlik: Tommy; Mary Gregory: Sally; Anne Barton: Myra Brand; Leah Waggner: Mrs. Goodman; Ben Erway: Pete Van Horn; Burt Metcalfe: Don Martin; Lyn Guild: Mrs. Farnsworth; Sheldon Allman: Alien; William Walsh: Alien
The One Where: After what appeared to be a meteor has passed overhead, strange things begin happening on Maple Street. Lights, telephones, automobiles, and other machinery stop functioning, then turn themselves on and off inexplicably. The strange events breed suspicion, which grows into full-blown paranoia as the residents of Maple Street become convinced that one of them is secretly an alien from outer space.
It Turns Out: The strange events are indeed being caused by aliens, but the aliens are watching from a ship orbiting the planet, smugly satisfied that if they provoke paranoia and suspicion, people will destroy themselves.
Trivia: Adapting “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” into short story form gave Serling the opportunity to present Maple Street’s destruction more graphically. In the short story, the residents of Maple Street unquestionably kill each other—one character gets her head bashed in with a brick, and another is trampled to death. Like Serling’s adaptations of “Where Is Everybody?” and “The Fever,” the short story version of “Maple Street” includes a coda that did not appear in the television script. As the residents of Maple Street lie dead on the street, two-headed aliens arrive and begin colonizing Earth.
“People Are Alike All Over”
**
Based on Paul Fairman’s short story, “Brothers beyond the Void”
Air Date: March 25, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Paul Fairman, “Brothers beyond the Void,” short story in Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh, Twilight Zone Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Cast: Paul Comi: Mark Marcusson; Roddy McDowall: Sam Conrad; Byron Morrow: Martian; Susan Oliver: Teenya; Vernon Gray: Martian; Vic Perrin: Martian
The One Where: On the eve of a journey to Mars, two astronauts, Conrad and Marcusson, debate the nature of extraterrestrials. Marcusson assures Conrad that there is nothing to fear—if there are Martians, they will be no different than humans. “People,” Marcusson says, “are alike all over.” Marcusson is killed when their ship crash-lands, and Conrad is left to test his theory alone. He meets the Martians and finds that they resemble humans in every apparent way. They are so eager to help that they offer to prepare a home for Conrad that is an exact replica of a typical home on Earth.
It Turns Out: Once Conrad is alone, he realizes that his new home is a cage and that he is locked inside. Dozens of Martians have gathered outside to see an exhibit labeled “Earth Creature in His Natural Habitat.” Marcusson was right: People are alike all over.
Notes: When adapting Paul Fairman’s short story, Serling essentially exchanged characteristics between Conrad and Marcusson. In the short story, Marcusson’s journey to Mars is a solo mission, and he is afraid of what he might find there, while Conrad is a logical, analytical scientist who assuages Marcusson’s fears by sharing his theory that humanoid life will evolve from the same formula no matter where it is found, so, humanoid life on Mars would likely resemble that on Earth. In the short story, Marcusson, not Conrad, ends up in a cage.
In Fairman’s story, Martians look the same as humans but are only about four feet tall. This distinction casts the ending in a different light. As significantly larger creatures, humans would be an unusual spectacle for Martians to gawk at in a zoo. But if humans and Martians truly were superficially identical, what enjoyment could Martians derive from watching a human go about his daily routine “in his natural habitat”? Serling addressed this question to some degree in early drafts of the script, in which the Martians are vastly more intelligent than humans and thus believe themselves superior. These Martians, therefore, simply want to put an “animal” in a cage. This motivation remains in the final version but is underwritten. As a result, keeping Conrad in captivity seems little more than an act of cruelty. As filmed, Conrad’s bitter final words (“Marcusson, you were right! People Are Alike All Over!”) imply only that people are cruel and heartless all over. Serling tempers this implication with the presence of one character, Teenya (Susan Oliver), who disagrees with the plot to cage Conrad and is offended by his captivity, but Teenya’s presence only goes so far. In essence, she provides evidence only that there is one good apple in every bushel of rotten ones.
“Execution”
*
Based on George Clayton Johnson’s unpublished short story
Air Date: April 1, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. George Clayton Johnson’s story in Johnson, Twilight Zone
Directed by David Orrick McDearmon
Cast: Albert Salmi: Joe Caswell; Russell Johnson: Professor Manion; Than Wyenn: Paul Johnson; Richard Karlan: Bartender; Jon Lormer: Minister
The One Where: A criminal in the 1800s is saved from being hanged when a time machine randomly plucks him from the noose and drops him in the twentieth century.
It Turns Out: His vile, violent nature prevents him from taking advantage of his second chance. He goes on a rampage, and a police officer shoots him dead in self-defense. He is returned to the noose, where he belonged.
“The Big, Tall Wish”
**
Air Date: April 8, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
Illustrated version by Mark Kneece (2009)
Directed by Ron Winston
Cast: Ivan Dixon: Bolie Jackson; Steven Perry: Henry Temple; Kim Hamilton: Frances Temple; Walter Burke: Joe Mizell; Henry Scott: Thomas
The One Where: An aging boxer, Bolie Jackson, prepares for a bout against a much younger fighter. A young boy who idolizes Bolie promises to make one “big, tall wish” for him to win, and the boy’s big, tall wishes always come true.
It Turns Out: The boy’s wish is granted: despite being certain that he had been knocked out, Bolie finds himself standing over his opponent, victorious. Returning home as a winner, he refuses to believe that the boy’s wish had anything to do with the fight’s outcome. Without belief, the magic proves temporary, and Bolie ends up back in the ring, flat on his back and being counted out.
“Nightmare as a Child”
***
Air Date: April 29, 1960
Directed by Alvin Ganzer
Cast: Janice Rule: Helen Foley; Terry Burnham: Markie; Shepperd Strudwick: Peter Selden; Joe Perry: Police Lieutenant; Michael Fox: Doctor; Morgan Brittany (as Suzanne Cupito): Little Girl (uncredited)
The One Where: A teacher, Helen Foley, meets a young girl who strongly resembles the teacher as a child and who even shares the teacher’s childhood nickname, Markie.
It Turns Out: The young girl is a manifestation of Helen’s repressed memory of her mother’s murder, and this memory was triggered when Helen unknowingly saw the murderer again earlier that day. Her psyche has created Markie to warn her that she is in danger. Thanks to Markie, she fights off the man when he arrives intending to kill the only witness to his crime.
Notes: The protagonist of “Nightmare as a Child” is named after Serling’s first mentor, Helen Foley, one of his junior high school teachers. Serling did not tell Foley that he had named a character after her, and she did not watch the episode until long after it initially aired. The makers of Twilight Zone: The Movie named another teacher after Foley in the remake of “It’s a Good Life” and invited her to be a guest at the film’s Binghamton premiere.
“A Stop at Willoughby”
***
Air Date: May 6, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, More Stories
2. Inspired the television movie For All Time, premiered October 18, 2000
Directed by Robert Parrish
Cast: James Daly: Gart Williams; Patricia Donahue: Janie Williams; Jason Wingreen: 1960 Conductor; Howard Smith: Mr. Misrell; Mavis Neal: Helen; James Maloney: 1888 Conductor
The One Where: During his daily train ride home from work, a stressed-out middle-aged executive, Gart Williams, has a recurring dream about an idyllic town, Willoughby, where a man can “slow down to a walk and live life full measure.” Unable to cope with the demands of his job and the pressures put on him by his ambitious wife, he decides to escape by disembarking at Willoughby.
It Turns Out: In getting off at Willoughby, Williams has in fact committed suicide by leaping from the train. When a hearse arrives to cart away his body, the lettering stenciled on its back door betrays Williams’s suicidal subconscious: his idyllic town was named after Willoughby & Son funeral home.
Notes: Evidence indicates that Serling initially intended “A Stop at Willoughby” to serve as The Twilight Zone’s pilot. According to Martin Grams Jr., Serling sent a copy of a one-hour version of the script to James Daly’s agent, Olga Lee, in February 1958, and suggested Daly for the lead. Negotiations with CBS were still in preliminary stages at that point, and when that round of negotiations stalled, Serling apparently had a change of heart about using “A Stop at Willoughby” as a pilot. He dropped the idea and moved forward with the first pilot officially submitted for the network’s consideration, “The Happy Place.”12
Trivia: A bland but enjoyable made-for-TV movie starring Mark Harmon, For All Time, is based on this episode. In the movie, Somerville replaces Willoughby, Gart Williams is renamed Charles Lattimer, and Lattimer ultimately escapes into his idyllic past to join a Somerville woman with whom he has fallen in love. The on-screen credit reads, “Based on the Twilight Zone episode A Stop at Willoughby’ written by Rod Serling.”
“A Passage for Trumpet”
***
Air Date: May 20, 1960
Directed by Don Medford
Cast: Jack Klugman: Joey Crown; John Anderson: Gabriel; Ned Glass: Pawnshop Man; James Flavin: Truck Driver; Mary Webster: Nan; Diane Honodel: Woman Pedestrian; Frank Wolff: Baron
The One Where: A depressed and frequently drunk musician decides to end his life by stepping in front of an oncoming car.
It Turns Out: A guardian angel gives the musician a second chance, showing him that he had simply forgotten how to recognize and appreciate the good things in life.
**
Air Date: June 3, 1960
Directed by William Asher
Cast: Orson Bean: James B. W. Bevis; Henry Jones: J. Hardy Hempstead; Charles Lane: Mr. Peckinpaugh; Florence MacMichael: Margaret; William Schallert: Policeman; Timmy Cletro: Boy; Horace McMahon: Bartender; Dorothy Neumann: Landlady; Colleen O’Sullivan: Michelle; House Peters Jr.: Policeman; Vito Scotti: Peddler
The One Where: A quirky office worker, James B. W. Bevis, is visited by a guardian angel who can teach him how to let go of the childish things that are keeping him from fitting in with “normal” society and from succeeding at work.
It Turns Out: Mr. Bevis realizes that the things he loves make him who he is, and if he has to give them up to succeed, he’d rather be what some would consider a failure.
Notes: Serling initially developed “Mr. Bevis” as a series pilot. Though this episode does not rank among the best Twilight Zone episodes or even among the best comedic Twilight Zone episodes, Orson Bean is likable in the title role, and the premise had potential. Given the inanity of so many sitcoms of the era, it is surprising that the series was not given a chance. According to Serling, the proposal was rejected in part because it involved an aspect of fantasy.13 Even though Mr. Bevis was a lighthearted concept and its fantasy aspect was straightforward and easily understood, fantasy of any kind was still considered too specialized and uncommercial for television. Four years later, Bewitched, The Addams Family, and The Munsters changed that way of thinking.
“The After Hours”
***
Air Date: June 10, 1960
Directed by Douglas Heyes
Cast: Anne Francis: Marsha White; Elizabeth Allen: Saleswoman; John Conwell: Elevator Man; Nancy Rennick: Miss Keevers; Patrick Whyte: Mr. Sloan; James Millhollin: Mr. Armbruster
The One Where: Marsha White has several odd experiences while shopping in a department store. She rides the elevator to the ninth floor and finds it abandoned except for one strange saleswoman who happens to be selling exactly what Marsha needs: a gold thimble. After she buys it, she discovers itis damaged and attempts to return it but now finds that the store supposedly has no ninth floor.
It Turns Out: Marsha is a mannequin. In this store, mannequins take turns existing as human for thirty days. Marsha had become so engrossed in being human that she had forgotten her true nature and failed to relinquish her turn. The woman who sold Marsha the thimble is also a mannequin, and her turn to become human was supposed to have already begun. With apologies, Marsha returns to her natural, inanimate form, and the next mannequin begins her human vacation.
“The Mighty Casey”
**
Air Date: June 17, 1960
Alternate titles/productions/publications:
1. Several pieces of dialogue and character names recycled from “Old MacDonald Had a Curve,” Kraft Theatre, August 5, 1953
2. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in Rod Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
3. Rod Serling’s short story adaptation in McSherry, Waugh, and Greenberg, Baseball 3000
4. Illustrated version in Elias and Serling, Stories from the Twilight Zone
Directed by Alvin Ganzer, Robert Parrish
Cast: Jack Warden: Mouth McGarry; Robert Sorrells: Casey; Alan Dexter: Beasley; Jonathan Hole: Team Doctor; Rusty Lane: Commissioner; Dan O’Kelly: Monk; Abraham Sofaer: Dr. Stillman
The One Where: A floundering baseball team’s fortunes change thanks to the services of Casey, an unbeatable robot pitcher. Once his nature is discovered, the baseball commissioner orders Casey’s inventor to give him a heart, which will enable him to be considered a man and satisfy the rule that a team must be made up of nine men.
It Turns Out: With a heart, Casey develops sentimentalities that make it impossible for him to strike out opposing batters and hurt their feelings, making him useless to the team.
Notes: Though his boxing-related pieces may be better known, Serling worked in a baseball milieu nearly as often, with such pieces as “Welcome Home, Lefty,” “O’Toole from Moscow,” “The Man Who Caught the Ball at Coogan’s Bluff,” and “Old MacDonald Had a Curve” (from which much of “The Mighty Casey” originated). Beyond these titles, baseball references can be found in countless other Serling scripts, and Serling was prone to employing baseball metaphors when speaking. According to Serling, “The Mighty Casey” “stemmed from a general love for the great American sport and a feeling that the series could do with some tongue-in-cheek humor. I thought to myself how incredible it would be if a baseball team mired in the cellar could derive the services of a robot—somebody whose arm never went lame, legs never went rubbery, and to whom age would have no deleterious effects. Hence—Casey the robot, left hander!”14
The final episode of The Twilight Zone’s first season, “A World of His Own,” written by Richard Matheson, concerned a writer who is able to materialize anything that he describes into his dictating machine, including people. He can also make these creations vanish by destroying the tape. At the end of the story, the writer, played by Keenan Wynn, reveals an envelope holding a strip of tape that describes a character named Rod Serling. The writer tosses the tape into a blazing fireplace, and Serling disappears. This was the first time Serling appeared on-screen during a Twilight Zone episode. Previously, Serling had been heard but not seen until after the episode had finished, when he appeared to plug the following week’s show.
Taking stock of the series’s ratings, which were just barely high enough to warrant renewal, the network decided that an on-screen presence might generate interest in the second season. They approached Orson Welles as a potential on-screen narrator, but his fee would have increased a budget that the network was already looking to cut. Serling lobbied for the role and won. Beginning in the second season, Serling was seen as well as heard introducing each episode.
From 1955 through 1960, Rod Serling was the television writer whose name Americans were most likely to recognize. The Twilight Zone’s second season made him a full-fledged television star.
First-Season Twilight Zone Episodes Not Written by Rod Serling
“Perchance to Dream,” written by Charles Beaumont based on his short story, November 27, 1959 ***
“The Last Flight,” written by Richard Matheson, February 5, 1960 ***
“Elegy,” written by Charles Beaumont based on his short story, February 19, 1960 ***
“A World of Difference,” written by Richard Matheson, March 11, 1960 **
“Long Live Walter Jameson,” written by Charles Beaumont, March 18, 1960
“A Nice Place to Visit,” written by Charles Beaumont, April 25, 1960 *
“The Chaser,” written by Robert Presnell Jr., based on John Collier’s short story, May 13, 1960 ** “A World of His Own,” written by Richard Matheson, July 1, 1960 **
First-Season Recap
*** 18
** 15
* 3
