Favorite Twilight Zone Episodes - Get 'em while their hot!

[QueenOfCalifornia]

It's hard for me to pick just one, but I really like this episode from season 1 (1959)
Name yours!

"What You Need"
Opening Narration by Rod Serling:
“You're looking at Mr. Fred Renard, who carries on his shoulder a chip the size of the national debt. This is a sour man; a friendless man; a lonely man; a grasping, compulsive, nervous man. This is a man who has lived thirty-six undistinguished, meaningless, pointless, failure-laden years and who at this moment looks for an escape—any escape, any way, anything, anybody—to get out of the rut. And this little old man is just what Mr. Renard is waiting for.”

Synopsis
Pedott, a salesman, has the curious ability to give people exactly what they need before they need it. The old peddler enters a cafe where he first gives a woman a vial of cleaner. Then, he gives a down-on-his-luck ex-baseball player bus tickets. The ball player receives a job offer in the city the tickets are for; and the ball player needs his jacket cleaned, which the woman just happens to have. Renard, a two-bit thug, asks Pedott to give him what he needs, and the peddler gives him a pair of scissors which save Renard's life when his scarf gets caught in an elevator's doors. Renard shows up at Pedott's apartment asking for another thing he "needs," and the peddler comes up with a leaky pen that predicts a winning racehorse. Renard then starts menacing Pedott for more. Sensing Renard will eventually kill him, Pedott gives him a pair of new shoes. When a car suddenly heads directly toward Renard, he tries to run, but the new soles are so slippery, he cannot escape on the wet pavement. He is struck and killed. The shoes were what Pedott needed.

..............................

Closing Narration
“Street scene. Night. Traffic accident. Victim named Fred Renard, gentleman with a sour face to whom contentment came with difficulty. Fred Renard, who took all that was needed—in the Twilight Zone."

[cloudbase]

1. "The Eye of the Beholder"

Just one of many great ones, though.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

2. How about the

classic Telly Savalas episode with Talking Tina - Living Doll? I was so scared of dolls that I hid mine in the bottom of the toy box and piled stuff on 'em to keep them from killing me.

[LibDemAlways]

17. That one scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I

had nightmares from the unexpected sight of those pig faces. A classic, although The Hitchhiker is still my all time favorite. Going my way?

[fishwax]

3. I guess "The Masks" comes first to mind

Opening narration
“Mr. Jason Foster, a tired ancient who on this particular Mardi Gras evening will leave the earth. But before departing he has some things to do, some services to perform, some debts to pay--and some justice to mete out. This is New Orleans, Mardi Gras time. It is also the Twilight Zone.”

Synopsis
Jason Foster, a very wealthy old man, is dying. Cranky and candid, Jason is not cheered by a visit from his daughter Emily and her family—husband Wilfred, son Wilfred Jr., and daughter Paula. All four have various, terrible traits. Emily is a cowardly, self-centered hypochondriac who whines and complains about the most trivial things. Wilfred, a successful businessman, is introverted and greedy, thinking of everything in monetary terms. Paula is extremely vain, constantly checking her appearance in the mirror in fact, she is looking in one when she offers a greeting to her grandfather. Wilfred Jr., meanwhile, is an oafish, sadistic bully, and enjoys causing pain and suffering to other people and animals. Jason is not shy about his opinions of his family, and openly insults each of them. In an act of apology, he claims to have a special Mardi Gras party planned for the little group that night. After dinner, the family gathers in Jason's study, where he offers special, one-of-a-kind masks. These masks, "crafted by an old Cajun", are rather ugly creations. Jason informs his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren that a Mardi Gras custom is to wear masks that are the exact opposite of a person's true personality. Thereupon, he sarcastically offers the mask of a sniveling coward to Emily, a miserable miser to Wilfred, a twisted buffoon to Wilfred Jr., and a self-obsessed narcissist to Paula. He himself dons a skull, claiming that the opposite of life is death. The family is reluctant to wear the ugly masks-but Jason reveals that his will states that unless the four wear their masks until midnight, they will receive nothing from his vast estate. The four then don the faces. As the hours tick by, they beg to be allowed to take off the masks. At five minutes to midnight, they all claim that they are uncomfortable and even unbearable. Jason delivers his final tirade as he dies, explaining that "even without your masks, you're all caricatures!" He then dies. The foursome rejoices in the fact that they are now rich-until they remove their disguises and find, to their horror, that their faces have conformed to the hideous shapes of the masks.

Closing narration
“Mardi Gras incident, the dramatis personae being four people who came to celebrate and in a sense let themselves go. This they did with a vengeance. They now wear the faces of all that was inside them and they'll wear them for the rest of their lives, said lives now to be spent in shadow. Tonight's tale of men, the macabre and masks on the Twilight Zone.”

[QueenOfCalifornia]

8. Yes...

It was a bit predictable but still a great episode.

[Awsi Dooger]

14. Very predictable

I'm glad somebody else said it. I've been criticized for pointing that out on other websites.

When there's too much focus on one area, that's where the twist will come. I guess my mind works that way since I've looked for it since I was a kid. It's okay when there are multiple potential twists, but in a case like the faces behind a mask, or the reading glasses for a man who treasures books, really there's only one likely outcome, and I'm deflated when I catch it. Same thing with other episodes, like Elly Mae Clampett and the shadowy figures with the emphasis on beauty.

Overall it's an awesome series. I watched the July 4th marathon and couldn't turn the channel. For some reason the Billy Mumy episode as Anthony makes the most impact, still keeping me up at night.

[WinkyDink]

4. The one with the kids entering a new world through their suburban swimming pool.

[Highway61]

5. Two...

"The Lonely"...made me feel so sad ....and, "Time Enough at Last"...A man (LOVED to read) survived a nuclear explosion so he could read everything in all the libraries...except...his reading glasses got broken...love this stuff...thanks for the post!

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. "Dachau... why do we keep it standing?"

There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes - all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth.

Death's Head Revisited

One of my favorites. Along with the one Carol Burnet was in - that one's pretty funny.

And I love the Charles Bronson/Elizabeth Montgomery episode, but mostly because MOntgomery is, in that episode, the hottest woman who has ever lived. HUBBAAA!

[Danger Mouse]

7. The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.

The inspiration for the Kang and Kodos gags on the Simpsons, for one thing. A brilliant tale of how easily paranoia and distrust can quickly destroy even a group of people who know each other.

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own; for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone."

[crimsonblue]

9. A Stop at Willoughby

my favorite...

[Orsino]

21. Probably my favorite, too...

...though there were a lot of good ones, and many that were better written and acted.

[bluesbassman]

10. "Time Enough at Last"

Highlights how cruel fate can be when you "get what you wish for".



As Bemis's day progresses, it turns out both his wife and his boss think reading is a waste of time. At one point, his wife, as a cruel joke, asks Henry to read her poetry from a book. He eagerly obliges, but when he opens the book he finds that she has defaced all the pages.

The following day, Henry takes his lunch break in the bank's vault. As he reads the newspaper, he notices the horrifying headline: "H-Bomb Capable of Total Destruction". Loud explosions can be heard from outside, violently shaking the vault and knocking Bemis unconscious. In the aftermath of the apparent war, he regains consciousness and emerges to find he is the last person alive on Earth. As he wanders through his town he sees devastation everywhere. Bemis searches desperately for his wife as Serling's voice-over resumes.

“ Seconds, minutes, hours, they crawl by on hands and knees for Mr. Henry Bemis, who looks for a spark in the ashes of a dead world. A telephone connected to nothingness. A neighborhood bar, a movie, a baseball diamond, a hardware store, the mailbox at what was once his house and is now rubble. They lie at his feet as battered monuments to what was but is no more. Mr. Henry Bemis, on an eight-hour tour of a graveyard. ”

Bemis finds himself in a world of abundance and emptiness, with food to last him a lifetime and sheer loneliness taking its toll on his sanity. As he loses hope and is about to commit suicide, he discovers the ruins of the public library with all of its books still intact and readable. All the books he could ever hope for are his for the taking, and he finally has all the time in the world to read—and no one to stop him.

Sorting books he plans to read by month, Bemis proclaims he has enough to last several years and time enough at last to read them. Just as he reaches to pick up his first book, he stumbles and his reading glasses fall off and shatter. In tears, he picks up the remains of his glasses and sobs, "That's–that's not fair. That's not fair at all. There was time now. There was, was all the time I needed... ! It's not fair!"

[SeattleGirl]

11. My very very FAVORITE episode!

:bounce: :bounce:

[bluesbassman]

12. He was so happy walking up the steps of the library.

I think that was the first time I ever thought about how quickly life could sucker-punch you!

[SeattleGirl]

13. Me too!

Definitely a slap upside the head.

[crimsonblue]

19. couldn't he just rob the now empty eye shop

and get some more? Dilemma solved.

[sasquatch]

15. "I am the night, color me black"

One of the all time best.

[XemaSab]

16. I've got a few:

A World of Difference

You're looking at a tableau of reality, things of substance, of physical material: a desk, a window, a light. These things exist and have dimension. Now this is Arthur Curtis, age thirty-six, who also is real. He has flesh and blood, muscle and mind. But in just a moment we will see how thin a line separates that which we assume to be real with that manufactured inside of a mind. ”

Arthur Curtis is a businessman. One day, he finds his phone no longer works, and is surprised to hear a voice yell, "Cut!" Suddenly he is faced with the fact that his office was actually a set on a soundstage. He is told that "Arthur Curtis" is merely a role he was playing, and that his real name is Jerry Raigan, a declining movie star. He tries to find Arthur Curtis's house, but cannot find any evidence of it; Raigan's agent tells him that the show with Arthur Curtis in it is being canceled because they believe he has had a nervous breakdown. Raigan/Curtis rushes back to the set, which is being dismantled, and demands not to be left in the uncaring world of Jerry Raigan. Raigan/Curtis and his "wife" board a plane which then "vanishes". Raigan's agent shows up on the set to find Curtis/Raigan has vanished-as the set is being dismantled, a teaser shows the "Arthur Curtis" show script being thrown into a wastebasket.


"Number 12 Looks Just Like You"

Given the chance, what young girl wouldn't happily exchange a plain face for a lovely one? What girl could refuse the opportunity to be beautiful? For want of a better estimate, let's call it the year 2000. At any rate, imagine a time in the future when science has developed a means of giving everyone the face and body he dreams of. It may not happen tomorrow—but it happens now in the Twilight Zone. ”

In a society of the future, Marilyn Cuberle chooses not to undergo The Transformation, which happens to everybody at the age of nineteen and makes them beautiful and immune to disease. To undergo it, a person must choose from a limited collection of models, labeled by a number, to transform into.
Many years before, wise men decided to try to eliminate the reasons for inequality and injustice in the world. They saw that physical unattractiveness was one of the factors that made men hate, so they charged the finest scientific minds with the task of eliminating ugliness in mankind. As they learned to reshape the features and remake the body, they also learned to eliminate most of the causes of illness, and thus to prolong life. Before The Transformation a person could expect to live 70 or 80 or perhaps 90 years, but with The Transformation a person can live two or three times that long. The Transformation must be performed when the body and the tissue are at the proper state, which is at nineteen years old.
Nobody else can understand why Marilyn does not want to undergo The Transformation, but the reason is this: by reading diaries and books (such as those of the Greek philosopher Socrates) owned by her deceased father, she comes to realize that when everyone is beautiful, no one is, because without ugliness there can be no beauty. The leaders of society don't care whether people are beautiful or not, they just want everyone to be the same. Despite the efforts by Marilyn's shallow-minded friends and her mother to coerce her into going through with The Transformation, they ultimately concede to bide by Marilyn's wishes to remain normal. This causes Marilyn to drop her guard, as Marilyn is quickly kidnapped and forced to undergo the procedure against her will. The episode ends with the grim, downbeat ending as it's revealed that the process has not only stripped Marilyn of her old face and body, but her very personality has been altered to make her just like her friends, making her "one" within the community of shallow-minded doppelgängers.


And this is a bit of a guilty admission, but I likes some of the 80's episodes too:


"The Misfortune Cookie"

Harry Folger is a snobby and arrogant food critic for a major newspaper. Restaurants literally live or die by his reviews. One day he hears about a mysterious new Chinese restaurant, "Mr. Lee's Chinese Cuisine", and - without ever visiting the place - immediately begins typing a review: "If you love your Pekingese, don't ask for a doggie bag..."
However, being the gourmand he is, Harry decides he simply must visit the establishment in person. When he enters the restaurant, he immediately asks for the check before trying any food. Though disappointed, the owner, Mr. Lee, presents Harry with a fortune cookie, which he says is magical. Harry reads the fortune: "You will receive a grand reward just around the corner", and exits.
As he is walking through the alley, a bank robber knocks him down and drops $10,000 in diamonds before he runs off. The detective says that Harry deserves $1,000—that was supposed to be a raise for the police officers who failed to catch the crook—as a reward (a grand reward).
Realizing the fortune cookies are magical, Harry returns for more. At lunch he receives a fortune that says: "April arrives today bringing romance." Harry knows it is September, so he storms out. But before he can get to his office, he meets a woman asking for directions. He shows her the way, and asks her out for dinner. When he asks her name, she replies, "April."
At their dinner, April's fortune tells her that she will soon recognize her error in judgment. Harry's message says "You're Going To Die." Outraged, Harry swears at Mr. Lee, causing a scene. April is driven away by his behavior, seeing him for who he truly is, and leaves him. Mr. Lee tells him the fortune cookie delivers due fortune.
As he exits the restaurant, Harry clutches his stomach and exclaims that he has never been this hungry. He looks up and finds that he is surrounded by Chinese restaurants. He goes into one restaurant, but no matter how much he eats, he can't seem to satisfy his hunger. At the close of the meal, Harry receives a fortune that informs him why he is perpetually hungry: "You're Dead."


"Button, Button"

Norma Lewis (Mare Winningham) is the wife of a down-and-out man named Arthur (Brad Davis), who has problems landing steady employment, and can only afford to put his wife in a low-rent apartment. One day, a smartly-dressed stranger who introduces himself as "Steward"(Basil Hoffman) comes to their door and hands them a special box. He says that if they press the button, two things will happen. #1: "Someone whom you do not know will die". #2: The Lewises will be given a briefcase containing $200,000, which is opened in front of them to show the man is not bluffing.
After the stranger leaves, the Lewises agonize over whether to press the button. Norma rationalizes that they could make good use of the money, and that the one who dies might be some Chinese peasant who is living a miserable life. Arthur takes the side that since they do not know who will die, her pressing the button may cause the death of an innocent baby. They open it up, and find that there is no mechanism inside it - it's simply an empty box with a button on it. Arthur angrily throws the box in the trash, yelling, "If this Mr. Steward comes back, you tell him he can find his box in the city dump!" However, in the middle of the night while Arthur is asleep Norma goes to the apartment building's dumpster and retrieves the device. The next day, Arthur leaves for work and sees Norma sitting at the kitchen table, her gaze transfixed on the button. At the end of the day, he returns from work and it appears that nothing has changed; Norma is still concentrating only on the button and sitting. The days go by. Norma and Arthur keep talking about the box, when suddenly Norma decides that she will push the button. She does it and her husband looks at her with disgust. They go to bed after seeing nothing happens. No money and no one seemed to have died.
However, the next day the stranger returns, taking back the box and gives them a briefcase with the $200,000. The Lewises are in shock and ask what will happen next. The stranger ominously replies that the button will be 'reprogrammed' and offered to someone else with the same terms and conditions, adding as he focuses on Norma: "I can assure you it will be offered to someone whom you don't know". The camera closes in on Norma's horrified expression.

[LibDemAlways]

18. Button Button was memorable. The look on

Mare Winningham's face when she realizes what she's done is priceless.

[LibDemAlways]

20. The Hitch-Hiker

Inger Stevens as Nan Adams, a young woman on a solo cross country driving trip, who becomes unnerved when the same hitchhiker keeps reappearing. Creepy as hell.