And so the end draws near. By this time Serling was pretty disillusioned with the whole affair, with the producing of William Froug being a much disputed change, with many of the decisions causing frustration within the writers for the show. But all the same Serling still managed to develop and deliver with a plethora of other writers some exceptional episodes, making this swansong series a bright light finish, rather than a faint whimper. Let’s talk about the top 10 episodes right now in fact.
NOTE: As many fans of
the show, and many passive viewers know, there is a great aspect of the show
that is the endings. Some such endings will be eluded to in these essays. If
this affects you, then re-watch the seasons and then return here. However I do
feel that with so many of these episodes, the endings are already iconic and
never hinder my repeat watching’s in many instances, instead effects them in a
positive manner. Albeit, you have been warned.
10. You Drive (Episode 134 – January 3,
1964)
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This second episode in the series to feature a car driving itself is less so this time a tale of a machine with an evil heart, but rather a machine with a good and honest one, that won’t allow a killer to evade justice. Edward Andrews is our killer in this tale directed by John Brahm and written by Earl Hamner Jr. with one of his less folksy scripts shall we say. There is a cruel fate at the heart of You Drive that keeps the episode riding at a constant with us pondering always whether or not Edward Andrews, our killer, will indeed evade the justice he so certainly deserves. It’s an intriguing episode, even if a little padded, however we are at least far removed from the days of the obnoxious padding of the previous series and its 1 hour running times. We are at last back to shorter and snappier, and frankly better, episodes of this glorious show.
9. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Episode 142 – February 28, 1964)
I actually considered not putting this episode on this list for the chief reason that in so many ways it isn’t actually an episode of the show. Due to an ever-rising bugget Serling actually took to purchasing a short subject French film for the 142nd episode of the show for the first time in the shows five year run. This French production of the classic Ambrose Pierce short story is directed with genuine excellance by Robert Enrico and went on to win Best Short Film at that year’s Oscars, aswell as winning the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes film festival that year for Best Short Subject. The classic tale comes to us here with a profoundly visual and visceral telling, putting Roger Jacquet in the lead role, with a performance working wholly within the silence of a piece with limited dialogue. It’s an excellent adaptation and telling of a sensational story and no matter how it ended up on the show, it does certainly deserve to be on this list.
8. Number 12 Looks Just Like You (Episode 137 – January 24, 1964)
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This tale of futuristic totalitarianism from a Charles Beaumont short story brought to the small screen by John Tomerlin is an episode that works on one chief goal, to lull and unsettle its audience to no end. We are brought into a world where conformity is the only norm, solidified by Pamela Austin, Richard Long and Suzy Parker playing all but one of our characters. Colin Wilcox Paxton is the outlier, an 18 year old girl awaiting her transformation into one of the only 2 models that are of choice to her. The episode plays with terrifying notions of what a future filled with beauty could look like, playing on many of the same notions of Eye of the Beholder before it. Where Eye of the Beholder is certainly the more successful of the two episodes, this one works without a doubt within its own bizarro version of a future completely reliant on cosmetics and plastic surgery. An unnerving and upsetting episode that never fails to shock its viewers.
7. Steel (Episode 122 – October 4, 1963)
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Richard Matheson’s favourite episode of the one’s he wrote places, adapted from his own short story, itself in a bizarre future reality where human prize-fighting has been outlawed and the only remaining forms of boxing can be committed by robots. Lee Marvin is the faint heart of the episode as a once praised fighter now forced to lug around his robotic counterpart. When he does however get a second chance to fight, he is thwarted by the mechanical foe that that has overtaken his kind in the timeline of sports history. Matheson’s greatest strength here is that just when you think he’s going to allow us to have a form of happiness in his ending, he swiftly crushes us back down to reality with a bitter conclusion that is solidified as brutal by Marvin’s marvellous turn as the eponymous Steel. A great episode with an unfortunately tragic sting in its tale.
6. In Praise of Pip (Episode 121 – September 27, 1963)
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The first episode of this series was also the favourite of Serling’s daughter Anne, with this tale of a father and son hitting very close to home for her, with her often commenting on how many different aspects Serling adopted from their personal relationship for this very episode. The episode puts two classic Twilight Zone performers in roles that epitomise their greatest traits they gave to the show. Jack Klugman stars as a honest, but crooked man, who has lost all hope in life through his nefarious and criminal doing. With Bill Mumy appearing in a far less frightening child performance, but certainly a no less effective one. I’ve always felt that the two chief concepts at the heart of the show are loneliness and nostalgia, In Praise of Pip contains mythic presentations of both through the prism of a very familiar familial relationship, and comes out with a truly touching episode on the other end.
5. The Masks (Episode 145 – March 20, 1964)
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This twisted tale of inheritance pivots on the goodwill and believability of Robert Keith (in his final acting role before his death in 1966 at 76 years of age) as Jason Foster, an inherently good man forced to reckon with the matter of his impending death and the foul nature of his two children and further his two grandchildren. Directed by the only female director the show ever had, who also starred in the episode The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine, Ida Lupino handles Serling’s haunting and magical script with a delicacy and focus on character that is only cemented by the exceptional twist and the grand ensemble of twisted performances from all. The construction of the episode almost figures as a whodunit filled with characters all working on dual motives, until their natural natures are revealed. And boy when those true natures are revealed, are they something to see. An ingeniously simple and wonderfully twisted episode from Serling’s own pen.
4. The Long Morrow (Episode 135 – January 10, 1964)
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One of the shows greatest, even if most tragic, love stories is this tale of a brief affair frozen in space and lost in time with Robert Lansing and Mariette Hartley as our two star-crossed lovers, thwarted by a brutal decision to allow them to grow old together despite the circumstances. Serling’s best script of the series is a tale with a biting and bitter trajectory that puts the sort of classic Twilight Zone twist in a very human and deeply moving context. Lansing and Hartley are believable as lovers despite the relatively short time we do get with them together, in actuality this shortness of time lends the climax to be all the more tragic rather than having a lessened effect. Serling commented that he based this script upon the classic story of The Gift of the Magi¸ a similar story of a love affair cut short by tragic cosmic circumstances. Serling’s human yet futuristic touch makes this episode sour into our hearts and have an ultimately cataclysmic effect on us.
3. Night Call (Episode 139 – February 7, 1964)
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Another tale of classic actress Gladys Cooper being taunted by a fearsome ghoul of sorts, following on from Nothing in the Dark from Series 3 of the show, comes this time in the form of an episode penned by Matheson and culminating in a far crueller and more unsettling conclusion. Cooper is sensational once more in this spooky tale of a woman constantly plagued by a bout of constant phone calls from a voice of no known origin, however as the origin comes clear, that is when the true pathos and pain of this episode begins to show. Cooper and Matheson make this episode one that not only haunts you whilst you watch it, but for a long, long time after you have finished watching it. It’s a piece of classic horror and it’s a more than worthy entry for third place on this rundown of classic episodes.
2. Living Doll (Episode 126 – November 1, 1963)
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Another iconic episode of the show is a very simple one more or less and in many ways works on as many levels as a family drama as it does a horror tale of the supernatural. The source of the Annabelle legend which would too eventually make its way onto the silver screen, this tale from Jerry Sohl (ghost-writing for Charles Beaumont) is a story on one level of a step-father attempting to kindle a healthy relationship with his step-daughter, but on another is a chilling journey into the heart of a man plagued by a supernatural figure of sentient evil, in this case a talking doll. Telly Savalas is the undoubted standout of the episode as Erich, the man tormented by this titular Living Doll. Savalas starts off as a little off kilter, but only gets more and more unnerved as this story places its dominos and lets them fall one by one.
1. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Episode 123 – October 18, 1963)
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Still one of the scariest episodes the show ever made with one of the all time jump scare moments of all time; this gruelling, exciting and terrifying tale of air terror is fuelled by a riveting script by Matheson and a sensational performance by William Shatner. However the great victory of the show has to be the direction of Richard Donner who fills every frame of this horror tale with visceral and dynamic tension and suspense all until the gripping finale of some brand of catharsis. Our monster in this tale is an unnerving bear like gremlin with a truly disgusting face that taunts and scares at every turn when they brutally re-apear, whereas I believe the gremlin to be a truly monstrous figure that still strikes fear whenever they show up, Matheson believed that the gremlin instead “looked like a Panda Bear”. Of course the nature of the monster is not the most terrifying thing in this episode, it is instead the deeply human dread that pervades the atmosphere of the place and fills each audience member with deep, deep terror.
And so concludes our individual series rundowns, however next week I will conclude this run of articles with a culminating ranking of my personal top 20 favourite episodes of all time. Be there, in that most misty and splendid of locales; The Twilight Zone.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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