THIRD SEASON 1961-1962
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TWO ***
Writer/Director: Montgomery Pittman
Cast: Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson, Sharon Lucas
In this contemporary Adam and Eve story, the two lone, frightened
survivors of a nuclear holocaust must start the world afresh.
LW: Golly, we got the other half of "Bewitched", Elizabeth Montgomery
(Samantha) herself. Strange how so many people from TZ episodes
went on to work together in the late 60's. Or maybe not so strange
when you consider the relationships built up with MGM and other
studios over this period.
THE ARRIVAL ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Boris Segal
Cast: Harold J. Stone, Bing Russell, Robert Karnes, Noah Keen,
Jim Boles, Robert Brubaker, Fredd Wayne
The aviation administration is completely baffled by the
appearance of a mysterious empty airliner - until an examiner poses
the unlikely but apparently sound theory that the craft is imaginary.
THE SHELTER ****
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Lamount Johnson
Cast: Larry Gates, Peggy Stewart, Michael Burne, Jack Albertson,
Jo Helton, Joseph Bernard, Moria Turner, Sandy Kenyon,
Mary Gregory, John McLiam
When a possible nuclear attack is announced, several suburban
friends and neighbors are reduced to selfish, vicious animals in a
struggle over one family's bomb shelter.
LW: A strong cast (including Jack Albertson) lend power to this
dramatic story of emotions and fears running wild during a
yellow alert.
THE PASSERBY **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Eliot Silverstein
Cast: Joanne Linville, James Gregory, Rex Holman, David Garcia,
Warren Kammering, Austin Green
A company of Civil War soldiers who believe they are marching
home from battle soon come to realize that they are actually dead.
A GAME OF POOL ****
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: A. E. Houghton
Cast: Jonathan Winters, Jack Klugman
A young pool player finds himself playing against a long-dead
master pool shark. The stakes: his life.
LW: A good one. Klugman and Winters are the only actors onstage at
any time during this powerful and well acted episode.
THE MIRROR **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Don Medford
Cast: Peter Falk, Tony Carbone, Richard Karlan, Arthur Batanides,
Rodolfo Hoyos, Will Kuluva, Vladimir Sokoloff, Val Ruffino
In the state offices of an overthrown government, a revolutionary
leader uses a mirror reported to possess strange powers - it can show
the viewer the face of the person who will kill him.
LW: An interesting role for Faulk. The segment is really not terribly
good. The country is obviously a thinly obscured representation of
Castro's Cuba.
THE GRAVE ***
Writer/Director: Montgomery Pittman
Cast: Lee Marvin, James Best, Strother Martin, Ellen Willrad,
Lee VanCleef, William Challee, Stafford Repp, Larry Johns,
Richard Geary
When a gunman scornfully defiles an outlaw's grave, he sees the
man's dying threats come true.
LW: Not a bad cast for a TZ! Not a terribly good story, but well done
nevertheless.
ITS A GOOD LIFE ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Jim Sheldon
Cast: Billy Mumy, John Larch, Cloris Leachman, Tom Hatcher,
Alice Frost, Don Keefer, Jeanne Bates, Lenore Kingston,
Casey Adams
A rural community is held terrorized by the unearthly powers of
a young boy. Based on a short story by Jerome Bixby.
LW: Billy Mumy and (a relatively young) Cloris Leachman playing on
TZ. Will wonders never cease? This is an interesting episode,
particularly since Serling had to spend the first five minutes
setting up the basic premise of the story by using a U.S. map
and individually introducing us to the main characters! If you
have ever read the classic story of the same name by Bixby, you
will know why this was necessary.
DEATHS-HEAD REVISITED **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Don Medford
Cast: Joseph Schildkraut, Oscar Beregi, Chuck Fox, Karen Verne,
Robert Boone, Ben Wright
A visit to a concentration camp at Dachau forces a former Nazi
to confront the horrifying ghosts of his ghastly wartime crimes.
LW: A well-meaning episode, but rather poor in overall quality.
THE MIDNIGHT SUN ****
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Anton Leader
Cast: Lois Nettleton, Betty Garde, Jason Wingreen, Juney Ellis,
Ned Glass, Robert J. Stevenson, John McLiam, Tom Reese,
William Keene
The Earth is being slowly drawn into the sun, causing
drought, devastating heat waves - and panic. This episode
features an outstanding musical score by Van Cleave.
LW: A fine episode.
STILL VALLEY ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Jim Sheldon
Cast: Gary Merrill, Ben Cooper, Vaughn Taylor, Addison Myers,
Mark Tapscott, Jack Mann
A strange book presents the Confederate Army with a difficult
choice: they can win the Civil War - but they must make a pact with
the Devil. Based on a short story by Manley Wade Wellman.
THE JUNGLE **
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: William Claxton
Cast: John Dehner, Emily McLaughlin, Walter Brooks, Hugh Sanders,
Howard Wright, Donald Foster, Jay Overholts, Jay Adler
A contractor who has violated certain African lands must deal
with the fury of the African tribal wizard, even back home in the
United States.
ONCE UPON A TIME ****
Writer: Richard Matheson
Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Cast: Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams, Gil Lamb, James Flavin,
Michael Ross, Milton Parsons, George E. Stone, Warren Parker
A janitor in the late 1800s finds himself in the next century
when he innocently fiddles with his inventor-employer's contraption.
LW: Boy, is THIS a strange one! Note the presence of Buster Keaton
as the main character in the cast. The whole beginning and ending
segments of the show (whenever we are in 1880) are done as a
SILENT FILM! We get the usual slightly sped up effect, piano
music, and dialog cards. When we go into the future (or rather,
OUR present), we suddenly go from silent mode to regular sound,
regular speed photography! This is one of the class of Twilight
Zone comedies, and is a very good one indeed.
FIVE CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN EXIT ****
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: William Windom, Murray Matheson, Susan Harrison, Kelton Garwood,
Clark Allen, Mona Houghton, Carol Hill
Five people trying to escape from some sort of large cylindrical
container have no memory of who they are or how they came to be there.
One is a soldier, one a clown, one a dancer, and one a bagpiper. At
least I think there was a bagpiper. Hmm. There was also one other
character (total must equal five for the title to work!) Based on a
short story by Marvin Petal.
LW: A good cast, and what has to be about the simplest set ever used
in a TZ, or almost any other television show for that matter.
A QUALITY OF MERCY **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Buzz Kulik
Cast: Dean Stockwell, Albert Salmi, Rayford Barnes, Ralph Votrian,
Leonard Nimoy, Dale Ishimoto, Jerry Fujikawa, Michael Pataki
A soldier gets a fresh, frightening perspective on his
militaristic ways when he suddenly experiences a war situation
from the enemy's point of view.
LW: The only notable element of this episode is Leonard Nimoy in a
relatively minor role.
NOTHING IN THE DARK ***
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Gladys Cooper, Robert Redford, R. G. Armstrong
A frightened old woman who has sealed herself off from the world
to avoid confronting death, admits a wounded policeman and soon learns
that she may have made a big mistake.
ONE MORE PALLBEARER ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Joseph Wiseman, Trevor Bardette, Gage Clark, Katherine Squire,
Josip Elic, Robert Snyder, Ray Galvin
A rich man schemes to wreak revenge on three people who humiliated
him at various points in his life. How? By staging a fake nuclear war,
just for their benefit.
DEAD MAN'S SHOES **
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: Montgomery Pittman
Cast: Warren Stevens, Harry Swoger, Ben Wright, Joan Marshall,
Eugene Borden, Richard Devon, Florence Marly, Ron Haggerthy,
Joe Mell
When a derelict dons the shoes of a dead gangster, he finds
himself following the course of the dead man's life.
LW: Not very good really, but it has a couple of fair moments.
SHOWDOWN WITH RANCE McGREW ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: C. Nyby
Cast: Larry Blyden, William McLean, Troy Melton, Jay Overholts,
Robert J. Stevenson, Robert Cornwaithe, Arch Johnson,
Robert Kline, Hal K. Dawson
An obnoxious cowboy star gets his comeuppance whan he suddenly
finds himself confronting one of the outlaws who has been poorly
presented in his television show.
LW: Tongue-in-cheek. Fairly humorous.
THE HUNT ***
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
Director: Harold Schuster
Cast: Arthur Hunnicutt, Jeanette Nolan, Titus Moede, Orville Sherman,
Charles Seel, Robert Foulk, Dexter DuPont
When a hunter and his dog are killed while stalking their prey,
they go to the Gates of Heaven, where they must deal with St. Peter.
Or IS it really St. Peter?
KICK THE CAN *
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Ernest Treux, Russell Collins, Hank Patterson, Earle Hodgins,
Burt Mustin, Gregory McCabe, Marjorie Bennett, Lenore Shanewise,
Anne O'Neal, John Marley, Barry Treux, Eve McVeagh, Marc Stevens
A children's game somehow offers rejuvenative powers to an old man.
LW: Blech. Sopping sentimentality again. A number of these crept into
the series.
A PIANO IN THE HOUSE **
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
Director: David Greene
Cast: Barry Morse, Joan Jackett, Don Durant, Phil Coolidge,
Cyril Delevanti, Muriel Landers
The right tune played on a mysterious player piano will reveal
the listener's true nature.
LW: Note the presence of Barry Morse (later of "Space: 1999" among
other shows).
TO SERVE MAN *****
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Richard Bare
Cast: Richard Kiel, Hardie Albright, Robert Tafur, Lomax Study,
Theodore Marcuse, Susan Cummings, Nelson Olmstead,
Lloyd Bochner
When aliens come to Earth bearing promises of a utopian
existence, the military's suspicions and skepticism eventually
prove justified. But too late. The alien "Canamits" were executed
by make-up artist William Tuttle. Based on a short story by Damon
Knight.
LW: This is a "super-classic". Probably the most popular TZ episode of
all time, and one of my personal top favorites as well. EXCELLENT.
THE LAST RITES OF JEFF MYRTLEBANK **
Writer/Director: Montgomery Pittman
Cast: James Best, Ralph Moody, Ezelle Pouley, Vickie Barnes,
Sherry Jackson, Helen Wallace, Lance Fuller, Bill Fawcett,
Edgar Buchanan, Mabel Forrest, Dub Taylor, Jon Lormer,
Pat Hector
Because a young man has seemingly awakened from the dead, the
superstitious townspeople assume he is possessed by the Devil.
THE FUGITIVE **
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: Richard L. Bare
Cast: J. Pat O'Malley, Susan Gordon, Nancy Kulp, Wesley Lau,
Paul Tripp, Stephen Talbot, Johnny Eiman, Russ Bender
A magical old gentleman uses his powers to help a sick little
girl, thus risking being returned to his home planet if agents of
his planet locate him.
LITTLE GIRL LOST *****
Writer: Richard Matheson
Director: Paul Stewart
Cast: Sarah Marshall, Robert Sampson, Charles Aidman, Tracy Stratford
A couple can hear their daughter's desperate cries, yet she is
nowhere to be found - she's fallen through an invisible "hole" in her
wall, and is lost in the fourth dimension.
LW: Another classic. Another excellent episode.
PERSON OR PERSONS UNKNOWN ***
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: John Brahm
Cast: Richard Long, Frank Silvera, Shirley Ballard, Julie Van Zandt,
Betty Harford, Ed Glover, Michael Kelp, Joe Higgins, John Newton
A man's day gets off to a bizarre start when he awakens to
discover that no one knows who he is.
LW: Richard Long also starred in several other TZ's over the years.
THE GIFT **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Allen Parker
Cast: Geoffrey Horne, Nico Minardos, Cliff Osmond, Edmund Vargas,
Carmen D'Antonio, Paul Mazursky, Vladimir Sokoloff, Vito Scotti,
Henry Corden
A group of Mexican villagers are convinced that a downed flyer
is, in fact, an extraterrestrial.
THE LITTLE PEOPLE ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Bill Claxton
Cast: Joe Maross, Claude Akins, Michael Ford
Everything is relative, as a space traveler soon learns when he
proceeds to lord his size over the tiny folk who inhabit a planetoid.
FOUR O'CLOCK **
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Theodore Bikel, Phyllis Love, Linden Chiles, Moyna MacGill
Based on a short story by Price Day.
Theodore Bikel is cast as demented Oliver Crangle, a man dedicated to the
expulsion of evil... at all costs. His plan: reduce all the evil people in the
world to 2 feet tall, at 4 o'clock.
THE TRADE-INS ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Elliot Silverstein
Cast: Joseph Schildkraut, Noah Keen, Alma Platt, Ted Marcuse,
Edson Stroll, Terrene De Marney, Billy Vincent, Mary McMahon,
David Armstrong
Youth isn't all it's cracked up to be, as an old man learns when
a mind and personality transplant gives him a lonely new life in a
young new body.
LW: Actually, he doesn't get the body until near the end of the show.
The primary focus of the episode is that he and his wife only have
enough money for ONE of them to be transplanted. A good show.
HOCUS POCUS AND FRISBY ****
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Andy Devine, Milton Selzer, Howard McNear, Dabbs Greer,
Clem Bevans, Larry Breitman, Peter Brocco
The town windbag so impresses a visiting group of aliens (who are
masquerading as humans) with his tall tale stories that they attempt
to take him back to their planet for study as a prime Earth specimen.
Based on a short story by Frederic Louis Fox.
LW: Crusty-voiced Andy is perfect in his role. Very humorous.
THE DUMMY ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Abner Bibberman
Cast: Cliff Robertson, Frank Sutton, George Murdock, John Harmon,
Sandra Warner, Ralph Manza, Rudy Dolan, Bethelynn Grey
A cut-rate ventriloquist starts believing that his dummy actually
has a mind - and a will - of its own. Based on a story by Leon Polk.
THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD *
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Ellis Miller
Cast: Donald Pleasance, Liam Sullivan, Phillippa Bevans, Kevin O'Neal,
Jimmy Baird, Kevin Jones, Tom Lowell, Russ Horton, Buddy Hart,
Darryl Richard, James Browning, Bob Biheller, Dennis Kerlee,
Pat Close
A popular teacher faces the prospect of a life without purpose
when he is asked to retire from his post.
LW: Very little socially redeeming value to this one.
YOUNG MAN'S FANCY **
Writer: Richard Matheson
Director: John Brahm
Cast: Phyllis Thaxter, Alex Nicol, Wallace Rooney, Ricky Kelman,
Helen Brown
A young man yearns so desperately for the days of his youth that
the past does, in fact, reappear.
LW: In fact, he becomes a little boy again, and goes back to his
mother (deserting his fiance). There is a scene in the episode
where the fiance sees the elements of the man's youth, right up
to his mother, start to appear around them.
I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC *
Writer: Ray Bradbury
Director: James Sheldon
Cast: Josephine Hutchinson, David White, June Vincent, Vaughn Taylor,
Charles Herbert, Dana Dillaway, Paul Nesbitt, Susan Crane,
Veronica Cartwright, Judy Morton
A girl comes to understand that a grandmother can be a tender,
thoughtful, caring, loving woman. Even if she is a robot.
LW: To all the Bradbury fans out there, I'm sorry, but this episode
is TERRIBLE. Probably one of the five worst TZ's ever made. Is
dripping in sentimentality, has rather poor acting, and is
generally a lose.
CAVENDER IS COMING ***
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Chris Nyby
Cast: Carol Burnett, Jesse White, Howard Smith, William O'Connell,
Pitt Herbert, John Fielder, Stanley Jones, Frank Behrens,
Albert Carrier, Roy Sickner, Norma Shattuc, Rory O'Brien,
Sandra Gould, Adrienne Marden, Jack Younger, Danny Kulick,
Donna Douglas, Maurice Dallimore, Barbara Morrison
In this pilot for a never-launched series, a klutzy guardian
angel's attempts to make a bumbling woman happy don't work out quite
as expected.
LW: If it weren't for the presence of Carol Burnett and Jesse White,
I would only give this TWO stars. Another guardian angel plot.
Obviously, it was a comedy. Carol tries hard despite a horrid
script. Jesse White has played many character roles, but perhaps
is best known as the lonely Maytag repairman! The basic plot is
VERY similar to the "Mr. Bemis" episode above. By the way, this
episode had one very unusual aspect, it was the only TZ with a
LAUGHTRACK!
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