After a horrible lapse in judgement last year when they scraped the traditional July 4th Twilight Zone Marathon in favor a The Greatest American Hero marathon, the folks at Syfy have returned to their senses and given us our July 4th marathon back. I love the New Year’s Twilight Zone marathons too, but the July 4th marathons are what started me on the marathon kick back in the 1980s when they ran on 11 Alive, a cable channel from New York.
As a bonus, at 5:30 AM on July 3rd, you can also watch another episode before the marathon starts. The episode is “The Trouble With Templeton.”
I compiled the list using the guide button on my Direct TV remote. The episode descriptions are my own.
| | Time | Episode |
| 1 | 9:00 AM July 3rd | The Rip Van Winkle Caper Criminals pull off a heist and seek to escape by going into suspended animation. Script: Rod Serling |
| 2 | 9:30 AM | Mirror Image A woman at bus stop begins to suspect she’s being tormented by a doppelganger - a double of herself. |
| 3 | 10:00 AM | The Lonely A convict imprisoned alone on an asteroid gets an android in the form of a woman for companionship. |
| 4 | 10:30 AM | Hocus Pocus and Frisby A homespun variation of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Adapted from Frederic Louis Fox’s story. Script: Rod Serling |
| 5 | 11:00 AM | The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank |
| 6 | 11:30 AM | Mr. Bevis A down on his luck eccentric wishes his life were different. |
| 7 | 12:00 PM | A Thing About Machines An angry snob blames all the people and machines around him for everything that doesn’t go right. The machines have had enough. |
| 8 | 12:30 PM | Number Twelve Looks Just Like You Based on Charles Beaumont’s story “The Beautiful People.” A futuristic society pressures people into medical treatments to make themselves physically perfect and beautiful. Although, commentators often note how this episodes warns against societies increasing over emphasis on appearance resulting in eating disorders, use of Botox, and plastic surgery, its warning against anti-intellectualism often gets overlooked. |
| 9 | 1:00 PM | The Shelter One man has the foresight to build a bomb shelter. His neighbors chuckle until a nuclear strike appears imminent. Script: Rod Serling |
| 10 | 1:30 PM | A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain Trying to keep up with his young wife, a rich old man volunteers for an experimental treatment to become younger. |
| 11 | 2:00 PM | I Shot an Arrow Into the Air A space ship crash lands, and the commander who tries to maintain order is pitted against a crew member who thinks survival means every man for himself. Based on an idea by Madelon Champion. Script: Rod Serling |
| 12 | 2:30 PM | A Kind of Stopwatch A man gets a stopwatch that can stop time. |
| 13 | 3:00 PM | Little Girl Lost When a little girl enters a doorway to another dimension, her parents and a neighbor attempt to rescue her. This isn’t a good episode. The short story it was based on is better. |
| 14 | 3:30 PM | The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms National Guardsmen on training maneuvers near the Little Bighorn battlefield find themselves transported back to the time of Custer’s Last Stand. |
| 15 | 4:00 PM | Mr. Dingle, the Strong Aliens give a scrawny, sad sack salesman incredible strength. |
| 16 | 4:30 PM | People Are Alike All Over After a crash landing on Mars, an astronaut discovers that people really are alike everywhere. |
| 17 | 5:00 PM | A Game of Pool When an ambitious and talented pool shark says he could beat a deceased legend regarded as the best pool player ever, he gets a chance to prove it. The stakes? His soul. Script: George Clayton Johnson |
| 18 | 5:30 PM | The Bewitchin’ Pool The last episode of the original series. Two Southern child seek escape from their feuding parents by traveling to another dimension. Script: Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of The Waltons. |
| 19 | 6:00 PM | Death’s Head Revisited A Nazi war criminal returns to the scene of his crimes. Script: Rod Serling |
| 20 | 6:30 PM | Long Distance Call One of the videotape episodes. A boy talks to his dead grandmother on his toy telephone. |
| 21 | 7:00 PM | Living Doll She’s Talky Tina, and she doesn’t think she likes you. Credited to Charles Beaumont, but actually written by Jerry Sohl. |
| 22 | 7:30 PM | Nightmare at 20,000 Feet “There’s a man on the wing!” A passenger who’d only recently recovered from a nervous breakdown sees a gremlin sabotaging the airplane he’s on, only nobody else sees it or believes him. Script: Richard Matheson (Author of I Am Legend) Based on his own short story. |
| 23 | 8:00 PM | Time Enough at Last A man who just wants time to read, finds himself all alone with a library full of books after a nuclear war. Adapted from Lynn Venable’s story. Script: Rod Serling |
| 24 | 8:30 PM | The Howling Man A traveler seeks shelter in an isolated monastery where a group of apparent fanatics hold a prisoner. Script: Charles Beaumont. (Adapted from his own short story) |
| 25 | 9:00 PM | The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street A parable of Cold War witch hunting. A mysterious object flies overhead, and a neighbor loses all power. Then a select few regain and lose power. Suspicion grows that the flying object was an alien spaceship and that someone living on the street is an alien in disguise, preparing the way for an invasion. Script: Rod Serling |
| 26 | 9:30 PM | The Masks Greedy family members visit a dying old man during Mardi Gras. As a condition of inheriting his fortune, they must wear certain mask. |
| 27 | 10:00 PM | To Serve Man Aliens promising Utopia leave behind a book which reveals their true motives. Based on a Damon Knight story and first broadcast over 20 years before the first version of V. Script: Rod Serling |
| 28 | 10:30 PM | Where is Everybody? The first episode. A man finds himself in a deserted town, but always there are tantalizing hints that he’s just missed finding somebody. |
| 29 | 11:00 PM | It’s a Good Life Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts! Think happy thoughts, or little Anthony will wish you into the cornfield. A town lives in fear of a child with incredible mind powers. Based on the story by Jerome Bixby. |
| 30 | 11:30 PM | A Most Unusual Camera Thieves find a camera that takes pictures of the future. |
| 31 | 12:00 AM JULY 4th!!! | The Midnight Sun It’s the hottest day in history as the world drifts towards the sun. |
| 32 | 12:30 AM | A Hundred Yards Over the Rim A 19th century pioneer finds the future while trying to save his son and guide his wagon train to safety. Script: Rod Serling |
| 33 | 1:00 AM | Nightmare as a Child After a teacher encounters a blond girl singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” repressed memories of her own childhood begin coming back to her. The main character is named Helen Foley after one of Rod Serling’s favorite teachers. |
| 34 | 1:30 AM | I Am the Night, Color Me Black A man faces execution for slaying a hate monger. Meanwhile, a strange darkness engulfs the town. |
| 35 | 2:00 AM | Nothing in the Dark An old woman hides from Mr. Death. Starring Robert Redford. Script: George Clayton Johnson |
| 36 | 2:30 AM | The After Hours An old woman hides from Mr. Death. Starring Robert Redford. Script: George Clayton Johnson |
| 37 | 3:00 AM | The Fear This one gets my vote as the worst original Twilight Zone episode ever. It’s so bad that Forrest Whitaker should be the host. A man and woman are menaced by what seems to be a giant alien. |
| 38 | 3:30 AM | A Nice Place to Visit A deceased criminal gets almost everything he wants in the afterlife, but what did he do to deserve such good fortune? |
| 39 | 4:00 AM | In Praise of Pip An alcoholic bookie gets a last chance to set things right with his son. |
| 40 | 4:30 AM | What’s in the Box? A TV that tells the future and an unhappy marriage aren’t a good mix. |
| 41 | 5:00 AM | Perchance to Dream A man, stalked in his dreams by a mysterious woman, believes that if he dies in his dreams, he will die in real life. |
| 42 | 5:30 AM | What You Need A street peddler gives people things they need at the right moment. Adapted from Lewis Padgett’s (AKA Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore) story. Script: Rod Serling |
| 43 | 6:00 AM - 8:00 AM | Infomercials The scariest thing of all. |
| | 8:00 AM | Two After an apocalyptic war, two soldiers, a man and a woman, from opposing armies meet. Starring Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery. Script: Montgomery Pittman |
| 44 | 8:30 AM | The Changing of the Guard The ghosts of dead students return to help an elderly prep school teacher. |
| 45 | 9:00 AM | Dead Man’s Shoes A homeless man puts on a pair shoes haunted by a gangster. Script: Charles Beaumont and OCee Ritch |
| 46 | 9:30 AM | Ninety Years Without Slumbering An old man believes he must keep a grandfather clock wound to go on living. |
| 47 | 10:00 AM | The Hunt An old man and his dog go hunting in Appalachia and find themselves someplace else entirely. Script: Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of The Waltons. |
| 48 | 10:30 AM | The Old Man in the Cave A town has survived a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath thanks to a mysterious old man. |
| 49 | 11:00 AM | The Last Flight A World War I fighter pilot finds himself transported through time to a present day American Air Force base. (The present being 1960 when this episode came out.) Script: Richard Matheson based on his short story “Flight.” |
| 50 | 11:30 AM | The Fever An uptight, puritanical guy vacations in Las Vegas. Script: Rod Serling |
| 51 | 12:00 PM | A Penny for Your Thoughts A coin lands on edge and a man gains the power to read minds. Script: George Clayton Johnson |
| 52 | 12:30 PM | Stopover in a Quiet Town A couple find themselves in a deserted town where they hear child’s laughter. |
| 53 | 1:00 PM | A World of His Own A writer brings women from his stories to life. Script: Richard Matheson |
| 54 | 1:30 PM | Mr. Denton on Doomsday In the Old West, can a town drunk find salvation in a gun and a magic elixir? |
| 55 | 2:00 PM | The Little People Two astronauts land on a planet to repair their ship. One discovers a civilization of tiny people and sets himself up as their god. |
| 56 | 2:30 PM | Nick of Time A couple stop at a diner and are amused at first by a devil headed fortune telling machine on their table. Will they let the machines cryptic yet unnervingly accurate predictions run their lives? |
| 57 | 3:00 PM | The Dummy One of two episodes about evil dummies who torment the ventriloquists who work with them. This one stars Cliff Robertson. Based on a story by Lee Polk Script: Rod Serling |
| 58 | 3:30 PM | And When the Sky Was Opened Three astronauts return to earth. When one disappears, the only person on earth who remembers him is one of his shipmates. Based on the story “Disappearing Act” by Richard Matheson Script: Rod Serling |
| 59 | 4:00 PM | Escape Clause A hypochondriac makes a deal with the devil. |
| 60 | 4:30 PM | Mr. Garrity and the Graves An Old West snake oil salesman offers to raise loved ones from the dead. |
| 61 | 5:00 PM | Probe 7: Over and Ou An astronaut is stranded on another planet as nuclear war appears imminent back home. |
| 62 | 5:30 PM | One for the Angels A street peddler makes a pitch to The Grim Reaper. Script: Rod Serling |
| 63 | 6:00 PM | The Obsolete Man A street peddler makes a pitch to The Grim Reaper. Script: Rod Serling |
| 64 | 6:30 PM | Third From the Sun Two families attempt to escape a world on the brink of nuclear war. Adapted from Richard Matheson’s story. Script: Rod Serling |
| 65 | 7:00 PM | The Hitchhiker A creepy hitchhiker follows a young woman (Inger Stevens) across the country. Adapted from Lucille Fletcher’s radio play. Script: Rod Serling |
| 66 | 7:30 PM | The Eye of the Beholder A woman is in a hospital and her face is heavily bandaged after she undergoes plastic surgery in the hope of becoming beautiful. This episode sometimes appears with the title “Private World of Darkness.” Listen to the Leader’s speech on the television in the background in some of the scenes. Like “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You,” this episode also goes beyond a commentary on looks. It warns against too much conformity, a tendency which ran amok in 1950s and early 1960s America. Script: Rod Serling |
| 67 | 8:00 PM | Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? Two state troopers find a crashed spaceship and track an alien to a diner where they find the diner’s counterman, a bus driver, and the bus’s passengers. Is someone in the diner really the alien in disguise? |
| 68 | 8:30 PM | Kick the Can Can the residents of an old age home find a little bit of magic and feel young again. |
| 69 | 9:00 PM | The Odyssey of Flight 33 An airliner travels back and forth through time. Script: Rod Serling |
| 70 | 9:30 PM | A Stop of Willoughby Stressed out by work, a tyrannical boss, and an unsympathetic wife, a man finds a haven on the train ride home. Script: Rod Serling |
| 71 | 10:00 PM | Five Characters in Search of an Exit A soldier, a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a bag pipe player find themselves in a mysterious prison. Adapted from Marvin Petal’s story. Script: Rod Serling |
| 72 | 10:30 PM | The Invaders An old woman is tormented by tiny aliens. Script: Richard Matheson |
| 73 | 11:00 PM | I Sing the Body Electric Ray Bradbury’s story of three children and their android nanny (“Grandmother”). |
| 74 | 11:30 PM | Walking Distance One of TZ’s most highly regarded episodes. A stressed out business executive tries to return to his childhood home town. Script: Rod Serling |
| 75 | 12:00 AM JULY 5th | Night of the Meek Art Carney as a down and out department store Santa Claus who finds a miraculous bag. |
| 76 | 12:30 AM | Night Call |
| 77 | 1:00 AM | The Grave Even though there isn’t much action, it’s a weird western with Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef, and the “What we have here is failure to communicate” guy. Script: Montgomery Pittman |
| 78 | 1:30 AM | Queen of the Nile Has an actress found the secret of eternal youth? |
| 79 | 2:00 AM | Ring-A-Ding Girl Premonitions prompt a Hollywood star to return to the small town where she grew up in an attempt to save it. |
| 80 | 2:30 AM | The Four of Us Are Dying An unsavory character with the ability to look like other people. |
| 81 | 3:00 AM | A Piano in the House A sadistic critic discovers a player piano with a knack for bringing out people’s true character. |
| 82 | 3:30 AM | Twenty-Two A beautiful woman in a hospital keeps having nightmares about Room Twenty-two and a creepy nurse. “Room for one more.” |
| | 4:00 AM | THE END |
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