Saturday, July 2, 2011

The July 4, 2011 Twilight Zone Marathon

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











1 comment:

VoyagerG said...

Oh darn! I missed the whole marathon. Got stuck babysitting nephews and watching Thomas the Train all day. I'm glad it's back. I hope they don't get rid of the New Years eve Marathons though. Those were always my favorites.