Twilight Zone Viewer's Choice Rankings and New Year's Marathon Guide

Ever wonder what the most popular episodes are among fellow Twilight Zone fans? Keep reading. The New Year’s 2011-2012 Twilight Zone Marathon on Syfy is billed as a viewer’s choice marathon. A while back, fans were given a chance to choose five to ten of their favorite episodes in a poll on Syfy’s website. The top forty vote getters are supposed to be featured in a countdown during this year’s ninety episode marathon. So why wait to find out? Find out where your favorite episodes rank now and watch them later on. According to a press release from Syfy on November 29, episodes 40-21 are running on December 31 from 2 PM until midnight, and episodes 20-1 are running on January 1 also 2 PM to midnight. So on my schedule below, I’ve identified the top forty accordingly. http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/syfy/pressreleases?pr=contents/press-releases/2011/11/29/syfywillcelebra1322581084649.xml

I had a hard time choosing a favorite five or ten. I then narrowed it down to a favorite five or ten from two randomly chosen seasons instead. Even then it was tough. I made my choices though and voted.

Once again, there won’t be any hour long episodes. Yes, I know, the “hour” stories themselves don’t fill an hour, but with commercials they were meant to fill an hour long slot in the TV schedule. The lack of hour long episodes has been a frequent occurrence in recent marathons. While I agree that the half-hour format works best for The Twilight Zone, it doesn’t mean the hour shows should be consigned to oblivion. Critics often dismiss the hour episodes, but even though there are some weak, stretched out, and padded episodes in the bunch, there are some excellent ones too. Among my favorite hour episodes is “Printer’s Devil” starring Burgess Meredith in a story about a newspaper publisher’s deal with the devil. There’s a scene of contemplated suicide that almost plays as a Satanic version of Clarence’s rescue of George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. Then there’s “Miniature” starring Robert Duval as a sad and lonely outcast who seeks refuge in a museum display. I sometimes hear “He’s Alive” disparaged because the true identity of Peter Vollmer’s shadowy benefactor is so obvious. That misses the point which is about how easily people can be led to political fanaticism, hate, and scapegoating by demagogues who know how to strike the right chords. The content of Vollmer’s speeches are especially striking. Yes, Vollmer’s words reflected those spoken by many other demagogues before him, but listen closely and you’ll still hear alarming echoes in current political movements. The anti-immigrant spiel sounds all too much like what we’ve heard from the Tea Party in recent years, and the anti-banker rants sound all too much like the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Along with Jean Shepherd’s “Disarm the Toy Industry” lady form “Duel in the Snow, or Red Ryder Nails the Cleveland Street Kid,” Vollmer is one of the best single character embodiments of the nuttiness of both the extreme left and the extreme right. I find it hard to believe that not a single hour episode managed to crack the top forty.

“The Midnight Sun” appears twice in this marathon, so I guess it’s really an eighty-nine episode marathon with one episode running twice. A while back, someone must have thought it would be funny to show “The Midnight Sun” at midnight. I chuckled the first few times. Now it appears at midnight in marathon after marathon. That’s a shame because it is one of the series’ most classic episodes. It should be on in more prime viewing hours more often to give newcomers a better chance of discovering it. Besides, it always struck me as being most suitable to late morning or early afternoon viewing despite the title. Apparently “The Midnight Sun” made it into the viewer’s choice top forty because after ringing in the New Year at 12:00 AM on January 1, it runs again at 5:30 PM. Yet, I guess someone was couldn’t get past the long worn out joke of running it at midnight. Sigh.

It also looks like we won’t be seeing uncut versions of the episodes. Uncut episodes during certain portions of the marathons were a feature of many of the marathons during a good portion to the last decade. If I remember correctly, Syfy (Sci Fi at the time) starting airing them around the time that the Definitive Collection DVDs came out. Sci Fi hyped these uncut episodes a great deal for a few years. Eventually, the fanfare stopped although the network continued airing some uncut episodes. Then they quietly stopped showing them a few marathons ago. It’s pretty tough to watch the chopped up version of a classic like “Walking Distance” after you’ve gotten used to the uncut version on Netflix, DVDs, and now Blu-Ray too.

I used three sources for the list of episodes. The episode descriptions are my own. I used the Guide feature on my DirectTV remote, I looked at the episode list on Syfy’s website, and I looked at the episode guide at the Channel Guide Magazine site. http://www.channelguidemagblog.com/index.php/2011/12/27/episode-guide-to-syfys-twilight-zone-new-years-marathon/

My remote’s Guide feature gave episode titles up until “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine,” the forty-third episode in the marathon. After that, there were only generic series descriptions until the final episode of the marathon, “The Man in the Bottle.” Syfy didn’t list “The Man in the Bottle” but both my remote’s guide and the channel guide site did.

	Time	Episode
1	9:00 AM December 31	Escape Clause A Hypochondriac makes a deal with the devil.
2	9:30 AM	In Praise of Pip An alcoholic bookie gets a last chance to set things right with his son.
3	10:00 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.
4	10:30 AM	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
5	11:00 AM	The Silence A bet ends with an O’Henry twist.
6	11:30 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.
7	12:00 PM	I Am the Night, Color Me Black A man faces execution for slaying a hate monger. Meanwhile, a strange darkness engulfs the town.
8	12:30 PM	The Rip Van Winkle Caper Criminals pull off a heist and seek to escape by going into suspended animation. Script: Rod Serling
9	1:00 PM	Queen of the Nile Has an actress found the secret of eternal youth?
10	1:30 PM	Caesar and Me A ventriloquist's dummy proves to be a bad influence.
11	2:00 PM	Probe 7: Over and Out An astronaut is stranded on another planet as nuclear war appears imminent back home. VIEWER’S CHOICE #40
12	2:30 PM	Mr. Dingle, the Strong Aliens give a scrawny, sad sack salesman incredible strength. VIEWER’S CHOICE #39
13	3:00 PM	A Kind of Stopwatch A man gets a stopwatch that can stop time. VIEWER’S CHOICE #38
14	3:30 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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #37
15	4:00 PM	A Hundred Yards Over the Rim A nineteenth century pioneer finds the future while trying to save his son and guide his wagon train to safety. Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #36
16	4:30 PM	The After Hours Mannequins!! Starring Anne Francis VIEWER’S CHOICE #35
17	5:00 PM	Little Girl Lost When a little girl enters a doorway to another dimension, her parents and a neighbor attempt to rescue her. I never thought much of this episode. The short story it was based on is better. VIEWER’S CHOICE #34
18	5:30 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #33
19	6:00 PM	Long Distance Call One of the videotape episodes. A boy talks to his dead grandmother on his toy telephone. VIEWER’S CHOICE #32
20	6:30 PM	A Most Unusual Camera Thieves find a camera that takes pictures of the future. VIEWER’S CHOICE #31
21	7:00 PM	Stopover in a Quiet Town A couple find themselves in a deserted town where they hear a child’s laughter. VIEWER’S CHOICE #30
22	7:30 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 society’s increasing over emphasis on appearance resulting in eating disorders, use of Botox, and plastic surgery - its warning against anti-intellectualism often gets overlooked. VIEWER’S CHOICE #29
23	8:00 PM	A Penny for Your Thoughts A coin lands on edge and a man gains the power to read minds. Script: George Clayton Johnson VIEWER’S CHOICE #28
24	8:30 PM	I Sing the Body Electric Ray Bradbury’s story of three children and their android nanny (“Grandmother”). VIEWER’S CHOICE #27
25	9:00 PM	Night Call An old woman receives a serious of frightening phone calls. VIEWER’S CHOICE #26
26	9:30 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #25
27	10:00 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? VIEWER’S CHOICE #24
28	10:30 PM	Night of the Meek Art Carney as a down and out department store Santa Claus who finds a miraculous bag. VIEWER’S CHOICE #23
29	11:00 PM	Kick the Can Can the residents of an old age home find a little bit of magic and feel young again. VIEWER’S CHOICE #22
30	11:30 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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #21
31	12:00 AM New Year’s!!!	The Midnight Sun It’s the hottest day in history as the world drifts towards the sun. You’ll see this episode again when the viewer’s choice poll’s top twenty runs later in the marathon. Read on to see where this one ranks.
32	12:30 AM	People Are Alike All Over After a crash landing on Mars, an astronaut discovers that people really are alike everywhere.
33	1:00 AM	Walking Distance One of TZ’s most highly regarded episodes. A stressed out business executive tries to return to his childhood hometown. Script: Rod Serling
34	1:30 AM	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
35	2:00 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
36	2:30 AM	Uncle Simon A cruel Uncle and Robbie the Robot torment a gold digging niece.
37	3:00 AM	A World of His Own A writer brings women from his stories to life. Script: Richard Matheson
38	3:30 AM	Hocus Pocus and Frisby A homespun variation of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” Adapted from Frederic Louis Fox’s story. Script: Rod Serling
39	4:00 AM	The Lonely A convict imprisoned alone on an asteroid gets an android in the form of a woman for companionship.
40	4:30 AM	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.
41	5:00 AM	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.
42	5:30 AM	The Arrival A plane arrives with no crew, no passengers. Script: Rod Serling
43	6:00 AM	The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine The delusional are due on Sunset Boulevard.
44	6:30 AM	The Brain Center at Whipple’s Automation and poetic justice.
45	7:00 AM	Judgement Night During World War II, a passenger on a ship has premonitions about a U-Boat attack.
46	7:30 AM	The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank In early twentieth century Appalachia, a man returns from the dead, but friends and family react with superstitious fear. Featuring Comfort, one of the hottest Twilight Zone babes ever!
47	8:00 AM	The Four of Us Are Dying An unsavory character with the ability to look like other people.
48	8:30 AM	The Jeopardy Room A dissident seeks escape from a hotel room booby-trapped by Eastern Bloc agents. Starring Martin Landau
49	9:00 AM	Black Leather Jackets I sometimes wonder if this story of alien invasion influenced The Third Wave.
50	9:30 AM	A Piano in the House A sadistic critic discovers a player piano with a knack for bringing out people’s true character.
51	10:00 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?
52	10:30 AM	Twenty-Two A beautiful woman in a hospital keeps having nightmares about Room Twenty-two and a creepy nurse. “Room for one more.”
53	11:00 AM	King Nine Will Not Return A plane and it’s crew go missing over the Sahara during World War II.
54	11:30 AM	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.
55	12:00 PM	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
56	12:30 PM	Death’s Head Revisited A Nazi war criminal returns to the scene of his crimes. Script: Rod Serling
57	1:00 PM	One for the Angels A street peddler makes a pitch to The Grim Reaper. Script: Rod Serling
58	1:30 PM	The Old Man in the Cave A town has survived a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath thanks to a mysterious old man.
59	2:00 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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #20
60	2:30 PM	Dead Man’s Shoes A homeless man puts on a pair shoes haunted by a gangster. Script: Charles Beaumont and OCee Ritch VIEWER’S CHOICE #19
61	3:00 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #18
62	3:30 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #17
63	4:00 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #16
64	4:30 PM	The Invaders An old woman is tormented by tiny aliens. Script: Richard Matheson VIEWER’S CHOICE #15
65	5:00 PM	The Bewitchin’ Pool The last episode of the original series. Two Southern children seek escape from their feuding parents by traveling to another dimension. Script: Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of The Waltons. VIEWER’S CHOICE #14
66	5:30 PM	The Midnight Sun It’s the hottest day in history as the world drifts towards the sun. This is the second showing of “The Midnight Sun” in this marathon. VIEWER’S CHOICE #13
67	6:00 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 masks. VIEWER’S CHOICE #12
68	6:30 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) VIEWER’S CHOICE #11
69	7:00 PM	The Odyssey of Flight 33 An airliner travels back and forth through time. Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #10
70	7:30 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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #9
71	8:00 PM	The Obsolete Man Burgess Meredith is a librarian facing execution in a totalitarian society where books are banned. Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #8
72	8:30 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #7
73	9:00 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #6
74	9:30 PM	A Stop at 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #5
75	10:00 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 VIEWER’S CHOICE #4
76	10:30 PM	To Serve Man Aliens promising Utopia leave behind a book which reveals their true motives. Based on a Damon Knight story and originally broadcast over 20 years before the first version of V. Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #3
77	11:00 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? VIEWER’S CHOICE #2
78	11:30 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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #1
79	12:00 AM January 2	The Shelter One man has the foresight to build a bomb shelter. His neighbors chuckle until a nuclear strike appears imminent. Script: Rod Serling
80	12:30 AM	Mr. Bevis A down on his luck eccentric wishes his life was different.
81	1:00 AM	Mr. Denton on Doomsday In the Old West, can a town drunk find salvation in a gun and a magic elixir?
82	1:30 AM	The Fever An uptight, puritanical guy vacations in Las Vegas. Script: Rod Serling
83	2:00 AM	Nightmare as a Child After a teacher encounters a blond girl singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” repressed memories of a horrible event in her own childhood begin coming back to her. The main character is named Helen Foley after one of Rod Serling’s favorite teachers.
84	2:30 AM	What’s in the Box? A TV that tells the future and an unhappy marriage aren’t a good mix.
85	3:00 AM	The Prime Mover Buddy Ebsen (Jed Clampett) has mind powers.
86	3:30 AM	Mr. Garrity and the Graves An Old West snake oil salesman offers to raise loved ones from the dead.
87	4:00 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.
88	4:30 AM	Long Live Walter Jameson A history teacher who recounts historical events of long ago as if he had lived through them.
89	5:00 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
90	5:30 AM	The Man in the Bottle A genii grants wishes that result in mixed blessings.
		The End