July 4, 2012 Twilight Zone Episode Guide and Comments

I worried that something like this would happen. Of course, two things temper my complaints. For one thing, at least Syfy is having a July 4 Twilight Zone marathon which is better than their infamous cancellation of the July 4, 2010 marathon. I’ll get to the other thing after my complaint.  For those just interested in the episode list, scroll on down.

Before the New Year’s 2011-2012 Marathon, Syfy ran a poll on their website. Voters chose their favorite five or ten Twilight Zone episodes. The top forty vote getters ran in a Viewer’s Choice countdown. I’ve discussed my reservations about such polls elsewhere and the methodology of this particular one. I also admitted that I had fun seeing the results. I was  surprised certain episodes didn’t make the top forty. I was also puzzled that some made it, and pleasantly surprised that certain personal favorites cracked the list. For instance, I love “Dead Man’s Shoes,” but I didn’t think other Zone fans shared my enthusiasm. Agreeing with some choices and disagreeing with others, I really enjoyed the Viewer’s Choice experience. However, seeing the July 4, 2012 marathon’s lineup, some of my fears about future marathons appear to be materializing.

It’s a short marathon, only twenty-one hours. (Still that’s much longer than the 2010 experience, eh?) The listings both online and on my DirectTV channel guide show 42 episodes with one discrepancy. (I’m guessing the online listings are the correct ones because the DirectTV listing has an “hour” episode in a half-hour slot.) Looking over that lineup reveals a potential problem, especially if Syfy keeps repeating this practice. Of the forty-two episodes, forty of them come from the Viewer’s Choice top forty. On one hand this is good and makes sense. Over ninety-five percent of the marathon consists of consensus favorites. (Or at least they’re the late 2011 consensus favorites of Twilight Zone fans who hung around the Syfy Channel and its website enough to have known about the poll or who managed to hear about it elsewhere.) Hey, Syfy is only giving us what we want, right? On the other hand, let’s put it this way. My favorite color is blue. That doesn’t mean I want to walk across blue floors to a blue door across a blue lawn to a blue car that I will drive down a blue road lined with blue trees and blue houses. Get the picture?  I like blue, but it’s not the only color I ever want to see. Yeah, ninety-five percent of the episodes are fan favorites. But it also means we saw ninety-five percent of them during the last semi-annual marathon. (Actually, 100% of the episodes ran last time as both of the non-top forty episodes also appeared then.) During the New Year’s Marathon, Syfy ran eighty-nine episodes. (“Midnight Sun” ran twice.) So there are sixty-seven episodes we didn’t see last time. Syfy could vary things this time out by mixing a few of those in. Heck, they could fill all forty-two slots with episodes that didn’t appear last time. (I’m not saying they should do that. I’m  just pointing out that Syfy has a lot of unused material with which to vary the palette. Just because something is a favorite, it doesn’t mean it’s all I like nor that it’s what I want all the time. 

Variety is the spice of life. There are 116 episodes that didn’t make that top forty, and some of them are terrific such as “Walking Distance,” “The Lonely,” “Mirror Image,” “Printer’s Devil,” and “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville.” (Speaking of the last two, it’s still hard to believe that not a single one of the “hour long” episodes made it to the top forty.) Sure, some non-Viewer’s Choice episodes are mediocre, and I wouldn’t want them in marathon after marathon either. Still, even they should show up once in a while. Despite what I think of “The Fear,” there might be some fans who like it, and others who find it neat to see an episode they haven’t seen (or don’t remember seeing) before. One hundred and fifty-six episodes is limitation enough. Don’t reduce our marathon cannon down close to the same forty episodes running marathon after marathon. If Syfy limits the selection too much, they’ll increase the chances that people might actually get tired of the marathons some of us have watched for decades. (When I say marathons, I’m not talking about Syfy’s regular mini-marathons which run weekday mornings and afternoons and which sometimes feature The Twilight Zone. I’m talking about the semi-annual holiday marathons that people plan to watch months in advance. That people expect to watch twice a year. The marathons that are a tradition for us.)

Fine, Syfy. Repeat the entire top forty this time. That’s okay once. Next time, run twenty of them and mix in twenty that you didn’t use in last New Year’s marathon. Mix things up. Just don’t go to the opposite extreme. And that brings me to the other thing tempering my complaint. I’d hate to see Syfy go the Turner Classic Movies route which currently has mediocre old movies dominating the program list and actual classics few and far between. When Ted Turner got the rights to It’s A Wonderful Life,  he put a stop to the multiple marathons of the movie which ran on multiple networks simultaneously every Christmas. In fact, Turner didn’t even allow it to run in a marathon on any of his channels, giving the argument that to maintain the movie’s special status, it was necessary to stop overexposing it. Now TCM seems to apply its namesake’s theory to all classic movies, making them rare and supposedly more special. I’d hate to see Syfy apply that to Twilight Zone marathons, giving us a steady diet of “The Fear,” and “The Fugitive” and less memorable episodes while rarely ever running “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” or “It’s a Good Life.” No. Use moderation. We live in a society where people think that just because you reject the extreme political right, it means you must embrace the extreme political left or vice versa. It’s just as silly as someone thinking they should make everything blue for you. 

Once again there are no “hour long” episodes. “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville” is listed for July 5 at 1:30 AM, but “It’s a Good Life” is listed at 2:00 AM, leading me to believe online listings of “Third From the Sun” are correct. If my guess and the online listings are correct, that means that Syfy’s holiday marathons will continue to ignore an entire season of Twilight Zone’s five year run.

Also, once again,  “The Midnight Sun” appears to be permanently consigned to running at midnight. (Last time out, it ran twice, once so it could appear in its spot in the top forty list and the second time so it could appear at midnight.) Other than its countdown appearance last time, it has consistently run only at midnight for a few years worth of holiday marathons. Kind of limits that chances of younger viewers discovering this classic episode.  

	Time	Episode
1	8:00 AM July 4	Probe 7: Over and Out An astronaut is stranded on another planet as nuclear war appears imminent back home. VIEWER’S CHOICE #40
2	830 AM	Caesar and Me A ventriloquist's dummy proves to be a bad influence.
3	9:00 AM	The Old Man in the Cave A town has survived a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath thanks to a mysterious old man.
4	930 AM	Mr. Dingle, the Strong Aliens give a scrawny, sad sack salesman incredible strength.  VIEWER’S CHOICE #39
5	10:00 AM	A Kind of Stopwatch A man gets a stopwatch that can stop time.  VIEWER’S CHOICE #38
6	10:30 AM	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
7	11:00 AM	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
8	11:30 AM	Game 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
9	12:00 PM	Long Distance Call One of the videotape episodes. A boy talks to his dead grandmother on his toy telephone. VIEWER’S CHOICE #32
10	12:30 PM	A Most Unusual Camera Thieves find a camera that takes pictures of the future. VIEWER’S CHOICE #31
11	1:00 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
12	1:30 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
13	2:00 PM	I Sing the Body Electric Ray Bradbury’s story of three children and their android nanny (“Grandmother”). VIEWER’S CHOICE #27
14	2:30 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
15	3:00 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
16	3:30 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
17	4:00 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
18	4:30 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
19	5:00 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
20	5:30 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
21	6:00 PM	The Invaders An old woman is tormented by tiny aliens. Script: Richard Matheson VIEWER’S CHOICE #15
22	6:30 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
23	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. VIEWER’S CHOICE #9
24	7:30 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
25	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? VIEWER’S CHOICE #2
26	8:30 PM	The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street A parable of Cold War witch hunting. A mysterious object flies overhead, and a neighborhood 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
27	9:00 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
28	9:30 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
29	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 originally broadcast over 20 years before the first version of V. Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #3
30	10:30 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
31	11:00 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
32	11:30 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
33	12:00 AM July 5	The Midnight Sun It’s the hottest day in history as the world drifts towards the sun. VIEWER’S CHOICE #13
34	12:30 AM	The Odyssey of Flight 33 An airliner travels back and forth through time.  Script: Rod Serling VIEWER’S CHOICE #10
35	1:00 AM	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
36	1:30 AM	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
37	2:00 AM	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
38	2:30 AM	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
39	3:00 AM	Night Call An old woman receives a serious of frightening phone calls. VIEWER’S CHOICE #26
40	3:30 AM	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
41	4:00 AM	The After Hours Mannequins!! Starring Anne Francis VIEWER’S CHOICE #35
42	4:30 AM	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