Scroll down for the episode guide. If you have the patience to suffer a few quick comments, read the following paragraphs.
Starting as it does a day after the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1- 3, 1863) it’s a shame that this marathon doesn’t include “Still Valley,” a Gettysburg related episode. “Still Valley” was adapted from Manly Wade Wellman’s “The Valley Was Still” published in Weird Tales in the late 1930s. Actually, there were a number of Civil War related Twilight Zone episodes including “Back There” in which a time traveler tries to save Lincoln, “The Passersby” which has a poignant scene where Lincoln’s spirit declares that he’s the last casualty of the Civil War, and “Long Live Walter Jameson” featuring a man who lived for centuries and who served on General Sherman’s staff. A quick scan of the listings shows none of these episodes in this marathon.
In recent months, some notable Twilight Zone alumni have died. On June 23, we lost Richard Matheson, the last of the Big Three Twilight Zone writers. The other two members of this group were Charles Beaumont and Rod Serling himself, both of whom died decades ago. Matheson wrote “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” one of the most famous episodes as well as “Viewer’s Choice #1.” Maxine Stuart who played the bandaged patient in “Eye of the Beholder” before she’s unbandaged, also died recently. (After doctors removed the bandages, Stuart was replaced by Donna Douglas although the patient’s voice continued to be Stuart’s.) Also, Christine White who portrayed Bob Wilson’s (William Shatner’s) wife in “Nightmare at 20,000 feet died a few months ago. The number of Twilight Zone alumni who have died seems to have picked up in pace recently. They include Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters (both featured in “A Game of Pool”), Patricia Breslin Modell (who played Shatner’s wife in “Nick of Time”), and Cliff Robertson (from “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” and “The Dummy”), Anne Francis (“The After-Hours”), and Kevin McCarthy (“Long Live Walter Jameson” and the Twilight Zone movie). I guess this quickening is to be expected considering the show first debuted over fifty years ago. Actors who were in their twenties or thirties are in their seventies or eighties today. Richard Matheson, a terrific writer, was in his early thirties when the show started and eighty-seven when he died a few weeks ago. This isn’t meant to be a complete list of those who have passed. Those I mention are a few who quickly leap to mind.
Now for the episode guide. The episode times and order comes from the listing on http://www.channelguidemagblog.com . The descriptions are my own.
1
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July 4, 2013
8:00 AM
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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
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2
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8:30 AM
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The Shelter
One man has the foresight to build a bomb shelter. His neighbors chuckle until a nuclear strike appears imminent.
Script: Rod Serling
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3
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9:00 AM
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The Old Man in the Cave
A town has survived a nuclear holocaust and its aftermath thanks to a mysterious old man.
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4
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9:30 AM
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People Are Alike All Over
After a crash landing on Mars, an astronaut discovers that people really are alike everywhere.
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5
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10:00 AM
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Probe 7: Over and Out
An astronaut is stranded on another planet as nuclear war appears imminent back home.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #40
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6
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10:30 AM
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A Kind of Stopwatch
A man gets a stopwatch that can stop time.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #38
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7
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11:00 AM
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Hundred 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
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8
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11:30 AM
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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
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9
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12:00 PM
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A Most Unusual Camera
Thieves find a camera that takes pictures of the future.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #31
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10
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12:30 PM
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Stopover in a Quiet Town
A couple find themselves in a deserted town where they hear a child’s laughter.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #30
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11
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1:00 PM
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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 episode 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
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12
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1:30 PM
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I Sing the Body Electric
Ray Bradbury’s story of three children and their android nanny (“Grandmother”).
VIEWER’S CHOICE #27
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13
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2:00 PM
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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
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14
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2:30 PM
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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 machine’s cryptic yet unnervingly accurate predictions run their lives?
VIEWER’S CHOICE #24
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15
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3:00 PM
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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
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16
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3:30 PM
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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.
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17
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4:00 PM
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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
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18
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4:30 PM
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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
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19
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5:00 PM
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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
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20
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5:30 PM
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The Invaders
An old woman is tormented by tiny aliens.
Script: Richard Matheson
VIEWER’S CHOICE #15
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21
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6:00 PM
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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
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22
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6:30 PM
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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
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23
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7:00 PM
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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
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24
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7:30 PM
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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
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25
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8:00 PM
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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
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26
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8:30 PM
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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
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27
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9:00 PM
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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
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28
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9:30 PM
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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
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29
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10:00 PM
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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
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30
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10:30 PM
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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
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31
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11:00 PM
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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
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32
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11:30 PM
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The Odyssey of Flight 33
An airliner travels back and forth through time.
Script: Rod Serling
VIEWER’S CHOICE #10
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33
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July 5, 2013
12:00 AM
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The Midnight Sun
It’s the hottest day in history as the world drifts towards the sun.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #13
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34
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12:30 AM
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The Bewitchin’ Pool
The last episode of the original series. Two Southern children seek escape from their feuding parents by traveling to another dimension where a Southern Mother Goose type takes runaway children under her wing.
Script: Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of The Waltons.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #14
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35
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1:00 AM
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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
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36
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1:30 AM
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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
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37
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2:00 AM
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Night of the Meek
Art Carney portrays a down and out department store Santa Claus who finds a miraculous bag.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #23
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38
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2:30 AM
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Night Call
An old woman receives a series of frightening phone calls.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #26
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39
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3:00 AM
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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
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40
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3:30 AM
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Long Distance Call
One of the videotape episodes. A boy talks to his dead grandmother on his toy telephone.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #32
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41
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4:00 AM
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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.
Script: Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) based on his own short story.
VIEWER’S CHOICE #34
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42
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4:30 AM
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The After Hours
Mannequins!! Starring Anne Francis
VIEWER’S CHOICE #35
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43
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5:00 AM
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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
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44
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5:30 AM
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Caesar and Me
A ventriloquist's dummy proves to be a bad influence.
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