I have never seen a bad episode of Twilight Zone,. They are all good. But nor have I seen one with a gumball machine that was part of the plot.
Some are more highly rated than others, but I like them all.
It would be easy to start this off with "Time Enough at Last", but I'll go with "The Grave".
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Ah! Like asking me to choose which one of my 156 kids is my favorite. Everyone loves "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," "Time Enough at Last," "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," the cornfield one with Billy Mumy, the nursing home one, etc., and and they're all great, but everyone mentions those. Let's go with...
Season 3, "Five Characters In Search of an Exit" - This might have been the first TZ episode that really made an imprint on me, watching reruns on WWOR-NY channel 9 as a kid in the '70s. A ballerina, an army guy, a clown, and they're all in a big... cylinder? And they can't get out for some reason, but also have no idea how they got in there. What in the hell is this, and what time is Woody Woodpecker on? But I stuck it through to the ending, which I probably would've seen coming as an adult, but wow. Blew my tiny mind and I've been a big fan ever since.
Season 3, "The Midnight Sun" - What a perfect episode. Earth is slowly burning up, but instead of presenting a global catastrophe, this is a thumbnail sketch of a few peoples' lives. Painting to take your mind off it, lemonade is like gold, the police recommend everyone should defend themselves, 110F inside with the A/C on, and then the current goes off, and there's someone at the door. No redemption, no satisfaction, just brutal. But also kind in a way.
Season 2, "The Nick of Time" - Maybe a middleweight episode, but I always found it quietly strange. Featuring a young Shatner and lots of cool old diner props, is that little novelty fortune teller at your booth just superstitious nonsense, or does it actually know something? I guess it's your choice.
There was no episode of the show with a gumball machine as a major element.
A gumball machine that dispenses a different kind of pinball was a game idea Pat Lawlor had wanted to do for years. He was able to bring it to life in TZ seeing it as a very “Twilight Zone pinball thing.”
He also had wanted to put a physical clock on Funhouse, but a satisfactory design could not be realized in time, so the Funhouse clock became playfield inserts ... and the physical clock finally came to be on TZ.
Episode-wise, they are all excellent, but I’ve always been especially fond of:
To Serve Man - Richard “Jaws” Kiel as a Kanamit, aliens who come to Earth with solutions to all man’s problems. One of my first unforgettable lessons in being skeptical of things that seem too good to be true.
The Howling Man - A man seeking help is reluctantly allowed to enter a monastery (normally closed to the outside world) by a rather wild/sleep-deprived looking monk with a foreboding presence. Inside, he discovers a prisoner who incessantly howls from his captivity in a locked cell. The prisoner pleads with the man to unlock the cell and free him from the torture he’s enduring. But the “lock” doesn’t look like it’s strong enough to stop a toddler. There’s a transformation in the episode that is a rather impressive special effect for its time.
I can't list just one... the '59 series is one of my favorite shows. Some favorite episodes for me are:
- Perchance to Dream
- Time Enough at Last
- Third From the Sun
- The Hitch-Hiker
- The Monsters are Due on Maple Street
- A Stop at Willoughby
- The Man in a Bottle
- Eye of the Beholder
- Nick of Time
- The Invaders
- The Obsolete Man
- Two
- A Game of Pool
- The Grave
- The Midnight Sun
- The Hunt
- To Serve Man
- Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
- The Living Doll
- The Old Man in the Cave
- The Encounter
So many good episodes I didn't even list.... great show!
Quoted from bayoubilly70:To Serve Man
+1
Nothing In the Dark with Robert Redford as Mr. Death. Probably one of the most ‘hopeful’ episodes, yet also scary and suspenseful.
I love love Nick of Time. I built a Mystic Seer for my bar that actually dispenses Swami cards from the 50s.
All the ones about planes
All the ones where it turns out the person is dead and don’t realize it till the end
All the ones where you end up in a kids’ toy somehow
All the “telltale heart” type ones where a guilty person can’t outrun their fate
All the living machine ones
All the nuclear war ones
Tons of good episodes. There are some stinkers, I always hate the cheap one set episodes. Always fun to try to guess the ironic endings.
The Chaser -- has some good lines in the second half. "did I disturb you by asking you if I was disturbing you"?
A Nice Place to Visit and Escape Clause
The Fever and The Prime Mover are good if you like gaming themes.
So many great Twilight Zone episodes, a show far ahead of it's time - so well written and with great messages, many of them cold war related.
Here's my top 3 (right now, could change at any moment):
It's a Good Life - with the boy who can kill you with his thoughts. Keep him happy!
To Serve Man - It's a cookbook!
Time Enough at Last - Always carry a spare set of glasses
Might have to take a break from pinball and watch some Twilight Zone, it's been awhile
Quoted from Slugmeister:"The Hunt"
[quoted image]
Isn’t that one of the you are dead but don’t realize it episodes?
Odin is right the Grave is an excellent episode. Lee van Cleef and roscoe p Coltrane steal the show.
One of the joys of the show is almost every episode some not yet famous person or two shows up.
Quoted from Concretehardt:Talking Tina
That one creeps me out.
Although it might be Kojak more than the doll.
Quoted from o-din:[quoted image][quoted image]
What episode is this? Disregard saw .gif name...
I like that nobody has even mentioned any episodes from the Twilight Zone series in 2002 (down the memory hole that went)
Also they have two more seasons starting in 2019 and guess what the title of episode 2 is? "Nightmare at 30,000 feet". How original 
I'll take the original series any day.
Quoted from tslayer71:What episode is this? Disregard saw .gif name...
The Last Flight. One of the several time travel episodes. And a very good one.
I concur. "The Grave" is one of the best. There's a lot of them I don't like however. "Five Characters In Search of an Exit" is a bore. "The Living Doll" is one I usually switch off as well. Too many episodes with dolls and mannequins. What's the one with Barney Phillips with a third eye? That's a good one. "The Hitchhiker" and "A Stop at Willoughby" are also very good ones. What's the one with Jack Warden and the artificial woman (on the prison asteroid)? I've always liked that one.
Just an aside; there are several Twilight Zone episodes with a jukebox, but never has a pinball machine appeared.
I like the alien ones, like "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up"
First viewing of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is so atmospheric, creepy, and mysterious.
But have to mention, I like the series "One Step Beyond" even better as the stories are based on real events. Unfortunately this one is rarely on TV anymore. Caught some wood rails in the background on an episode recently...
Quoted from Mudflaps:The 80s version had some great episodes, as well.
I never watched it because I believe it might have been in the same time slot as Sledge Hammer!.
Saw a few episodes recently, and most were forgettable, but the one where they blew up the diner was pretty cool.
Quoted from jrpinball:Just an aside; there are several Twilight Zone episodes with a jukebox, but never has a pinball machine appeared.
There was one with Captain Kirk and a Swami.
4a4r2r (resized).jpgwhen I was a summer camp counselor, I would tell "A Stop at Willoughby", "Time enough at last" and "What you need" at campfires. I know that thirty years later, Willoughby is still being told pretty much every year. When I visit, they will be sure to have a campfire so I can tell a couple of stories, usually I do one of my original stories and one of the TZ classics that has not be told for a year or two.
Quoted from o-din:I never watched it because I believe it might have been in the same time slot as Sledge Hammer!.
Saw a few episodes recently, and most were forgettable, but the one where they blew up the diner was pretty cool.
I think that was Nighcrawlers, fairly controversial stuff at the time because it dealt with aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Quoted from o-din:For me, any TV show or movie with Albert Salmi in it is a win.[quoted image][quoted image]
I take that includes him as a space pirate . . .
Quoted from rosh:I take that includes him as a space pirate . . .
Yes. If Albert never got a life time achievement award, he deserves one post mortem.
Yeah that 5 characters one bored the shit out of me. One of those one set cheapies I don’t really like.
Ooh you know which one is cool? The one with Buster Keaton. It’s a really awesome tribute to him And the silent movie era and it’s funny. Also has the fat guy from trouble with tribbles.
Quoted from HighVoltage:I like the alien ones, like "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up"
First viewing of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is so atmospheric, creepy, and mysterious.
But have to mention, I like the series "One Step Beyond" even better as the stories are based on real events. Unfortunately this one is rarely on TV anymore. Caught some wood rails in the background on an episode recently...
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-in-movies-or-tv-shows-name-a-game-you-have-seen-in-the-background/page/34#post-5278790
Yes. One Step Beyond is much spookier than TZ, especially since they're often shown from a worn print. My favorite episodes are "The Reunion", "The Stonecutter", "The Villa", and "To Know The End".
That Gottlieb "Skill Pool" was in at least two episodes.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Ooh you know which one is cool? The one with Buster Keaton. It’s a really awesome tribute to him And the silent movie era and it’s funny.
Yes, that is one of the time travel episodes.
Trying to remember the episode on last night that inspired this thread, but it was indeed one of those nights. TZ comes on MeTV every week night or morning at 12:30.
Quoted from o-din:For me, any TV show or movie with Albert Salmi in it is a win.[quoted image][quoted image]
Saw an Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode recently with him in it.
Just off the top of my head...
Where is everybody
Will the real Martian please stand up
To serve man
Monsters due on maple street
The shelter
Too many great episodes..
Man I love twilight zone! Great thread Odin!
Quoted from jrpinball:Saw an Alfred Hitchcock Hour episode recently with him in it.
It was either a Gunsmoke or a Wagon Train, or some other western I saw recently where his performance was really over the top. When my brain clears, it will probably come to me.
Quoted from o-din:It was either a Gunsmoke or a Wagon Train, or some other western I saw recently where his performance was really over the top. When my brain clears, it will probably come to me.
He's one of those guys who's appeared on every major TV show from the '50s-'70s.
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