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"The Twilight Zone" (1959) More at IMDbPro »

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 34 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Three episodes dealing with dreams, with two excellent forays into Zone-ishness and one clunker. Also on the disc are special hidden zones that contain the isolated music score for each program and a few of the show's original ads.

"A Stop at Willoughby"
"A Stop at Willoughby" is Rod Serling in top form, using one of his favorite themes of escaping to a simpler time. James Daly is a businessman frazzled to the breaking point by an insensitive, demanding wife and a blubbery plutocrat of a boss who importunes him to "Push! Push! Push!" On the train ride home, he begins to dream of an idyllic town called Willoughby, not on the map or train schedule, but perhaps more than just the stuff of imaginings. Ah, Willoughby! Still relevant after all these years.

"Twenty-Two"
"Twenty-Two" is one of the show's six episodes shot on videotape, but still achieves a rare degree of eeriness due to its strong concept and acting. Barbara Nichols stars as a stripper who's checked into a hospital with nervous exhaustion, where she begins having precognitive dreams about deadly doings in the hospital's basement, an exotic nurse leading her there with the foreboding phrase, "Room for one more, honey."

"I Dream of Genie"
"I Dream of Genie" shows the strain of TZ's change from half-hour to full-hour format. A nebbish accountant (Howard Morris) acquires a magical lamp whose genie grants him one wish. The only highlight of this not-too-funny humoresque is the genie, played by veteran character actor Jack Albertson in a brief cameo, smoking a fat cigar and cracking wise. All else is drawn-out Walter Mitty-style fantasy sequences of said nebbish imagining the results of his prospective wish. Oh, and that signpost up ahead? Boredom. --Jim Gay

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 35 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "Static"
Dean Jagger turns in a finely tuned performance as an aging curmudgeon who eschews the picture tube for the old-time radio. But the radio in question tunes in only to the past, where Jagger might make amends for lost opportunities. The fact that Rod Serling repeatedly revisited this subject matter in episodes like this one and "A Stop at Willoughby" suggests a deep-seated penchant for romanticism--or that he was greatly overworked. One of only six episodes shot on videotape, the downgrade in visual quality lends a chamber-drama quality to the episode's return-to-simpler-times theme.

"Four O'Clock"
A lone bigot holed up in his little apartment with a vast card catalog of "subversives" has come up with the answer to all the "evil" people in the world: At four o'clock he will make them all two feet tall! Only--as so often happens on TZ--the biter gets bitten and comes up a little short himself. Theodore Bikel plays the paranoiac with relish.

"The Parallel"
Bearing a striking resemblance to the classic 1969 film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun this is one TZ episode that deals strictly with science fiction, in this case the possibility of parallel universes. Steve Forrest plays an astronaut returning from a space mission only to find himself in a world askew, where everything looks the same but small differences keep cropping up (JFK isn't president, for example). Space exploration and the depths of the unknown make familiar bedfellows in this hour-long piece from the fourth season that earns every minute of screen time. --Jim Gay

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 36 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "The Chaser"
Based on a story by John Collier, this comic tale of ill-gotten love features a spurned lover (George Grizzard) gaining the affections of his phlegmatic coquette (Patricia Barry) through the agency of a love potion--with not quite the delightful outcome he had expected. The bookish, wizened dealer in potions is played with crusty effectiveness by John McIntire.

"The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
A criminal mastermind (Oscar Beregi) and his ruthless accomplice (Simon Oakland) steal a fortune in gold bullion, then go into suspended animation so they can enjoy their take a hundred years hence. Only the desert in which they wake up makes water more precious than gold. Splendidly acted by the two leads, though the episode's ironies are too easily anticipated.

"The New Exhibit"
This tale of murder and madness stars Martin Balsam as Martin Lombard Senescu, curator of a wax museum's murderer's row and soon-to-be inheritor of his charges' indecent fame. When the museum closes, Senescu houses the waxy simulacra in his air-conditioned basement, and eventually his obsession with the likenesses of Jack the Ripper and Landru causes them to act out his unconscious yearnings. Although credited to Charles Beaumont, the script is actually by science fiction writer Jerry Sohl, one of several friends who ghosted for Beaumont when he suffered from near-senile dementia toward the end of his life. As a result, the episode lacks the slick elegance and grim humor that marked Beaumont's best work, but it is nevertheless funny.

When you stumble onto this disc's hidden features, you'll find isolated music tracks, original ads, and program bumpers for the three episodes. --Jim Gay

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 37 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby"
Cracker-barrel loudmouth and teller of tall tales, Mr. Frisby (Andy Devine) gets his comeuppance and a real-life tall tale to tell when he's abducted by aliens who mistake his bragging for the truth. Raspy-voiced Devine is perfect as the fabricating Frisby. Howard McNear (Floyd the barber from The Andy Griffith Show) is part of his long-suffering audience.

"Of Late I Think of Cliffordville"
An hour-long--and overlong--episode from the fourth season that mixes a deal-with-the-Devil story with a yearning to return to a simpler place and time, two of the series' favorite themes. The corrupt plutocrat Feathersmith (Albert Salmi) trades his fortune to Satan (Julie Newmar) to return to the place of his youth, Cliffordville in 1910, where his knowledge of the future should make him a bigger fat cat than he was before. But the biter-bit ending is a very predictable turnabout. Notable for Julie Newmar sporting a pair of cute horns that make her look like Catwoman from TV's Batman.

Mr. Garrity and the Graves"
No one could make the Old West weirder than Rod Serling. Mr. Garrity (John Dehner) saunters into Happiness, Arizona, one day and claims to be able to resurrect the dead in this grim comic gem. Only the townsfolk like their dead where they are. Happiness, Arizona: it's just asking for it.

This disc has a twilight zone of its own, holding hidden features such as the original ads and program bumpers, and isolated music tracks for the first two episodes. --Jim Gay

Twilight Zone (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: How's this for a Twilight Zone kind of irony? The movie version of Rod Serling's landmark sci-fi TV series turns out to be less memorable than the episodes upon which it was based. Despite the presence of four of-that-moment directors, the film--based on three TV episodes and one original idea--is remembered more for its prologue (starring Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) and for its offscreen tragedy (the death of star Vic Morrow and two children when a helicopter crashed while filming a key scene). Otherwise, the film's high-gloss production values only serve to mire the old, solid stories. The best segment of the film centers on John Lithgow as a deliriously overexcited airline passenger, whose very active fear of flying is embodied in the gremlin he (and only he) sees on the plane's wing, wreaking havoc with the film's engine. --Marshall Fine

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 14 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Volume 14 of The Twilight Zone on DVD is a wall-to-wall tribute to series creator Rod Serling. All four TV episodes represented here are original ideas scripted by Serling himself, with his strengths--and some of his weaknesses--on display. "One for the Angels" was the second episode broadcast in the series and demonstrates Serling's sentimental streak: an aging street peddler (former vaudevillian Ed Wynn) is confronted by Death (Murray Hamilton, bearing a curious resemblance to Serling), but strikes a clever deal to forestall his demise. Ah, but there's always a catch... "The Man in the Bottle" is a variation on the old genie-in-a-magic-lamp number, except that this time the elegant genie comes out of an ordinary wine bottle. Luther Adler plays a bitter antique store owner who learns his lesson in four short wishes. Not much of an episode, really, but the punch line to the third wish is one of those startling twists that stuck in the collective imagination of Zone fans everywhere. The eerie "Arrival" indulges Serling's fondness for aviation stories, as a DC-3 pulls into a hangar with not a soul aboard--not even the pilot. Like many of Serling's tales, it follows the theme of regret, which also hangs heavy in "In Praise of Pip," the opening episode of the series' fifth and final broadcast year, 1963. A two-bit bookie (Jack Klugman) reflects on his wasted life when he learns that his son is near death on a Vietnam battlefield. Although the episode is derivative of Serling's previous efforts on the same topic, this one does provide a glimpse of two actors who appeared frequently on the Zone, Klugman and kid actor Billy Mumy. Klugman's anguished aside about Vietnam ("There isn't even supposed to be a war going on there, and my kid is dying") may well be American popular culture's first, hesitant questioning of a war that would soon bloom into a national nightmare. --Robert Horton

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 15 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: At least one of the episodes collected on volume 15 of The Twilight Zone DVD offerings is an all-time classic--if by classic we mean the kind of show that still produces a shudder of recognition years after viewing. This is "The Midnight Sun," an apocalyptic tale in which a cosmic event has hurled the earth toward the sun, sending the thermometer to 120 degrees and the population into despair. Aside from the twist ending and the attractive sweating of Lois Nettleton, what's likely to be remembered from this episode, is the haunting image of an oil painting melting with the heat. Other episodes in this collection, all scripted by series creator Rod Serling, emphasize bravura acting. In "Escape Clause," gracefully directed by Hollywood pro Mitchell Leisen, the whimsical David Wayne plays a hypochondriac whose anxious life is changed by the arrival of Death (veteran heavy Thomas Gomez). Soon the indestructible hero is courting exotic ways of destroying himself, just to alleviate his boredom: "Let's give the electric chair a little whirl," drawls the blithely curious Wayne. The claustrophobic "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" takes on technical challenges typical of The Twilight Zone. It never leaves the confines of a tiny, shabby hotel room and leading man Joe Mantell plays much of the dialogue with a mirror image of himself. The point of the episode is somewhat monotonous, but Mantell's performance, as a loser facing his last chance at decency, is fully juiced. "A Kind of Stopwatch" shows what happens when a loudmouth pest (Richard Erdman, the annoying personification of the can-do man with ideas) comes into possession of a watch that can stop the whole world in mid-motion. Justice eventually is meted out, per the usual scales of The Twilight Zone. --Robert Horton

The Twilight Zone: The After Hours/ Time Enough at Last (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Rod Serling was definitely in the Zone when he penned these two Twilight Zone classics. Attention shoppers! Available for the first time on video, The After Hours stars Anne Francis as a department store shopper who is shocked to be informed that the floor on which she bought a defective item that she wishes to return does not exist. And why does that mannequin bear an eerie resemblance to her missing saleswoman? This video also contains another must-own first-season episode, Time Enough at Last, starring Burgess Meredith in a signature series role as a bespectacled, henpecked bookworm who survives a nuclear blast and finds himself alone at last with his precious books. The ending seems unduly cruel, but it's one that all Zone aficionados rave about when they compare notes (see Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks in Twilight Zone: The Movie). This is the first of three Twilight Zone collectibles: tape 2 contains Living Doll, one of the series' scariest episodes, and the thoughtful Serling-penned gem The Eye of the Beholder. Tape 3 features the alien-in-a-diner puzzler Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up and To Serve Man, which TV Guide rightfully ranked as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. --Donald Liebenson

The Twilight Zone: Eye of the Beholder/ Living Doll (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: Living Doll, one of The Twilight Zone's scariest episodes, written by Charles Beaumont, stars Telly Savalas as a mean-spirited man who makes a pint-sized enemy in his stepdaughter's new and very protective doll, Talky Tina (June Foray, the venerable Queen of Cartoons, who is best known as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel). He thinks after tossing her in the garbage can that he's seen the last of Tina. But then the telephone rings: "My name is Talky Tina ... and I'm going to kill you." This video also includes one of Rod Serling's best episodes, the thoughtful The Eye of the Beholder, in which unseen plastic surgeons labor intensively to make their desperate female patient look "normal." This is one of three must-own volumes of vintage Twilight Zone episodes released to commemorate this timeless series' 40th anniversary. Tape 1 features the video premiere of The After Hours (the one with the mannequins) and Time Enough at Last starring Burgess Meredith as the post-apocalyptic bookworm. Tape 3 features the alien-in-a-diner puzzler Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up, as well as the signature episode To Serve Man, which TV Guide rightfully ranked as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. --Donald Liebenson

The Twilight Zone: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up/ To Serve Man (vhs):

Amazon.com Essentials: Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up is a Rod Serling-penned favorite from The Twilight Zone's second season. Tracks from a frozen pond where a UFO is reported to have landed lead into a diner where stranded travelers wait out a snowstorm. There were six on the bus. Now there are seven, ranging from an oblivious honeymoon couple to an impatient businessman and a grizzled old coot. Which is the Martian? It is a testament to this series' greatness that knowing the fiendishly funny surprise ending does not mar enjoyment of repeat viewings, as witness To Serve Man, the second classic episode included on this video. TV Guide rightfully ranked this as one of TV's top 100 episodes of all time. That's Richard Kiel (Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me) as an ambassador of the Canamites, a race of nine-foot-tall super-evolved aliens who offer to transform Earth into a peaceful Eden. But what do they really have cooked up for us? The episode's title is a macabre clue. This is one of three must-own volumes of vintage Twilight Zone episodes released to commemorate this timeless series' 40th anniversary. Tape 1 features the video premiere of The After Hours (the one with the mannequins) and Time Enough at Last starring Burgess Meredith as the post-apocalyptic bookworm. Tape 2 boasts Rod Serling's The Eye of the Beholder and Living Doll, one of the series' all-time scariest episodes. --Donald Liebenson

The Twilight Zone Box Set (vhs):

Amazon.com video review: In 1959 Emmy Award-winning playwright Rod Serling transported viewers to "a fifth dimension ... as vast as space and as timeless as infinity ... and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge." It was an area he called The Twilight Zone.

One of television's greatest series (it's still the pop-culture reference point for the weird and bizarre), this series is well represented by this three-tape collection of six classic episodes, three of which are making their video debuts. "The After Hours," on tape 1, stars Anne Francis as a confused shopper who discovers she shares a close bond with the store's mannequins. "Living Doll," on tape 2, is one of the Zone's scariest episodes. Telly Savalas stars as a mean-spirited man who makes a pint-sized enemy in his stepdaughter's new and very protective doll, Talky Tina. "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up," on tape 3, poses the question, Who among the stranded travelers in a remote roadside diner is really an alien?

Also included in this boxed set are three quintessential Zone episodes, the thoughtful "Eye of the Beholder"; "Time Enough at Last," in which a cruel fate awaits post-apocalyptic bookworm Burgess Meredith; and "To Serve Man," in which visiting aliens have something special cooked up for us earthlings. It is a testament to this series' greatness that knowing the surprise endings enhances rather than dulls the enjoyment of repeat viewings. Each tape is also available individually. --Donald Liebenson

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 22 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Twilight Zone, Vol. 22 kicks off with "A World of Difference," a memorable episode written by frequent contributor Richard Matheson. The story gives Howard Duff a rare opportunity to prove his underrated talent, playing an average businessman who arrives at his office only to discover that he's actually an actor on a soundstage. "Back There" is decidedly less effective, featuring hammy overacting by Russell Johnson (who would soon be cast as the Professor in Gilligan's Island) as a man cast backward in time to the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. He can't alter history, so the ending is a foregone conclusion, but the segment is noteworthy for its scoring by composer Jerry Goldsmith, then in the early stages of his stellar career.

"One More Pallbearer" offers a variation on the classic episode "Time Enough at Last," combining Rod Serling's concern with nuclear warfare with a twisted tale of revenge. Joseph Wiseman (best known for playing James Bond nemesis Dr. No) plays a multimillionaire who devises a simulated nuclear attack and invites three people who wronged him (a teacher, an Army colonel, and a priest) to his bomb shelter to extort them into apologizing. The twist on this Serling-penned episode is pure TZ gold, but Wiseman is so good that his character is unintentionally sympathetic. "Ring-a-Ding Girl" is a fifth-season curio in which a Hollywood star receives an unusual ring that foresees her fateful future. Maggie McNamara is fine as a faux Audrey Hepburn, but the episode's twist is strictly routine for TZ fans. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 23 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: An above-average edition in the Twilight Zone DVD collection, Volume 23 begins with "Long Live Walter Jameson," starring Kevin McCarthy as a Methuselah-like history teacher whose lessons are based on personal experience--but his secret of longevity is discovered with fateful results. McCarthy's climactic aging scene marked a milestone in TV makeup effects, and it's still dramatically effective. The same can't be said for "Dead Man's Shoes," a typical episode in which a Bowery bum (Warren Stevens) steals the shoes off the body of a murdered gangster, and instantly assumes the dead man's identity, thus assuming his role in a deadly cycle of fate. It was a good idea in 1962, but the pulpy plot and characters were hokey even then.

"You Drive" is an enjoyable fifth-season episode starring stalwart character actor Edward Andrews as a hit-and-run driver who is relentlessly badgered by his driverless car, which honks its horn, chases him, and wreaks havoc with the man's guilty conscience. A precursor to Stephen King's Christine, this offbeat episode offered ample proof that the latter-day Twilight Zone still had a knack for capitalizing on simple ideas. Likewise "The Long Morrow" offers a tragic twist on the effects of long-term space travel. Removing himself from deep freeze, spacefaring astronaut Robert Lansing ages normally while his Earthbound lover (Mariette Hartley) awaits his return in suspended animation. Thanks to some subtle acting by '60s TV veterans Lansing and Hartley, the episode's payoff is still poignantly effective; ironically, CBS announced The Twilight Zone's cancellation shortly after this episode aired. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 26 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: The four episodes included on The Twilight Zone, Vol. 26 focus on characters who inevitably pay a price for their tragic flaws. In "The Big Tall Wish," an aging boxer (Ivan Dixon, later to costar in TV's Hogan's Heroes) can't comprehend the influence of a little boy's magical wish that brought him a surprise victory--a victory that's sacrificed to the fighter's own cynicism. (The twist is nothing new for TZ fans, but the episode's mostly black cast was a noteworthy breakthrough for 1960 television.) "Showdown with Rance McGrew" is an amusing send-up of pampered actors, in this case a milquetoast TV cowboy whose comeuppance arrives in the form of the real Jesse James--in a real Western town--whose attitude toward phony cowboys is anything but tolerant.

Fine performances by Barry Morse and Joan Hackett highlight "A Piano in the House," in which a sadistic critic uses a magical player piano to expose the hidden truths of several party guests, only to be himself revealed as more pathetic than any of his victims. "Night Call" is a classic episode combining terror and human weakness in the story of an elderly woman (Gladys Cooper) who receives phone calls from beyond the grave, realizing too late that the caller might have brought happiness to her final days. When viewed together, these four episodes demonstrate how The Twilight Zone often recycled themes and basic plots with admirable ingenuity, thus defining the series' overall mission as set forth by Rod Serling. Some episodes work better than others, but they all illuminate the complex faults, foibles, and grand ambitions that make Twilight Zone characters so timelessly appealing. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 27 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "He's Alive"
Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Blue Velvet) turns in a very powerful and charismatic performance as an American neo-Nazi, Peter Vollmer, bent on doing what he has to do in order to get his message of hatemongering across to the public. But there are some weaknesses in his past that need exorcising, it seems, when a shadowy Shickelgrüber begins to instruct the fledgling fascist in the ways of oratory, politics, and self-destruction. This is one of the one-hour episodes from the fourth season, but it never lags as some of the others do. Directed ably by Stuart Rosenberg, who went on to direct Cool Hand Luke, and featuring film director Paul Mazursky as one of the Nazis.

"From Agnes--with Love"
Comical episode starring Wally Cox as a computer programmer in charge of the world's most powerful electronic computer, Agnes. When the poor egghead's love life isn't going so hot, Agnes begins giving advice to the lovelorn. Only Agnes seems to have an ulterior motive. Cox is perfect as the nerdy scientist driven mad by a computer scorned. Directed by Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon).

"Spur of the Moment"
Beautifully told gothic horror tale written by Richard Matheson, who wrote a total of 14 Twilight Zone episodes. Whether one can change one's own past is the theme of this one. Out horseback riding, young Anne is chased by a black-clad figure (also on horseback), who lets out a bloodcurdling screech. The figure is Anne in her decrepit future, doomed to chase her younger self with a warning that will never be heard. --Jim Gay

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 20 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Volume 20 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection opens with "Elegy," a first-season episode in which three astronauts are forced to land on an Earthlike asteroid where all of the people seem frozen in time. The only exception is an elderly "caretaker" (Cecil Kellaway), who explains that the asteroid is actually a cemetery where the dead are posed in the posthumous fulfillment of their fondest wishes. This was the third episode written by the prolific TZ contributor Charles Beaumont, and it ends with the requisite twist.

"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is from the fourth season, when episodes were expanded to one-hour length. The cast includes such TV stalwarts as Simon Oakland and Bill Bixby, but the standout is Mike Kellin, who plays Chief Bell, a crewman on a present-day Navy destroyer who's haunted by visions of crewmates who drowned in a World War II submarine 20 years earlier. When the destroyer investigates a mysterious noise heard from inside the derelict sub, Bell suffers a nervous breakdown, and it remains unclear whether the submarine specters were real or figments of Bell's survivor-guilt-ridden imagination. Although it suffers from slow pacing, the episode is redeemed by Kellin's intense performance.

"A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain" is a fifth-season entry starring Patrick O'Neal as the aging husband of a ruthless gold digger (Ruta Lee). He's hopelessly in love with this unbearable harridan (a dreadful lapse of dramatic logic), so he begs his scientist brother to be the first human to test a dangerous youth serum. The potion works too well, however, and the shrewish wife gets an unexpected comeuppance that's as deserved as it is dramatically unsatisfying. It's far from a classic episode, but TZ collectors take note: this is one of the few episodes to be withheld from syndication, so it's a relative rarity. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 21 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Volume 21 of The Twilight Zone DVD collection is a real keeper, beginning with "Mirror Image," a classic first-season episode starring Vera Miles as a woman whose sense of reality is shattered when she encounters her exact double in a bus station. Her fear of being "replaced" reaches a fever pitch, despite the efforts of a fellow passenger (Martin Milner) to calm her frenzied nerves. As the woman is taken away for psychiatric examination, her terror turns out to be entirely justified--emphasizing paranoia as one of Rod Serling's favored themes. The second-season entry "Dust" is pale by comparison--a lethargic tale of magic in the Old West that redeems a man about to be hanged for drunkenly running over a little girl with his wagon. He's saved from the noose by a bit of "magic dust," but the true pardon has come, of course, from the Twilight Zone.

"Five Characters in Search of an Exit," scripted by Serling, is a third-season highlight in which the titular characters--clown, hobo, ballet dancer, bagpiper, and army major--are trapped in a giant cylinder, with no understanding of how they got there. The truth provides the kind of O. Henry twist that was Serling's specialty, and the performances by William Windom and Murray Matheson (as the belligerent major and carefree clown, respectively) offer a delightful study in dramatic contrast. Finally, "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" is a casualty from TZ's fifth season--a badly rewritten story (originally scripted by acclaimed series contributor George Clayton Johnson) starring veteran screen comedian Ed Wynn as an old man who's convinced he will die if his treasured grandfather clock ceases to tick. Robbed of its dramatic impact by a soft ending that compromises Clayton's original idea, the episode remains entertaining on the strength of Wynn's endearing performance. --Jeff Shannon

The Twilight Zone, Vol. 40 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: "Cavender Is Coming"
Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling fashioned this episode as a pilot for a possible series about a guardian angel (jowly veteran Jesse White) who must earn his wings by aiding a hapless human. It is abundantly clear why this premise did not take flight, for this was one of Serling's typically lumpish flings at comedy. The only source of interest is Carol Burnett, cast as a klutz who can't keep a job. This one's a virtual remake of an earlier Zone episode, "Mr. Bevis."

"Passage on the Lady Anne"
An hour-long episode from the fourth season, with Joyce Van Patten and Lee Philips as a couple trying to save their sour marriage via a transatlantic cruise. All the other passengers just happen to be extremely elderly; no points for guessing the Lady Anne might be on her way to an otherworldly port. A familiar but appealing set-up, with gobs of foggy atmosphere and a fun supporting cast (including mischievous Wilfrid Hyde-White). The businessman husband is yet another opportunity for TZ to criticize its era's obsession with material success and the Organization Man.

"The Brain Center at Whipple's"
Produced near the end of the series' run, this episode is out of gas. Richard Deacon, a comic actor with a pronounced resemblance to a large bald penguin (and a cherished mainstay of The Dick Van Dyke Show), plays a company executive who decides to replace his workers with computers. The payoff is entirely predictable, although sci-fi fans will be pleased by the "actor" who appears in the final shot. --Robert Horton

Vol. 2 (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: Anyone wishing to collect the best of The Twilight Zone would find this DVD a splendid place to begin. Four episodes from Rod Serling's epochal fantasy TV series are represented here; three of them are Zone masterpieces, and the other is an eerie time-travel goof. Two of the best are Serling scripts from the show's first season, 1959-60: "Time Enough at Last" and "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," both examples of Serling's taste for irony and social comment. In "Time Enough," Burgess Meredith plays a bookworm who survives a nuclear holocaust, an episode memorable not merely for its gotcha ending but for the way it demonstrates how good pulp fiction creates a portrait of its society--in this case, a caustic portrait. That view is also on display in "Monsters," in which neighbors on a white-picket-fence street turn against each other in a paranoid witch hunt--possibly Serling's comment on the Hollywood blacklist, possibly a more general parable about lynch-mob mentality. The other gem is "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," a delicious example of scriptwriter Richard Matheson's ability to take a simple idea and spin a classic. Airline passenger William Shatner becomes convinced that a gremlin is messing about on the wing of his jetliner---but nobody else sees the creature (whose cheesy makeup is the only mark against this episode). Years later, "Nightmare" was remade by director George Miller as part of Twilight Zone: The Movie. Finally, "The Odyssey of Flight 33" stays in flight, as a Boeing 707 goes off course... way, way off course. The special effects are extremely modest, but like most Twilight Zone installments, the ideas still tantalize. --Robert Horton

Treasures of The Twilight Zone (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: From the tinkling avante-garde drone of the opening theme, The Twilight Zone promises a journey into the unknown. The mix of science fiction, the macabre, and O. Henry twists compel viewers to this day, and decades after Rod Serling's acclaimed CBS-TV series left the air it remains one of the great cult classics of all time. Treasures of the Twilight Zone presents a collection of rarities that were frequently excluded from the show's syndication package. The pilot episode "Where Is Everybody?" stars Earl Holliman wandering through an empty ghost town seeking someone, anyone, to break his isolation. The volatile, edgy study in racism, "The Encounter," with Neville Brand and George Takei was pulled from syndication after its initial showing. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," the show's memorable swan song, was the only episode created outside of Serling's production company and his creative control, an award-winning short film from France by Robert Enrico. The real treasures of this Twilight Zone DVD, however, remain two of its compelling supplements. A thoughtful 1959 interview with Rod Serling (from the TV show The Mike Wallace Interview) cuts through the usual small talk to get to the business of writing for TV, from the creative process to commercial compromises and sponsor-driven censorship, and the original "pitch" film made for sponsors features Rod Serling using simple props in brilliantly inventive ways to explain his vision for the series. --Sean Axmaker

More Treasures of the Twilight Zone (dvd):

Amazon.com video review: The second collection of Twilight Zone "Treasures" features three quintessential examples of the show at its metaphorical, ironic best, allegories and morality plays disguised as thrillers and science fiction tales. "The Masks" (directed by Ida Lupino) stars Robert Keith as a dying patriarch with a death-bed Mardi Gras surprise for his petty family. John Carradine stars as a secretive monk with a mysterious prisoner locked in his hidden monastery in "The Howling Man." "Eye of the Beholder" is perhaps the most famous episode of the series, played almost completely in a twilight fog as the camera takes a behind-the-bandages view of a recovering plastic surgery patient until the startling revelation at the conclusion. Panasonic's package features the same supplements as the first Treasures collection, most notably a TV interview with Rod Serling conducted by Mike Wallace and an industrial film starring Serling to "pitch" potential advertisers for the in-production series, both from 1959. In addition a number of brief text presentations (taken from Mark Scott Zicree's definitive book The Twilight Zone Companion) offer historical background on the series and the individual episodes. The menu is designed around the floating eyeball from the series's credits sequence--just roll the gazing eyeball around to the item of your choice! --Sean Axmaker