My The Twilight Zone Watch Through
The Twilight Zone is one of my all time favorite shows, one I've enjoyed since I was a kid. Watching the New Years Eve / Day Marathon became a tradition that I looked forward to.
Christmas 2023 my mom got me the blu ray release of The Twilight Zone 1959 - 1964 series and the DVD release of the 2019 - 2020 series. I used Christmas money to pick up the 1985 - 1989 and the 2002 - 2003 series, Twilight Zone the Movie and Rod Serling's Lost Classics. Lost classic's came out in 1994 as a TV movie of the week, it featured two unproduced scripts written by Rod Serling that were discovered by his wife Caroline in a trunk in the garage.
Christmas Day 2023 I started watching Season 1 from the original series and on January 5, 2025 I watched the final episode of Season 2 from the Jordan Peele 2019 series.
The original series ran for 5 seasons from 1959 to 1964. I enjoyed season 1, 2, 3, & 5 immensely. While I didn't love every episode, it was very few that I didn't. The episodes hold up so well and except for the few filmed on video tape, because they were filmed on film they still look great!
These seasons were half hour episodes, where as Season 4 were hour long episodes. They didn't have a sponsor at the what would have been the start of the 4th season, so it ended up being a midseason replacement and needed to fill and hour of TV time. The episodes were just not as good, didn't flow well, and was a struggle to get through. I don't think I've ever seen a season 4 episode until this watch through. If I were to watch the series again, I would skip season 4 and not feel guilty.
Chronologically next up was Twilight Zone: The Movie released on my 4th birthday, June 24, 1983. A tremendous cast and crew that featured a prologue and 4 segments of which 3 segments that were remakes of episodes :Kick The Can", "It's a Good Life", and "Nightmare at 20,000 feet".
The movie is infamous for the helicopter accident that claimed the life of actor Vic Morrow and children Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen.
Next up was the 1985 revival series, which ran for 3 seasons, the first two on CBS and the 3rd in syndication. Much like the original run the cast of these episodes was made up of young up and coming actors and seasoned veterans. The First episode was directed by Wes Craven and the first segment starred Bruce Willis. The first two seasons were hour long episodes consisting of 1 to 3 different stories per episode. Some of these were good and other really dragged. I had a rough go getting through these seasons, much like Season 4 of the original run.
Season 3, was tremendously better! This was the season in syndication and featured 30 half hour episodes that were concise like the original series. The best episode of this entire revival is "The Cold Equations" based on the Tom Godwin short story that came out in 1954. The ending is so dark, and I would have loved to see Serling do this in the original series.
The downside to all of the seasons is the cheesy 1980's special effects. I would re-watch the 3rd season, but would most likely pass on the first two. This revival features the remake of 4 original series episodes "Night of the Meek", "Shadow Play", "The After Hours", and "A Game of Pool".
In 1994 CBS released Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classic, a made for television film featuring two stories Rod Serling had written that his wife found in a trunk in the garage. James Earl Jones appeared on screen as the narrator and did the voice over for the segments.
The television network UPN hosted the next version of the Twilight Zone in 2002 with 43 half hour episodes featuring Forest Whitaker as the narrator and on screen host. Once again the cast of this series was comprised of young up and coming actors and veterans. They remade original episodes "Eye of the Beholder" and "The Monsters Are on Maple Street".
We were treated with a sequel of original episode "It's A Good Life" entitled "It's Still A Good Life" with Bill Mumy reprising his role of Anthony and Cloris Leachman returning has his mother. I enjoyed this single season thoroughly and watched it rather quickly.
It would be a decade and a half before we the Twilight Zone returned for the most recent revival to date in 2019 for two, 10 episode seasons. The series was developed by Jordan Peele who also served in the Serling role of The Narrator both on scene and in voiceovers.
This series aired on the CBS All Access steaming network, later rebranded as Paramount+. This series was more adult orientated, episodes were rated TV-MA, with swearing, sexual content, and adult themes. The episode "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet" was an update of the original series "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". These episodes varied from 36 to 53 minutes in length, and unlike previous versions that went beyond the half hour format these episodes did not drag and I watch through them rather quickly.
If I were to rank the series as a whole here it goes:
1959 Series Seasons 1, 2, 3, & 5
2002 Series
2019 Series
1985 Series Season 3
Twilight Zone The Movie
Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics
1959 Series Season 4 & 1985 Season 1 & 2\
Through the year I picked up a couple more series that I want to watch, The Night Gallery, Tales From The Darkside, & Friday The 13th The Series. I'm not sure what I want to watch next, but I am drawn to The Night Gallery to watch more Rod Serling. Thanks for reading.
Until Next Time!