Fifty
years after its television debut, "The Twilight Zone," Rod Serling's
CBS sci-fi anthology series, still holds resonance in the age of
Twitter and the Snuggie.
Billy Mumy's six-year-old sociopath in
"It's a Good Life" scared the townspeople of Peaksville, Ohio - and TV
viewers from the age of Eisenhower to the present. And a half-century
after the "To Serve Man" episode, fans still remember what "It's a
cookbook!" really means. Not bad for a black-and-white drama whose
heyday ended before Beatlemania.
Besides the classic moments
couch potatoes know by heart, there are many other less-iconic, but
still compelling, shows in the show's 156-episode history. Submitted for your approval, as Rod Serling would say, here's a list of ten obscure
"Twilight Zone" shows worth checking out:
* "The Obsolete Man":
Burgess Meredith starred in four "Twilight Zone" episodes, with his
most famous role being that of bespectacled, bad-luck bookworm bank
teller Henry Bemis in "Time Enough at Last" episode. But "The Obsolete
Man," which also features books as part of the plot line, is also worth
remembering. In the episode, the state declares Meredith's librarian
character obsolete and sentences him to death. But Meredith is able to
turn the tables on the chancellor, and make that authority figure
obsolete.
* "Number 12 Looks Just Like You": This episode is not
as well-known as "Eye of the Beholder," an famous "Twilight Zone"
episode about society's obsession with beauty. But "Number 12" has even
sharper observations. This dark episode features a teenager who doesn't
want to undergo "The Transformation," a surgery where her body - and
mind - will be radically changed. Think "The Stepford Wives" was ahead
of its time? "Number 12" touched on the same themes a decade earlier.
* "Mr. Garrity and the Graves": In this episode, set in the Old West, a
con man shows up in the ironically-named Happiness, Arizona with a
promise - to raise the dead. The townspeople have their own reasons why
this isn't a good idea, so they pay him off. As it turns out, Mr.
Garrity's talents are much better than he realizes, as the people of
Happiness will soon discover.
* "The Big Tall Wish": Nobody
believes in a broken-down African-American boxer - except for one young boy, who wishes
that the prizefighter wins his fight. But when the boxer is reluctant
to believe that such wishes can really come true, his fortunes change
for the worse. And the once-hopeful child grows cynical. Get your
Kleenex ready - this topical episode, ahead of its time in featuring a
nearly all-black cast, might be the most poignant "Twilight Zone"
episode ever.
* "Twenty Two": A stripper hospitalized for
exhaustion is haunted by the same nightmare every evening. In the
dream, a nurse welcomes her to the morgue, saying, "Room for one more,
honey." Turns out that this horrible vision is trying to send her an
important message, something she needs to hear before boarding a plane.
* "A Most Unusual Camera": A gadget with mysterious powers is also the
subject of this episode, in which a larcenous couple grabs a camera
that shows the future. Money - and mayhem - ensues, especially after a
crafty French bellhop gets involved. Although the "Twilight Zone"
sometimes tried to be funny - and failed - with several episodes, most
notably with the Carol Burnett episode "Cavender Is Coming," the humor
in this episode works.
* "The New Exhibit": If you work at a
wax museum, don't take your work home with you, especially when the
figures are of the world's worst killers. This seems to be the message
of this creepy episode. Martin Balsam's waxworker is a little too
enchanted by his museum's "Murderers' Row." This is one of the show's
18 one-hour episodes, so it's not often seen in syndication.
* "Miniature": It's always fun to see future stars on "The Twilight Zone"
- Carol Burnett, William Shatner, Robert Redford, and Charles Bronson
were among the talent on the show. In this one-hour episode, future
Oscar-winner Robert Duvall portrays a misfit loner who becomes obsessed
with a doll in a museum exhibit. He thinks the woman in that dollhouse
is alive, and he's sort of right.
* "Stopover in a Quiet
Town": Speaking of dollhouses, don't drive drunk, or you too might end
up in a dollhouse from another planet. While all of the smoking Rod
Serling does while narrating "Twilight Zone" episodes looks dated - and
unhealthy - "Stopover" was ahead of its time in showing how one young
New York couple's bender turns their world upside down, even if the
real-life consequences of such an act aren't quite as dramatic.
*
"The Old Man in the Cave": It's 1974 in a post-apocalyptic earth. The
frightened survivors get critical life advice from the title character.
But when they find out the old man is really a computer, they stop
listening to what he says. Unfortunately, this triumph of reason over
faith doesn't end very well for them; that old man/computer knew what
he was talking about when it came to contaminated food.
So next time you want to step into the "Twilight Zone," take a trip to the unknown with one of these overlooked episodes.
