AMERICAN MASTERS Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval
Selected Episode Descriptions
For Your Approval
THE TWILIGHT ZONE aired on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Series creator Rod Serling wrote 92 of 156 episodes, often infusing them with his own social concerns and personality. Nearly everyone has a TWILIGHT ZONE favorite. Below is a subjective list of some of those favorites and classics, which include star turns by a few famous and soon-to-be famous names:
* Where Is Everybody?
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Stevens
Greeted by empty streets, a man searches a small town to find that he is completely and inexplicably alone. The series pilot.
Cast: Earl Holliman, James Gregory, John Conwell, Paul Langton, James McCallion, Jay Overholts, Carter Mulavey, Jim Johnson, Gary Walberg.
* The Eye of the Beholder
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Douglas Hayes
In a hospital room, her face completely covered by medical wrappings, a woman waits to see if a last-chance operation has fixed her freakish appearance, for which she could be sent to a reservation of outcasts.
Cast: Joanna Hayes, Jennifer Howard, William D. Gordon, Maxine Stuart, Donna Douglas.
* Walking Distance
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Stevens
A man's need to escape the pressure of his work is so great that he slips back 30 years into his childhood.
Cast: Gig Young, Michael Montgomery, Byron Foulger, Joseph Corey, Frank Overton, Irene Tedrow, Buzz Martin.
* The Lonely
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Jack Smight
Convicted of murder and banished to a deserted asteroid for 40 years, a man is given a robot woman for company.
Cast: Jack Warden, John Dehner, Jim Turley, Jean Marsh, Ted Knight.
* A Stop at Willoughby
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Robert Parrish
A harassed executive escapes into the peaceful town of Willoughby ... in July 1880.
Cast: James Daly, Howard Smith, Patricia Donahue, James Maloney.
* A Game of Pool
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: A. E. Houghton
A pool master returns from the dead to play one last game with an eager young hustler.
Cast: Jack Klugman, Jonathan Winters.
* Once Upon a Time
Writer: Richard Matheson
Directors: Norman Z. McLeod; one sequence by Les Goodwins (uncredited)
Nineteenth-century janitor Woodrow Mulligan tries on a "time helmet" invented by his boss and is catapulted 72 years into the future. Featured are two routines by the legendary silent comedian Buster Keaton.
Cast: Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams, Jesse White, Milton Parsons, Warren Parker, Gil Lamb, James Flavin, Harry Fleer, George E. Stone.
* Nothing in the Dark
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Director: Lamont Johnson
An elderly recluse barricades herself in an abandoned building in order to avoid "Mr. Death."
Cast: Gladys Cooper, Robert Redford, R.G. Armstrong
* Cavender Is Coming
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Christian Nyby (credited as Chris Nyby)
A hapless apprentice angel is given one last chance to earn his wings, by helping awkward, inept Agnes Grep. The pilot for an unmade series, it is the only TWILIGHT ZONE episode with a laugh track.
Cast: Carol Burnett, Jesse White, Howard Smith, William O'Connell, Pitt Herbert, John Fiedler, G. Stanley Jones, Frank Behrens, Albert Carrier, Roy Sickner, Norma Shattuc, Rory O'Brien, Sandra Gould, Adrienne Marden, Jack Younger, Danny Kulick, Donna Douglas, Maurice Dallimore, Barbara Morrison.
* He's Alive
Writer: Rod Serling
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
The ghost of Adolf Hitler inspires a young American hatemonger, who manages to achieve short-lived success.
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Ludwig Donath, Curt Conway, Paul Mazursky, Howard Caine, Barnaby Hale, Bernard Fein, Jay Adler, Wolfe Barzell.
* Miniature
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Director: Walter E. Grauman
Charley Parkes, a shy bachelor, falls in love with a tiny, beautiful museum doll he believes is alive.
Cast: Robert Duvall, Pert Kelton, Barbara Barrie, Len Weinrib, William Windom, John McLiam, Claire Griswold, Nina Roman, Richard Angarola, Barney Phillips, Joan Chambers, Chet Stratton.
* Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
Writer: Richard Matheson, based on his short story
Director: Richard Donner
A newly released mental patient traveling on an airplane is the only passenger able to see a gremlin ripping up the wing.
Cast: William Shatner, Christine White, Nick Cravat, Edward Kammer, Asa Maynor.