I’m going to write about my top 10 favorite TZ episodes in the next few weeks…Most of the Twilight Zones are like songs to me…to be enjoyed over and over. The Twilight Zone is not really an ordinary TV show. It’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This is my personal choice for #7 on my list.
I have to watch these again before I write about them…Now I wish I would have made this my top 50.
Rod Serling Opening Narration: Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father, and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home—the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson’s flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he’s traveling all the way to his appointed destination, which, contrary to Mr. Wilson’s plan, happens to be in the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone.
In this episode he plays a husband (Bob Wilson) who just suffered a nervous breakdown on a plane 6 months before. Him and his wife Julia were taking a flight and you could tell Bob was a nervous as soon as he boarded the plane. He had just spent 6 months in an institution getting over his breakdown and now his Doctor said he was ready to fly again. He sits by the window and the fun begins… after take off he thinks sees a creature of some sort out on the wing of the aircraft.
Because of the breakdown he is not sure he saw the creature or not. Bob starts freaking out and eventually gets a gun from an officer on the plane. Hmmm gun, nervous man, and a plane. Nothing good will come from that. Everyone thinks he is crazy…is he? This one is a thriller with a creepy creature.
Richard Matheson wrote this episode. He wrote 16 Twilight Zones in all.
This is an iconic episode of the Twilight Zone. It was redone in the 1983 movie Twilight Zone with John Lithgow in the title role. I’ll take the classic version though.
Rod Serling’s Closing Narration: The flight of Mr. Robert Wilson has ended now, a flight not only from point A to point B, but also from the fear of recurring mental breakdown. Mr. Wilson has that fear no longer… though, for the moment, he is, as he has said, alone in this assurance. Happily, his conviction will not remain isolated too much longer, for happily, tangible manifestation is very often left as evidence of trespass, even from so intangible a quarter as the Twilight Zone.
Cast
- William Shatner as Robert “Bob” Wilson
- Christine White as Julia Wilson
- Ed Kemmer as Flight Engineer
- Asa Maynor as Stewardess
- Nick Cravat as Gremlin
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Classic Shatner!!!!!
That surely looks great. And William Shatner? I had no idea he acted in the Twilight Zone. Then again, I know next to nothing about the series! 🙂
He was in two of them…this one was in their last season. It is my favorite show bar none. There is a quality about this show that you don’t see on tv very often.
Hey Christian…I ran across something from Dave that I thought you would like since you did a feature on King a few weeks back.
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/77533465/posts/3218058083
Thanks for the heads-up, Max. I just chimed in!😀
Thanks Christian I’m glad you liked it.
I think that this episode was remade years later without William Shatner. I remember the actor calling it a gremlin and freaking out.
It was in a movie The Twilight Zone…. It’s really good. I don’t think the 80s Twilight Zone tv show redid it
Yep, it was the movie.
When I think of “twilight Zone” this is the episode I automatically think of. Truly classic tv.
I agree. I won’t include all of the classic ones but this one I could not leave out.
Love this one! I saw the remake first, but this one has a spooky and comedic feel to it. I wonder what it was like seeing it at the time of its release…
It creeps me out when that thing just pops in the window. That black and white adds to it also. I did like the ending because he will be proved right.
Yeah, the remake one ends with less hope. I liked this original, almost sea creature looking monster better too!
Oh yea Ackroyd driving him to who knows what…My favorite part of the remake movie was…”you want to see something really scary?”
Love that scene! “No, no, I’m talking about something REALLY scary…..”
William Shatner was in quite a few of the old Twilight Zone episodes wasn’t he? I never realized it as a kid.
Off the top of my head…I know he was in two of them…I’ll have to check to see if there is more. Nimoy was in at least one also.
I know he was in that diner one with the magic cards. I’ve never spotted Nimoy.
Nimoy was in a war one…he was in a jungle I believe. It was called A Quality of Mercy
And, Dean Stockwell. Shakespeare’s speech…
There is also a Quality of Mercy episode in The Outer Limits from the 90s. It’s a two-parter across two seasons, concluding on The Light Brigade with Robert Patrick & Wil Wheaton.
Babylon 5 has one, too.
Heh. Gotta love Shatner…
I have all of the Outer Limits of the old ones… I need to check and see if I have the 90s
Eight years worth. Great show.
I’ll check when I get home… I’m curious
1995 to 2002.
I remember this one. As long as it stays outside of the ship, I’m cool with it 😉
LOL…it freaked me out when that thing popped into the window.
Max, do you know the episode where a girl goes through a wall? It’s one that freaked me out as a kid.
That one might make the list…I think it’s called Little Girl Lost…I love when they show that world/dimension….brilliantly written.
I don’t remember a lot about it, just that she goes through the wall and walks through mist or fog? I do remember being afraid to sleep near the wall because I thought I’d fall through lol
Yes she fell through a portal and they got her back through before it closed. It was ahead of it’s time.
She rolled out of bed in her sleep. As she woke up and crawled under the bed then, thru the portal. The family sent their little dog in after her. She tied the dog’s leash to her and the dog led her out just before the portal closed. Her parents could hear her all over the house, inside the walls. Great episode.
It was great and like I said… ahead of its time a bit.
I agree.
Thanks for reminding me of what it was about.
Yep. That’s it. I just saw it, again, on MeTV two nights ago.
That is the very first TZ episode I ever saw. It freaked me out, too.
Oh wow, another thing we have in common! I really need to see it again now, just to see what was so scary about it.
Getting lost in another dimension would scare an adult. 😁
This is definitely one of my top 10 favorite Twilight Zone episodes.
It’s hard narrowing them down.
Hell Yes! I can’t believe they remade this. It never needed or needs to be remade!
Liking your Twilight Zone feature- that was a memorable one with a young Bill Shatner. One of those ones you see once and remember it well- although I’ve probably seen this a dozen times over the years- still holds up.
Thanks Hans… the part that still gets me is when the curtain to the window was drawn back and there it is…I still don’t expect it.
Creepy. Nick Cravet? I didnt know that. I think he was Burt Lancasters best friend.
I had no clue he played the Gremlin either.
Makes sense, he was a gymnast.