Twilight Zone – Where is Everybody?

★★★☆☆   October 2, 1959 Season 1 Episode 1

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

A good episode to start the series. They would explore this topic of being alone in more episodes to greater affect but a good debut. How new this must have been on the tv landscape at the time. On the DVD set Rod Serling is shown in a short clip trying to sell the series to the network with previews of coming episodes. My guess is the first episode they didn’t want to air a really strange one.

This one has the Twilight Zone twist ending and the moral. Rod Serling wrote this episode. The episode originally featured Westbrook Van Voorhis as narrator. When Voorhis was unavailable for later episodes, Serling re-recorded the narration himself for consistency.

Opening narration:

“The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we’re about to watch could be our journey.”

Summary

A man finds himself walking down a country road, not knowing where nor who he is. He comes across a diner with a jukebox blaring and hot coffee on the stove – only there’s no one there. A little further down the road, he comes to the picturesque town of Oakwood, and finds, it too, seems deserted. The only sounds he hears are a clock tower, and a pay phone ringing. At the local movie theater, an ad for Battle Hymn (1957) leads him to believe he’s in the Air Force. In spite of no people to be found, he can’t shake off the feeling, he’s being watched.

Closing narration:

“Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting…in the Twilight Zone.”

Earl Holliman Earl Holliman … Mike Ferris
James Gregory James Gregory … Air Force General
Paul Langton Paul Langton … Doctor
James McCallion James McCallion … Reporter #1
John Conwell John Conwell … Air Force Colonel
Jay Overholts Jay Overholts … Reporter #2 (as Jay Overholt)
Carter Mullally Jr. Carter Mullally Jr. … Air Force Captain (as Carter Mullaly)
Garry Walberg Garry Walberg … Reporter #3 (as Gary Walberg)
Jim Johnson Jim Johnson … Air Force Staff Sergeant

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

25 thoughts on “Twilight Zone – Where is Everybody?”

  1. I wasn’t sure when you were going to start your series- I watched this about a month ago but wanted to go back and watch them as you cover them… I agree with your 3 star ranking. A good show to get things started. Rod Serling even up until shortly before his passing- didn’t care for this one…. It was a tough one with one actor pulling it all off until the end. I’ve always liked James Gregory- nice seeing him at the end.. again not the best but it was good enough as a pilot to get the show picked up and going!

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    1. I meant to mention Gregory… he was in so many things… a great character actor. Barney Miller comes to mind when I think of him.

      I’m around 3 shows ahead and yes… even compared to just them… this one is good but average. I’m really enjoying this… I’m learning to rank… I’m not too critical.

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      1. There are not many bad ones I don’t think. There are some which may not totally work but they are all worth seeing… yes with Gregory I think Barney Miller and the Manchurian Candidate.

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      2. The 4th season because of the hour long format which the network forced on him I think…some of them were padded a bit too much…but still interesting.

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  2. The show stands out now, imagine how revolutionary it must’ve seemed 60+ years back when Lucy was about the cutting edge of scripted TV.
    I always enjoy seeing pilots/first episodes to see where it all began & how usually writers hadn’t yet got a sense of what the show would become.

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    1. Yea this one is kinda vanilla but it still was so different than anything else…like you said….then and now really. I wonder what the network execs said…”What is this?”

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  4. The very first one… Before I lost access to MeTV, TZ was in constant rotation. I’d never seen it before 2020 and then managed to see it three times in the last six months. I’ve always liked Earl Holliman.

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  5. Don’t recall this one (I havent seen Twilight Zone since the 80’s I think) but Earl Holliman was a fave in our household growing up – mainly off the back of the John Wayne film Sons Of Katie Elder. John Wayne was 58, as the oldest son, Dean Martin was 48, Holliman 37 and Michael Anderson Jr 22. So their mum must have just got the urge to have another son once a decade given she must have been at least 52 for the last son! 🙂 James Gregory was also in it!

    James Gregory was also great in Barney Miller, watched him the other night putting his foot in something as per usual 🙂 Always good though, Star Trek, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, MASH and any number of other TV shows of the 60’s and 70’s.

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  7. How awesome is this pre-pilot promotion! I love it! I am certain the series would *not* have been as popular without Rod Serling’s presence (writing, narration, etc.) Really looking forward to this feature, Max.

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  8. I thought this one worked well as the pilot – immediately grabs you as you trying to figure out what’s going on. I liked too how the episode was exploring the consequences of something that hadn’t become commonplace yet – space travel (not that its that common place still but more a normal thing now than back then)

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