Twilight Zone – The Odyssey of Flight 33

★★★★★  February 24, 1960 Season 2 Episode 18

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

This one is one of my all time favorite Twilight Zone episodes. It is a time travel episode and this time it gives you a reason for the time travel. After picking up a freak tail wind that accelerates the plane past three thousand knots and through a shock wave, the crew of Global 33 is unable to raise anyone on the radio. Descending below the cloud cover to get a site reading, they see a Manhattan Island devoid of buildings. They are back in time but when?

Something happened to Serling to inspired him to write the episode… There was some mail on his desk at the production company, and on the top was an envelope from American Airlines, and he opened that one first. It was a brochure offering a mockup of a 707 passenger cabin to any studio that was going to film a scene. It was something they used in stewardess training and they decided to build another one. They had this one on the West Coast and they were going to rent it out or sell it. This gave Serling the idea…he even consulted with pilots to get the dialog accurate in the cockpit.

SPOILER

The most expensive piece of film ever shot for Twilight Zone was the dinosaur watching the plane go by..

This show was written by Rod Serling

Rod Serling’s Opening Narration: 

You’re riding on a jet airliner on route from London to New York. You’re at 35,000 feet atop an overcast and roughly fifty-five minutes from Idlewild Airport. But what you’ve seen occur inside the cockpit of this plane is no reflection on the aircraft or the crew. It’s a safe, well-engineered, perfectly designed machine. And the men you’ve just met are a trained, cool, highly efficient team. The problem is simply that the plane is going too fast, and there is nothing within the realm of knowledge or at least logic to explain it. Unbeknownst to passenger and crew, this airplane is heading into an uncharted region well off the beaten track of commercial travelers—it’s moving into The Twilight Zone. What you’re about to see we call “The Odyssey of Flight 33.”

Summary

Global Flight 33 is en route from London to New York in what appears to be a routine flight in a modern jetliner. Suddenly however, the jet’s speed increases to an incredible 3000 knots and they arrive in New York rather quickly. Neither the captain or his well-trained crew can explain what happened – a strange tail-wind perhaps – but they are certainly not prepared for what they find as they survey the land below them.

Rod Serling’s Closing Narration:

A Global jet airliner, en route from London to New York on an uneventful afternoon in the year 1961, but now reported overdue and missing, and by now, searched for on land, sea, and air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they’ll find. But you and I know where she is. You and I know what’s happened. So if some moment, any moment, you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast—engines that sound searching and lost—engines that sound desperate—shoot up a flare or do something. That would be Global 33 trying to get home—from The Twilight Zone.

CAST

Rod Serling … Narrator / Self – Host (uncredited)
John Anderson … Capt. ‘Skipper’ Farver
Paul Comi … 1st Officer John Craig
Sandy Kenyon … Navigator Hatch
Wayne Heffley … 2nd Officer Wyatt
Harp McGuire … Flight Engineer Purcell
Betty Garde … Passenger
Beverly Brown … Janie
Nancy Rennick … Paula
Jay Overholts … Passenger
Lester Fletcher … RAF Man
Robert McCord … Passenger (uncredited)

…

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.

31 thoughts on “Twilight Zone – The Odyssey of Flight 33”

  6. Sounds like a real good one for sure. Great premise. I sometimes have let my mind wander and thought how cool it would be to be able to take a time machine and go back see here, or Ontario, or anywhere else I was, hundreds of years ago before European colonization when most of landscape was wild. But, only if I could be 100%…110% maybe …sure the machine was gonna fire up again and bring me back to modern day.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. The TZ has many time machine episodes but this one is different and a great one… yes I would love to go back and look.

      Like

      Reply

      1. I watched this one last night . It is a good one to be sure! I thought they were going to have to land with the dinosaurs. End surprised me a bit… wouldn’t you have landed in ’39 NY if you were them, if only to refuel before taking off again?

        Liked by 1 person

  7. I really liked this episode also. The technical lingo made it seem real. The dark-haired guy in the back of the cockpit reading the speeds looks a lot like my dad did. I remember the days of claymation with great fondness. I wonder if anyone uses it anymore?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yea man I love them all…this shows less of the travel but it’s so cool on the few glimpses we have.

      Like

      Reply

  10. Yes agree great episode – one that you wish was longer to see what happened – where they end up! I did think it was amusing how many people they had in the cockpit – seemed pretty roomy with all the flight crew and flight attendant. But sounds like they used a real trainer so must have been accurate.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yes…this one deserves a movie treatment….to me anyway. The lingo made it seem real.
      Off topic Paul. How are you enjoying the draft so far?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Thoroughly enjoying it Max. Have to thank you and Hans again for inviting me. I think what has surprised me is the range of everyone’s picks – both in genre and in time periods. Really expanding my horizons. And we have so many rounds left – so much great stuff left to discover. I am also enjoying getting to know the other bloggers as well

        Liked by 2 people

      2. No thanks needed man…I’m thankful you are doing it! I’m glad you are having a good time. Yes the album and movie draft was the same thing…a huge range. This one is my favorite I believe. I’m hoping one day we will have another album draft.

        The movie one was hard…because it’s not like you can just see a movie really quick and comment….it’s all about the comments and visiting other blogs.

        Liked by 1 person

  13. Pingback: Twilight Zone – The Odyssey of Flight 33 - TOMMY NAP CBD TOPICALS
  14. Pingback: Twilight Zone Season 2 Review – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Leave a comment