Again I will say…I want to thank you all who have stuck with me through this long haul. We are now finished with the 4th season! The 5th and also last season lasts 36 episodes.
I do have one to add that was on The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse that was a precurser to the Twilight Zone called The Time Element. It was a teleplay that premiered on November 24, 1958. It was Rod Serling’s first science fiction story.
After going through 4th season …it was better than I gave it credit for earlier. The hour long episodes changed the way I graded them because they were different than the 30 minute episode. Some did suffer from too much padding but some were able to tell a more complete story. You did have a few that didn’t click well at all.
If you want… please comment on what you think I got wrong, right, or just your favorite episodes.
In the spring of 1963, CBS renewed Twilight Zone for a fifth season, shortening it back to a half hour. The networks experiment had failed: Twilight Zone’s expanded size had not made for an expanded audience. The season contained 18 long episodes.
Rod Serling: Our shows this season were too padded. The bulk of our stories lacked the excitement and punch of the shorter dramas we intended when we started five years ago and kept to for a while. If you ask me, I think we had only one really effective show this season, On Thursday We Leave for Home. … Yes, I wrote it myself, but I overwrote it. I think the story was good despite what I did to it.
Looking back, Serling’s assessment was too hard. There had been a number of really good hour-long episodes, among them On Thursday We Leave for Home, Death Ship, In His Image, Valley Of The Shadows, Printer’s Devi and The New Exhibit. The Twilight Zone had not embarrased itself in this season.
The 5th season was not as consistent as the first 3 but it contains some of my favorite episodes.
| Season 4 | ||||
| Total | Episode | Date | Episode | Stars |
| 103 | 1 | Jan 3, 1963 | In His Image | 4.5 |
| 104 | 2 | Jan 10, 1963 | The Thirty-Five Fathom Grave | 3.5 |
| 105 | 3 | Jan 17, 1963 | Valley Of The Shadows | 5 |
| 106 | 4 | Jan 24, 1963 | He’s Alive | 5 |
| 107 | 5 | Jan 31, 1963 | Mute | 4 |
| 108 | 6 | Feb 7, 1963 | Death Ship | 5 |
| 109 | 7 | Feb 14, 1963 | Jess-Belle | 4 |
| 110 | 8 | Feb 21, 1963 | Miniature | 4.5 |
| 111 | 9 | Feb 28, 1963 | Printer’s Devil | 5 |
| 112 | 10 | Mar 7, 1963 | No Time Like The Past | 3.5 |
| 113 | 11 | Mar 14, 1963 | The Parallel | 4.5 |
| 114 | 12 | Mar 21, 1963 | I Dream Of Genie | 2.5 |
| 115 | 13 | Apr 4, 1963 | The New Exhibit | 5 |
| 116 | 14 | Apr 11, 1963 | Of Late I Think Of Cliffordville | 4 |
| 117 | 15 | Apr 18, 1963 | The Incredible World Of Horace Ford | 3.5 |
| 118 | 16 | May 2, 1963 | On Thursday We Leave For Home | 5 |
| 119 | 17 | May 9, 1963 | Passage On The Lady Anne | 4.5 |
| 120 | 18 | May 23, 1963 | The Bard | 2 |
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There were a lot of good episodes in this season, but the hour-long format does set them apart from the other seasons. I think the longer works well for the most part yet it feels like a different series that way. My favorites were 103, 105, 106, 110, 111, 115, and 118 and I would rate those all 5. The two where we vary in opinion are 104, which I liked better than you did; and 108, which I didn’t like as much as you did. To me, the scariest episode by far was 115. I’m liking the series and appreciate you continuing with it to the end. It’s an archive of reviews that people will be visiting a lot.
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I’m happy we agree on the two worse ones…114 and 120. I hate giving episodes that bad of rating but they were hard to get through. Not bad though…I think only 4 episodes thus far in the series that I ranked under 3…out of 120 episodes…that is not bad at all.
After rewatching the fourth season…yes it’s just different… I really like season 5 coming up. I like some that some other people really dislike.
Thanks for sticking with it Lisa… Can you believe on April 11th that this has lasted a year? Time flies!
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thank you for going to the effort of reviewing them all for us! It really is interesting and gives me an idea which ones to look for if (when it’s on streaming services) I say only have an hour to watch. Serling seemed very self-aware in his assessment. I think you and I might relate it to music – if you have a goal of a six minute song, it could be great or could have a lot of filler. If you set out to make a 2:45 one, it has to have quick impact. Same with a tv show.
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Yes and it forces the writers to write more fluid…sometimes you don’t get a full story but enough. Some did benefit. from the hour but some got obvious padding. I think if he would have started off with an hour…they would have been much better…they just switched to this quickly.
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You have remarkable endurance to review all these Twilight Zone episodes, Max. Since I haven’t watched most of them, it’s tricky to give a fully informed opinion.
Based on your great write-ups, I would say “Printer’s Devil” and “The New Exhibit” were standouts. I also agree the mix of comedy and the Twilight Zone concept in “The Bard” didn’t work.
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Oh it’s my favorite show Christian so it’s a labor of love also. BUT I will say it’s the most polarizing show ever. I see one review where an episode is 5 stars and another that has the same episode as a 1…so I go with what I think.
Most of the time comedy doesn’t work well with this show. I’ve seen all of them around 3-4 times in my life…but I’m watching them again always to do the review. I’ll be done in April or May.
Thanks for reading!
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I’d like to see The Time Element.
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Ok….wish granted lol…I’ll get it ready…I’ll review it pretty soon or at the end
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Cool!
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William Bendix does a good job…I wish Serling would have carried it over in the TZ
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Speaking of, didn’t I tell you that I have some of the TZ magazines before Carol shut down production?
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Oh Yes….you did
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Would you like them?
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Yes I would be I hate taking those…
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Huh? You hate taking what?
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I’m sorry…I’m out of it Vic…I drove to Atlanta today and then worked at the corp office. I’m out of it…I saw it…and I’m thinking….what was I saying?
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LOL! Dude. Go take a nap.
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Yea…tomorrow I’m getting up early….going to the data center and picking up the servers…taking them to Nashville…hooking them up and then start moving that shit into the cloud.
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You busy boy…
I’ve lost your address (send me a text for it).
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