Twilight Zone 1980s – I, of Newton

Many of the reboots of the Twilight Zone in the 80s were weak, but there were a few that hit the mark. The one I remembered the most is this one. An eight-minute episode of Ron Harris (Barney Miller) and Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons). It’s quick and straight to the point, and I thought written and acted brilliantly. The perfect task to send the devil on. 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

45 thoughts on “Twilight Zone 1980s – I, of Newton”

  1. i’d old and old school, unless it’s Rod Sterling, it ain’t the Twilight Zone….dittto the Fugitive, sorry Harrison Ford you ain’t David Janssen…funny thing though, whenever I think about the original Twilight Zone, I have the urge to watch the Day of the Triffids, that movie scrared the hell out of me when I think I was maybe 8?

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    1. Oh the original Twilight Zone (I coverred all of the episodes) is my top show ever. No this is not a replacement but a few episodes aren’t bad.
      I never heard of that movie…I’ll have to check it out!

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  2. Serves the evil little Imp right. From playing ‘Harris’ in ‘Barney Miller’ to playing merry Hell in Eternity? Nah, somehow I think Ron’s Big Boss is gonna rake him over the coals for letting this soul slip through his hot little hands.

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    1. LOL… yea “the one that got away.” Of all the 80s Twilight Zones…this one and Dealers Choice stuck with me the most…there are some good ones.
      I’ve been going through Barney Miller yet again. Obbverse…I don’t think they made a bad episode of that show….unlike many.

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    1. Many of them are on YouTube. The other one I would reccomend is “Dealer’s Choice”….there are some good ones…not as great as the original of course.

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  3. hectic day today, but I’m going to try and watch this tomorrow. You’re throwing us a curveball there – a post on a Thursday evening! Well, the more the merrier, always glad to see your name and site pop up! So was this a part of that ‘Twilight Zone’ movie back then or a stand-alone project?

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    1. Yea it surprised me as well lol. No it was part of the TZ 80s series that lasted 4 years. Not nearly as good as the original but a few good ones. This one is short

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      1. It was good Dave…I’m glad you liked it! It was simple and to the point. You did have some good ones in that batch they did. They also redid some of the earlier ones…those don’t work. This one was a short one between two 20 minute episodes.

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      2. it was concise. It almost makes me wish Serling had done it in the first series and thus it woulld’ve been a bit more fleshed out. But a good one anyway

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      3. He would have done wonders with it. Yea he could have turned it into a 30 min episode.

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    1. I have all of them and this one popped up on my suggested but it’s one I remember in the 80s and I just saw it while going through the 80s version the other day. There are some good ones like “Shatterday” and Dealer’s Choice….but of course you cannot compare it to the original.

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      1. Dana…it’s the best written show of the 70s to me. Not a bad episode…really…not a bad one. It’s a character driven show which is fantastic. The writers and actors were great. If you get a chance watch it.

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      2. I’ll shut up after this…but the show never gets old because different criminals come in every week…so it’s different.

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  4. Not bad. The one that I remember from that reboot was the one with Robert Klein where words that people were saying kept gradually changing until he couldn’t understand anything. I agree with you about Barney Miller, one of the greatest.

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    1. Oh I just watched that one! That one and Shatterday and I think one called Peace and Quiet….
      The one that I would recommend to anyone would be Dealer’s Choice. It has Morgan Freeman and Garrett Morris in it…again about the devil but funny.

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      1. I think I saw some of the Dealer’s Choice one on YouTube, a while ago, but I don’t think I saw the end. I’ll have to watch it again. You must be on vacation with the influx of posts this week.

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      2. No…Lisa started to comment on that post yesterday about the first song you remember…and I had the TZ post but had no place or day to post it…and I thought what the hell!

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