I can’t believe we are ready to start Season 3 already! Today I’ll just have this review and we will start on season 3 on Wednesday. Thank you all again for following me on this long journey. The second season was very strong with many great episodes. In the third season Serling started to burn out. He had writing credits on almost every show and was the Twilight Zones showrunner.
Of 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote roughly 70 percent of them. He would write a script in less than 40 hours and then on to the next one. Serling also spent a great deal of time defending scripts against narrowminded network executives alarmed that some of the content would upset sponsors. And, with the hundreds of functions as a television producer, the workload caught up to him. By the time the series was canceled in 1964, Serling was physically and mentally exhausted.
While running the show he also fought battles with the CBS executives who complained about the darkness of the scripts among many other things. Serling wanted integrity and would even fight against some of the commercials. “However moving and however probing and incisive the drama, it cannot retain any thread of legitimacy when after 12 or 13 minutes, out comes 12 dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.“
James Aubrey, who became CBS president after the show launched, hated the show, believing programs with regular stars were more likely to grab audiences.
Aubrey canceled Twilight Zone twice, once after its third season, but it was revived when a replacement program tanked in the ratings. Later, he reduced the show’s budget to compromise its quality and axed the series in 1964. Ironically, Aubrey was fired a year later…not soon enough…and that was a good thing.
Do any of you have any different thoughts on the rankings below? What was your favorite and least favorite episode of season two?
I would like to link to two other bloggers doing tv shows. They are going through a TV series show by show like I’m doing here. I’ll continue to have the Twilight Zone every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday.
Hanspostcard is going through the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show
John Holton is going through each episode of Hogan’s Heroes
| Season 2 | |||
| Episode | Date | Episode | Stars |
| 1 | Sept 30, 1960 | King Nine Will Not Return | 3.5 |
| 2 | Oct 7, 1960 | The Man in the Bottle | 4 |
| 3 | Oct 14, 1960 | Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room | 4 |
| 4 | Oct 28, 1960 | A Thing About Machines | 3 |
| 5 | Nov 4, 1960 | The Howling Man | 5 |
| 6 | Nov 11, 1960 | The Eye of the Beholder | 5 |
| 7 | Nov 18, 1960 | Nick of Time | 5 |
| 8 | Dec 2, 1960 | The Lateness of the Hour | 4 |
| 9 | Dec 9, 1960 | The Trouble with Templeton | 5 |
| 10 | Dec 16, 1960 | A Most Unusual Camera | 3.5 |
| 11 | Dec 23, 1960 | The Night of the Meek | 5 |
| 12 | Jan 6, 1961 | Dust | 4 |
| 13 | Jan 13, 1961 | Back There | 4 |
| 14 | Jan 20, 1961 | The Whole Truth | 3 |
| 15 | Jan 27, 1961 | The Invaders | 5 |
| 16 | Feb 3, 1961 | A Penny for Your Thoughts | 4.5 |
| 17 | Feb 10, 1961 | Twenty-Two | 4 |
| 18 | Feb 24, 1961 | The Odyssey of Flight 33 | 5 |
| 19 | Mar 3, 1961 | Mr. Dingle, the Strong | 3.5 |
| 20 | Mar 10, 1961 | Static | 3.5 |
| 21 | Mar 24, 1961 | The Prime Mover | 4 |
| 22 | Mar 31, 1961 | Long Distance Call | 5 |
| 23 | April 7, 1961 | A Hundred Yards Over the Rim | 5 |
| 24 | April 21, 1961 | The Rip Van Winkle Caper | 4 |
| 25 | April 28, 1961 | The Silence | 5 |
| 26 | May 5, 1961 | Shadow Play | 5 |
| 27 | May 12, 1961 | The Mind and the Matter | 2.5 |
| 28 | May 26, 1961 | Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up | 5 |
| 29 | June 2, 1961 | The Obsolete Man | 5 |
…
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 