Category: Z-View

Twilight Zone: “Caesar and Me” [Season 5, Episode 28]
Original Air Date: April 10, 1964

Director: Robert Butler

Writer: Adele T. Strassfield

Starring: Jackie Cooper, Morgan Brittany and Sarah Selby.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Jonathon West [Cooper] is an out-of-work ventriloquist with bills coming due.  When his dummy suggests they start robbing places, things start to fall in place.  Of course when the brains of the outfit is a dummy…

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Twilight Zone: “Sounds and Silences” [Season 5, Episode 27]
Original Air Date: April 3, 1964

Director: Richard Donner

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: John McGiver, Michael Fox and Renee Aubry.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Rosswell G. Flemington [McGiver] loves loud noises.  He yells at his employees rather than speak.  He blasts rather than play his records [of jet engines and war sounds]!  Of course this is The Twilight Zone so it doesn’t end well for Mr. Flemington.

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Twilight Zone: “I am the Night, Color Me Black” [Season 5, Episode 26]
Original Air Date: March 27, 1964

Director: Abner Biberman

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Michael Constantine, Paul Fix, George Lindsey and Ivan Dixon.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

A man is scheduled for execution at sunrise.  As minutes pass by it becomes clear that the town’s deputy perjured himself on the case, the sheriff was too worried about reelection to dig into the case and the local reporter is just now getting a conscious.

And isn’t sunrise a little late in coming?

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Twilight Zone: “Masks” [Season 5, Episode 25]
Original Air Date: March 20, 1964

Director: Ida Lupino

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Robert Keith, Milton Selzer, Virginia Gregg and Alan Sues.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Jason Foster, a rich old man on his death-bed, summons his family to him.  He cares nothing for them and they only care about their coming inheritance.  Foster tells them they must wear masks until midnight or he will cut them out of his will.

Sure, it’s a crazy request, but what harm could come from wearing a mask?

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Twilight Zone: “What’s in the Box” [Season 5, Episode 24]
Original Air Date: March 13, 1964

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writer: Martin Goldsmith

Starring: Joan Blondell, William Demarest and Sterling Holloway.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

A cranky old man [Demarest] comes home to argue with his bitter wife [Blondell] and complain that to the tv repairman [Holloway] that he’s taking to long to fix the set because he wants to amp up the bill.  Later when the old man is watching tv he sees himself cheating with his girlfriend… and killing his wife.

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Twilight Zone: “Queen of the Nile” [Season 5, Episode 22]
Original Air Date: March 6, 1964

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Charles Beaumont

Starring: Ann Blyth, Lee Philips and Celia Lovsky.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

A reporter gets an interview with a Hollywood star who may be lying about her age by A LOT.  If she is lying, then how does she stay so young?

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Twilight Zone: “An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” [Season 5, Episode 21]
Original Air Date: February 28, 1964

Director: Robert Enrico

Writer: Robert Enrico based on the story by Ambrose Pierce

Starring: Roger Jacquet, Anne Cornaly and Anker Larsen.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

A French adaptation of the classic Ambrose Pierce tale of a Civil War soldier sentenced to hang at Owl Creek Bridge.

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Twilight Zone: “Spur of the Moment” [Season 5, Episode 21]
Original Air Date: February 21, 1964

Director: Elliott Silverstein

Writer: Richard Matheson

Starring: Diana Hyland, Marsha Hunt and Philip Ober.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

It has been a strange day for Anne Henderson [Hyland].  While horseback riding on the family estate she was chased by a middle-aged screaming woman dressed in black.  When she arrived home, her boyfriend was there to ask for her hand in marriage, but before she could answer, an ex-boyfriend [who her father despised] shows up asking her to leave with him… Anne’s decision will impact everyone including the screaming woman.

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Twilight Zone: “Night Call” [Season 5, Episode 19]
Original Air Date: February 7, 1964

Director: Jacques Tourneur

Writer: Richard Matheson

Starring: Gladys Cooper, Nora Marlowe and Martine Bartlett.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

An old woman repeatedly gets phone calls from a man that are hard to understand.  The calls frighten the woman so she asks and then tells the man to stop calling.  Calls to the telephone company determine the location where a line is down and promise that the line will be fixed. When the woman travels to the location of the downed line she is shocked…

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Twilight Zone: “Black Leather Jackets” [Season 5, Episode 18]
Original Air Date: January 31, 1964

Director: Earl M. Neuman

Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.

Starring: Lee Kinsolving, Shelley Fabares, Michael Forest, Denver Pyle and Michael Conrad.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Three young motorcyle gang members move into a quiet neighborhood.  They’re trouble all right, but not the kind you’d think.

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Twilight Zone: “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” [Season 5, Episode 17]
Original Air Date: January 24, 1964

Director: Abner Biberman

Writer: Charles Beaumont and John Tomerlin

Starring: Collin Wilcox Paxton, Richard Long and Pamela Austin.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Marilyn Cuberle [Wilcox] is approaching her 19th birthday and will have to chose the body-type she wishes to have.  In her futuristic society all people have a beautiful body since they must chose one of the offered prototypes.  Marilyn doesn’t want to change her looks and that’s not going over too well.

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Twilight Zone: “The Improvement of Salvadore Ross” [Season 5, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: January 17, 1964

Director: Don Siegel
Writer: Jerry McNeely based on a short story by Henry Slesar

Starring: Don Gordon, Gail Kobe and Vaughn Taylor.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Salvadore Ross [Gordon] has the ability to trade characteristics with others.  Once he learns this Ross begins to amass all of the things he ever wanted.  He trades his youth for riches.  Ross then trades off some money to regain his youth.  The only thing that Ross can’t get is the affection of the woman [Kobe] he loves but he vows he will die trying…

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Twilight Zone: “The Long Morrow” [Season 5, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: January 10, 1964

Director: Robert Florey
Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Robert Lansing, Mariette Hartley and Edward Binns.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

An astronaut [Lansing] chosen for a mission to deep space because he had no family falls in love with a woman shortly before leaving on his 40 year mission into space.  Since he will be in suspended animation, he will not have aged when he returns but everyone else (including his lover) will be 40 years older.

This episode could have been written by O. Henry.

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Twilight Zone: “You Drive” [Season 5, Episode 14]
Original Air Date: January 3, 1964

Director: John Brahm
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.

Starring: Edward Andrews, Helen Westcott and Kevin Hagen.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

After Oliver Pope [Andrews] accidently hits a bicyclist and leaves the boy to die, Andrews’ car begins to try to kill him!

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