Category: Z-View

Twilight Zone: “The Lateness of the Hour” [Season 2, Episode 8]
Original Air Date: December 2, 1960

Director: Jack Smight

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Inger Stevens and John Hoyt.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Jana Loren [Stevens] has grown up surrounded by servants.  Her father is an inventor and the servants are robots designed to meet all of the family’s needs.  Jana desires more freedom and wants her parents to get rid of the robots… which of course is a path she shouldn’t go down since she is in The Twilight Zone.
Rating:

Twilight Zone: “Nick of Time” [Season 2, Episode 7]
Original Air Date: November 18, 1960

Director: Richard L. Bare

Writer: Richard Matheson

Starring: William Shatner and Patricia Breslin.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

While driving through a small town heading for their honeymoon, Don [Shatner] and Pat [Breslin] Carter’s car breaks down.  The mechanic says it will take a few hours to repair, so the newlyweds head into a small cafe for lunch and to pass the time.

Don is nervous to hear about a possible promotion but is afraid to call his boss.  There’s a little penny fortune-telling machine at their table, so Don jokingly puts in a penny to get the answer.  When it appear that the machine got the answer correctly, Don asks more and more questions and the machine answers with startling accuracy… or does it?

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “A Thing About Machines” [Season 2, Episode 4]
Original Air Date: October 28, 1960

Director: David Orrick McDearmon

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Richard Hayden and Barney Phillips.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Bartlett Finchley is a bit of an eccentric.  He’s a writer who lives alone in a large house and always seems in a battle of will with all of the machines in his house… the tv, his electric razor, his typwriter, well, you get the idea.  Finally things reach the point of no return and the war is on.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “The Man in the Bottle” [Season 2, Episode 2]
Original Air Date: October 7, 1960

Director: Don Medford

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Luther Adler, Vivi Janiss and Joseph Ruskin.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Arthur [Medford] and Edna [Janiss] run a small secondhand store that is barely making it.  Despite their money troubles, Arthur’s kind heart causes him to buy an empty wine bottle from an old lady in need of a few dollars.

The bottle turns out to contain a genie that when released offers Arthur and Edna four wishes.  When in the Twilight Zone always remember to be careful what you wish for.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “King Nine Will Not Return” [Season 2, Episode 1]
Original Air Date: September 30, 1960

Director: Buzz Kulik

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Robert Cummings

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

An American bomber pilot [Cummings] wakes up in the desert lying next to his downed plane.  He has no memory of how he got there and his crew is nowhere to be found.
Rating:

Twilight Zone: “A World of His Own” [Season 1, Episode 36]
Original Air Date: July 1, 1960

Director: Ralph Nelson

Writer: Richard Matheson

Starring: Keenan Wynn, Phyllis Kirk and Mary LaRoche

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When Victoria West [Kirk] returns home unexpectedly she spies her husband, successful writer, Gregory [Wynn] with another woman [LaRoche] in his study.  Victoria hurries in the only entrance/exit to the study and finds her husband alone.  Victoria confronts Gregory but his explanation is unbelievable… but as she sadly learns is true.

In addition to a classic Twilight Zone twist ending, we’re treated to an additional surprise before the ending!

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “The Mighty Casey” [Season 1, Episode 35]
Original Air Date: June 17, 1960

Director: Alvin Ganzer and Robert Parrish

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Jack Warden

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Mouth McGarry [Warden] is the manager of the Hoboken Zephyrs, a pro baseball team with a tradition of losing.  This year is no different until McGarry gets an amazing pitcher on the team that single-handedly takes the team to the play-offs.  All is going well until the commission learns that the new pitcher is a robot. McGarry has a plan that will make his robot human enough to play not realizing that this is The Twilight Zone.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “The After Hours” [Season 1, Episode 34]
Original Air Date: June 10, 1960

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Anne Francis

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Marsha White [Francis] is looking for a gift for her mother.  The elevator operator suggests it can be found on the ninth floor and drops her off there.  Although the floor appears to be deserted a saleswoman appears and sells her just what she is looking for.

As she is leaving the store, White realizes the gift is scratched and goes to exchange it.  When explaining she bought the gift on the ninth floor, she is told that there is no ninth floor.  Things get even stranger when White sees the sales lady who sold her the gift.  The sales lady turns out to be a store mannequin.

White feels that if she can get back to the ninth floor the mystery will be revealed… and she is right.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “Mr. Bevis” [Season 1, Episode 33]
Original Air Date: June 3, 1960

Director: William Asher

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Orson Bean and Henry Jones

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Bookkeeper Mr. Bevis [Bean] is a remarkably kind but eccentric man.  After being fired from his job, Bevis meets a “Guardian Angel” who can help him turn his life around if he is willing to make some changes.
Rating:

Twilight Zone: “A Passage for a Trumpet” [Season 1, Episode 32]
Original Air Date: May 20, 1960

Director: Don Medford

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: Jack Klugman and John Anderson

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Trumpeter Joey Crown [Klugman] is at the end of his rope.  He drinks too much and has burned bridges with his friends.  Crown pawns his trumpet (yet again) and is hit by a truck as he leaves the pawn shop.

When Crown wakes up no one can see him.  Believing himself dead, Crown is surprised when he meets a fellow horn player who convinces Crown that all is not lost.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “The Chaser” [Season 1, Episode 31]
Original Air Date: May 13, 1960

Director: Douglas Heyes

Writer: Robert Presnell Jr. based on a short story by John Collier

Starring: George Grizzard, Patricia Barry and John McIntire

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Roger Shakleforth [Grizzard] is madly in love with a woman [Barry] who will have nothing to do with him.  When Shakleforth learns of a Professor [McIntire] who has created a love potion, Shakleforth knows that he must have it.  Sadly, Shakleforth learns the hard way… be careful what you ask for.

Rating:

Twilight Zone: “A Stop at Willoughby” [Season 1, Episode 30]
Original Air Date: May 6, 1960

Director: Robert Parrish

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring: James Daly

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Gart Williams [Daly] hates his life.  As an ad agency junior executive the pressure is on and business isn’t good.  His home life is just as bad with a wife who nags and pressures him.  On the train home from the city after a particularly bad day at work Williams falls asleep and wakes up at the stop for Willoughby.  He gets out and finds himself transported to a small town back when life was simpler.  Williams returns back to modern time where the pressures at home and work are still there… He decides to find a way back to Willoughby where he can spend the rest of his life.

Rating: