Is This The Best Anti-War Episode of The Twilight Zone?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- A man and his family against the world, and the signature twist ending that the Twilight Zone was so famous for.
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I wonder if people even understand how amazing The Twilight Zone was. They had to come up with a new story with new characters every week and were creating sci-fi and fantasy episodes at a time when the available special effects were very limited. Yet, nearly everyone agrees that this is by far the best anthology series of it's kind and I don't think I've ever even witnessed anyone try to debate that fact. Not to mention the fact that they managed to make compelling, thought provoking episodes, that consistently surprised viewers with all kinds of twists and turns. Also, this is one of my favorite episodes.
I agree with you, last night I watched The Gift with the alien who came to bring a vaccine to cure cancer. That was the gift. But fear made the townspeople kill the alien and burn the gift except for what was in the gift, but the chemical components of the vaccine was burned in the fire. The best part was the little orphan Pedro, he was kind but he was thought to be odd because he liked to look at the night sky. The kind doctor took him home in the end.
Also a bit prophetic too. I just hope I am wrong
@@55Quirll me too.
This is a great episode. There are hints throughout that it is not where you think it is. The music. The phone. The noise the car makes. Have them over for cards. Something is off but you don’t realize it until the end. Fantastic.
How is having them over for cards unusual? It was very common then for couples to play bridge at night, and for women to get together during the day to play (the card game) Mah.Shang.
The matrix that wasn't inverted yet
This was Fritz Weaver’s very first time acting on camera, since he had been strictly a stage actor before doing this, and he did a really good job.
Great in Fail Safe.
He was also good in the Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man."
Having had the pleasure of working with Fritz Weaver, one of the things that his stage acting made him so good was that on the first day of a rehearsal, he already knew all his lines without needing to refer to the script. This gave him the ability for screen work, to start anywhere in the story and it would be as though they would be using multiple cameras. There was no difference in his expressions or tone of voice.
He was weird.
he also is col cascio in fail safe
Considering the way things are going in the US right now, "The Obsolete Man" with Fritz Weaver and Burgess Meredith also really stands out to me.
Oh please... you've got three meals a day, entertainment at your keyboard & mouse, and an army of police and military people to keep you safe. You're living a life with clean water, clean air, and no real wants. As said in one movie, "Lighten' up, Francis."
@@Easy-Eight "The Obsolete Man" wasn't about security, or entertainment, it was about freedom. If you don't have that, all the other trappings are just a gilded cage.
@@Easy-Eight
"He who exchanges all of his liberty for a little bit of temporary security soon loses both and deserves neither one."
Benjamin Franklin
We have to remember that WW2, with the focus on Naziism, was still fresh in people's memories. It was even more recent to them than Y2K is to us. There had been in most people's memories a time in which fascism could have become the dominant form of government in the world, and non-fascist countries could expect to be invaded and crushed by fascist ones.
The only aspect of The Obsolete Man that rings true today: the demise of the classic library. It has a special meaning for me - I came from a home that was variously run by a schizophrenic mother, alcoholic father, or violent alcoholic stepmother. My last two years in high school were in a school so racially troubled that there was a race riot that made national news because the Oakland police refused to come on campus, and I was left with PTSD that prevented me from voluntarily setting foot in a campus environment for 50 years. If not for my education from public libraries my life would have been very different and in a horrible way.
Agreed Serling had no love for Statism, whether it came in the form of fascism, Marxism, militarism, or any other -ism.
Andrews and Weaver's back and forth in their scenes together was a masterclass. Made the episodes tension all the more palpable.
My favorite Twilight Zone that is related to war is the episode where there is a report of a nuclear attack coming, one couple has a bomb shelter, and their friends all try to bust into it.
And all the neighbors turned against each other, and suspect each other.
@@kimerleviccaro1957 No... It was another Serling's episode not directly related to nuclear war but to alien and monsters if I remember. If I remember it was staged in the new and famous "American suburbs". In Brazil suburbs has a totally different meaning. Hmmm maybe you are right. I vaguely remember that there was another episode with a typical American radio broadcast of apocalypse inside a household room. I watched it many decades ago. You are I probably right. Brazil.
Brazil.
Brazil.
@@KRYPTOS_K5 I just watched the one about the monsters but the people were the monsters.
@@kimerleviccaro1957 The episode that I think you are referring to is one where aliens are attacking. All the neighbors turn on each other. At the end, one alien says to the other something like, “That’s all we do- turn a few lights and things on and off and they all kill each other.”
The episode I am talking about is- There are 4 couples eating dinner at one of the couple’s homes. It is a party, and they all talk about how much they like the home owner.
They then find out that a nuclear attack is coming, and the couple whose home they are at has a bomb shelter. The majority of the episode is the other 3 couples- the really good friends- all trying to break into the shelter.
By the end, they all turn on each other including bringing up things like race.
When they finally all break in and are about to basically kill each other, the radio tells them that the attack was a false report, so then they are all just standing there going, “Uhhhh”
I saw both of them but I think I’m confusing the two. I’ll have to rewatch them. Thank you. I think the guy with the bomb shelter was a doctor and it was a retirement party for him.
As a kid Edward Andrews scared me more in this episode than any monster could.
For such an ordinary looking person, Andrews surely could be menacing.
1:50 Edward Andrews has to be one of the best villain actors of all time. Both Serling and Hitchcock made great use of him; he always looks as if he is up to something sinister.
I agree! He always did a fantastic job that would cause revulsion sometimes, he was so intense, all while bringing it to us as understatement.
Sinister is exactly the word I always used (as did my mother independently) to describe Andrews. Easy to hate in his roles but even more so, greatly deserving of admiration for those very same roles. A wonderful actor.
@@sergioreyes298 By all accounts nothing like that in real life as is usually the case. Andrews had 3 kids and was married 30 yrs until his death from a heart attack in 1985. Wonderful actor indeed..
Edward Andrews was a all around actor. He was the doctor to Rock Hudson in the comedy farsce SEND ME NO FLOWERS--I always liked him in the role --besides the overall movie.
See him in the TZ episode, "You Drive:.
Imagine if that ship is the ship that crashes into the womans attic in the episode The Invaders.
That's one of my favorite episodes, with Agnes Morehead!
😂🤣😅🤣
Now that would be a far out mind bending episode for sure.
As far as it's a great idea and I approve of it and I hate to be the needle here, the ship on that particular episode have USA marks and earthly name on the outside so..........
Absolutely Love that theory! Too bad rod isn’t around to confirm it.
Fritz Weaver would also appear in "The Obsolete Man".
Serling was a deep thinker about the human condition. I saw him interviewd by Mike Wallace and it was then that I realized what a philosopher and man of action he was. I'm a bigger fan of his now than when the shows were first aired.
Edward Andrews was a fabulous character actor. He could do it all: comedy, drama, film noir. His voice and face were instantly recognizable. We don't have actors like that any more.
He was in many tv shows back in the 60's
not unlike Allan Melvin from Bilko and All in The Family and others....everywhere and all the time.
Excellent episode. Serling was a lucky man. He was in the right time with the best sci-fi writers in a great country during a great mankind's moment of History and benefiting of a totally new and virgin mass media. And there were even more advantages to be a popular but also mass media true intellectual in the 50/60/70. Think in today's culture versus yesterday's culture...
Brazil
I have the entire collection in Portuguese and English.
With regards to Serling it was more a matter of finding an outlet within the science fiction genre to write then perceived controversial social commentary that producers and sponsors were always censoring him for. A stroke of genius on his part quite honestly.
@@michaelschramm1064You are right in a typical American fashion of approach to those commercial endeavours. However I suspect that it was probably the kind of (not kindness) standard way to be a notorious public figure which Serling certainly would despise.
Brazil
Loved all Serlings shows. Twilight Zone was great and so was night gallery.
Mr. Serling never disappointed he brought great suspense, drama and mystery. He left us wondering. Love how he made one wonder...
Night Gallery didn't last long on air but I loved what I did get to see.
If he had not died so early I Wonder what else he would have given to his audience.
♥️
Yes he passed untimely, being only 50 years of age. Still, it is remarkable that he managed to launch 4 television series (2 anthology based, 2 episodic) given that the medium fought him every step of the way.
Cigarettes killed them all
@@johngoerger8996 - Rod Serling was probably a Genius and a great Visionary. But unfortunately, he was not a great enough Visionary to realzie that Cigarerretes are defintely bad for you. There was one episode (and probably more than one) where the Actors in the Script praise Cigarettes and Tobacco. I remember that great episode where people are stuck in a Restuaraunt in a Small Town and they think there might be a E.T invader ONe of the characters reveals himself to be a Martian when he pulls out his 3rd Arm. He says how thiere is nothing as great on his planet like a Cigarrette. I wish Serling had realized Cigarettes are not good for you.
@@HoldenNY22 Cigarettes were probably a coping mechanism for him. From what I've read, he never got over his experiences in WWII, which was also evident in his nervous vocal twitches and lip biting. They didn't call it PTSD in those days, but everyone knew what it was.
@@pcno2832 Spot On (as the British say), Sir!
Twilight Zone was an exceptional series. This is one of my favorites.
Richard Matheson (1926 - 2013) was a prolific and very popular writer. He wrote the story, that was the premise for the Steven Spielberg movie, "Duel" (1971). The movie about a mysterious and deranged truck driver. who was obsessed with trying to kill an innocent car driver, played by Denis Weaver.
The original version, was a short story published in Playboy in April of 1971.
He wrote many fine short stories indeed…enjoyed his “I Am Legend” and “The Shrinking Man” novels as well.
@@michaelschramm1064 "Legend" has been made into, what, four movies.
@@emsleywyatt3400 With at least 3 different titles.
I once had the good fortune to see and meet Richard Matheson at a sci-fi book fair in Granada Hills, California. He was quite willing to autograph any books that fair attendees brought, so I took with me three of his books that I had (and still have) three short story collections published in the 1960's: Shock, Shock II and Shock III. Shock II contains the story "Mute" which was made into a Twilight Zone episode during that season with the rarely seen one hour episodes
Serling's series was highly influential to writers and TV imitators. Rod realized that if he created a scenario featuring elements of science fiction or fantasy, he could write just about anything. He cleverly cloaked themes of racism, paranoia, greed, politics and war in a way not done before.
Or since!
*"Up, over, and whammo." One of the best lines in both The Twilight Zone and in television history.*
Well done video. You captured and explained the intensity of that episode. Like so many Twilight Zone episodes it was thought provoking and intelligent. Only seconds into Andrews’s performance I despised and feared him. That episode is a Gold Standard. Too bad NOTHING on TV now can come close
I was 14 years old when the Twilight Zone aired its first episode. The actor in the first episode was Earl Holliman. Roughly 16 years later I stood within 20 feet of of Mr Holliman while he waited to do a scene for theTV series Police Woman with Angie Dickinson. I had the opportunity to visit Warner Bros in the mid 70's. Funny how life works.
I remembered this episode before the narrator told about the script!!! I remember at the time (when it was first shown) exclaiming “I knew it!) right before the twist was pronounced!! What a great show The Twilight Zone was! I’m glad I was alive to see them in their first run!!
The episode beautifully dropped little clues that this wasn't really 1960s America: The strange music Sturka plays, the electric motor (judging by the sound) of the family car, and the sign on the fence: "MINISTRY of Science."
This episode is so quietly tense, it almost makes me feel like I cant even breathe. Another great one cataloged! :)
Yes 👍, The silence added to the suspense, rather than the hokey, overdone music now
First discovered TZ in the very early 80’s when KTLA5 would run a Thanksgiving day marathon here in the LA market..as kids we would love the scary ones, living doll, to serve man, nightmare at 20,000 feet, etc…this became our family tradition.. Most went over our heads then..This episode in particular.. What I take from it as an adult was they escaped their doomed planet to arrive on a “safe” planet that at the time was embroiled in a Cold War and uncertain fate.. pure genius…TZ has been part of mine and my brothers and sisters lives now for 40 years, and never gets old… I subscribed to your channel, keep up the great work…
Maybe one of the Best Anti-Big Government episodes
Deaths-Head Revisited is the best anti-war episode.
Yes, Deaths-Head Revisited is a great anti-war episode as well. I find “Third From the Sun” more interesting to me because of the sci-fi elements but D-HR is very disturbing.
Rod Serling helped sooo many great writers get their best stuff on television. Contemporary fiction owes him everything.
I love, love, love the original TZ. Great episode, I laughed thinking to myself how the characters happen to have an American accent and know of our planet as Earth! Edward Andrews also played the villain wonderfully on another episode in season 5 'You Drive '
Only just realised that it was the same spaceship as in 'To Serve Man' 'On Thursday we leave for home' and 'People are alike all over' all subsequent TZ remakes pale badly compared to the original. Rod Serling was a brilliant man who died to soon
Thank you so much for posting this. This is in my top 25 list of "Twilight Zone" episodes. The writing is brilliant (of course)! The performances are superb! I love that stock music. I was sad to see that this episode will not be airing for the Fourth of July marathon "Rod, White, & Blue" this year! AWESOME CRITIQUE!
4th of July marathon? You mean on KTLA-5? WHOA they still do that.... I caught more than a few TZ episodes that way. In Navy in Long Beach 1983-86.
Police Squad with Leslie Neilson was also such a program except it was a comedy. You had to pay close attention or you would have missed a gag.
This was always one of my favorite TZ episodes. I think I agree with you - it is one of its finest anti-war episodes, though I would put it neck and neck with A Quality of Mercy, where a gung ho WW2 American army lieutenant finds himself in the body of a Japanese officer at 1942 Corregidor, where he learns the other side of the coin.
Richard Bare directed most of the episodes of Green Acres, and he was once asked the difference between directing something as detailed as Twilight Zone and directing Green Acres. Bare remarked, "With Green Acres, the problem was staying awake."
No one had THAT problem with Twilight Zone.
I missed the episode title the first time around. "A Quality of Mercy" stands out better in parentheses.
Leonard Nimoy was in A Quality of Mercy. A great episode, but then again most TZ episodes were!
I was born in 59 but I have a sister that's almost 6 years older so every Saturday we watched The Twilight Zone, then The Outer Limits then Bandstand. ❤️
Such a great episode!!
This episode is a great tale, one that most of us are familiar with, described in the old saying "Out of the frying pan . . . and into the fire." Visionary writing from an amazing human, Rod Serling lives on in our memories.
This and the original Outer Limits were some of the best Tv ever, still watch them today. This was one of the best episodes in my opinion.
A great episode; I can still feel the tension as I remember seeing it as a kid. I watched it only once or twice since and felt just as anxious. Wonderful suspenseful episode. Great music and angles matching up with wonderful performances that went just far enough without being unbelievable. I wish tbe series had either lasted long enough to, or had put out a special with the same crew, Serling and writers, either revisiting an episode (though there is risk of that taking away from the original) or, especially, having a sort of duel-sequel where 2 or 3 episodes characters intertwine in some way. Though that might be more doable with Outer Limits (another great show)
This episode of The Twilight Zone, number 14 in the first season of the series, was broadcast on January 8, 1960. It was early in Fritz Weaver's career, but was not his first on-camera performance. He began work in the mid-1950's, the golden age of live television drama, with roles on The United States Steel Hour and The DuPont Show of the Month among others. He was in the 1957 live television production of Beyond This Place directed by Sidney Lumet, who a few years later would direct the film Fail Safe in which Weaver played a treasonous Air Force officer who comes dangerously close to starting a nuclear war.
- I was hoping that lovely Ann Francis was on that spaceship ... 😍 💖
This is my favorite twilight zone episode!!!
Edward Andrews was a featured actor on several episodes. Usually a villain character.
Remember him on You Drive, what other episodes was he in?
E.A. was very good at comedy
@@debbieanne7962 I looked Edward Andrews up on Google and it says that he was in 2 episodes of the Twilight Zone. I am sorry. But he appeared in lots of other tv shows and movies.
@@sthompson4049 I seem to remember that. Thanks 😊 But it seems that he was a villain on most of the things he was in. Even in comedies.
When I first saw this episode it was definitely a huh? moment for me. The villain, the families were all superb. I thought it was well written and remember thinking this is what sci-fi should be all about. A good compelling story that leaves you thinking about it long after the story is finished. Anyways thanks for this video and stay awesome!
Totally Agree. These days everyone is too scared to try something new, they keep churning out the same moneymaking, PC stuff. Today is more like written by accountants. Real writing back then, minimal effects.
This episode is among my top 5 favorite and I always liked Edward Andrews in any roll on any show or movie he was in
Edward Andrews always seemed like a nervous and dangerous craven little backstabbing man.
Great character acting
@@debbieanne7962 Mr. Andrews played a great part in "The Harder They Fall
(1956) as a sleazy boxing manager. Not many actors could play scenes with Humphrey Bogart and come out on top!
Remember him well in "You Drive" another Twilight Zone classic.
Edward Andrews was over the top (in a magnificent way of course) as a pervert serial killer in a movie called The Unguarded Moment. It comes from a short story written by actress Rosiland Russell
Rod Sterling's Twilight zones are fantastic I have the whole collection . I'm almost 70 years old. But I watched them back in the early 60s and I watch them now. They're just as good now as they ever were in the 60s Twilight Zone was always way ahead of its time. Rod Serling was a genius.
What’s your favorite episode?
@@QuintTheSharkerOne of my favorite one's is episode 130 the 7th is made up of phantoms.
My favorite Cold War episode would be Old Man in the Cave. It’s about a dystopian future where humanity has been decimated by the atomic bomb. People are left to survive by the wisdom from an ‘old man in a cave’. It’s a great warning look at what could happen if humanity is not careful.
I saw this episode when I was 8, and I asked my Dad "How are they supplying UPS to a computer without utility service or backup generators" he chuckled.
Why is the computer in the cave? What energy source runs the machine? At the conclusion of the episode there was disappointment - even Rod Serling and his pontificating could not help....
I love this episode, but I was a kid when I saw it and it scared the crap out of me. It seemed so real, eventhough I knew it was the Twilight Zone.
The story was set in classic Americana. That was real. The cold war was real. Even the characterizations were based on real humans. There were only a few plot devices in that story that were actually fictional.
@@rtqii Wow, I did not know that, now I am freaked out. 😳
Fritz Weaver was a great actor. This was a fine performance of his. He sometimes plays villains and sometimes heroes. This time he was very sympathetic in this role.
I am such a fan of this show! So before it's time and never ceases to amaze and I never ever picked those twist endings. I've watched a number of interviews about it and sure Rod wouldn't be surprised at the still loved history being shown 👍 really enjoyed this 👵🇭🇲
One of my favorite episodes for the mood and acting as you have well illustrated. Really love the musical score. Have loved this one since my youth…
This episode also had fantastic music that created tension and drama the music was genius in many episodes that is an often overlooked quality of how good the series was.
I also believe that B&W helped provide a feeling of desperation. Those brought up with only color TV do not understand the work that goes into designing the sets and clothing with their colors and patterns so backgrounds and people don’t clash or appear washed out with what they’re wearing or working in.
The best anti-war Rod Serling episode was NOT a TZ episode, but a made for television movie called "Carol For Another Christmas". It plays very much like a TZ episode and was based upon the idea of "A Christmas Carol" taking place in cold-war America. Written by Serling, the ONLY television show ever produced by Joseph Mankeiwicz, with music by Henry Mancini and starring Britt Ekland, Ben Gazzara, Sterling Hayden, Pat Hingle,
Steve Lawrence, Eva Marie Saint, and Robert Shaw...but the real star was Peter Sellers with one of his most bizarre characters. It was shown once in 1964 as a means of promoting the United Nations and not shown again until TCM aired it in 2012, which is where I discovered it. The full version is currently on TH-cam.
Great episode I love the ending EARTH!. When I first watched it as kid I thought WOW!! Don't come here we may not be better off.
"Deaths- Head Revisited" is also excellent and timely comment on war. And beautifully filmed in noir style black and white.
This is my favorite episode, by a long shot.
Yeah, it's 'da bomb'!
Both Twilight Zone and Hitchcock Presents offered a lot of anti-war, anti-discrimination lessons. "Third From the Sun" is one of my favorite TZ epis.
I bought the 1st season, which was all that was available at that time. This episode was in it. I thought it was GREAT! Just yesterday, I saw the whole 5 seasons, but it was more than I wanted to pay. This has made me decide to go back and get it. Thanks! It was my favorite show when I was a Teenager, and it STILL stands out as one of the best shows EVER made. The THOUGHT provoking part is what I think made it so. The CRAP put out today does its' best to tell you what to think based on their sickness, and absolutely discourages ANY thinking for yourself.
Fantastic episode. One of my favorite episode with good acting; special effects, for its time; excellent n writing. Watching it every so often to this day. Was a big fan during its original broadcast n watching it every week. Kudos for ur commentary n upload. New subscriber because of this vid. Anticipating ur next one. Aloha from Hawaii
So many great Twilight Zone episodes it’s hard to choose a favorite but I think Third from the Sun is my favorite if I had to choose one.
I think Death’s Head Revisited is better when it comes to anti-war, but this is a great episode as well. No complaints from me. Great tension and air of foreboding.
The Last Flight showed the impact one person could have. It inspired a plot for a Star Trek TNG episode.
Also Russell Johnson in “Back There”.
REALLY? Which one? Don't tease us like dat, dude.
@@michaelgarwood7076 Yesterday’s Enterprise.
"People are Alike All Over" was the plot to the first Star Trek. Even used the same actress in the same role, with similar costume.
They didn't syndicate that one for years because people started noticing.
Star Trek lifted the theme music
Several episode plots
The shape of the ship
The uniforms
The control, viewscreen and turbolift set styling for the bridge
The name Vina
The Transporter
Flip communicators
Tablet computers
All from earlier series, movies, comics, novels, novel cover art.
9:58 "...it makes you think about what you are watching". And that is why TZ is my all time favorite show.
I remember the one with Elizabeth Montgomery as he enemy soldier one of my favorite
That’s with Charles Bronson. Awesome.
One of my favorites; I remember when it was first televised.
I feel that the theme of most TZ episodes is this: "Watch what happens if you get what you want." BTW Andrews is great as usual.
Great upload, this was one of our favorite episodes for Twilight Zone fans.
Great analysis. I saw these all when they first hit the air. The moral and ethical what ifs made me think. It is THE big reason Star Trek had such big success. Every story made you think. Is love stronger than hate?
Another great TZ episode that used props from Forbidden Planet
I don't know why, but for some reason this episode always reminds me of the origin of the Fantastic Four.
The Twlight Zone was 1 of the best Si Fi shows on TV at that time. There were also these shows too-Way Out & The Outter Limits.
Too bad nobody can come close to this today. It would never be allowed.
By whom?
@@emsleywyatt3400 Hollyweird and The Message cult.
Edward Andrews: just one of the excellent actors to appear on this program. Nowadays, with all the technology available for filming, I seriously doubt they could even come close to the quality of the scripts and the fabulous acting of the ‘60’s Twilight Zone.
This episode was a definite reflection of the times in which it was created. During the late 1950s/early 1960s, humanity was anxious and fear-ridden over the prospect of all-out nuclear war. Rod Serling's use of twist endings would be carried on with, "The Planet of the Apes." (1968).
Such a great ending to a movie.
This episode aired in January 1960, near the height of the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race here on Earth. That's what Serling was referring to in the closing narration. That's what made the twist ending so cool: This family risked everything to flee nuclear war on their own planet--only to land on Earth which was also risking nuclear war at the time!
Awesome ! I This is a treat for me Ive loved watched the TwilightZone ever since I was 8 when I saw Next stop Willoughby in 1976.
I thought I knew about and saw every episode and now heres one Twilight Zone episode I never saw !
When I first saw this episode, I could not help but wonder about the Hi-Fi or stereo console in the living room playing the music. When he goes to turn off the music, he pushes in on something that you can not see, and you hear a click. It suggests to me that it was some sort of a cartridge tape machine but not a phonograph. That combined with the telephone made the room seem very futuristic.
The acting is taut, tense, and well-played in "Third From the Sun," in the classic Twilight Zone series. Rod Serling had a knack for adding social comment to the episodes, making it look believable, and adding a twist ending.
The remade TZ series of years later absolutely suck. Except for Night Gallery, which had some evocative programs, though not nearly as subtle as the TZ.
I recently found your channel and im binge watching all your videos. Please make more The twilight zone videos i really love this show!!
Edward Andrews also did a fine job as a sleazebucket in "Bullitt," especially with the car chase scene, Steve McQueen in the famous green Mustang, Andrews and another bad guy in a gorgeous black Dodge Charger (which of course doesn't stay gorgeous for long)....he also plays, against type, a small part in 'Tora, Tora, Tora' as a good guy, a United States State Department officer who makes the fateful decision to inform FDR about the pending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, rather than Admiral Kimmel at Pearl Harbor, thereby leaving Kimmel with no warning... an honest but fateful error...
The Twilight Zone that most influenced my late blooming nuclear disarmament interest is The Old Man in the Cave, set in a post nuclear apocalypse. It made me wonder, when I watched it a couple years ago, if there would ever be anybody saying afterward, "I'm glad we did that."
We need another round of these anti-nuclear war shows to put some fear back into the public. when this episode aired (Jan 1960) the Doomsday clock was at 7 mins to midnight. In 2022, its 100 seconds to mid-night. We never been closer to global nuclear war.
This has been my favorite episode forever. Next would be "the shelter". I have the futuristic phone Sturka uses in this episode.
Wow! I'll have to go look this one up! I don't remember seeing it in reruns or as part of one of the marathons over the years and there aren't many episodes I've missed!
Excellent video on this classic TZ episode! I agree the acting was just superb!
This was a very good episode. And yes, Edward Andrews was excellent as the villain. It's funny, but in a lot of shows, it's really the bad guy who makes the show work. I see in the sitcom McHale's Navy with Joe Flynn doing a marvelous job as Captain Binghamton. A lot of shows would just not be the same without these characters. Edward Andrews was also in the Twilight Zone episode You Drive, which he did an excellent job as the tormented driver who ran away after hitting a kid in a hit and run accident.
The best anti-war episode - I don't know. Some others come to mind. A Quality of Mercy with Dean Stockwell as the gung ho young lt. changing places with the Japanese that he wanted to eliminate was pretty good. There was the Purple Testament was also good. William Reynolds plays a lt. who can gets the ability to see who's going to die in a battle.
However my favorite has to be Death's Head Revisited from season 3. It takes place at Dachau concentration camp after the war. Oscar Beregi comes back to reminisce of his days there as the sadistic SS Captain who ran the camp. He gets confronted by one of the Jews he killed now the keeper of the camp played by Joseph Schildkraut and he goes insane. I wouldn't say this is necessarily an anti-war episode. Maybe around antisemitism and evil.
One my 15 fave episodes! I've watch them all so often
Weaver here....also played the 'State Executioner'...in, 'The Obsolete Man'.... with Burgess Merrideth.
Many viewers note that Fritz Weaver was in the episodes “Third from the Sun” and “The Obsolete Man.” I suspect that Fritz Weaver lobbied for these parts. Weaver was always anti-war, and he spent WW II in a U.S. labor camp as a conscientious objector. The USA had 152 such penal camps during the war, and did not release its prisoners until two years after the war ended. (During the First World War, conscientious objectors were simply imprisoned.)
As a baby boomer, I seem to remember like every third episode of TZ was about World War III !
This one was brilliant a great twist but viewers who knew astronomy were aware earth is the third planet from our sun so they could have guessed the twist early on. Audiences in Holland knew Darth Vader was Luke's father since Darth Vader is Dutch for Dark Father.
Edward Andrews was in his element in this role. He was a master of the smug, officious persona.
I never saw this episode, nor any of the “banned” episodes. However, my favorite “Eve of Destruction “ episode is where a man makes a bomb shelter just big enough for his family in case of nuclear war. None of his neighbors prepare for the same eventuality, and as a nuclear war becomes imminent, all his neighbors start bargaining for spots in the cellar and end up almost killing each other in the process. The war is called off,but it shows the true nature of man… willing to kill friends to save themselves. I’ll have to look up the name of that episode. One episode, which I saw only once, has a young Dennis Hopper starting a group who worship Hitler and his warped ideas. Hopper’s acting is the best and most passionate of any I have seen by any other actor on The Twilight Zone.I have a question for someone: I read that there was an episode that was canned for being too politically motivated.Serling liked to inject his own personal ideas into movies but this was deemed to be beyond the pale. Did anyone else ever hear of this? I’m going to Google it. I post again if I find the answer. It was supposed to be a superb episode but “too racy”.( not racist).
Fritz Weaver was almost Mr Twilight Zone but Andrews really does steal this episode. One of the best!
Indeed, Andrews does steal the show, his portrayal of a dastardly type is sublime. I’ve always crowned Jack Klugman as “Mr. Twilight Zone” myself, his having starred in no less than 4 episodes (!)
@@michaelschramm1064 My vote goes to Burgess Meredith.
@@michaelschramm1064 Think they are tied.
@@itsjohndell Yes, both Klugman and Meredith headlined four episodes, tying them for the record. A Game of Pool is my favorite Klugman (although A Passage for Trumpet is outstanding, too), and The Obsolete Man (which also features Fritz Weaver, but as a despicable villain!) is my favorite Burgess Meredith episode. Twilight Zone was a trendsetting show, and is still influential to the SciFi and Fantasy television and films we watch today. It's the granddaddy of them all.
@@davidwalter2002 Klugman’s best portrayal for me is as Joey Crown in “A Passage for Trumpet”, with an honorable mention for “In Praise of Pip”.
After decades of watching this show I can’t remember ever seeing this episode.
The set lighting really adds to the feeling of "oddness".
Watched Twilight Zone as a kid when they first aired. It was a very interesting and entertaining.
They just let the sinister guy randomly walk into their house? That part is a bit hard to believe.
Holdover from an era when people left their doors unlocked-even in the Twilight Zone. Plus, the character is meant to convey an obtuse, annoyingly inquisitive and invasive sort.
He was a fellow employee of the two people who worked for the company.
@@glennso47 Well, true. But just a fellow employee-not a relative, after all.
I feel he was probubly an important high ranking person that could go where he wanted.
@@earlleeruhf3130 No, just a co-worker from a war munitions/astronautics plant.
There is a book that came out a few years ago, maybe five years, which covers all of the Twilight Zone shows.
My favourite episode!!!
little "clues" that begin to present themselves.....the exotic/futuristic telephones and the strange music Jody wanted to dance to.....and finally the car......it sounded like a gas turbine engine.....in this society,possibly the idea of piston internal combustion engines had simply never entered anybody,s head and all their engine technology had been based on the turbine instead.
For some reason I always think of the Far Side cartoon of the flying saucer landing in the back of a KFC with a group of chickens disembarking the craft . We're doomed.