THE TWILIGHT ZONE
(1985-1989)
Season 1

Available on DVD

1. Shatterday/A Little Peace And Quiet
2. Wordplay/Dreams For Sale/Chameleon
3. Healer/Children's Zoo/Kentucky Rye
4. Little Boy Lost/Wishbank/Nightcrawlers
5. If She Dies/Ye Gods
6. Examination Day/A Message From Charity
7. Teacher's Aide/Paladin Of The Lost Hour
8. Act Break/The Burning Man/Dealer's Choice
9. Dead Woman's Shoes/Wong's Lost And Found Emporium
10. The Shadow Man/The Uncle Devil Show/Opening Day
11. The Beacon/One Life, Furnished In Poverty
12. Her Pilgrim Soul/I Of Newton
13. Night Of The Meek/But Can She Type?/The Star
14. Still Life/The Little People Of Killany Woods/The Misfortune Cookie
15. Monsters!/A Small Talent For War/A Matter Of Minutes
16. The Elevator/To See The Invisible Man/Tooth And Consequences
17. Welcome to Winfield/Quarantine
18. Gramma/Personal Demons/Cold Reading
19. The Leprechaun Artist/Dead Run
20. Profile In Silver/Button, Button
21. Need To Know/Red Snow
22. Take My Life Please/Devil's Alphabet/The Library
23. Shadow Play/Grace Note
24. A Day In Beaumont/The Last Defender Of Camelot

Shatterday/A Little Peace And Quiet

SHATTERDAY - A rather dislikeable man accidentally phones his apartment only to have the phone answered by himself. The stranger starts to take over his life and seems to be making a better job of it.

The new version of the Twilight Zone opens with a rather low key story that might be taken from a Harlan Ellison short story and might be directed by Wes Craven, but is really rather dull, not making much of its initially intriguing premise. Who is this stranger? What is his purpose? How has this happened? The explanation is muddled and the by the end doesn’t really matter. Bruce Willis plays the two parts quite differently, but one is essentially emotionless and the other nothing but, falling apart far too rapidly.

A LITTLE PEACE AND QUIET – A housewife and mother is driven to the very edge of distraction by the noise in her life, but then she discovers a necklace that gives her the power to freeze time and get a little peace

This second story isn’t a huge improvement on the first, dealing with a very familiar urban landscape, but failing to really explore the possibilities behind the housewife’s sudden power. Melinda Dillon makes for a very appealing centre, but the supposedly twist ending is both predictable and muffled, not taking in the emotional impact that it should have.

Wordplay/Dreams For Sale/Chameleon

WORDPLAY – A medical equipment salesman struggling to learn the names of the new lines suddenly finds his ability to communicate lost as everyone starts to talk gibberish, and threatening the life of his son when he is unable to talk to hospital staff.

The interesting premise fails to take off and lacks any real point to it, although it is entertaining whilst it is running. How and why this has happened is not really relevant, but the effects are and it would have been nice to have seen a bit more of that.

DREAMS FOR SALE – A woman finds her dream picnic is just that, a dream generated by technology.

Meg Foster is the star of the completely pointless story. It is obvious from the start that the picnic scenario is technological in origin and so it should not be a surprise to the woman when she emerges, though the malfunction of the machine could be the cause of that. That the dream is more appealing than the reality and she chooses to stay within it is the only point that the story has to offer.

CHAMELEON – A space shuttle mission brings back a being that is able to absorb people and morph into any shape. When it is imprisoned, it becomes a nuclear bomb on a two minute countdown.

Lack of running time hampers this story, along with the all too obvious use of stock NASA footage of the space shuttle in space and landing. Since the being has already absorbed a human being it should be in possession of all his memories and knowledge and yet has to be talked out of blowing up, something that doesn’t ring true, but might have been expanded with more time.

Healer/Children's Zoo/Kentucky Rye

HEALER – A small time crook steals a crystal that has magical healing properties. He amasses a fortune, but learns that nothing comes without a price.

Eric Bogosian stars as the small time thief who goes on a roller coaster of fame, fortune, death and rebirth. It is never explained why he steals the crystal in the first place since he is clearly unaware of its healing properties and the rest is a straightforward morality tale that at least keeps you wanting to know how it all works out.

CHILDREN'S ZOO – A child learns of a place where she can trade in her argumentative parents for better ones.

Sometimes good things come in small packages. This is short and sweet and doesn't say very much, but provides fun along the way.

KENTUCKY RYE – Following a car accident caused by drinking, a man finds himself with the chance of a lifetime to buy a bar.

The main character here is allowed to be thoroughly dislikeable and it's a story about comeuppance. There are few surprises along the way, but Jeffrey DeMunn plays the part well and the moral isn't very hard to spot.

Little Boy Lost/Wishbank/Nightcrawlers

LITTLE BOY LOST – A photographer on the verge of taking a job that she has always dreamed of meets the boy that she will be giving up by not having a family.

This is a bittersweet tale that at least has the courage to see out things with the courage of its convictions and not cave in to the expected ending. Given that her proposed partner is a bit of a jerk, though, it doesn't come as a surprise.

WISHBANK – A woman is offered three wishes after rubbing a lamp, but there is a certain amount of paperwork to be completed.

A fun, frivolous confection that has no point to it at all, but is just a good time.

NIGHTCRAWLERS – In a remote diner on a stormy night a group of people come face to face with the Vietnam war made flesh.

William Friedkin directed THE EXORCIST and here comes up with the pearl of the show to date, an intense and creepy story that mixes psychic powers and horror in a neat and telling style. There are images here that last beyond the credits, something that hasn't happened to date.

If She Dies/Ye Gods

IF SHE DIES – A man who has already lost his wife and son to tragedy faces more heartache when his daughter is put into a coma by a car accident, but a haunted bed might just be the thing he needs.

This ghost story is somewhat muddled and less than successful in that it doesn't have the time to really flesh out the plot. At no time is it clear why he believes that putting his daughter into the haunted bed is going to help or what happened to the ghostly child to make her hang around. The ending is nicely ambiguous, thought.

YE GODS – A man whose career is everything finds himself at the mercy of Cupid's ire unless he can find a way to resolve the old god's own love crisis.

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Examination Day/A Message From Charity

EXAMINATION DAY – In the future, a boy is determined to do well on his state-sponsored 12 year old exam, not knowing the real importance of it.

There's a twist in the tail of this storyline, but it's one that doesn't come as any surprise, though it does suffer from being under explained, going only for the shock reveal.

A MESSAGE FROM CHARITY - A boy in 1985 finds his mind linked to a girl in 1701 after they both suffer from the same illness. What he tells her of the future, however, threatens her own present.

This is another sweet tale that is for once given some time to breathe and is all the better for it. The descent into witch trials is nicely judged, though the escape from the same is somewhat unbelievable. It remains, however, one of the better stories.

Teacher's Aide/Paladin Of The Lost Hour

TEACHER'S AIDE – In a school full of delinquents and gangs, one teacher is suffused with the power of a gargoyle and makes a stand against the kids, only to find that she doesn't like what it's doing to her.

Adrienne Barbeau stars as the teacher in this slight and completely unebelievable segment. It starts off well enough and Barbeau's performance is good enough, but the supposed tough kids are laughable and the sudden change of the leader who meets the teacher's dark half in the storeroom is equally risible.

PALADIN OF THE LOST HOUR - An old man is saved from a mugging by a troubled Vietnam vet. He reveals that he is the last guardian of a watch in which is stored the last hour of Earth's existence. If he does not pass the watch to a new guardian before he dies, the watch will start to tick.

The director of this story is credited as Alan Smithee, the name used when the director wants to take his own off the project, but it's surprising since this is at times a quite touching tale that has two good central performances and certainly an interesting theme to it. As one of the longest segments to date it shows the wisdom in allowing the stories more room to breathe than they are often being given since they turn out better and more considered.

We're too used to seeing the inestimable Danny Kaye playing the fool, but here he turns in a creditable dramatic performance. He can't quite capture the irascible old man, but the mischeivous one is definitely there. He is matched by Glynn Turman who manages to rein in some of the excesses of the vietnam memories scene. The script by Harlan Ellison is very nicely judged.

Act Break/The Burning Man/Dealer's Choice

ACT BREAK – A playwright looking for one last great play comes into possession of an amulet that offers just one wish as his partner is dying. Rather than saving his friend, he wishes to be partnered with the greatest playwright there is. The effect is not what he expects.

The first out and out comedy sketch of the series is filled with caricatures and broad silliness, but has a nice twist that isn't hard to guess, but has a satisfying payoff.

THE BURNING MAN - A woman drives with her nephew on a very hot day. They encounter an old man who talks of an evil that can rise from the dirt on days as hot as this. Abandoning the man, they carry on to enjoy a day at the lake, but then encounter a presence on the return journey.

Piper Laurie stars as the aunt and Roberts Blossoms does his crazy old man routine, but this story runs out of steam long before the supposedly scary twist at the end fails to impress at all.

DEALER'S CHOICE - A group of men play cards only to learn that one of them is the Devil and has come to take away one of their souls.

This is a terrific cast for a short story that really ought to have more going for it. Which is not to say that it's not fun (it is), but when you have Morgan Freeman, Dan Hedaya and Garrett Morris and M Emmett Walsh in the same room you ought to have more for them to do.

It's another version of a man trying to cheat Death by challenging him to a game and it plays out just as you might expect, but nothing with these actors in it could be anything less than highly entertaining.

Dead Woman's Shoes/Wong's Lost And Found Emporium

DEAD WOMAN'S SHOES – A fearful, downtrodden woman finds a new lease of life when she puts on the shoes of a murdered woman.

This overly familiar tale of ghostly possession is made palatable only by the terrific performance (or performances) by Helen Mirren as the downtrodden charity worker and the murdered woman whose shoes she puts on. The fact that she is shunted out of the story halfway through does it no favours at all.

WONG'S LOST AND FOUND EMPORIUM - There is a place where all that has been lost can be found. One man has been searching for it for three years, but when he arrives there, he finds it unattended and full of mysteries.

This is a very neat concept that never manages to fulfil its potential due to the fact that the main character is not very well acted and the characters are pretty two dimensional. It's also easy to see where it's going right from the start.

The Shadow Man/The Uncle Devil Show/Opening Day

THE SHADOW MAN – Fearful Danny finds that the Shadow man is living under his bed, but will never harm him, though he is killing off others in town. He uses this knowledge to become popular and brave, but is that the wisest course of action?

Written by Rockne S O'Bannon and directed by Joe Dante, this is a kid's tale that is full of wit and charm and just enough underlying cynicism to stop it from falling into oversentimentality. The ending is surprisingly hardbitten as well.

THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW - A young boy is guided by the Devil on a video cassette whilst his parents remain blissfully unaware.

A satire on the perils of leaving children unattended in front of the television, this is a one joke sketch that gets stretched out beyond its limits long before the end its running time.

OPENING DAY - It's opening day of the duck hunting season and an unfaithful wife's lover plans to murder her rich husband, but then gets a taste of his own medicine.

Clearly there's a point to the replaying of a day from the point of view of the victim, but it isn't to make for compelling drama. The story doesn't change enough for it to mean anything and the change of heart is expected but rather pointless considering what comes afterwards.

The Beacon/One Life, Furnished In Poverty

THE BEACON – A doctor arrives in a small town that is dominated geographically by its lighthouse. The town also appears to be under the light's influence as it picks out who is to die. The doctor has saved its intended victim and must now pay the price.

This is a short-form version of THE WICKER MAN with a remote community caught in ancient beliefs and one man challenging those to his cost. Charles Martin Smith plays his part well enough, but Martin Landau is completely wasted.

ONE LIFE, FURNISHED IN POVERTY - An angry writer returns to his childhood home and is transported back to his early life in the hope that he can derail the events that caused his anger.

This is a lovely, heartfelt piece of nostalgia that has at its centre a fine performance from Peter Reigert that really sells the story right up to the final denouement, where it goes a bit haywire. He keeps it from tipping over into sentimentality and when it proves to be ultimately without weight, it doesn't seem to matter at all.

Her Pilgrim Soul/I Of Newton

Night Of The Meek/But Can She Type?/The Star

NIGHT OF THE MEEK – A drunk, hopeless, but ultimately good spirited store santa is given the opportunity to bring Christmas cheer to a deprived neighbourhood.

MIRACLE ON 34th STREET gets reworked by this rather fun seasonal story that is full of good cheer and Christmas spirit, but ultimately proves to be as unsubstantial as the respite that the man provides.

BUT CAN SHE TYPE? - A photocopier sends a hassled secretary to a parallel reality where secretaries are revered.

Pam Dawber is the likeable secretary in the likeable, if ultimately disposable, tale of alternate realities and wish fulfilment. The Christmas theme is a bit stretched.

THE STAR - A Jesuit priest aboard a deep space exploration vessel finds information to challenge his faith at the site of a dead star.

One of Arthur C Clarke's greatest short stories gets a fairly respectful adaptation that fails because of a softened ending that robs the twist of its true awesomeness and a rushed pace that doesn't allow the story to fulfil its true potential.

Still Life/The Little People Of Killany Woods/The Misfortune Cookie

STILL LIFE – A photographer discovers an old film with photographs of a tribe from the rainforest who feared that the camera would take their souls. It appears that they knew what they were talking about.

A fairly straightforward story that doesn't come with any surprises although it does come up with some interesting ways of using ordinary household objects as deadly traps.

THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF KILLANY WOODS - An habitual drunk declares that he has seen 'the little people', but nobody believes him until he starts handing out leprechauns' gold.

That peculiar image that the American people have of the irish where everyone speaks real 'oirish', drink only Guinness and believe in the faeries colours this piece of whimsy that only manages to keep the right side of annoying by being short and having a neat twist in the tail.

MISFORTUNE COOKIE - A vicious restaurant critic slags off a chinese restaurant and then learns that its fortune cookies actually tell the future.

Elliott Gould gives a delightfully offebat performance as the food critic to anchor this story that never really quite manages to get off the ground and certainly goes all to hell in the last few moments.

Monsters!/A Small Talent For War/A Matter Of Minutes

MONSTERS! – A young boy learns that the new elderly neighbour is really a vampire and that he has come home to die. A disease is ravaging the neighbourhood and the true monsters are about to be revealed.

This is a tale of nostalgia and the bond between the young and the old and it plays out quite nicely since Ralph Bellamy's vampire is never quite as obvious as he might be. Is he good? Is he evil? OK, it gets a bit oversentimental with the fireflies, but it is otherwise nicely judged.

A SMALL TALENT FOR WAR - An alien ambassador arrives declaring that his race was responsible for creating humanity but its 'small talent for war' means that they will be destroying all life in 24 hours. Can world peace be hammered out in such a short time?

This short, sharp tale owes far too much to THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL right down to the makeup of the alien ambassador, but the twist in the tale is quite nice.

A MATTER OF MINUTES - A couple wake up to find that everyone else is gone and has been replaced by blue workers who are apparently building the future.

What is time? In a reversal of Stephen King's THE LANGOLIERS this isn't about people slipping out of time into a past to be destroyed, but into a future as yet unbuilt. A neat concept, but not one that the story has any idea what to do with and so it ends up being mildly diverting and nothing more.

The Elevator/To See The Invisible Man/Tooth And Consequences

THE ELEVATOR – Two brothers go into an abandoned factory complex in search of their scientist father who is working on a solution to the world food shortage. What they find there is terrifying.

The great Ray Bradbury wrote this, so it is something of a disappointment to find that it is stolen from HG Wells' FOOD OF THE GODS and has an ending that is far too predictable to be scary, even without the effects that have to be hidden in the shadows.

TO SEE THE INVISIBLE MAN - A man convicted of not opening up to others emotionally is made 'invisible' for a year. Nobody can speak to him or assist in any way. It's time to find out if no man really is an island.

Based on a Robert Silverberg story, this is a very nice tale that sees one man come apart at the seams when removed from all human interaction. Once a man is forced to care for other humans, though, can he then be forced not to? A nice twist.

TOOTH AND CONSEQUENCES - A suicidal dentist is offered help by the tooth fairy, but is getting all you desire really good for you?

David Birney gives a diverting performance as a seriously disturbed dentist, but that only masks the fact that the rest of this short story is very old hat indeed.

Welcome to Winfield/Quarantine

WELCOME TO WINFIELD – A young man on the run from Death himself stumbles on a lost town of other 'oversights' and the new Grim Reaper has an administrative nightmare on his hands.

A lighthearted affair that overruns its welcome, this is one story that probably could have benefitted from a bit of trimming. Still, the production design is good and the dialogue is often witty.

QUARANTINE - A man is awoken from cryogenic sleep to be healed. He finds a world that is technologically backwards, but mentally and sociologically advanced. He has been revived to save the world from an extraterrestrial threat, or has he?

This story vacillates between thematic points and wanting to tell a gripping story and thus falls between the two, never being fully satisfying on either count. The set up is fine, but the way that the so-called 'guilt' disappears at the end is just too easy and the special effects are anything but.

Gramma/Personal Demons/Cold Reading

GRAMMA – An eleven year old boy is left in charge of the ailing grandmother that terrifies him. Fighting his fear, he ventures into her room and finds more about her past than he might care to.

Harlan Ellison dramatising a short story by Stephen King? What's not to like? This is the most out and out horror episode that the show has come up with and it is directed in a fashion that is a bit overly hysterical, but the creepy factor is high and the 'twist' is chilling enough, though a little more explanation might have been nice.

PERSONAL DEMONS - A screenwriter searching for one last original idea is terrorised by small monsters for no apparent reason.

This story has shades of the classic Nightmare At 20,000 Feet with a destructive horror that only one man can see, but it point is obvious from the title and there are no surprises along the way. The only interesting fact is that screenwriter Rockne S O'Bannon wrote this about a screenwriter called O'Bannon.

COLD READING - A perfectionist radio writer/producer wishes that his sound effects were real whilst holding a voodoo fetish. Before long, the studio is full of storms, natives with drums, monkeys and jungle foliage.

This is a one-joke story that is stretched out to a final 'twist' that really is just one last joke. It runs out of steam long before that twist comes, but the period detail is nice.

The Leprechaun Artist/Dead Run

THE LEPRECHAUN ARTIST – Three young boys capture a holidaymaking leprechaun and are promised one wish each. They think long and hard about each one, but each comes with its own problems.

Be careful what you wish for. This is a reworking of an old morality tale that has been told far too many times before to be successful. Each wish is distorted and works out against the boys until they learn from their experience. It's predictable and not very much fun.

DEAD RUN - A cynical truck driver takes a job ferrying lost souls to Hell, but along the way he starts to question whether many of them should be there at all.

What is a sin worthy of being damned and what isn't? Can the old definitions still apply in a new world? Those questions are the thrust behind this story, but it is a story that has very little to interest the viewer along the way in order to engage them and take them through to the rather predictable ending.

Profile In Silver/Button, Button

PROFILE IN SILVER – A history researcher from the future finds himself unable to let John F Kennedy be assassinated, but finds the consequences of his actions piling up into a crisis that threatens the whole future of humanity.

Lane Smith is the time travelling academic at the heart of this tale, but it is the performance by Andrew Robinson as JFK that steals the show. He doesn't resemble the man, but he certainly does sound like him. As to the theme of the story - well you can't change the past because you didn't change the past, but if that's the case how do they get out of that? It's a nice ending, but doesn't quite jibe with its own convictions on time travel.

BUTTON, BUTTON - A couple who are slowly coming apart at the seams receive a mysterious box with a button in it. A man tells them that if they push the button then someone that they do not know will die and they will receive $200,000. Can they resist and what price can be put on a life?

A story by Richard Matheson gets an excellent dramatisation with Mare Winningham giving a remarkable performance as the unlikeable wife who is most at risk of surrendering her scant morals for the lure of money. Where the box comes from, how it works and why it is being presented to them isn't important. The questions is whether or not the couple can resist the challenge. The outcome is predictable, but it comes with a coda that is nicely chilling in its understatement.

Certainly one of the best stories of the series to date and an idea that was reworked into the movie THE BOX.

Need To Know/Red Snow

NEED TO KNOW – People in a small town are going insane and an investigator is brought in to find out why. The answer seems to lie in the answer to all things. Someone has the secret meaning of the universe and if you hear it you're mind can't take it. Can the investigator find out who is responsible before he is told the secret himself?

Of course the secret is never spoken aloud on screen, but this is a nice idea that never quite pans out beyond being an undernourished detective plotline with a more offbeat murder weapon. William L Petersen and Frances McDormand give it more weight than it deserves.

RED SNOW - At the height of the cold war, a KGB investigator is sent to the frozen north of Siberia to find out why officials are dying. What he finds there will change him more than he could have suspected.

The evocation of time and place is what lifts this episode above the average. George Dzunda is excellent as the conflicted investigator and what he finds might be be unoriginal and unexciting, but he is worth the time spent watching.

Take My Life Please/Devil's Alphabet/The Library

TAKE MY LIFE, PLEASE – A big name stand up comic dies after stealing the act of a struggling beginner. He is put before an audience who find only the most hateful moments of his life funny.

If there is any way that the moral of this story could be any more heavy handed then it's hard to see how. The comic's a bad guy, the stage is his personal Hell and he is being forced to relive his worst moments. It's too obvious to be dramatic and it's just not funny.

DEVIL'S ALPHABET - A group of rabble rousers agree to meet once a year even after death. When their contract proves unbreakable, life and afterlife become unbearable.

This story is tedious and totally wastes a quality cast as it is without point, without scares and has an ending that just utterly undermines the whole thing in its simplicity and unbelievability.

THE LIBRARY - A woman gets a job in library that contains the books of everyone's lives. To solve a few problems, she changes some of the books, only to find that everything is interconnected and things go from bad to worse.

The best of the three stories in this episode, it's light and fun, but really doesn't have a point beyond being careful what you wish for.

Shadow Play/Grace Note

SHADOW PLAY – A man is condemned to be hanged for murder, but he is unconcerned because he is certain that it's all a dream that he has had many times. Slowly, the others around him start to wonder if he might not be right.

Peter Coyote stars in this intriguing tale that ends up being a bit pointless and even predictable in its outcome, but is interesting and holds the attention whilst it is playing. The scene in which he regales the other inmates on Death Row with all the details of how the execution is carried out is intense.

GRACE NOTE - A dying sister wishes on a star and her aspiring opera singer sister gets a trip to the future.

There isn't a single surprise in this whole story and it plays the sentimentality card too early and too hard to be anything more than grating.

A Day In Beaumont/The Last Defender Of Camelot

A DAY IN BEAUMONT – A young couple see a flying saucer crash, but when they report it they find that the whole town seems to have been taken over by aliens..

The aim of this story seems to be to borrow from as many classic B-movies as possible. The set up is pure IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, there's plenty of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (hell, the aliens are even carrying pods for heaven's sake), there's an aural nod to THEM! and the little finger giveaway from classic TV show THE INVADERS.

Unfortunately, apart from spotting the references, it's all too familiar and over the top to be taken as a drama and, it's doesn't try to be funny and the twist can be seen coming a mile away.

THE LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT - An immortal Lancelot teams up with Morgan Le Fey to defend the modern world from the newly awakened Merlin.

This is great fun as a fantasy episode, though it never for a moment seems anything other than a play. The stone circle set is incredibly unconvincing. That said, everyone seems to be having a good time, which makes up for the pretty awful script that serves its story ill.