I like the episode more than you did, and while it casts a spell (like so many Zones) one can't keep one's conscious mind from intruding and asking questions about Professor (Professor!) Fowler: his forgetfulness over opening his mail, his being well past retirement age, his fifty—count -em!— years of teaching.

It was best when there were fewer message boards and high quality posters. In its heyday, the IMDB boards were da bomb: brilliant, entertaining, full of erudite people, and better still, mant of them could really write, and write well, which made it a blast to read. Some of that's still there but there's an air of…

I thought of that, too, but the Zone is seldom good with science and especially the laws of physics. Aren't there a couple of episodes set on asteroids? The Midnight Sun is a favorite of mine, and I just watched it again. Louis Nettleton was gorgeous and a great actress. Betty Garde was her equal (in talent, I mean).…

The Mirror never worked for me. Even in its day it was "too topical" , as in uber-contemporary, but in a bad way. The other side of the coin would be The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street, The Shelter, Time Enough at last. Bad writing, annoying characters, not well written. A real waste of talent.

Great line. I always wait for it. In response to the dancer…

I agree that the couples business is a weak point. Fortunately, it doesn't last long, does little damage to the episode as a whole, at least as I see it.

Five years later: I know where you're coming from, and sometimes in even old TV shows and movies those confirmed bachelor types can be seen as and may even be in some ways "coded" as gay (for their time, even as the word gay meant happy then,—okay, queer).

Yes, Holloway was a big surprise in the episode. He usually played characters,—on television anyway—who were kid friendly, along the lines of Andy Devine, usually with names like Elmer or Waldo.

For me, The Jeopardy Room has become unwatchable. I saw it when it was first aired and it was a nice change of pace for the Zone, but now it plays like a pilot for Mission: Impossible, and I just can't get it out of my mind that Martin Landau is really Rollin Hand putting on a show for the Soviets, but that's me.

I felt zero sympathy for the jerky neighbors in The Shelter. Not so much ant/grasshopper as clueless for the doc and his family AND the neighbors. If it was nuclear war,—which is what everyone was expecting—then no one would survive, not so close to NYC.

Agree totally on :Lincoln. It had to be that way, especially at the time the episode was filmed. After Washington, Lincoln was the most revered American president,—whether rightly is for another time—and he was still, in history books and popular culture a colossus. His presence at the end of The Passersby was for…

I find The Whole Truth a charming episode, engagingly dated, the dialogue flows nicely, as does its simple story. Videotaped it may be, I think that the used car lot has a kind of monolithic archetypal quality that makes the show feel larger than life despite its being about mostly,—till the end—small timers.

Yes, and because the episode was made in 1959-60, and in black and white, the urban ambiance early on makes it feel timeless. This could be 1948 or 1935. Any time, really. Blyden as Rocky is dressed like a "movie crook"; Cabot as Mr. Pip seems to be channeling "movie angels", like Claude Rains' Mr. Jordan, yet his…

Can't agree on Roddy McDowall's casting, but that's what makes a horse race: he was way to smooth, polished and worldly an actor to play an analytical, presumably dorky scientist. Also, he cuts a somewhat attractive figure. Not matinee idol handsome he none the less seems too (I dunno) well socialized as a type to be…

It was moderately popular, not a huge ratings winner, it was probably more famous than it was watched (if that makes any sense). FWIW: it made the term "the twilight zone" a part of the English language.

I'm watching the start of the first season yet again, on MeTV, and once more I'm tremendously impressed by Hermann's (sp?) opening and closing themes; the quietness of it,—in contrast to the blaring tick-tock music of the later openings—fills me with gratitude. It's a beautiful score, and a great way to open the…

Interesting. I've always liked Nancy Malone. She was excellent in Naked City, appeared in a few anthologies after that, including an Outer Limits, two or three Kraft Suspense Theaters and this Twilight Zone. She does seem smart. Barry Nelson acts dumb well enough, but he doesn't bring much to the table in Stopover In…

Misanthrope indeed. I wonder if this was intentional to make him that way. Rather than, in his final hours, trying to make peace with his children, or better still, in the days and weeks before he became bedridden he might have put more thought,—more love!—into coming to terms with his unlikable offspring and their…

What's In The Box: It's a difficult episode to watch yet at the same time near mesmerizing in its unpleasantness. Nothing good happens in it. Even the TV repairman gives off negative vibes. I have to give it up to Serling & Company for having the cojones to put this one together, and to CBS for showing it. Even the…

I just watched Night Call again a few hours ago, and it did feel like a Thriller, especially in its gentility, a Jacques Tourneur (the director) trademark. Twilight Zone was rough around the edges, with creator-author-host Rod Serling nearly always the voice of the Common Man.