Anyone Else Watch New Year's Twilight Zone Marathon?

[WillMunny]

That's been my New Year's tradition for eons - a gazillion eps. of those old Rod Serling TZ's in a row on the Syfy channel. What always amazes me is that even after 60 years, it still intellectually BLOWS THE FUCK AWAY everything else on TV ever since! That's what makes it so timeless. That's why I never get tired of these TZ marathons.

Off the top of my head, here are the most powerful episodes: The Hitch Hiker, And When the Sky Was Opened, The Grave (with Lee Marvin at his grouchy-badass best), Judgment Night, The Jungle, Will the Real Martian Stand Up?, A Passage for Trumpet, The Purple Testament, The Arrival, The Hunt (the most sweet-natured ghost story of them all), Death Ship, The Obsolete Man, Third from the Sun, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Capt. Kirk's first REAL adventure). Yes, I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of other fine gems as well.

 

[The Irish Ram]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

 

[WillMunny]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

 

[fncceo]

No, my glasses are broken.

 

[fncceo]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

To be fair, Shatner was never on the A-List.

 

[WillMunny]

Watching a TZ marathon I'll tell you another glaring difference between the Zone and all of today's TV shows: have you noticed on most TV shows the secondary characters are simply competent, generic human filler? Whereas Mr, Serling never let a character go to waste! His writing (and the stage-theater-trained actors of the time) gave every character in every episode their own extravagant personalities! Sometimes even the TZ's most minor characters could accidentally stay with you for quite a awhile and that's the reason.

 

[WillMunny]

No, my glasses are broken.

Ah yes, I know that Burgess Meredith bookworm episode, but I'm forgetting the title at the moment.

 

[WillMunny]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

To be fair, Shatner was never on the A-List.

The very fact that Shatner has spent half a century occupying a badass cultural juggernaut like Captain Kirk sort of automatically makes him an automatic A-lister regardless of his exact career details.

 

[WillMunny]

As a matter of fact, Nightmare at 20000 Feet is playing on TV at the moment right now. With Capt. Kirk himself. It's the first time he faced Michelle Obama - clinging to the wing of the plane and sabotaging the engines. Kirk would meet Mrs. Obama again just a few years later in the infamous 1966 Star Trek episode in which the future First Whatever appeared in its nightmare true form...all its disguises cast aside.

 

[shockedcanadian]

As a matter of fact, Nightmare at 20000 Feet is playing on TV at the moment right now. With Capt. Kirk himself. It's the first time he faced Michelle Obama - clinging to the wing of the plane and sabotaging the engines. Kirk would meet Mrs. Obama again just a few years later in the infamous 1966 Star Trek episode in which the future First Whatever appeared in its nightmare true form...all its disguises cast aside.

Shatner is a nice guy, pretty mellow Canadian. As an actor he's, well...he's not the kind of actor I look to and say "man that guy can act"...

 

[WillMunny]

As a matter of fact, Nightmare at 20000 Feet is playing on TV at the moment right now. With Capt. Kirk himself. It's the first time he faced Michelle Obama - clinging to the wing of the plane and sabotaging the engines. Kirk would meet Mrs. Obama again just a few years later in the infamous 1966 Star Trek episode in which the future First Whatever appeared in its nightmare true form...all its disguises cast aside.

Shatner is a nice guy, pretty mellow Canadian. As an actor he's, well...he's not the kind of actor I look to and say "man that guy can act"...

But Shatner's cartoonish hamming has always been part of his charm! It's the thing that makes Shatner, Shatner. You can never accuse him of being boring, that's for sure. In fact part of the fun of William Shatner is that he's always been a slightly outlandish self-parody -- what I mean is that you can tell Shatner is sort of in on the joke himself when we laugh about him. He's supposed to be fun, not an Oscar-sweeping acting genius.

 

[fncceo]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

To be fair, Shatner was never on the A-List.

The very fact that Shatner has spent half a century occupying a badass cultural juggernaut like Captain Kirk sort of automatically makes him an automatic A-lister regardless of his exact career details.

His bad-arse street cred has taken a few hits since the '60s.

 

[shockedcanadian]

As a matter of fact, Nightmare at 20000 Feet is playing on TV at the moment right now. With Capt. Kirk himself. It's the first time he faced Michelle Obama - clinging to the wing of the plane and sabotaging the engines. Kirk would meet Mrs. Obama again just a few years later in the infamous 1966 Star Trek episode in which the future First Whatever appeared in its nightmare true form...all its disguises cast aside.

Shatner is a nice guy, pretty mellow Canadian. As an actor he's, well...he's not the kind of actor I look to and say "man that guy can act"...

But Shatner's cartoonish hamming has always been part of his charm! It's the thing that makes Shatner, Shatner. You can never accuse him of being boring, that's for sure. In fact part of the fun of William Shatner is that he's always been a slightly outlandish self-parody -- what I mean is that you can tell Shatner is sort of in on the joke himself when we laugh about him. He's supposed to be fun, not an Oscar-sweeping acting genius.

I suppose. I'm just not sure he views himself that way. He doesn't seem defensive, but I just think he believed his acting was on the mark, when often it was indeed, a parody of itself.

Regardless he is done with that stuff, he's just doing his own thing now.

 

[WillMunny]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

To be fair, Shatner was never on the A-List.

The very fact that Shatner has spent half a century occupying a badass cultural juggernaut like Captain Kirk sort of automatically makes him an automatic A-lister regardless of his exact career details.

His bad-arse street cred has taken a few hits since the '60s.

Yet he still looks hungry to fuck some green-skinned, purple-haired, yellow-eyed alien whore.

 

[MarathonMike]

No, my glasses are broken.

Ah yes, I know that Burgess Meredith bookworm episode, but I'm forgetting the title at the moment.

Time Enough At Last. Twilight Zone had to rely on great writing and acting whereas now all the sci-fi shows are special effects with filler dialogue.

 

[fncceo]

He sure could recognize talent. All the stars had a Twilight Zone episode.

No question of that, many older A-list celebrities got their acting start on the Zone. Shatner, an extremely young Dennis Hopper, etc.

To be fair, Shatner was never on the A-List.

The very fact that Shatner has spent half a century occupying a badass cultural juggernaut like Captain Kirk sort of automatically makes him an automatic A-lister regardless of his exact career details.

His bad-arse street cred has taken a few hits since the '60s.

Yet he still looks hungry to fuck some green-skinned, purple-haired, yellow-eyed alien whore.

Hungry, maybe. capable, probably not.

George Takei is got more going on than Shatner these days.

 

[WillMunny]

As a matter of fact, Nightmare at 20000 Feet is playing on TV at the moment right now. With Capt. Kirk himself. It's the first time he faced Michelle Obama - clinging to the wing of the plane and sabotaging the engines. Kirk would meet Mrs. Obama again just a few years later in the infamous 1966 Star Trek episode in which the future First Whatever appeared in its nightmare true form...all its disguises cast aside.

Shatner is a nice guy, pretty mellow Canadian. As an actor he's, well...he's not the kind of actor I look to and say "man that guy can act"...

But Shatner's cartoonish hamming has always been part of his charm! It's the thing that makes Shatner, Shatner. You can never accuse him of being boring, that's for sure. In fact part of the fun of William Shatner is that he's always been a slightly outlandish self-parody -- what I mean is that you can tell Shatner is sort of in on the joke himself when we laugh about him. He's supposed to be fun, not an Oscar-sweeping acting genius.

I suppose. I'm just not sure he views himself that way. He doesn't seem defensive, but I just think he believed his acting was on the mark, when often it was indeed, a parody of itself.

Regardless he is done with that stuff, he's just doing his own thing now.

No, he really does have a good sense of humor about himself. Back around 2006 he got roasted by one of those Comedy Central celebrity roasts and it was probably the filthiest-funny, grossest roast in history. Yet Shatner was having a laughing, wonderful time. And at the end, he had wonderful smartass jokes to utterly skewer every one of his roasters. You could see he enjoyed it.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Forget the actors. Look at the writers. The writers were all accomplished authors. They were the greats of science fiction writing.

 

[WillMunny]

Yes, yes, YES! Now they're playing "The Hitch Hiker." It starts out mellow for awhile but at the end it gets so stunningly dark, morbid and chilling that you haven't truly seen The Twilight Zone until you've seen "The Hitch Hiker." Utter masterpiece.

 

[WillMunny]

They just had a well-acted goofy-spooky mixture treat of an episode, Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up? With the surprise ending, you have to view in historical context: in the late 1950s mankind knew very little about Mars and Venus so it seemed possible they could have life. If you look at it from that old-fashioned lens, the surprise ending does pack a punch.