A Top 18 Ranking of the Twilight Zone Season One and the Movie (among friends)

Vanessa (my wife) and I play a game based off the popular podcast Screen Drafts with our friends Nick and Scott whenever we get the chance. It was my wife's turn to pick the topic. In the past she has chosen Found Footage Films and John Carpenter's filmography. All of us do the required watching saving our thoughts on the work until game time. The four of us set out to make a competitive/collaborative top 18 list. Each of us have a small amount of vetoes and overrides to either eliminate a choice at the position it is played or make sure a film is safe at the position where it is vetoed. The pick selection and veto selection is determined by guest trivia. And our friend Rene is always kind enough to provide engaging trivia for us. If a veto or override that we have goes unused, we can carry it over to the next game. And when this one ended, we all carried over one veto and one override to our next game Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch, written scripts and adaptations. Normally, I go into more detail about all of this. And one can find a more drawn out version of the rules and regulations in my other write ups on this blog. I wanted to keep this all at a paragraph today because what Vanessa selected is too exciting not to get into: Twilight Zone Season One and The Movie!! To put your mind at ease, the movie did not make it. Most of the group enjoyed Joe Dante's segment. I enjoyed the intro. We all found it very uneven otherwise.

Nick grew up watching the series with his dad. I used to watch it on New Year's Day, as did my wife. We all loved the series except Scott but that is only because he had never seen it. I can safely say he loves it now or at least likes it a good amount. Everyone had a lot to say, and I don't think anything that made it on is shameful. There may be some shameful omissions but there are 36 episodes and nearly all are exquisite. Vanessa read a little essay about the greatness of Rod Serling and couching controversial topics in sci-fi narrative then Nick had first pick.

18. "Mirror Image"  (episode 21)

Nick loves doppelgangers in movie or television. He loves gas-lighting. He loves this even if he found the moving of the suitcase and Millicent Barnes (Vera Miles) not always being aware a little unlikely. We all liked this choice. Vanessa mentioned that it inspired Peele's film Us. Number 17 was my pick.

17. "The Big Tall Wish" (episode 27)  

I found that most of my picks were episodes I found instructive to life. This does not mean I am a good person. It was pure happenstance. But we all liked this episode. I do think it is important to believe in miracles or big tall wishes. If I had to dock the episode for anything, I guess I could argue that I am not sure if the actor playing Henry is good or bad. Scott had next pick and he chose "A World of His Own." He found it to be a darker than appears episode of a male power fantasy and murder. He liked that it celebrated the writer. He made some points yet the rest of us found it charming still especially the Serling bit. I ended up vetoing it because I wanted to see it higher and had three vetoes in total and could only carry over one. Scott for this spot had to pick something else.

16. "A Nice Play to Visit" (episode 28)  

Scott really enjoyed this tale of a gangster who thinks he has made it into a Heaven of women and gambling until he gets bored and discovers he landed in Hell. He was really taken with the dialog. In fact, he called me a "lousy screw" when I vetoed him just prior to this. Vanessa said nothing! We all found this an amusing pick and did not put up a fight. Vanessa had next pick.

15. "Nightmare as a Child" (episode 29)  

Vanessa really liked that the bad guy in this one was not over the top. It felt like a very strong small play. Nick liked the response to trauma and we all talked about how mundane situations can bring back terrible memories. Nick was next and he broke up the (27, 28, 29 roll) and went with an early episode.

14. "Walking Distance" (episode 5)  

There are nostalgia episodes. I am still slightly sore that "Willoughby" does not make this list. But this Gig Young starrer brought the feels for him. He liked the idea of a man out of his time and loved the father character who warns him he needs to leave. We all liked the episode but marveled that all the man managed to due in traveling through time was to hurt his leg. I had next pick.

13. "The Four of Us Dying" (episode 13)  

For my money, Beverly Garland gives the best performance in any season one episode as Maggie, a lovelorn pianist who can only sing sad songs these days since Johnny died. But Johnny isn't dead or at least she doesn't think so because Arch Hammer can change his face and impersonate Johnny. I am not sure that everyone felt the same way about Mrs Garland as I did, but the noir look and creative story line seemed to make everybody happy. Plus a cop is gas-lit which made Nick happy. V's next pick did not make Nick happy but was necessary.

12. "Where is Everybody" (episode 1)  

Nick did not love this one because he felt the experiment depicted within was irresponsible or at least under-explained. Serling wrote this episode but Richard Matheson episodes were played in our game, and I remember this episode being discussed in relation to I am Legend. We all agreed and Vanessa played it because of its place in history as the first. This was a good spot for it and no veto was offered.

11. "The Mighty Casey (episode 35)  

I mentioned while playing this that this is my favorite Jack Warden episode. If Vanessa had taken note, what happens later might not have happened. I like art where the heart is treated as the soul. And I found this episode very likable and watchable. Nick and Vanessa liked the whimsy of it. Scott was whimsied out, admitting to liking the dark episodes much more than the light ones. This will come into play in a bit, but Scott has next pick.

10. "Execution" (episode 26)  

We all talked about the sense of justice in this episode, how everyone got something of what they deserved. For Scott, the hero of the episode was Russell Johnson, and he pointed out that Johnson was much prouder of this work than he was of playing the professor on Gilligan's Island. No vetoes and Nick used his next turn to replay the only vetoed title. 

09. "A World of His Own" (episode 36)  

08. "Elegy" (episode 20)  

I must admit this is the one episode of the series that I had to rewatch because none of it stuck with me. I watched it two and a half times. Everyone else (especially Scott who played this) at the table thought it was brilliant. They enjoyed the burial concept of the dead being set up in dream scenarios. They also liked the ominous feel of the episode. Vanessa loved the line, "where there are men there is no peace." My turn was next.

07. "Mr. Bevis" (episode 33)  

As Serling points out in the episode, "The world is a better place with Mr Bevis (Orson Bean) who loves being kind and bow ties and zither music. When a guardian angel fixes his life with a better car, and a better paycheck if he become "normal" or square, he figures it is worth more than that to be himself. Nick vetoed this to hopefully get it higher. Scott used his override because he seemed to think Bevis was a dipshit. It was pointed out that Scott is uniquely himself, and that us playing this game as we do makes us a bit like Bevis ourselves. Nowadays, Mr Bevis would find a supportive community online. The world is a better place and Nick is next at number six.

06. "The After Hours" (episode 34)  

Nick's only issue with this episode was the managers rehashing what Marsha White (Anne Francis) has told them. He admired the great production values and the central concept that mannequins could become human temporarily.  We all agreed that this was a superior episode. Vanessa was up for the next two picks. And she got vetoed twice. First she picked "Third From the Sun." She loved the frenetic pacing of this one and the tension of the co-worker who knows the family is up to something. Scott vetoed it because he felt it was just a bit too high,

05. "Time Enough at Last" (episode 8)   

Vanessa is a voracious reader, so the concept of this episode is a nightmare for her. This is an iconic episode written by Lynn Venable. We all talked about the wife being a monster, a change of pace because the husband is often the monster. This one belongs in the top 5. Vanessa next chose "The Lonely." This is the other one with Jack Warden and a robot. We talked about AI and V found it so heartbreaking when he is told he cannot have her. Nick thought in a better version she would be left alone on the planet. I thought the episode was too high at four so used my last extra veto.

04. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (episode 22)  

This is what I thought would happen at number one. Vanessa lost a higher spot in trivia because she was asked who started the riot in this episode. Rene had the answer at aliens. She had the answer as Tommy. Both can be true. The hysteria here is so relevant to these times. V compared it to The Crucible, and we were very reverent of it. Scott had next pick.

03. "And When the Sky was Opened" (episode 11)  

The story of three surviving spaceman returning to Earth then disappearing from existence one by one really captured our imaginations. Scott found this erasure terrifying. He also pointed out Rod Taylor's work as excellent. Nick discussed how some people come to nothing in life and that is erasure too. We agreed that this was one that Serling, having been in the military, wrote from life experience. I was next.

02. "The Last Flight" (episode 18) 

This is the story of a WWI pilot who flies into WWII to escape death then realizes he has to fly back into an ambush  to save a legitimate future hero. I made illusions to Godzilla Minus One with this and I think I made sense despite having 3 gin and doctor peppers. This is an episode about cowardly behavior and how there is hope for everyone. The man he saves, I pointed out, is not only a hero in deed but a hero because when he talks about his fellow solider and how he thought he had left him out to dry, he said it with no ill will.  We all made predictions on these episodes. Nick and I had a running bet that if he got two of my placements correct, I would buy a round of lemon drops. He did not, but he ended up buying a round for all because he is a hero. He was next at number one.

01. "One for the Angels" (episode 2)  

This pick may have been a surprise but it was a good conversation. We talked about the fairness of Death (Murray Hamilton) here in allow a mark (Lew played by Ed Wynn) to possibly extend his time for a worthwhile reason. His reason is a touching one. He is a lifelong salesman and wants a sales pitch to go out on. He tries to cheat death by not rushing his pitch or planning a pitch so death takes a neighborhood kid. Then Lew has to try to sell to death so he is too distracted to kill this kid. And death is kind enough to play along. It is a heartwarming episode that no one besides Nick thought of as a one but no one could much object to either.