- 4 months ago
"The Twilight Zone" (1959) Season 1 is a groundbreaking science fiction anthology series created and narrated by the legendary Rod Serling. Premiering in October 1959, the show became a cultural phenomenon, pushing the boundaries of television storytelling with its mix of suspense, psychological drama, and speculative fiction. Season 1 introduced audiences to unforgettable twists, social commentary, and eerie tales that continue to resonate with viewers decades later.
With 36 standalone episodes, each offering a unique narrative, Season 1 features some of the most iconic entries in TV history. From "Where Is Everybody?"—a haunting tale of isolation and identity—to "Time Enough at Last," a tragic reflection on solitude and obsession, these episodes explored human fears and desires in surreal, often dystopian settings. Other standout episodes include "Walking Distance," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," and "The After Hours," all exploring timeless themes like conformity, paranoia, and the thin line between reality and illusion.
The series boasted a rotating cast of talented actors, including early appearances by stars like William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, Anne Francis, Jack Klugman, and Ed Wynn. Their performances brought Rod Serling’s thought-provoking scripts to life, often leaving viewers questioning not just the stories—but themselves.
Rod Serling’s narrations added a signature tone to the series, blending poetic language with philosophical insight. Each episode began and ended with his iconic voiceover, setting the tone for the unpredictable journeys ahead. His bold critiques of war, racism, authoritarianism, and technological fear were masterfully woven into stories of aliens, time travel, and psychological distortion.
The Twilight Zone: Season 1 remains a high point in television history—a template for modern sci-fi and mystery series. Its legacy continues to influence writers, filmmakers, and TV creators, proving that great storytelling is truly timeless. Whether you're revisiting it or discovering it for the first time, this season captures the magic of a world where the rules of reality are suspended and the unexpected is always just a heartbeat away.
Rod Serling – Creator, Writer, Narrator (appears in all episodes)
Earl Holliman – "Where Is Everybody?"
Ed Wynn – "One for the Angels"
Gig Young – "Walking Distance"
Dan Duryea – "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"
Martin Balsam – "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine"
Jack Warden – "The Lonely"
Neville Brand – "The Encounter"
Burgess Meredith – "Time Enough at Last"
Kevin McCarthy – "Long Live Walter Jameson"
Anne Francis – "The After Hours"
Roddy McDowall – "People Are Alike All Over"
Fritz Weaver – "Third from the Sun"
Richard Conte – "Perchance to Dream"
Harry Townes – "The Four of Us Are Dying"
William Reynolds – "The Purple Testament"
Jack Klugman – "A Passage for Trumpet"
With 36 standalone episodes, each offering a unique narrative, Season 1 features some of the most iconic entries in TV history. From "Where Is Everybody?"—a haunting tale of isolation and identity—to "Time Enough at Last," a tragic reflection on solitude and obsession, these episodes explored human fears and desires in surreal, often dystopian settings. Other standout episodes include "Walking Distance," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," and "The After Hours," all exploring timeless themes like conformity, paranoia, and the thin line between reality and illusion.
The series boasted a rotating cast of talented actors, including early appearances by stars like William Shatner, Burgess Meredith, Anne Francis, Jack Klugman, and Ed Wynn. Their performances brought Rod Serling’s thought-provoking scripts to life, often leaving viewers questioning not just the stories—but themselves.
Rod Serling’s narrations added a signature tone to the series, blending poetic language with philosophical insight. Each episode began and ended with his iconic voiceover, setting the tone for the unpredictable journeys ahead. His bold critiques of war, racism, authoritarianism, and technological fear were masterfully woven into stories of aliens, time travel, and psychological distortion.
The Twilight Zone: Season 1 remains a high point in television history—a template for modern sci-fi and mystery series. Its legacy continues to influence writers, filmmakers, and TV creators, proving that great storytelling is truly timeless. Whether you're revisiting it or discovering it for the first time, this season captures the magic of a world where the rules of reality are suspended and the unexpected is always just a heartbeat away.
Rod Serling – Creator, Writer, Narrator (appears in all episodes)
Earl Holliman – "Where Is Everybody?"
Ed Wynn – "One for the Angels"
Gig Young – "Walking Distance"
Dan Duryea – "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"
Martin Balsam – "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine"
Jack Warden – "The Lonely"
Neville Brand – "The Encounter"
Burgess Meredith – "Time Enough at Last"
Kevin McCarthy – "Long Live Walter Jameson"
Anne Francis – "The After Hours"
Roddy McDowall – "People Are Alike All Over"
Fritz Weaver – "Third from the Sun"
Richard Conte – "Perchance to Dream"
Harry Townes – "The Four of Us Are Dying"
William Reynolds – "The Purple Testament"
Jack Klugman – "A Passage for Trumpet"
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Short filmTranscript
00:00How do you do? You gentlemen, of course, know how to push a product. That essentially is your job.
00:09My presence here is for much the same purpose, simply to push a product.
00:13To acquaint you with an entertainment product, which we hope and which we rather expect will make your product pushing that much easier.
00:20What you're about to see, gentlemen, is a series called The Twilight Zone.
00:23We think it's a rather special kind of series. Essentially, people watch television to get entertained.
00:28And the keynote of this series, the thing we're concerned with, the thing we're aiming for, the thing we're working toward, is entertainment.
00:35This is a series for the storyteller, because it's our thinking that an audience will always sit still and listen and watch a well-told story.
00:43And now that I've immodestly gone on record predicting the high quality of this series, let me very briefly show you what we mean by a special kind of series.
00:51You know, writers in general are notoriously bad verbal tellers of stories. We do much, much better behind a typewriter.
00:56So I hope you'll bear with me while I tell you about a few stories that happen to be the first ones we're shooting in our current production cycle.
01:02This is sand.
01:10It represents desert.
01:12The desert that you'll see on your screen in a story we call The Lonely.
01:16The Lonely is about a man sentenced to a lifetime of solitary confinement.
01:21The confinement takes place on a sandy asteroid far out in space.
01:25It's the story about a man slowly succumbing to a kind of nightmarish loneliness.
01:30The gradual disintegration of mind and body because human beings have that palpable need for companionship.
01:36A most benevolent and compassionate official sends the prisoner a long rectangular box containing, well, a machine.
01:45A machine inside of a robot built in the form of a woman.
01:48It's a robot that talks and acts like a human being.
01:51A robot that thinks like a human being.
01:53Gentlemen, I can only tell you that The Lonely, which involves a man and a woman made out of plastic and wires with a machine for a heart,
02:01will provide a most bizarre experience as to the physiological extensions of their relationship,
02:07that is, man and female machine, and what they do in their spare time.
02:11We're leaving this wide open.
02:15Object in point here, a file cabinet containing a contract.
02:19All very legal and proper, except the party of the first part in this case.
02:23Well, what do we call him?
02:24He has a lot of names.
02:26Beelzy Bubb, Mr. Scratch.
02:30Well, that happens to be the party of the first part in a somewhat charred contract.
02:35Only in our story, which we call Escape Clause.
02:38His name is simply Mr. Catwallader.
02:40As portrayed, he has all the charm of a well-tipped waiter.
02:44He makes a deal with a little man who has a psychotic fear of dying.
02:47It's really a simple contract.
02:49Mr. Catwallader supplies the immortality, and the little man supplies his soul.
02:53And then our little man proceeds to live it up, or down, depending on the moral view.
02:57But he gets bored with immortality, and he then proceeds to live a very out-of-the-ordinary kind of a life.
03:03A life best described as simply violent.
03:08He was so boring with constantly being the only survivor.
03:23So he now turns to homicide, happily aware that while a jury may convict him,
03:29there isn't a single legal modus operandi that the state can use to put him away.
03:34A gas chamber? Impossible.
03:35They can't kill him.
03:36Hanging, electrocution, none of these things are operative in our little friend.
03:40He's immoral.
03:41But what happens, and we'd be most appreciative if you wouldn't tell this to your friends,
03:45is that a very good lawyer pleads his case and gets him life imprisonment.
03:49Poor little guy.
03:52Yeah, he has immortality.
03:54He can live forever.
03:55Right here, behind these things.
03:58We'll hold up on telling you the ending.
04:00Just think about it.
04:01It'll come to you.
04:04A tarantetic note here.
04:06On the Twilight Zone, there'll be a variety of stories.
04:09And this is a variety that covers not only story type, but time, locale, the nature of the people.
04:14For example, this is a western called Death, Destry, and Mr. Dingle.
04:18And this is the principal character in the story.
04:21It's a Colt .45.
04:23There's a schoolmaster named Dingle who picks up this gun one day, finding it in the schoolyard.
04:28Quite accidentally, it goes off on a couple of occasions.
04:30First, it hits a rattlesnake between the eyes at 50 yards.
04:33Then it knocks the gun out of a desperado's hand.
04:35And while it's all quite accidental, the various onlookers make an assumption that Mr. Dingle's a pretty fast gun.
04:41And they start to build not only a reputation for this spindly little dude, but also almost a reverent tradition.
04:47And as in the classic western mold, every top gun in and out of the territory converge on the town,
04:51ready to invite Mr. Dingle, poor little Mr. Dingle, who really doesn't know how to use a gun, to his showdown.
04:57So, Mr. Dingle buys himself a little vial.
05:03Pull a liquid, and it's simply out of this world, because it comes with a money-back guarantee.
05:09Simply that it will make him the fastest gun in the West for 15 seconds.
05:13It's this vial he carries into a saloon one night, ready to meet at gunpoint a gentleman called Dirty Dan Destry,
05:18a fast gun in his own right.
05:20So fast he makes you, O'Brien, look like Charles Colburn.
05:23But when the two men face one another, and Mr. Dingle drinks his liquid with the money-back guarantee,
05:27he suddenly sees in the hand of his opponent a very familiar vial, identical with his own.
05:33I won't tell you the ending, except that it's reasonably happy, if unexpected.
05:37I hope I haven't done these stories an injustice, because they'll be much better told by actors in front of a camera,
05:42as you'll soon note in the picture you're about to see.
05:44All I can tell you is that we think the Twilight Zone is pretty unique.
05:47We think it'll be much talked about, and we think it'll also be enjoyed.
05:52We think it's the kind of a show that will put people on the edge of their seats,
05:55but only for that one half an hour.
05:56We fully expect they'll go to the stores on the following day and buy your products.
06:00We think it's that kind of a show.
06:02So now the ham walks off to allow the real object and point to entertain you.
06:06The pilot show of your series.
06:08Earl Holloman, James Gregory, starring in Where Is Everybody.
06:12So, gentlemen, please sit back and take your first trip into the Twilight Zone.
06:17See what I mean?
06:23And this is really nothing compared to the way instant Sanka will be disappearing off grocery cartes come this fall.
06:33There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to man.
06:37It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
06:42It is the middle ground between light and shadow,
06:44and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the sunlight of his knowledge.
06:50This is the dimension of imagination.
06:53It is an area that might be called the Twilight Zone.
06:56The place is here.
07:03The time is now.
07:05And the journey into the shadows that we are about to watch could be our journey.
07:09The Twilight Zone.
07:39Something loud enough for you out here?
07:46I mean, can you hear it all right?
07:49It's really good this kind of music, isn't it?
08:01Say, I noticed there's a town just up the road. What's the name of it?
08:06Hey, I asked you a question in there. What's the name of the town?
08:16Hey, you got a customer out front.
08:22Customer.
08:30Hey, you got a customer out front. Customer.
08:36Come on.
08:48Have an egg.
08:49Eggs over easy, hash browns.
09:03Hey, you got a customer out here.
09:07I'm an eggs over easy hash browns.
09:14Hungry cash customer.
09:16I got $2.85, American money.
09:21Sure, American money.
09:25Well, we got that much settled, I'm an American.
09:29You see, there's some question about my identity.
09:32Let me put it to you this way, I'm not sure who I am.
09:35But I got $2.85 and I'm hungry.
09:37That much is established.
09:40$2.85 and I'm hungry.
09:42I'm going to wake up in a minute, I know it.
09:46I'm going to wake up.
09:47I wish there'd be a little noise or something to wake me up.
09:52A little noise, please.
09:55If a body greet a body, coming through the rye, if a body need a body, need a body cry, every lad he had.
10:07A little noise, please.
11:33Anybody here?
11:34Hey!
11:35Hey!
11:41Hey, miss?
11:43Miss, over here!
11:45Look, I wonder if you could do me a favor.
11:48It's the craziest thing, but I've looked and I haven't seen anybody around.
11:50Maybe they're all asleep or something.
11:51Well, literally, there hasn't been a soul.
11:57Look, I don't think I'm nuts or anything.
11:58It's nothing like that.
11:59It's just that, well, it's just that I don't seem to remember who I am.
12:04Well, it's a real oddball thing, but when I woke up this morning, I...
12:07Well, I didn't exactly wake up.
12:10I just...
12:10I just found myself out on that road walking.
12:13Amnesia.
12:16Isn't that what they call it?
12:17Well, that must be what I got, because I just don't remember a thing.
12:20I can't seem to find anybody to ask.
12:22You're the first person I've seen.
12:24Look, I really don't want you to be frightened or anything, but I was wondering if there's a doctor or something.
12:27I'm terribly sorry, madam.
12:42I can assure you that at no time did I mean to be so upsetting.
12:46As a matter of fact, I've always had kind of a secret yen for the quiet type.
12:52You know what I mean, babe?
12:53Hey, anybody here?
13:23Hey, everybody.
13:53Hey, everybody.
14:23Operator, look. I just want somebody down there to tell me.
14:35Operator, operator, will you listen to me, please?
14:39This is the special operator. The number you have reached is not a working number.
14:44Hey, your head's down there. I didn't dial them right down to the operator.
14:48This is a recording.
14:49Oh, Rick. Operator.
14:51Special operator. Operator, look. All I want to know is where I am.
14:54Not a working number.
14:54Look, please, can you...
14:55Make sure that you have...
14:56Oh, listen, where are you? What do you boys live? This is a book.
15:17Baker, Barton, and Blot, Bill.
15:18The gang is watching the store.
15:26He's watching any of the stores.
15:28All right, who's the wise guy who locked the door?
15:54All right. It's a great gang.
16:00How about I hand somebody a little assistance? How about it?
16:04This is an absolutely hysterical town, and I'm growing very fond of it.
16:09This isn't funny, I mean...
16:10I don't like this jack.
16:13He's a goodman.
16:34Here you go.
16:36Give me the believe you want to call it.
16:38I wish I could shake that crazy feeling of being watched.
16:51Listen to it.
17:01Calling all cars, calling all cars.
17:03Unknown man walking around police stations.
17:05Suspicious looking character.
17:06Probably one of them.
17:36Coming here.
17:40Speaker 4
17:41Time to wake up now.
18:03Time to wake up now.
18:11Hey, where is everybody?
18:41I don't know.
19:41I'm sorry, old buddy.
20:11I don't recollect the name.
20:13The face is vaguely familiar, but the name escapes me.
20:17I'll tell you what my problem is.
20:19I'm in the middle of a nightmare I can't wake up from.
20:23And you're part of it.
20:25You and the ice cream and the police station and the phone booth.
20:28That little mannequin.
20:29This whole bloody town, wherever it is.
20:32Whatever it is.
20:33I just remembered something.
20:38Scrooge said it.
20:39You remember Scrooge, old buddy?
20:40Ebenezer Scrooge?
20:42That's what he said to that ghost, Jacob Marley.
20:45He said, you may be an undigested bit of beef.
20:47A crumb of cheese.
20:49A blot of mustard.
20:49A fragment of an undone potato.
20:51But there's more of gravy than of grave about you.
20:55You see, that's what you are.
20:57You're what I had for dinner last night.
20:59You must be.
21:01But now I've had it.
21:02I'd like to wake up.
21:04I'd like to wake up now.
21:05If I can't wake up, at least I'd like to find somebody to talk to.
21:16Well, I must be a very imaginative guy.
21:19Nobody in the whole bloody world can have a dream as complete as mine.
21:24Right down to the last detail.
21:35I'd like to wake up now.
22:05Hey!
22:07Hey, anybody?
22:11Anybody hear me?
22:14Anybody hear me?
22:35I'd like to wake up next to you.
22:35You'd like to respect three years.
22:37Hey!
22:37Nobody hear me.
22:41I wouldn't hear you, but I won't be ressentious!
22:46For all of your loving friends, Jacob?
22:47All right.
22:49You may want to where you are.
22:52So what do you want to meet?
22:53Come ahead and wait?
22:54Come ahead and wait.
22:54First season, Jacob Marley Week.
22:55Give us some three years.
22:56—
22:58've added things to my mind leaving,
23:00and Joe Barrett Week.
23:01Told you,
23:02his son of wanita,
23:03Air Force.
23:07Air Force.
23:11Air Force, I'm Air Force.
23:15Air Force, I'm in the Air Force!
23:19Air Force, I'm in the Air Force! I'm in the Air Force!
23:23Hey, I'm in the Air Force! I'm in the Air Force!
23:27Hey, everybody, I'm in the Air Force!
23:33Air Force, what does that mean?
23:37Was there a bomb?
23:39That must have been another bomb.
23:42But if there was a bomb, everything would be destroyed,
23:45and nothing is destroyed.
23:53Hey!
23:55Who's up there?
23:57Who's running the pictures?
24:00Who's up there?
24:02Who's running the pictures?
24:04Who's up there?
24:07Who's up there?
24:11Who's up there?
24:15Who's up there?
24:24Oh, my God.
24:54Please, somebody help me, help me, please, somebody help me, help me, help me, help me,
25:21please, somebody help me, help me, please, somebody help me, help me, please, somebody help me,
25:28Help me. Please, somebody help me. Somebody's looking at me. Somebody's watching me. Help me. Please, help me. Help me. Help me. Help me. Please. Help me. Help me. Somebody's looking at me. Please, help me. Help me. Help me. Please, somebody help me. Somebody's looking at me. Somebody's watching me. Help me. Get him out of there. Quick. Help me. Help me. Help me.
25:51Release the subject. I'm the double.
25:58Be careful, Colonel. Don't cut his hand. The glass on the clock is broken.
26:18I can see that, Sergeant.
26:26Sergeant.
26:28All right, Colonel. Go.
26:38He's all right, sir. Delusions, I think. He's coming out of it now.
26:41Fine. Did you get all the data recorded?
26:43Yes, sir. Every bit of it.
26:44Did you get a timing on him?
26:45484 hours, 36 minutes.
26:47Good. I want to have a look at all the data as soon as it's compiled, and I want to see the reaction shot on him, too.
26:52Yes, sir.
26:52Of the press, sir.
26:53Oh, yes, sir. On the run, gentlemen, if you don't mind, I want to see Sergeant first.
26:56Do you consider this a success, sir?
26:59Very much so. The man was confined alone in a box for something in the neighborhood of 484 hours. That's roughly equivalent to a trip to the moon, several orbits, and return.
27:07And this was a simulated trip to the moon. Is that right, General?
27:10For all intent and purpose, yes.
27:11What about these wires attached to him?
27:15Electrodes. All of his reactions were charted and graphed. Respiration, hot action, blood pressure.
27:19What happened to him toward the end, General, before he pushed that button or whatever it was?
27:24What happened to him is that he cracked.
27:28Delusions of some kind, we assume.
27:31But let me tell you all something, gentlemen.
27:34If any one of you were confined in a box five feet square for two and a half weeks,
27:38all by your lonesome, without hearing a human voice other than your own,
27:42I'll give you especially good odds that your imagination would run away with you, too.
27:47Such as his obviously did.
27:51Excuse me.
27:55Detail?
28:00Right here, sir.
28:01No, Mr. Fettus.
28:03I'm sorry about toward the end.
28:05Sir, what was it like, Ferris?
28:07Where did you think you were?
28:08A place I don't want to go again, sir.
28:10A town.
28:12A town without people, without anybody.
28:16What was the matter with me, Doc?
28:17Just off my rocker, huh?
28:18Just a kind of a nightmare that your mind manufactured for you.
28:23You see, we can feed the stomach with concentrates.
28:25We can supply microfilm for reading, recreation, even movies of a sort.
28:30We can pump oxygen in and waste material out.
28:33But there's one thing we can't simulate.
28:36That's a very basic need.
28:37Man's hunger for companionship.
28:41And a barrier of loneliness.
28:43That's one thing we haven't licked yet.
28:46Next time it won't be just a box and a hanger, will it?
28:49No, Mike.
28:51Next time you'll really be alone.
28:52Hey, don't go away up there.
29:10Next time it won't be a dream or a nightmare.
29:13Next time it'll be for real.
29:16So don't go away.
29:17We'll be up there in a little while.
29:19The barrier of loneliness.
29:26The palpable, desperate need of the human animal to be with his fellow man.
29:30Up there.
29:32Up there in the vastness of space.
29:34In the void that is sky.
29:37Up there is an enemy known as isolation.
29:40It sits there in the stars waiting.
29:43Waiting with the patience of Eon.
29:45Forever waiting.
29:46In the twilight zone.
29:50In the twilight zone.
29:52In the twilight zone.
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