Love the show, picked up the whole series on bluray from an amazon deal. There's also a couple episodes from the 80's twilight zone that I thought were chilling, one which stuck in my mind since childhood where this woman can freeze time and she happens to freeze it when a nuke is about to hit her own town. Didn't care for the 90's version though. I think it's possible they could successfully reboot it these days though after seeing how good Stranger Things was on Netflix.
The Twilight Zone Original Series
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As soon as you can afford to, do it. I own all five seasons and re-watch my favorite episodes all the time.Not my favorite sci-fi show (that honor goes to Star Trek), but both a classic, and simply good TV nonetheless.
The 80s version is underrated.
I thought it was a mixed bag. It had some worthwhile installments, but plenty of mediocre ones, too. I was actually happier with its syndicated third season, with J. Michael Straczynski taking over as showrunner. Although I don't think I've ever seen that season in its entirety.
The 80s version was quite good, and I'll get the complete series one of these days (it's sitting patiently in my Amazon cart). I could barely sit through the 90s version, though, and I don't remember a thing about it. There's supposed to be another revival in the works, but I haven't heard anything about it in a while.
I own that series on DVD too, and tend to agree (although for me, the original is better). My particular favorite of the 1985-1989 version is "Profile in Silver". Andy Robinson (Garak) made a great JFK. Better than any other actor I've seen.
Wow, I always felt he was pretty bad as JFK. Didn't look a thing like him, and IIRC, I felt his impersonation was too broad. (But then, I think everything he does is too broad. People call Shatner a ham, but he's got nothing on Robinson.)
I really enjoyed the new TZ third season 1988 episode "The Hunters" about primitive drawings on the walls of the cave.
(give it about a minute to start) or just click this:
www.dailymotion.com/video/xv6ev1_twilight-zone-3x04-the-hunters_shortfilms
(give it about a minute to start) or just click this:
www.dailymotion.com/video/xv6ev1_twilight-zone-3x04-the-hunters_shortfilms
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^ Saul Tigh AND Winn Adami in the same episode. Can't go wrong with that! 
@Christopher: You dare question Andrew Robinson's ability to portray JFK? You are dead to me.
Seriously. Robinson absolutely NAILED it. I think it's my favorite portrayal of JFK of all time. Not even close to Shatnerian levels of 'hamming'. (And what the hell is the problem about him not looking much like the real thing? You seriously think that's important? Robinson didn't look any more or less like JFK than Bruce Fucking Greenwood did...)
And Lane Smith...what a genius. So sad about his health problems (he died of ALS a few years ago
).
@Christopher: You dare question Andrew Robinson's ability to portray JFK? You are dead to me.
Seriously. Robinson absolutely NAILED it. I think it's my favorite portrayal of JFK of all time. Not even close to Shatnerian levels of 'hamming'. (And what the hell is the problem about him not looking much like the real thing? You seriously think that's important? Robinson didn't look any more or less like JFK than Bruce Fucking Greenwood did...)
And Lane Smith...what a genius. So sad about his health problems (he died of ALS a few years ago
).
Agreed. Robinson looked alot more like JFK than Greenwood, Stephen Collins, Daniel Hugh Kelley, or Martin Sheen.^ Saul Tigh AND Winn Adami in the same episode. Can't go wrong with that!
@Christopher: You dare question Andrew Robinson's ability to portray JFK? You are dead to me.
Seriously. Robinson absolutely NAILED it. I think it's my favorite portrayal of JFK of all time. Not even close to Shatnerian levels of 'hamming'. (And what the hell is the problem about him not looking much like the real thing? You seriously think that's important? Robinson didn't look any more or less like JFK than Bruce Fucking Greenwood did...)
And Lane Smith...what a genius. So sad about his health problems (he died of ALS a few years ago
Greg Cox "The 80s version is underrated."
Some of it is. I always liked The Star, it seemed true to the spirit of the original.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(The_Twilight_Zone)
There were some pretty lame ones, though. Like any series where the script has a different author every week, the quality can become uneven.
Some of it is. I always liked The Star, it seemed true to the spirit of the original.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(The_Twilight_Zone)
There were some pretty lame ones, though. Like any series where the script has a different author every week, the quality can become uneven.
One of the 80's TZ eps that freaked me out the most was where the obnoxious drunk guy buys a bar, which turns out to be his own personal hell...
and yeah, that is Tim Russ at the end, playing a state trooper ("It's an eyesore, all right.")
and yeah, that is Tim Russ at the end, playing a state trooper ("It's an eyesore, all right.")
"The Star" is my favorite Arthur C Clarke story. It was a pretty good adaptation, despite a different spin on the ending. And it had Fritz Weaver and Donald Moffat. The 80s TZ also did some other good adaptations, like Harlan Ellison's "Shatterday."
Thank you for providing that video. That was a very good episode.
The opening montage was really cool. It was a bit on creepy side though. I liked it better than the original opening montage.
There was an episode from the 2000s version that I remember called "Cradle of Darkness". It starred Katherine Heigl, who played a time traveler who went back in time in an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler when he was still an infant. Of course it backfired.
I also remember that there was another series in the 80s that was similar to the TZ called Amazing Stories.
Similar, but much, much worse. That was a Steven Spielberg-produced anthology show that got a guaranteed 2-season commitment from NBC due to Spielberg's name, and it was pretty much a showcase for directors. And like many director-driven projects, it was heavy on the style and spectacle but weak in the concepts and writing. A lot of its stories were very superficial, simplistic, entry-level fantasy stuff, or were just really bad. It looked really good, but it was often painful to sit through. The Twilight Zone, by contrast, has always been more of a writer-driven show, especially in its original and '80s iterations. So it was much stronger in terms of concepts, plot, dialogue, and characterization.
Also, Amazing Stories took its title from a classic science fiction magazine, even though it had no direct connection to the magazine and simply licensed the name.
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