Plot: What’s it about?
It’s an annual marathon tradition during many holidays, primarily the Fourth of July and New Year’s. It’s a mysterious world filled with a variety of stories ranging from the cosmic to the present day warning tale. It said a lot at the end of the 1950’s and showed many ways to say it in a half hour form and it came from the mind of a talented writer named Rod Serling who had seen many anthologies of live television succeed and figured that the live portion can be taken out of the element for his turn of the literal television wheel. From being television’s most prolific writer to the television equivalent of O. Henry, Serling introduced a show that took us in another dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is the middle ground between science and superstition and it lived within the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which is known as The Twilight Zone.
For the first season, many episodes were based on short stories and every once in a while were original teleplays. Occasionally out of that mix, Rod would be included whether it was behind the typewriter or in this seasons case, behind the many intros of the series. There are many half hour shows (36 to be exact) in this one season and The Twilight Zone was the small screen equivalent combining the reading a collection of great short stories along with a comic book always wondering when the next collection or comic book was going to pop up next. There was a lot of storytelling and in glorious black and white were given a neat package of performances and storytelling alike.
I was particularly drawn to the show from a few things. In high school there was a pinball game I played regularly that had a healthy sampling of soundbites and bonus rounds that kept me coming back and giving me a bit of curiosity as to which episodes were portrayed and when the show was going to be on next. There were times when I didn’t have to wait for a marathon but an occasional after hours (no pun) rerun on the local channel or the raining out of a NY Yankees game with an episode in place of it. The marathon’s did consume a lot of my holiday time and it reminded me of my brother’s interest in the show and how I had only seen dribs and drabs of the episodes through the years but it was not until later that I became fascinated with and forever became a fan of the show.
Seeing Season One brought back a lot of memories along with creating new ones. Not every episode was super spectacular. The show did range from average to great and in this season this was the starting ground of what was to come later and bringing out the legs that would have it survive for another four seasons. It is a remarkable show and Season One starts out average and ends on a great note giving a great lead-in to the next season filled with predictions, faces, and an element called video tape. This first season’s dimension is an intriguing yet fascinating one.
Video: How does it look?
This is the umpteenth version of the original Twilight Zone series coming out on DVD. This is the first time that the episodes are put together in individual season form and the look of the show looks better than the previous releases and the laser disc. Admittedly there are some episodes that have a slight element of grain from the age of the material but that doesn’t take away the overall visual impact of the show as the remastering job on this season is sharp and the clearest I’ve seen the show in any form. Much of the flaws that are evident in the syndicated reruns are gone and we are left with a dimension that’s very clean in all forms. An excellent job.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio in Dolby Digital Mono is average and all dialogue, score and sound effects can be heard through all channels but not with any bombastic effect. Then again, it’s not strongly muted and the episodes get a treatment audibly that is superior to most shows made at that time. This is a show that won’t be demonstrated as a great example of a great audio sound system in anyone’s home theater. However, this is not to say that it is negative. It is a major improvement, like the video portion, that the syndicated reruns could have never dreamed as the forehearing dialogue flaw that has plagued the re-runs is evident no more. Great job. The only upshot of the set is a lack of subtitles which is absent from this season set.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The Twilight Zone has gone through many incarnations through Image. There have been special sets, individual volumes and at one time a full package of the entire series. The one thing that it lacked more than anything was a healthy array of extras, which was only evident in the later volumes of the show. Image has updated the show in all to accomodate the everlasting television series trend of packaging the series in individual season form and after many attempts to do justice to this series in this format, it finally succeeds in this department.
Every episode (Walking Distance and A World Of His Own being the exceptions) have something this viewer had only witnessed at the Museum of Television and Radio. During the episodes there are buttons throughout every episode leading to a commercial and at the end of every episode, there would be an announcement of Rod Serling introducing a promo for next week’s show aka “And Now, Mr. Serling”. The majority of these can be seen in their full form intergrated into the episode with only a handful of them survived by the audio portion of it only. On the later individual volumes previous to this set, these were rarely evident and shown in an individual format with a freeze frame of the episode and only the audio part. This set corrects most of that and it is a great find.
In addition throughout the 6 discs, there are 6 present day commentaries, 4 recorded lectures with Rod Serling from Sherman Oaks College, 7 interviews conducted by Marc Scott Zicree, writer of the Twilight Zone Companion with various cast and crew,
21 isolated scores, rare photos from “The Mighty Casey”, a comical clip from The Drew Carey Show spoofing “Time Enough at Last” and 6 Radio Dramas recreating Twilight Zone episodes with a still of the episode on the screen.
Episodes not participating in the widened extras are Escape Clause, Judgment Night, The Fever, The Last Flight, People Are Alike All Over, Execution, and Mr. Bevis.
In the case of the present day commentaries, the participants all indicate that it has been a long time that they’ve seen the episode and their recollections are as we watch them and are honest takes without giving in to too much self appreciation and they are a treat to listen to from a present day perspective.
The recorded lectures by Serling were recorded in 1975 and give an alternate listen as the episodes that are lucky enough to have this option show that Rod had a different take and not always favorable to some of the episodes of this series. This is a good meaty part of this package.
The interviews recorded by Marc Scott Zicree were recorded in the seventies and gave some interesting takes from the participants, most of which can be read in Zicree’s TZ Companion which is included with this set.
The one thing that the lectures and the interviews have in common is that they don’t take up the entire time of an episode and the episode stops at the end of that scene selection.
The isolated scores are a treat even when some are compilated from previous episodes or stock music or original and displayed how wonderfully scored the show was throughout it’s entire run.
The Radio Dramas are also intriguing to listen to as some modern day actors tackle the TZ material in their own way and it’s done wonderfully with the TZ theme and some nice background music as well.
The 6th disc is the major extras disc of this set as it starts with a pilot version of Where is Everybody that was only seen by the network sponsors and has an intro by Serling. This also has a different narrator and a different title design but mostly the same episode with a few differences here and there. What was not available before is the way Serling narrated this version and it can be heard by the alternate narration/end option individually.
There’s also a sales pitch to the Netherlands that only got shown in spurts during the most recent TZ Marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel and it is the rare scene of Serling behind a desk.
Also on the 6th disc is a rare episode of a game show in SHOCKING COLOR that Serling hosted in the 70s called The Liar’s Club that have no one involved with the Twilight Zone as part of the panel but an endless match between two competitiors that is funny and a curious entry in this set.
There’s also a brief but funny blooper for one Serling intro as well as all the Emmy Award speeches for the series and a neat photo gallery with only a few photos.
Finally, through the computer you can see an issue of the Twilight Zone Comic Book in Adobe Acrobat form and a great addition called Twilight Zone Billboards that contain 9 intros to the show that indicate the sponsor of Twilight Zone in black and white that was only available at viewings at the Television Museum (until now) and is a great punctuation mark to this set. I personally can’t wait for the release of Season Two and what it has to offer.
I would like to say on my behalf that this belongs with THX-1138 on my Top 10 at #1. After so many incarnations, Image Entertainment finally got it right. 2004 was a great year for DVDs and with the release during the last week of December, The Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition Season One is proof positive of saving the best for last.
