Twilight Zone Original Series on Blu Ray...

[SteyrAUG]

So as I recovery from shoulder surgery and basically not allowed to lift anything or move my arm in certain directions, all the Netflix and Prime series I had saved to get me through this period have mostly been disappointing. In most cases I can't get through the first episode of something I thought would be interesting.

So in addition to deep diving my DVD collection, been picking up a few things on Blu Ray that are worth upgrading from DVD because they are either so reliably good and / or they offer features and bonuses not available on the DVD release.

And I learned something, you know that familiar twilight zone theme? It wasn't there for season one and didn't start until season two. There were actually four different intros to the original five seasons and only the last three used the same theme music although with season four and five the theme was abbreviated a bit.

For those who were wondering.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJj9nvk0AgY

Additional trivia, season four episodes were an hour long, unlike the other seasons which were only a half hour. That is why they are usually excluded from marathons and reruns.

The set of course includes "The Encounter" (which was banned until 2016 after it's initial airing) was a story by Rod Serling and likely inspired by his experiences during the war, he was a veteran of the Battle of the Philippines against the Japanese.

Also includes "The Time Element" an original story he wrote about somebody who went back to Dec. 6, 1941 at Honolulu but his warnings went unheeded. The show was intended for the Twilight Zone but a different pilot was used instead and The Time Element became part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse.

[Straight Shooter]

One of the best things ever on tv and one of the precious few things Id watch again. The Encounter was awesome.
My favorite three all have James Best...Roscoe from The Dukes of Hazzard, in them. The Grave..The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank & Jess-Belle.
Give those a peep if you can, especially The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.

[SteyrAUG]

One of the best things ever on tv and one of the precious few things Id watch again. The Encounter was awesome.
My favorite three all have James Best...Roscoe from The Dukes of Hazzard, in them. The Grave..The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank & Jess-Belle.
Give those a peep if you can, especially The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.

I've probably seen every episode a dozen times, will probably watch them all a dozen more times.

[Straight Shooter]

Ever so often, an episode Ive not seen will come up- its always a great delight. But I too can watch them over & over. Just a brilliant show.

[SteyrAUG]

Ever so often, an episode Ive not seen will come up- its always a great delight. But I too can watch them over & over. Just a brilliant show.

When writing was writing and the intent was to craft a story rather than throw around some big words to prove you have a degree in your field. That Serling was also taking the time to exercise some of his demons from the war gave it a little bit of an edge and something we really hadn't seen before.

There were other anthologies that predated it just as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but few episodes even came near it in terms of cutting edge writing. The lower budget "The Outer Limits" became something of a hard sci fi distant cousin that sometimes was reminiscent of the Twilight Zone, but only it's strong adherence to (then) current scientific theories kept it in the A league.

It was all a wonderful time in the late 70s for me, I had finally gotten a 13" b&w in my bedroom so around 11pm I was treated to reruns of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Wild Wild West and of course The Honeymooners...and I learned to love them all. I usually had last nights pizza (oven reheated) and a couple cokes and I felt like I had the universe to myself. Thankfully they typically ran something like Groucho Marx show around 3am right when I was dozing off anyway.

[Straight Shooter]

When writing was writing and the intent was to craft a story rather than throw around some big words to prove you have a degree in your field. That Serling was also taking the time to exercise some of his demons from the war gave it a little bit of an edge and something we really hadn't seen before.

There were other anthologies that predated it just as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but few episodes even came near it in terms of cutting edge writing. The lower budget "The Outer Limits" became something of a hard sci fi distant cousin that sometimes was reminiscent of the Twilight Zone, but only it's strong adherence to (then) current scientific theories kept it in the A league.

It was all a wonderful time in the late 70s for me, I had finally gotten a 13" b&w in my bedroom so around 11pm I was treated to reruns of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Wild Wild West and of course The Honeymooners...and I learned to love them all. I usually had last nights pizza (oven reheated) and a couple cokes and I felt like I had the universe to myself. Thankfully they typically ran something like Groucho Marx show around 3am right when I was dozing off anyway.

That does sound awesome. I like Hitchcock a good bit. I used to love Saturday nights..we had local show out of Nashville...one of three stations at the time..that had a horror show that came on at 11:00 pm called { I had to look this up, hadnt thought of this in decades} CREATURE FEATURES. The host was a guy from Nashville named Sir Cecil Creape. He had a black cape, lived in a dungeon type place..and would introduce these old B-C grade horror flicks from the 60's & early 70's. This was around 1971-73. He was a pudgy, bald, "ghoul" with bad teeth & a Southern drawl..and as he came down the steps to start the show, holding a lantern..his catchphrase was "Did someone CAAALLL?" Oh man, we ate that up. He was a TN celebrity for a long time. The Darkside, Outer Limits, and a couple more I cant remember all made for good tv back then...and it all went off air at 0200 with either the National Anthem...or the awesome sonnet High Flight, which even then gave me goosebumps, like now.

https://i.postimg.cc/h491B5gN/Sir-Cecil-Creape.jpg (https://postimages.org/)
Here is a pic of Sir Cecile!

[SteyrAUG]

Absolutely grew up on Creature Features. It's where my love of classic Universals, Hammers and the rest came from. It was fun watching those films as a kid with my dad, who used to watch the same films when he was my age during the theatrical reruns of the late 50s and early 60s.

[Straight Shooter]

Wow, thats great..was good times then. Watching stuff with your dad was the best. My dad & I loved the old Godzilla flicks..I still do.