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TV Wasteland: Not Only of Sight and Sound, But of Mind

Twilight Zone returns for the 4th of July

By Rob Vaux     June 29, 2009


Cue the classic theme as Rod Serling takes you into THE TWILIGHT ZONE
© Robert Trate

 

Whatever the SciFi Channel's faults--and with the transfer to "Syfy" imminent, those faults have loomed particularly large of late--there's one thing it always gets right: the 4th of July Twilight Zone marathon. It's become quite the geek tradition over the years, and its continued place on SciFi's schedule suggests that there's still some tiny worm of the station's original purpose amid all the pro wrestling and reality show idiocy. Rod Serling's groundbreaking anthology had its share of lousy episodes, where overt preachiness or poorly engineered twists overwhelmed any semblance of elegant storytelling. But when it was on its game, nothing in the history of television could approach it.
 
SciFi is prefacing this year's run with an interesting inclusion: the revival version of The Twilight Zone which ran on CBS in the mid-1980s. Though it couldn’t boast Serling's uniquely ironic signature and its crap-to-quality ratio was quite a bit higher, it still produced its share of memorable episodes. Grade-A talent such as Wes Craven, Harlan Ellison and Joe Dante participated, as did a number of stars in their before-they-were-famous phase. (You won't believe how young Bruce Willis looks in the series premiere.)
 
Episodes of the revival start Thursday, July 2, at 8:00 AM EDT on SciFi. Episodes of the original series start on July 3 at 5:00 PM EDT. Below is a list of a few highlights and personal favorites, along with their airing times:
 
"A Small Talent for War" (2nd half of the episode, July 2, 10:30 AM EDT)
"Gramma" (July 2, 1:30 PM EDT)
"The Shadow Man" (July 2, 8:00 PM EDT)
"I Of Newton" (2nd half of the episode, July 3, 5:30 AM EDT)
"Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" (July 3, 10:30 PM EDT)
"Mirror Image" (July 3, 11:00 PM EDT)
"Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" (July 4, 3:00 AM EDT)
"Nick of Time" (July 4, 9:30 AM EDT)
"It's a Good Life" (July 4, 2:00 PM EDT)
"The Masks" (July 4, 5:00 PM EDT)
"The Howling Man" (July 4, 6:00 PM EDT)
"Time Enough at Last" (July 4, 8:30 PM EDT)
"Eye of the Beholder" (July 4, 9:00 PM EDT)
"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (July 4, 9:30 PM EDT)
"To Serve Man" (July 4, 10:00 PM EDT)
"Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (July 4, 10:30 PM EDT)
"The Rip Van Winkle Caper" (July 4, 3:30 AM EDT)
 
Monday
The Phantom Menace (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
Look, Jar-Jar notwithstanding, it really isn't that bad. And the kids still dig it.
 
Tuesday
Ghostbusters (AMC, 8:00 PM EDT)
With the threat of a no-doubt crappy Part III barreling our way, let's all take a little time to remember how great the first one was with this airing on AMC.
 
Attack of the Clones (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
Okay, Attack of the Clones is likely the weakest of the six Star Wars movies, but it still features Samuel L. Jackson and his purple lightsaber bad-osity, along with Yoda's crack-addled Death Muppet routine.
 
X-Men: The Last Stand (F/X, 7:30 PM EDT)
Considering that Brett Ratner was at the helm, we can probably file this one comfortably in "it could have been worse" territory.
 
Life After People is in reruns this week.
 
Wednesday
RoboCop (IFC, 8:00 PM EDT)
Paul Verhoeven's sharp-as-nails sci-fi satire still works both as a brutal action film and a skewering of Reagan-era greed. IFC presents its movies uncut, so you'll get to enjoy every brain-splattering moment.
 
Revenge of the Sith (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
Even nay-sayers found things to like about the conclusion to the Star Wars prequel trilogy. We still have to suffer through the appalling Anakin/Padme romance, however.
 
MonsterQuest is in reruns this week.
 
Thursday
The Twilight Zone Marathon (SciFi, 8:00 AM EDT)
The revival series which ran from 1985 through 1989 kicks off in the morning. See the top of the article for more details.
 
The Listener (NBC, 10:00 PM EDT)
"Forget it Toby (Craig Olejnik). It's Chinatown." Our Hero helps solve a murder in the local Asian community while developing a relationship with the victim's sister.
 
Star Wars (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
A New Hope is a special and important movie to be sure, but let's be honest: it features a number of problems (bad dialogue, wooden acting) that people were far more willing to forgive here than in the prequels.
 
The Matrix (TNT, 9:00 PM EDT)
Crappy follow-ups cannot dim the undisputed awesomeness of Larry and Andy Wachowski's modern classic. Just pretend it ends when Keanu hangs up the phone.
 
Friday
The Twilight Zone Marathon (SciFi, 5:00 PM EDT)
The classic series picks up where the revival left off and runs through Saturday night. See the top of the article for more details.
 
The Empire Strikes Back (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
Now this is pod racing. Everything comes together in the riveting fifth chapter to George Lucas's space saga. Action, romance, the most stunning revelation in science fiction history… even some crackerjack dialogue thanks to screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. Why oh why couldn't they all be like this?
 
Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Star Wars: The Clone Wars are on hiatus. Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures are reruns.
 
Saturday
Kings (NBC, 8:00 PM EDT)
David (Christopher Egan) heads off in search of the kingdom's original charter, only to uncover troubling new information about his father.
 
Eli Stone (ABC, 10:00 PM EDT)
Eli (Jonny Lee Miller) and Jordan (Victor Garber) get a chance to stick it to the company that fired them this week.
 
Return of the Jedi (Spike, 6:00 PM EDT)
The chronological finale to the Star Wars saga loses points mainly by having to tie everything up without being able to develop any energy of its own. Weigh the prospect of Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) in her slave girl bikini against the horrors of that annoying Ewoks song, and make your viewing choice accordingly.
 
Broken Arrow (Fox Movie Channel, 7:00 PM EDT)
If I told you that John Woo directed a movie starring John Travolta and Christian Slater about a rogue pilot who steals nuclear weapons, and that it was actually pretty good, you'd probably laugh in my face. Yet here we are.
 
Sunday
True Blood (HBO, 9:00 PM EDT)
Okay, we have some confusion on whether there's a new episode this week. HBO originally slated one tonight, but TV Guide is claiming otherwise. It may have been bumped to next week because of the holiday.
 
Merlin (NBC, 8:00 PM EDT)
NBC, on the other hand, definitely has a new episode of Merlin, in which the titular wizard (Colin Morgan) and Lancelot (Santiago Cabrera) team up to fight an evil winged monster. Um, woot.
 
The Mask (ABC Family, 8:00 PM EDT)
Exactly two things make this 1994 adaptation of the Dark Horse comic book worth watching: Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz. And how often can you say that?
 
Total Recall (SciFi, 6:30 PM EDT)
Paul Verhoeven strikes again with this better-than-average Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle featuring mutants on Mars and an aerobicizing Sharon Stone. Just relax and let Kuato take the pain away…
 
Pirates of the Caribbean (SciFi, 9:00 PM EDT)
The first of the Pirates trilogy introduced the world to the unforgettable Jack Sparrow, courtesy of Mr. Jonathan Depp.

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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Showing items 1 - 10 of 10
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karas1 6/29/2009 4:24:54 AM

My favorite Twilight Zone ep is the one with Jackie Gleason and a really young Jack Klugman shooting pool in the afterlife.  It's two guys and a pool table and half an hour of riviting drama.  They really don't write them like that any more.

tacid 6/29/2009 5:01:58 AM

I have high hopes for Ghostbusters 3 since the story of the game if awsome :D

hanso 6/29/2009 6:00:42 AM

There is no confusion with True Blood.  HBO will air the last 3 episodes next weekend.  The new episode will be on July 12th.

I've been playing The Ghostbusters video game and though repetitive gameplay, the story so far is nice as well as the cutscenes. 

egoist 6/29/2009 7:20:50 AM

You gotta love "To Serve Man" and the Burgess Merideth episode with the coke bottle glasses where he just wants to read. If you look up ironic in the dictionary you will see that episodes description.

Hobbs 6/29/2009 7:51:04 AM

I agree writing in entertainment certainly has taken a back seat since shows like TZ but I still think there is a lot of good writing out there...granted when I say that please don't use the Summer movie season as an example, lol.   

I haven't tried the Ghostbusters game, I'm still too engrossed in the Fallout add on.

Did anyone watch that Ron Moore show on Friday, that Virtual thing or whatever it was called?  I watched it on DVR last night. I wasn't that impressed with it.  I thought it moved a little too slow but thought it had interesting ideas.  The whole "Hal" from 2001 was too much of a rip off but I like the idea of reality TV funding a manned mission into space.  Reality TV being a downfall of humanity (in my opinion) I thought that was a clever twist that it was funding a mission to rescue humanity.

hanso 6/29/2009 9:00:17 AM

Dude, Fallout 3 is one of the greatest things eva!  I'm sad I had to sell it but I needed my video game fix and I couldn't keep pumping $10 for every DLC Fallout 3.  I'm upset I didn't wait for the 3rd add on which lifted the Level up restriction.  I did buy the first add on and thought it was pretty cool.

Haven't seen Virtuality yet, I actually forgot to DVR it so I had to download it last night.  I'll try to watch it sometime this week.

redhairs99 6/29/2009 1:03:38 PM

Every Burgess Meriedith episode of TZ is freaking awesome!  Especially the one where he's the devil newspaper printer and "makes" the news happen himself.  Just classic!

Rob, I gotta disagree man.  Phantom Menace is the absolute worst installment of the six films.  What is this Ewok song of which you speak of in Jedi?  I remember the "Special EDition" of Jedi having a crappy Jedi Rap song in the middle of Jabba's Palace, but I guess I've blocked the Ewok song from my memory.

Hobbs 6/29/2009 1:30:25 PM

Come on redhairs, the famous "Nuk Nuk" song...and yeah, you SW fans I know the title is wrong but it will forever be remembered for that.  That's one of the few things I liked about the SE was that he changed that final score.  I don't think Rob was saying it was the worst...though it was the worst of the original trilogy. 

I will agree with you that TPM was the worst installment of all six and one of the worst movies in film history.

hanso, you are you correct on both accounts....it is the sheet and you did get rid of it too soon.  It's still fairly new in gaming terms to have gotten rid of it that quickly.

redhairs99 6/29/2009 5:08:42 PM

Ah, yes, I do remember it now. I didn't think it was that bad. What's worse is Lucas putting Hayden Christensen as a Jedi Blue ghost at the end of the special EDition! So everyone else who becomes a blue ghost remains the way they appeared when they died, but Anakin gets to be young again?

Of course, I am one of those "weird" Star Wars fans who (and I know I'll take a lot of crap for this but here goes) thinks that the first Star Wars is the best followed by Jedi and then Empire. I know, I know, but I enjoyed Jedi when it came out. I was like 3 and it was the only Star Wars film I got to see in the theaters during it's original run. I'm not saying that Empire is bad, but I just liked the other two slightly, slightly more. I've always been a fan of "originals" or origin type stories, so the storytelling aspect of the first film and the set-up for what's to come it why I like it better. With Jedi, it was the Rocky effect. The underdog story. Of course, the Ewoks could help bring down the Empire. The had home field advantage. Plus, all they really had to do was get Han into the bunder to turn off the deflector shield. It's not like they took down the Deathstar, that was Lando. Plus you had Leia in that hot-ass metal bikini for the first third of the film! Empire did have the BEST plot twist (the plot twist to end all plot twists in fact) and I still really, really like that film, just liked the other two slightly better as I said before.

Now if you want me to order the Special EDition versions of the films, then yes Jedi is now dead last of the original three films. It's Jedi almost entirely because of that damn Muppet/Jedi rap song. I, to this day, hit the skip chapter button on the remote if I happen to be watching the Special EDition of Jedi, which is rare of course since I have the Limited Edition DVD without all the newly remaster crap effects.

NotAFan 6/29/2009 7:06:37 PM

Why are you not including Spectacular SPider-man in the listings? There are new episodes Mondays at, I think, 7:30 pm!

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