The fourth season of The Twilight Zone changed a couple of things on the show. They dropped "The" in the title and they made the episodes an hour long. The show had failed to get a sponsor in the fall and had been replaced on the schedule with an hour long sitcom which failed to get the ratings and got cancelled. They asked Rod to bring back Twilight Zone as the mid-season replacement in the hour long slot. Producer Buck Houghton had left the series when it failed to get on the schedule and Herbert Hirschman was hired to replace him. Serling provided a lot of the scripts but he was pretty much absent during the actual production of the season and the program suffers from all of those changes. I'm curious to see these, I had seen some of them in the mid 1980s when they were on cable, but I can hardly remember anything about them. I don't remember seeing them when they first aired.
In His Image January 3 1963
Written by Charles Beaumont, adapted from his short story, and directed by Perry Lafferty. George Grizzard is standing on the subway platform waiting for the train. An old lady starts talking to him, wanting to know if he's been saved, and he tosses her under the incoming train. He runs out of the station and we join a woman in her apartment. George shows up there and it turns out he's her fiancé and they are going to visit his Aunt in his hometown. They arrive only to find no one knows who he is, there's no aunt and his university is completely gone. What's up? The fiancé leaves after George gets upset. George encounters a man who looks just like him and that man tells him what's going on. George is a robot and the man is the inventor. That a sucky day George has been having. He battles the inventor to the death and the inventor goes to visit the fiancé to start a new life. Not a bad story but I can already see that it would have been better in the shorter format. There's an isolated score and in interview with producer Herbert Hirschman.
The Thirty Fathom Grave January 10 1963
Written by Rod Serling and directed by Perry Lafferty. A navy ship hears a noise from a sub 30 fathoms below. They send a diver down and discover that the sub was sunk in WWII and there's something making noise inside. The Chief has been acting weird since the ship got into the area. He was the only survivor of the sub. He dropped the light that showed the Japanese destroyer the subs location and his guilt has been eating him up for 20 years. He jumps into the sea and disappears. The don't find his body and that's the end of the show. Another one that could have been better shorter. Nice performances from Mike Kellin and Simon Oakland. Keep an eye out for Bill Bixby and John Considine. The extra is an episode of the TZ radio drama.
Valley Of The Shadow January 17 1963
Written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Perry Lafferty. A reporter, Ed Nelson, stops for gas in a small town. He wants something to eat but the restaurant is closed. Before he gets his change his dog jumps out of the car to chase a cat. A small girl makes his dog disappear with a small device she had in her pocket. James Doohan plays the little girls dad. He brings the dog back. More odd things lead Ed to the secret of Peaceful Valley. A hundred years ago someone or thing brought a great technology to them and they have kept it from the world until they are ready. The guy now has to stay or die. He stays but soon as he gets a chance he kills the mayor and his pals and tries to escape. They have the ability to defeat death and the mayor and his pals are ok. They erase his memory and send him back into the world. Another story that might have been better shorter. There's an interview with Morgan Brittany who played the little girl. There's an isolated score.
I think the episodes lack the punch of the half hour format. Not sure why they didn't just do two shorter stories? By the time I get to the end of the hour long story I'm way ready to move on. There are only 18 episodes in the half season, three each on the 6 disc in the set. Eventually I'll finish them off.
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