Day 109, April 19: The Twilight Zone

My Favorite Episodes

from The Twilight Zone

I've loved this show since I was a little kid and it scared me. These days, I can watch any episode at any time because Kris bought me the complete set for a wedding present four years ago. As I reviewed the five seasons, I initially narrowed it down to 27 episodes - nine from Season 3 and only two from Season 4, when it went from 30 minutes to hour-long episodes. Here is the Top 10, although most are interchangeable even with the special mentions:

1. "The Hunt," Season 3: An old mountain man and his dog share some good times in the present and in the future. One of the more sentimental of all episodes.

2. "An Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge," Season 5: A French short film aired just once, it involves the hanging of a Confederate soldier who somehow gets the break of his life.

3. "Living Doll," Season 5: Telly Savalas stars as an abusive father whose daughter gets a very special doll. Let's just say that "Tina" and Telly don't get along.

4. "Kick the Can," Season 3: A classic that also appeared on the 1983 Twilight Zone movie, most of a group of nursing home residents learn how to be young again.

5. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," Season 5: Another classic on the '83 film, William Shatner stars as the only  airplane passenger that sees a monster on the wing - or does he?

6. "Eye of the Beholder," Season 2: Filmed in a very closeup and dark style, this episode features a woman undergoing yet another plastic surgery. And she hopes she'll finally look normal.

7. "Time Enough at Last," Season 1: Starring my favorite Twilight Zone star, Burgess Meredith, a hen-pecked bookworm finally sees his wish to have more time to read come true. Or does it?

8. "A World of His Own," Season 1: A writer dictates his creations into a tape recorder which has some intriguing powers that he likes, but his wife doesn't.

9. "Still Valley," Season 3: A Confederate soldier discovers a way to almost single-handedly win the Civil War for the South. Should he or shouldn't he?

10. "The Invaders," Season 2: Agnes Moorehead pulls off a wonderful one-woman episode with hardly any dialogue. She tries to fight off a miniature flying saucer from taking over her 19th-century rustic cabin.

Special mention: "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" Season 1; "The Obsolete Man," Season 2; "The Dummy," Season 3; "The Printer's Devil" Season 4; "The Masks" Season 5.