Touted as one of Entertainment Weekly’s all-time top 100 TV shows, The Twilight Zone: The Complete 3rd Season, has been released for home video viewers. Rod Serling’s science fiction plot twisters are fun to watch. It’s a chance for those that want to digress to an age where television was new and amazing even in Black and White. The five disc DVD box set includes all 37 episodes from season 3 and showcases many of Hollywood’s greatest actors during their fledgling acting careers.
You don’t have to be an oldster to latch onto this journey into the unknown. Taking simple ideas and turning them into ‘what ifs’, Serling creates a play that mesmerizes and challenges the imagination. Many of our films today use Serling’s ideas to create amazing scripts that we now enjoy as major motion pictures. His choices of actors in each of the episode are interesting, placing comedians in serious roles and drama greats in alien themed chapters. I found most of the episodes intriguing with stories that memorable and in some cases predictions of the future.
This series includes all the episodes that aired between September 15, 1961 and June 1, 1962. There are many classic tales like The Mirror featuring Peter Falk as a Central American revolutionary who finds that running a government can get you wondering about your friends. It is great seeing actors that became big stars during the 60’s among them Bill Mumy (Lost In Space- TV), Carol Burnett (The Carol Burnett Show- TV), Cliff Robertson (PT 109), Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Charles Bronson (The Dirty Dozen), Elizabeth Montgomery(Bewitched- TV), Dean Stockwell (Long Day’s Journey Into Night), Burgess Meredith (Batman), William Windom (To Kill a Mockingbird), Jack Klugman (The Odd Couple- TV), William Shatner (Star Trek- TV), Art Carney (The Jackie Gleeson Show- TV), Keenan Wynn (The Great Race), Peter Falk (Columbo- TV), Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes), Lee Marvin (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) and more. If you haven’t seen the films mentioned, check them out. Your local library that offers video releases should have many of them and it’s a good place to start.
The DVD’s have no bonus features, just a whole lot of fun and mind bending entertainment. As Rod Serling states as he opens his show; “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop…the Twilight Zone”.
The Black and White episodes transferred well from the video tapes that recorded them. Although a little fuzzy at times the stories are complete and enjoyable to watch. The Black and White gives the feel of oldness and blends into the story that offers some 60’s memorabilia like old cars, newspapers, phones, airplanes, and even a President of days gone by.
The sound quality is very good using the provided Dolby Digital Mono, but don’t expect any surround or High Definition. Presented in its original recording, the series gets nostalgic for those who lived during the period and intriguing for most of the younger generation.
The episode list is as follows: Two, The Arrival, The Shelter, The Passersby, A Game of Pool, The Mirror, The Grave, It’s a Good Life, Deaths-Head Revisited, The Midnight Sun, Still Valley, The Jungle, Once Upon a Time, Five Characters in Search of an Exit, A Quality of Mercy, Nothing in the Dark, One More Pallbearer, Dead Man’s Shoes, The Hunt, Showdown with Rance McGrew, Kick the Can, A Piano in the House, The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank, To Serve Man, The Fugitive, Little Girl Lost, Person or Persons Unknown, The Little People, Four O’Clock, Hocus-Pocus and Frisby, The trade-ins, The Gift, The Dummy, Young Man’s Fancy, I Sin the Body Electric, Cavender Is Coming and The Changing of the Guard.
Specifications and additional film information:
- Cast Includes: Rod Serling, Bill Mumy, Carol Burnett, Cliff Robertson, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dean Stockwell, Burgess Meredith, William Windom, Jack Klugman, William Shatner, Art Carney, Keenan Wynn, Peter Falk, Buster Keaton, Mickey Rooney, Roddy McDowall and Lee Marvin
- Directed by: Several
- MPAA Rating: Unrated
- Genre: Suspense, Science Fiction
- Running Time: 950
- Video Release Date: July 9, 2013
- Original TV Release Dates: September 15, 1961 – June 1, 1962
- Language: English
- Format: DVD
- Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
- Video: 1.33:1
- Subtitles: None
- Number of Discs: 5 DVD Discs
- Distributed by: Image Entertainment/RJL Entertainment
