By KEVIN HOOVER
It’s easy to forget that, despite it being one of the most revered shows in the annals of television history, the original THE TWILIGHT ZONE only ran for five seasons from1959-64. Those five years, however, produced 156 episodes of some of the finest programing to ever burn across black-and-white TVs of the day. The anthology format provided showrunners and writers with enough leg room to stretch into different genres week after week, from alien encounters to outright horror, with even the occasional tearjerker thrown in for good measure.
2024 marks the 100th birthday of the show’s creator, Rod Serling, and Chattanooga Film Festival (CFF) is celebrating with a special screening for in-person attendees at this year’s event on June 21-24 (virtual film screenings will continue through June 28). Guests of honor Anne Serling – Rod’s youngest daughter – and TZ historian Mark Dawidziak will host some of their favorite episodes. In prepping for the monumental occasion, CFF organizers recently compiled a list of their five favorite ghost-themed stories.
“The Changing of the Guard” (Season 3, Ep. 37)
After his final class before Christmas break, Professor Ellis Fowler (Donald Pleasance) is called into the office of the headmaster, who summarily shitcans him, saying the school’s board had decreed it was time for a younger man to step into his job. This bums out the professor so much that, after he returns home, he refuses dinner from his kindly housekeeper, Mrs. Landers.
After Mrs. Landers leaves the room, Fowler pulls a pistol from a desk drawer and heads back to campus, intent on killing himself. Just before he pulls the trigger, Fowler hears school bells chiming. Curious, he puts away the piece and heads for his classroom. Lo and behold, who should suddenly appear at the desks but a handful of his former students, all of whom have died years before while performing noble deeds in world wars and medical research. In It’s a Wonderful Life style, each approaches the professor and cites a passage from some great work of literature Fowler had taught them, which they used as motivation and inspiration when they needed it most. The ghosts can’t stay long, but their job didn’t take long, either. Convinced he had impacted his young charges after all, Fowler returns home and tells Mrs. Landers he’s now ready to retire.
“A Passage for Trumpet” (Season 1, Ep. 32)
Jack Klugman (The Odd Couple) plays Joey Crown, a down-on-his-luck trumpet player who, though talented, can’t hold down a steady gig because he loves strong drink more than his horn. After getting rejected from a nightclub gig, Crown pawns his trumpet, ties one on at a nearby bar, and then intentionally steps off a curb and into the path of a truck. He gets up and walks away, but no one can see him. Naturally, he thinks he’s deader than his once-flourishing music career. But Joey learns the truth after meeting the mysterious Gabe, who convinces Joey he’s got the gift, and he’s still got a chance to use it if he’ll wise up.
Joey’s fortunes change no sooner than Gabe – “short for Gabriel,” he says – disappears. By the episode’s end, Joey the likeable schlub, having given up the booze and re-embraced his talent, randomly runs into a lovely lady who’s new to New York City and suggests he should show her around. Suffice it to say, she doesn’t have to twist Joey’s arm.
“The Hitch-Hiker” (Season 1, Ep. 16)
This episode begins as every other episode did – with a pitch-perfect introduction from Serling. “Minor incident on Highway Eleven in Pennsylvania,” he said in that inimitable voice of his, “perhaps to be filed away under accidents you walk away from.” Maybe that’s what Nan Adams (Inger Stevens), who was making her way from New York to Los Angeles, thought as she watched a mechanic repair her blown-out left front tire. She didn’t have a scratch on her and was able to continue her journey, but she had just one problem. Everywhere she looked, she saw the same hitchhiker.
The episode has quite a history. Serling first heard the story in 1941. It was a radio broadcast then, and none other than Orson Welles played the lead role. The story was written by Lucille Fletcher, who had a similar experience on her own trip from coast to coast. She saw her creepy hitchhiker only twice, but it was enough to spark the idea for a radio play. Serling bought the rights and banged out the episode in about six hours, changing the gender of the lead character and naming her after his daughter Anne, whose family nickname was Nan.
“The Grave” (Season 3, Ep. 7)
Star Lee Marvin (The Dirty Dozen) was difficult during the shoot, largely because of his penchant for getting overserved at a bar located close to the MGM lot. One day, loaded and on horseback, he crashed into a fence, nearly killing himself and his noble steed. Director of Photography George Clemens was so pissed that he went to producer Buck Houghtonand suggested Marvin be booted from the show and his part recast. But Houghton knew Marvin – booze or no booze – was the right man for the gig. It didn’t hurt that, the next day, Marvin apologized to everyone on the set and vowed to make things right. He was true to his word and eventually gave one of the best performances of his legendary career.
The beauty of this episode is in that the ghost of Pinto Sykes, an outlaw who’d been terrorizing his small town and anywhere else he took a notion, was never seen. In fact, we don’t even know if there was a ghost of Pinto stalking the cemetery where local bar flies bet Marvin’s character, Conny Miller, he wouldn’t go after Sykes issued a deathbed threat. We won’t give away the ending, which, come to think of it, can’t be given away. It’s open to the viewers’ interpretation.
“The Hunt” (Season 3, Ep 7)
This story will warm the hearts of dog lovers. Hyder Simpson was a backwoodsman who went on one coon hunt too many. Simpson’s hound Rip, who led himself and his master to their untimely demises, winds up atoning for that slip-up after the pair returned home from a midnight hunt, only to find themselves invisible to everyone they knew. Yes, they had become apparitions. Realizing they were no longer denizens of the world from which they came, Hyder and Rip wound up traveling a path on which there were only two ways to go, and that rascal Rip made sure they didn’t take the wrong turn.
