Year: 1960

Arch Hammer, a man with an uncanny ability to change his face to look like others, checks into a hotel room with a plan to impersonate several recently deceased men in an attempt to swindle their acquaintances out of money, love, or both. When he tries to escape the lair of a mob boss whose money he’s just taken, he must change his face to resemble that of a man whose picture he saw just moments ago…only to have that man’s past catch up with him.

teleplay by Rod Serling
based on a short story by George Clayton Johnson
directed by John Brahm
music by Jerry Goldsmith

Cast: Harry Townes (Arch Hammer), Phillip Pine (Virge Sterig), Ross Martin (Johnny Foster), Don Gordon (Andy Marshak), Harry Jackson (Trumpeter), Bernard Fein (Mr. Penell), Peter Brocco (Mr. Marshak), Milton Frome (Detective), Beverly Garland (Maggie)

Notes: This is an early TV scoring credit for composer Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004), who was only about five years into his storied career as a TV/film composer when he scored this, his first Twilight Zone episode.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

On the eve of a global holocaust, two men who work on hydrogen weapons and the means of delivering them to their targets meet with their families. They have a plan: the government has also been secretly working on a craft capable of interstellar flight. They will steal this vehicle and resettle on another world, one they hope is free from the kind of madness that could wipe out all life on its surface…one that is the third planet from its sun. Unless, of course, someone from their own world puts a stop to their plan.

teleplay by Rod Serling
based on the short story by Richard Matheson
directed by Richard L. Bare
music not credited

Cast: Fritz Weaver (William Sturka), Edward Andrews (Carling), Joe Maross (Jerry Riden), Denise Alexander (Jody Sturka), Lori March (Eve Sturka), Jeanne Evans (Ann Riden)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A rocket manned by eight astronauts is launched, and then disappears off of the scopes. Of the eight-man crew, four survive the rocket’s crash landing, into what they believe to be an asteroid near Earth’s orbit, since the sun is approximately the same size in the sky. The asteroid has a conveniently breathable atmosphere, but between them, the four survivors have only five gallons of water. One of them suffered critical injuries in the crash, but the mission’s commander refuses to entertain notions that water no longer be “wasted” on the injured. His subordinates, however, are feeling less charitable, until the expedition is whittled down to a single survivor…who finds that he’s far closer to home than he thought.

teleplay by Rod Serling
based on the story by Madelon Champion
directed by Stuart Rosenberg
music not credited

Cast: Dewey Martin (Corey), Edward Binns (Colonel Donlin), Ted Otis (Pierson), Harry Bartell (Langford), Leslie Barrett (Brandt)

Notes: The “asteroid” exteriors were shot in Death Valley, so it’s likely that the cast members were in need of water almost as badly as their characters…

LogBook entry by Earl Green

A highway blowout at high speed, which could be a fatal accident in the making, merely proves to be a good scare for young Nan Adams during her cross-country drive. As she waits for a new tire to be put on her car, she first spots him: a nondescript hitchhiker, beckoning to her from the highway. Even when she resumes her trip, she keeps seeing him, and fears losing her sanity. She’s afraid to stop for him, and yet he’s everywhere. Where does he want to go…or, more precisely, where does he want her to go?

teleplay by Rod Serling
based on the radio play by Lucille Fletcher
directed by Alvin Ganzer
music not credited

Cast: Inger Stevens (Nan Adams), Adam Williams (Sailor), Lew Gallo (Mechanic), Leonard Strong (The Hitch-Hiker), Russ Bender (Counterman), George Mitchell (Gas Station Man)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Franklin Gibbs is annoyed by his wife’s insistence that they vacation in Las Vegas, especially when she feeds a single nickel into a slot machine. At the insistence of a drunken casino patron, Franklin himself gives a nickel to the one-armed bandit, only to win a payout. Unable to sleep that night, Franklin gathers up his winnings and declares that it’s “tainted” money that he must rid himself of by going back to the casino to put it back into the machine from which it came. Hours later, he’s still there, having fallen for the trap, the illusion that if he keeps playing, he can win again.

written by Rod Serling
directed by Robert Florey
music not credited

Cast: Everett Sloane (Franklin gibbs), Vivi Janiss (Flora Gibbs), William Kendis (Hansen), Lee Millar (Joe), Lee Sands (Floor Manager), Marc Towers (Cashier), Art Lewis (Drunk), Arthur Peterson (Sheriff)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Second Lieutenant William Decker of the Royal Flying Corps lands his biplane on an American airstrip on French soil, but is astonished at the other planes nearby, and at the extraordinary reception he gets. Somehow he has traveled from 1917 to 1959, with no idea of how he came to be where and when he is. Now the question becomes: can he go back…and should he go back?

written by Richard Matheson
directed by William Claxton
music not credited

Cast: Kenneth Haigh (William Decker), Alexander Scourby (General Harper), Simon Scott (Major Wilson), Robert Warwick (MacKaye), Harry Raybould (Corporal), Jerry Catron (Guard)

LogBook entry by Earl Green