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Adventures Of Superman Season 1

Superman On Earth

The Adventures Of SupermanJor-El, a member of the ruling council of the distant planet Krypton, warns his fellow councillors that Krypton’s end is near: the planet could break apart at any time. His peers laugh him out of the room, but that doesn’t change the planet’s fate. When Krypton begins to break apart just as Jor-El predicted, he and his wife place their only son in a small spacecraft and send it away to the planet Earth.

The vehicle crashes on Earth, bursting into flames. Farmer Eben Kent and his wife Sarah witness the crash and hear the cries of the infant inside; Eben manages to save the baby before the spacecraft explodes. They raise the child as their own, though young Clark Kent eventually has questions about the fact that he has abilities that no one else seems to have. On Clark’s 25th birthday – or at least the 25th anniversary of his arrival on Earth – Eben suffers a fatal heart attack. Clark eventually leaves his childhood home for the city of Metropolis, where he seeks a job as a report for the Daily Planet. Editor Perry White is less than enthusiastic about his new hire…until Clark somehow scoops the rest of the Planet’s staff, including ace reporter Lois Lane, turning in the first article about an airship crew member who would have fallen to his death if not for a flying man in a cape…

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Richard Fielding
directed by Tommy Carr
music by Leon Klatzkin

Adventures of SupermanCast: George Reeves (Clark Kent / Superman), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), John Hamilton (Perry White), Ross Elliott (Eben Kent), Robert Rockwell (Jor-El), Herbert Rawlinson (Ro-Zon), Stuart Randall (Gogan), Aline Towne (Lara), Frances Morris (Sarah Kent), Dani Nolan (Miss Bachrach)

Adventures of SupermanNotes: Superman’s origin story unfolds here much as it does in other media, though the name “Kal-El” is never spoken here. Sarah Kent is responsible for making Superman’s costume, having sewn it from the blanket in which he was wrapped as an infant on Krypton. (How this fabric can withstand bullets and burns, and yet can still be cut up and sewn, isn’t explained.) Beginning an unfortunate decades-long tradition, Superman’s creators, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, are not credited anywhere in this adaptation.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Adventures Of Superman Season 1

The Haunted Lighthouse

The Adventures Of SupermanThe Daily Planet’s junior photographer, Jimmy Olsen, goes to Maine for a vacation at the invitation of his Aunt Louisa. But something is amiss when he arrives: his cousin Chris is hostile almost to the point of violence about Jimmy’s interest in a cave on a coast, the shrill voice of someone claiming to be drowning can be heard at night, and the mute housekeeper keeps delivering handwritten notes from Aunt Louisa, claiming to be in trouble. Sensing a story that’s bigger than he is, Jimmy calls Clark Kent to ask for help, unaware that he’ll be getting a hand from Superman as well.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Eugene Solow
directed by Tommy Carr
music by Leon Klatzkin

Adventures of SupermanCast: George Reeves (Clark Kent / Superman), Phyllis Coates (Lois Lane), Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen), John Hamilton (Perry White), Maude Prickett (Parrot), Jimmy Ogg (Chris), Allene Roberts (Alice), Sarah Padden (Mrs. Carmody), Stephen Carr (Lt. Harris), William Challee (Mack), Effie Laird (Aunt Louisa)

Adventures of SupermanNotes: Just two weeks into the series, Aunt Louisa almost guesses Clark’s other identity in front of a room full of onlookers. Though the actors are credited, neither Lois nor Perry White appear in this episode. Writer Eugene Solow (no relation to future Star Trek production executive Herb Solow) was also responsible for the screenplay of the acclaimed 1939 adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Quatermass

Contact Has Been Established

QuatermassThe first attempt to launch a manned rocket into space meets with serious problems; the three-man vehicle, rather than following a carefully-planned parabola to make a single orbit, veers hundreds of thousands of miles off course, losing all contact with Earth. As the rocket’s designer, Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group, tensely awaits word when the atomic-powered rocket finally approaches Earth again. With no contact from the astronauts themselves, the rocket returns to Earth under remote control from the ground, but the best that Quatermass and his team can manage is to bring it in for the least-damaging crash landing possible. Still intact, the rocket has slammed into a neighborhood near Wimbledon Commons, and astonishingly no one on the ground is hurt, though police evacuate residents from their homes. Quatermass and his team arrive to open the rocket, but inside they find only one astronaut remaining: engineer Victor Carroon, whose wife is a member of Quatermass’ ground control team. The other two men are missing without a trace, their spacesuits left empty in the rocket.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Moray Watson (Peter Marsh), W. Thorp Devereux (Blaker), Van Boolen (Len Matthews), Iris Ballard (Mr. Matthews), Eugene Leahy (Police Inspector), Neil Wilson (Policeman),Colyn Davies (Fireman), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Patrick Westwood (First Reporter), Dominic LeFoe (Second Reporter), Nicholas Bruce (BBC Newsreader), Pat McGrath (BBC Interviewer), MacGregor Urquhart (Sandwichman), Denis Wyndham (Reveller)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Broadcast in 1953 as a live play for television with one film insert (actual film from a camera mounted aboard a captured German V2 rocket launched from White Sands, New Mexico in 1946), The Quatermass Experiment was one of the earliest instances of the BBC making a “telerecording” (a film recording from a television screen showing the live broadcast) of a drama production rather than live coverage of a news event. This was also one of the final major productions staged at the BBC’s original television studios at Alexandra Palace, using some of the BBC’s original 1930s cameras, before the bulk of production was moved to the then-new Lime Grove studios (future home of the TARDIS).

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Quatermass

Persons Reported Missing

QuatermassThe Metropolitan Police get involved in the investigation of what happened to Quatermass’ space rocket and its now-mostly-missing crew, and Quatermass is outraged when they begin to treat Victor Carroon as a murder suspect. Police and press alike swarm the crash site in Wimbledon before Quatermass has even had a chance to determine what happened aboard the vehicle. All that is known is that it an electrical component failed, sending the rocket further than the orbit the moon before the vehicle returned to Earth in a long, looping arc. And inexplicably, Carroon now understands and speaks perfect German – a language he never spoke prior to the mission – but he can offer no answers about the whereabouts of his missing crewmates, Charles Green and German rocket engineer Dr. Reichenheim.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Moray Watson (Peter Marsh), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Christopher Rhodes (Dr. Ludwig Reichenheim), Peter Bathurst (Charles Greene), Enid Lindsey (Louisa Greene), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Patrick Westwood (First Reporter), Dominic LeFoe (Second Reporter), Stella Richman (Hospital Sister), Eugene Leahy (Police Inspector), Neil Wilson (Policeman, Wimbledon), Maurice Durant (Policeman, Scotland Yard)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: This is the second and last episode of The Quatermass Experiment to be preserved via BBC telerecording, and the primitive nature of the technology involved shows: an insect lands on the television screen being filmed by the film camera and remains there for several minutes! Dissatisfied with the technical quality of the telerecordings of the first two episodes, the BBC opted to stop doing them, which also nixed a planned rebroadcast of The Quatermass Experiment on Canadian TV; episodes three through six are lost forever. Sadly, the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

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Quatermass

Very Special Knowledge

QuatermassThe questioning of surviving astronaut Victor Carroon continues, and he reveals not only a fluent grasp of German, but knowledge of fellow astronaut Green’s life as well. The cockpit voice recorder from the rocket is found and its tape played back, revealing an unearthly sound that accompanied the rocket going off course. Though Detective Inspector Lomax dismisses the sound as that of “the rocket motors”, Quatermass knows it’s not the sound of the engines. When the tape is played back with Carroon and Lomax present, its obvious that the astronaut is not a murder suspect…but the victim of whas Quatermass believes was “like a cosmic ray, but alive”…

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Philip Vickers (American Reporter), Edward David (Indian Reporter), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Lewis Wilson (Walters)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: The BBC, unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Quatermass

Believed To Be Suffering

QuatermassAs Victor Carroon, still delirious, shows an unusual amount of interest in a potted cactus, a photographer intrudes on the Carroons, trying to get a photo of the returned asteronaut for his newspaper. One touch from Victor Carroon’s hand leaves the man dead. Quatermass realizes that whatever extraterrestrial intelligence was encountered by the men aboard his rocket has come to Earth in Carroon’s body. Carroon goes missing, spirited away in a car and taken to an organized crime hideout that he is able to escape quickly with his deadly touch. All the while, he is mutating into a man with cactus-like skin…

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Oliver Johnston (News Editor), Philip Vickers (American Reporter), Katie Johnson (Miss Wilde), Lewis Wilson (Walters), Darrell Runey (Photographer), Jack Rodney (Ramsay), Anthony Green (Boy), Richard Cuthbert (Chemist), Leo Fox (Cinema Manager), Janet Joye (Cinemagoer), Bernadette Milnes (Usherette), Keith Herrington (Space Lieutenant), Pauline Johnson (Space Girl)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: The BBC, unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Quatermass

An Unidentified Species

QuatermassHaving plundered a drug store an ingested a mixture of chemicals that would normally be deadly to humans, astronaut Victor Carroon has gone missing. The Metropolitan Police, declaring the astronaut a national hero, call off the search for him. Carroon’s whereabouts are discovered soon enough: now a barely-humaniod mass of fungus, the being that was once Victor Carroon apparently took over a small island in a park. Quatermass now fears that the being may spread across Earth as an Earthly fungus would, by releasing spores. And in any case, the creature has now migrated…to the wall of Westminster Abbey.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), Duncan Lamont (Victor Carroon), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Richard Cuthbert (Chemist), Bernadette Milnes (Usherette), Christie Humphrey (Janet), John Stone (Ted), Frank Atkinson (Park Keeper), Reginald Hearne (Police Inspector), Wilfred Brambell (Drunk), Tony Van Bridge (Producer), Neal Arden (Commentator), Josphine Crombie (Secretary), John Kidd (Sir Vernon Dodds)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Beginning with this episode, the BBC began preceding episodes with content warnings advising that The Quatermass Experiment was not suitable for “children or people of a nervous disposition.” Unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, the BBC only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Quatermass

State Of Emergency

QuatermassWestminster Abbey and the area around it are evacuated as the creature progresses toward the stage at which it will release its spores. Quatermass’ lab experiments reveal that being touched by even a single spore would fully mutate any life form on Earth within minutes; if the being that was once Victor Carroon releases its spores, it is the end of all life on the planet. As preparations are made for military strikes and other frontal attacks on the creature, Quatermass gambles on appealing to the last remaining fragments of the consciousness of the three astronauts to resist the alien life form and tear it apart from the inside.

written by Nigel Kneale
directed by Rudolph Cartier
music not credited

Cast: Reginald Tate (Professor Bernard Quatermass), Isabel Dean (Judith Carroon), John Glen (Dr. Gordon Briscoe), Hugh Kelly (John Paterson), Ian Colin (Detective Inspector Lomax), Frank Hawkins (Detective Sergeant Best), Paul Whitsun-Jones (James Fullalove), Tony Van Bridge (Producer), Josphine Crombie (Secretary), Neal Arden (Commentator), John Kidd (Sir Vernon Dodds), Keith Pyott (Cabinet Minister), Andrew Laurence (Major O’Neill), Peter Franklin (Sergeant), Kenneth Midwood (Policeman), Arnold Diamond (Man in Crowd), Rex Graham (Crowd), Cyril Saxon (Crowd), Lloyd Shirley (Crowd), Kobie Westone (Crowd), Langton Jones (Crowd), Nickola Starne (Crowd), Grace Webb (Crowd), Michele Clement (Crowd), Violet Perry (Crowd), Raymond Rollet (Crowd), Sheldon Allen (Crowd), Richard Hugget (Crowd), Charles Horsee (Crowd), Allan Cosley (Crowd)

The Quatermass ExperimentNotes: Unsatisfied with its experimental telerecording technique, the BBC only recorded the first two episodes of The Quatermass Experiment. This synopsis and the remainder of this guide to The Quatermass Experiment, out of necessity, is based upon the original scripts and remaining production paperwork.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Movies Original Movie War Of The Worlds

The War Of The Worlds

The War Of The WorldsA fireball crashes into a mountainous area near a small California town, heralding the beginning of an invasion of Earth by beings from Mars, though no one realizes this yet. When Dr. Clayton Forrester, a physicist from Pacific Tech who happens to be vacationing nearby, takes a look at the object that survived re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, he hypothesizes that it must be hollow, since a solid meteorite of that size would have left a much larger crater. Forrester catches the eye of the local librarian, Sylvia Van Buren, whose uncle, the town’s church pastor, invites Forrester to stay with them while they wait for the object to reveal its true nature. But while two locals and a policeman keep a wary eye on the “meteorite” that night, an opening appears and a large, obviously artificial appendage emerges, appearing almost like a glowing red mechanical eye on a flexible stalk. When they break cover and approach it, that eye fires a beam of energy at the three men, incinerating them instantly and causing a power disruption in the nearby town. The townsfolk return to the crash site, and the appendage turns out to be just a small part of a flying Martian War Machine, a vehicle capable of surviving any human-made weapons. Even when the military is called in to direct its might toward the increasingly hostile alien device, its weapons are useless – and worse yet, other objects are landing in the hills nearby, and around the world, marking the beginning of the invasion in earnest. Forrester and Sylvia, seeking shelter in a house nearby, are trapped when another of the Martian “meteorites” slams into the side of the house. A different flexible eyestalk scans the house, and Forrester manages to disconnect it from its large, hose-like appendage; when a Martian leaves its War Machine to explore the house personally, Forrester attacks and injures it, managing to obtain some of its blood, which he and Sylvia then return to Pacific Tech so both the optical instrument and the blood can be examined by scientists. The President of the United States authorizes a nuclear strike against a nest of Martian War Machines, but their defensive shields allow them to survive the attack unharmed. The Martians begin advancing into major metropolitan areas, and everyone in Los Angeles is ordered to evacuate to safer, less densely-populated areas. Forrester and the other Pacific Tech scientists, with Sylvia’s help, begin packing up their lab so they can continue their attempts to find a weakness in the Martians at a safer location, but the throngs of people trying to escape the city overpower their vehicles, throwing away precious scientific equipment in their own desperate attempts to evacuate. Forrester and Sylvia are separated, and by the time they find each other again, it seems as though the end of human civilization is near – until something completely unforeseen causes the Martian War Machines to begin tumbling out of the sky helplessly.

The War Of The Worldsscreenplay by Barré Lyndon
based upon the novel by H.G. Wells
directed by Byron Haskin
music by Leith Stevens

Cast: Gene Barry (Dr. Clayton Forrester), Ann Robinson (Sylvia Van Buren), Les Tremayne (Major General Mann), Bob Cornthwaite (Dr. Pryor), Sandro Giglio (Dr. Bilderbeck), Lewis Martin (Pastor Collins), Housely Stevenson, Jr. (General Mann’s Aide), Paul Frees (Second Radio Reporter), Bill Phipps (Wash Perry), Vernon Rich (Colonrl Heffner), Henry Brandon (Crash Site Cop), Jack Kruschen (Salvatore)

Commentary by: Sir Cedric Hardwicke

Notes: The makers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 “borrowed” the name of Dr. Clayton Forrester for the mad scientist antagonist who tortures first Joel, and later Mike, with bad movies for the first seven years of that show. Paramount Pictures embarked on the production of a TV series sequel to this film in the late 1980s, one of a pair of genre series filmed in Canada to form an ad hoc genre programming package to accompany Star Trek: The Next Generation (the other series was a TV series using the name of another Paramount film franchise, Friday The 13th, though in that case there was no connecting tissue between the storylines of series and films). Ann Robinson appeared to reprise her role of Sylvia Van Buren very briefly in the War Of The Worlds TV series, which sees the Martians overcome their vulnerability to Earthly bacteria.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

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Season 1 Tales Of Tomorrow

The Little Black Bag

Tales Of TomorrowDisgraced and discredited, Dr. Fulbright was once a medical doctor, but is now an alcoholic shambling from one menial job to another. After an argument with his wife Angie, he is sold a mysterious medical bag by the local pawnbroker. A chance encounter with an Italian woman and her dying child gives Fulbright a chance to try out his lucky find. But he discovers it’s no ordinary medical bag: it’s from the year 2450, and its instruments seem to provide their own treatment, miraculously curing the girl. The rush of resuming his calling as a healer thrills Dr. Fulbright…but Angie sees only dollar signs, even over Fulbright’s dead body.

written by C.M. Kornbluth
additional dialogue by Mann Rubin
directed by Charles S. Dubin
music not credits

Tales Of TomorrowCast: Vicki Cummings (Angie), Joseph Anthony (Doctor Full), Florence Anglin (Mrs. Colucci), John Shellie (Pawnbroker)

Notes: Despite the credits (and the original short story by Cyril Kornbluth) naming the character Dr. Full, he is clearly referred to as Dr. Fulbright throughout this episode. Despite the plaque inside the bag clearly stating that it is from the year 2450, Fulbright declares “the entire world will know of the revolutionary medical power transported to us from the twenty-first century!” This story was adapted twice more for television – once by the BBC for Out Of The Unknown, and again with a Rod Serling-penned adaptation for NBC’s Night Gallery in the early 1970s – but this was the only one that Kornbluth was still alive to witness for himself.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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Science Fiction Theatre Season 1

Beyond

Science Fiction TheatreHost Segment: Truman Bradley demonstrates forces that can conclusively be proven to exist, such as gravity, acceleration, sound and magnetism, without being seen.

Story: Test pilot Major Gunderson pushes a new experimental jet plane to unheard-of speeds, more than twice the speed of sound. But even more surprising is Gunderson’s awed report from the sky: something up there is overtaking him, a vehicle shaped nothing like a conventional aircraft. Gunderson’s controls go haywire and he’s forced to eject to survive. His superiors are alarmed when Gunderson begins talking about having encountered a flying saucer…

teleplay by Robert Smith and George Van Marter
story by Ivan L. Tors
directed by Herbert L. Strock
music not credited

Science Fiction TheatreCast: Truman Bradley (Host / Narrator), William Lundigan (Maj. Gunderson), Ellen Drew (Mrs. Gunderson), Bruce Bennett (Gen. Troy), Tom Drake (Dr. Everett), Basil Ruysdael (Prof. Carson), Douglas Kennedy (Col. Barton), Michael Fox (Radar Man), Robert Carson (Capt. Ferguson), Mark Lowell (Radio Operator)

Notes: To put this story in its historical context, the first Mach 2 jet flight had been flown by test pilot Scott Crossfield in late 1953, only to be exceeded by a Mach 2.44 flight flown by Chuck Yeager in December of that year, less than a year and a half before Science Fiction Theatre premiered in syndication Science Fiction Theatrewith this episode. Other elements, such as the notion of a military cover-up (albeit a quiet, non-threatening one) of a real UFO sighting, were very much ahead of their time.

Unusually for 1955, the first season of Science Fiction Theatre was filmed in color by Ziv Television Productions, a bit of future-proofing that Ziv could afford as its programming was in demand by television stations whose networks ran very limited programming of their own. While most of Ziv’s programs were either modern-day dramas and spy thrillers, westerns, or wartime dramas, this was one of only three science fiction shows Ziv produced; the short-lived World Of Giants anticipated elements of Irwin Allen’s 1960s series Land Of The Giants, while Men Into Space, picked up by CBS, speculated on and dramatized the future of real spaceflight.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Where Is Everybody?

The Twilight ZoneA man awakens on the outskirts of the town of Oakwood, with no knowledge of how he got there – or even who he is. He can’t find another living creature anywhere in town – no policemen in the police station, no prisoners in the jail, no business owners in the shops. And yet he’s certain that he’s being watched by someone who has something to do with his present predicament. He pieces together clues that add up to an inescapable conclusion: someone else is in Oakwood with him. Whether he can figure out who it is before his sanity gives way is another question…

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Robert Stevens
music by Bernard Hermann

Cast: Earl Holliman (Mike Ferris), James Gregory (General), Paul Langton (Doctor), James McCallion (Reporter The Twilight Zone#1), John Conwell (Colonel), Jay Overholt (Reporter #2), Carter Mullally (Captain), Gary Walberg (Reporter #3), Jim Johnson (Staff Sergeant)

Notes: If Oakwood’s town square seems familiar, you’ve probably been time traveling with Doc Brown. The same outdoor set on the Universal Studios lot became the center of the town of Hill Valley in the Back To The Future movies.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

One For The Angels

The Twilight ZoneJoe Bookman, a small-time street vendor, plies his wares – mainly toys and ties – to anyone within earshot of his sales pitch. A well-dressed man appears, and Joe guesses he’s a census taker, since the man seems to know everything about him. But this stranger has an more sinister agenda: he is Death, and he’s come to make his appointment with Joe. Joe tries to trick him, so Death simply chooses another victim. Infuriated, Joe gets ready for the pitch of a lifetime: it’s time to sell Death on the idea of taking a holiday.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Robert Parrish
music not credited

The Twilight ZoneCast: Ed Wynn (Lou Bookman), Murray Hamilton (Death), Dana Dillaway (Maggie), Jay Overholts (Doctor), Merritt Bohn (Truck Driver)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Mr. Denton On Doomsday

The Twilight ZoneWashed-up gunslinger Al Denton, once a local legend, is now a local embarrassment, wasting away at a local saloon, tortured by younger men and by his own past. Denton finds a gun on the ground, and more by accident than by design he bests a local bully, regaining the respect of those around him, enough that he decides to go sober. Before the night is out, Denton is challenged to a gunfight, and he remembers how that life is what led him to drink in the first place. The mysterious elixir peddler Mr. Fate offers help in the form of a potion that improves Denton’s aim dramatically…for a very short period. But once word spreads that Denton is back in fine form, it’s not long before he has a challenger. Can Fate help break the cycle?

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Allen Reisner
music not credited

The Twilight ZoneCast: Dan Duryea (Al Denton), Martin Landau (Dan), Jeanne Cooper (Liz), Malcolm Atterbury (Henry J. Fate), Ken Lynch (Charlie), Arthur Batanides (Leader), Bill Erwin (Man), Robert Burton (Doctor), Doug McClure (Grant)

LogBook entry by Earl Green

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1960s Season 1 Twilight Zone

Sixteen Millimeter Shrine

The Twilight Zone1930s starlet Barbara Jean Trenton hides away from the world in the mansion paid for by her film fame, the curtains drawn, constantly rewatching the movies she made in her heyday. Attempts to break back into Hollywood prove elusive in 1959; she balks at a comeback part in a minor role as another character’s mother. She becomes a recluse again, despite the best efforts of those around her to keep her surrendering her real life to the characters she portrayed a quarter of a century ago.

Download this episode via Amazonwritten by Rod Serling
directed by Mitchell Leisen
music by Franz Waxman

The Twilight ZoneCast: Ida Lupino (Barbara Jean Trenton), Martin Balsam (Danny Weiss), Jerome Cowan (Jerry Herndon), Ted de Corsia (Marty Sall), Alice Frost (Sally), Dean Stockwell (Daniel Wise)

LogBook entry by Earl Green