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Post by Shep on Jul 8, 2010 5:20:44 GMT -5
When "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone" (two classic shows that worked perfectly in their half-hour formats) became hour-long shows, the previous tight pacing was often lost, scripts became more padded, and the overall quality declined. Nevertheless, both these series produced some really interesting episodes.
What are your favorites?
A few of mine:
Hitchcock Hour
Memo From Purgatory (perhaps my favorite episode. Great performance from a young James Caan)
The Jar (based on the Ray Bradbury story)
Final Escape (the ending to this one freaked me out for years)
Ride the Nightmare (great Richard Matheson script)
Water's Edge (another terrific ending)
An Unlocked Window (possibly the most famous Hitch Hour ep of them all)
The Magic Shop (though this seemed more like a TZ ep)
Twilight Zone
Jess-Belle (my favorite hour ep and possibly Earl Hamner Jr.'s most beautiful script)
On Thursday We Leave For Home (a great Rod Serling piece)
In His Image (love this one for the performances)
The New Exhibit (freaked me out as a kid)
The Thirty-Fathom Grave (very padded, but again the ending freaked me out as a kid)
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Post by angilasman on Jul 8, 2010 12:03:54 GMT -5
As a kid I was always a bit weirded out by the fact that occassionally TZ would be an hour long instead of 30 minutes. I came up with all sorts of theories as to why this was. My conclusion: "they were special episodes that were sprinkled throughout the show." I never thought that they had to fill a longer time slot for a year.
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Post by callipygias on Jul 8, 2010 12:22:19 GMT -5
I probably won't see The Hitchcock Hour until they release it on DVD, and it'll probably be ten years till all three seasons of it are out. I might watch a few more episodes online, but I don't enjoy watching online half as much as tv, so hopefully I can refrain. I agree with the majority that there were some real duds among the 1-hour TZs, but season four also produced four shows that are in or around my top twenty. Valley of the Shadow, where a guy gets trapped by the people in a very strange town. No Time Like the Past. The time travel story is interesting, but what I really love about this one is Dana Andrews. His is one of the best performances I've ever seen on tv. Passage on the Lady Anne. When I think of this one next to classics like The Obsolete Man, Time Enough at Last, or To Serve Man, it doesn't even seem like a TZ. It's a good story, but what I really love about it is the feeling of it -- it's such a quiet, patient episode. The only one from season four in my top ten though, is Miniature. I remember seeing this when I was very young, but I didn't realize it was a Twilight Zone until I saw it on a Sci-Fi marathon a while back. I was so excited. I think Robert Duvall all but hypnotized me when I was little, long before I could have known who he was. He's so perfect and believable as that sad, desperate guy.  I also like Thirty Fathom Grave, In His Image, and The Parallel. |
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Post by callipygias on Jul 14, 2010 10:43:33 GMT -5
I read something that called an episode from the final season of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "One of the strangest hours of television ever produced." The show was called Consider Her Ways, and it lived up to its review. If anyone has fifty minutes to kill you can watch it here. |
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Post by Shep on Jul 15, 2010 3:02:20 GMT -5
I read something that called an episode from the final season of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, "One of the strangest hours of television ever produced." The show was called Consider Her Ways, and it lived up to its review. If anyone has fifty minutes to kill you can watch it here. A very strange episode indeed! |
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Post by theroadtodeep13 on Jan 8, 2011 19:20:12 GMT -5
As a kid I was always a bit weirded out by the fact that occassionally TZ would be an hour long instead of 30 minutes. I came up with all sorts of theories as to why this was. My conclusion: "they were special episodes that were sprinkled throughout the show." I never thought that they had to fill a longer time slot for a year. went with the hour-long format in season four, and it also removed "The" from its title. CBS aired the show as a mid-season replacement for the cancelled hour-long sitcom entitled Fair Exchange, which replaced TZ in 1962. Twilight Zone was late in finding a sponsor for its fourth season, hence the delay. I agree that the 18 hours that made up the penultimate season of Twilight Zone also made up the worst year of the series. There were some classics in that season, such as On Thursday, We Leave for Home, and Jess-Belle, like somebody else said. The show returned to the half-hour format for season five, but I think the damage had already been done, ESPECIALLY since Buck Houghton left after season three. |
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Post by Shep on Jan 9, 2011 2:04:04 GMT -5
The Twilight Zone went with the hour-long format in season four, and it also removed "The" from its title. CBS aired the show as a mid-season replacement for the cancelled hour-long sitcom entitled Fair Exchange, which replaced TZ in 1962. Twilight Zone was late in finding a sponsor for its fourth season, hence the delay. I agree that the 18 hours that made up the penultimate season of Twilight Zone also made up the worst year of the series. There were some classics in that season, such as On Thursday, We Leave for Home, and Jess-Belle, like somebody else said. The show returned to the half-hour format for season five, but I think the damage had already been done, ESPECIALLY since Buck Houghton left after season three. Yes, Houghton left, Serling was burnt-out and it was really starting to show in his work, Charles Beaumont was sick/dying, etc. (Thank God Richard Matheson wrote some good stuff that last season) Btw I was rewatching some of the first season of "Hitchcock Hour" recently. There are some good ones, but overall I don't think it's as successful as the ones that followed it. Partially because there's less "twist endings," so some of those early shows have almost a "golden age of television" tv drama feeling. |
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