The classic television show The Twilight Zone was created by veteran television writer Rod Serling in response to the pressure he received to modify his scripts by both the network censor and sponsors. The result was the best show that came out of this era of television. Couched in a science fiction theme, Serling managed to tackle many current events and social issues right under the nose of those same people who either didn’t catch on to what he was doing or thought the American people wouldn’t get it either.

The scripts for the show were a step above the television norm at the time, which were sanitized scripts designed to depict what was then perceived to be the idyllic American life. Whether or not that depiction was truly grounded in reality depends on who you talk to. Serling seemed to get that behind these sanitized exteriors lay some deep, dark secrets and he capitalized on touching on what lay beneath without being so overt that he was reigned in.

Instead of taking this series and releasing it in season-long boxed sets, the studio released the show on DVD in a series of volumes. They cobbled together three or four episodes per disc around a central theme. Sometimes the episodes they chose fit together well. Sometimes they didn’t. After the first couple of volumes I had to wonder what would happen when they ran out of shows that fit together at all.

The episodes on this volume seem to deal with what people want and/or their perceptions of what their life is like and how it could be better. A traveling salesman visits a neighborhood and seems to know what those he meets will need before even they do. It’s eerily reminiscent of the Stephen King story Needful Things. A husband learns what the future holds for him and the wife he continually bickers with. In the third story, a revolutionary deposes the leader he hates and then finds himself turning into the very thing he fought against. Finally, a small town in a post-apocalyptic world wants to be free from the constraints placed upon it by a man in a cave who tries to guide them to survive.

All of these stories stand on their own. It’s not as if missing one week would leave viewers lost. This also enabled actors and actresses who didn’t want to be tied down to a weekly series to make an appearance. The result was people like James Coburn, Peter Falk, Joan Blondell, and William Demarest making appearances in this volume.

The restoration of the episodes is good. I didn’t catch much in the way of interference or snow and the sound was clear. I really liked having the ability to see them uncut and uninterrupted. Too many times when I watched them on network television as reruns, I would find the episodes chopped to hell with abrupt breaks for commercials that cut into the stories themselves.

The bonus material is regurgitated on each disc and there’s not much there that’s specific to each volume. It would have been nice for there to be some featurettes with members of the cast and crew talking about their memories of the show, especially since many have passed since these volumes were released.

Although I would like to see the series receive better treatment, preferably in season long sets, this is satisfying to watch if you can pick them up as a rental. I personally wouldn’t invest in more than forty volumes marketed like this.


What You Need

Mr. Pedott is what appears to be a traveling salesman. He walks into a diner one night and walks around to the various customers asking them what they need. He seems to know what they need before they do. Case in point, he gives a man a bus ticket who, a few minutes later, receives a job offer in the very city he was given the ticket to. When one of his “customers” is a thug who gets greedy, Pedott’s life is now at stake if he can’t satisfy the man’s “need”.

What’s in the Box?

William Demarest and Joan Blondell star in this episode as Joe and Phyllis Britt. They have been married for a long time and don’t get along so well. A television repairman is there to fix the set. When he leaves, Joe finds he can only get channel 10, which shows the past, present, and future between him and Phyllis. At one point, it shows them fighting and Joe killing Phyllis, much to his regret. Joe wants to avoid that future, but can he?

The Mirror

Peter Falk portrays a Castro-like revolutionary who, along with four friends, has successfully staged a coup. When Clemente (Falk) talks to the leader he deposed, he is warned that he will soon see his enemies everywhere, including a particular mirror on the wall of the palace. Soon Clemente is looking at his friends quite differently, and his actions resemble more the man he deposed than that of a revolutionary.

The Old Man in the Cave

In a small town a decade after nuclear armageddon, a town relies on “the old man” to tell them if the food they are finding is safe to eat or not. When a military detachment comes to town to take over, the leader of the citizens, Mr. Goldsmith, resists their authority. They hunt out this “old man” and discover a computer. Angry that they have been fooled, the townspeople destroy it and eat the food. However, Mr. Goldsmith might have been right after all.

James Coburn guest stars as the leader of the detachment.

INSIDE THE TWILIGHT ZONE SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Rod Serling Bio
• Season by Season
• History of The Twilight Zone
• Reviews and Credits