I know this is blasphemy, but as amazing as the original “Twilight Zone” series was (and it is absolutely brilliant), I actually think the first season of the 1980s edition tops it. Now admittedly, I’m not talking about the 2nd or 3rd season, when the show underwent a dramatic shift both in format and style (30 minutes, and ultimately moved off of CBS to syndication). But that first season, available on DVD, remains the best genre anthology series ever created. Featuring a stunning array of directors, actors, and screenwriters (some basing their episodes on terrific short stories) coupled with the free-form format that allowed stories to be as long as they needed to be — five minutes, 20 minutes, a full hour, etc. — it came together to be sheer genre bliss.
See your guide to the best episodes after the jump….
If the original TZ has a weakness, it’s that the episodes had one story, which forced the stories into 30 minute or 60 minute blocks — sometimes to the episode’s detriment (did “To Serve Man” REALLY need to be 30 minutes, or would it have packed a bigger wallop at 20?)
If you’re trying out the DVD, here are a handful of stories to make sure not to miss:
- William Friedkin’s “Nightcrawlers” based on Robert McCammon’s classic tale
- “Examination Day,” a chilling 10 minute piece based on the equally chilling Henry Slesar short story
- Joe Dante’s pitch-perfect horror/humor “The Shadow Man”
- Wes Craven’s surprisingly moving, unforgettable “Her Pilgrim Soul”
- The hilarious “I of Newton” written by Joe Haldeman (and the episode is even better than the Haldeman story it’s based on)
- “Monsters!” featuring an incredibly creepy teleplay by author Robert Crais
- Theodore Sturgeon’s hilarious and thought-provoking “A Matter of Minutes”
- The dystopian “To See the Invisible Man” written by author Steven Barnes, based on the short story by Robert Silverberg
- “Gramma” based on Stephen King’s short story
- The Harlan Ellison tale “Shatterday” starring Bruce Willis
- The fantastic and chilling “Button, Button” by Richard Matheson (whose own short story provided the inspiration)
- Ray Bradbury’s dark “The Burning Man”
And that’s just a sampling. There’s more great work in that first season by (or based on works by) George R. R. Martin, Rockne S. O’Bannon, Martha Coolidge, Arthur C. Clarke, and more.
If you only saw this in syndication, ignore it — the episodes were hacked up and reformatted for 30-minute segments in syndication. Get yourself the box set for the first season, sit down, and watch it. Yup, there are some stinkers, but with 2 or 3 stories per episode, there’s nary an hour without some fantastic work being done. And when they hit a home run — as with “Examination Day” or “Her Pilgrim Soul” — you’ll wonder how you went this long without owning this set.
And come on — the theme song was done by the Grateful Dead!
