The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series

I had grown up watching The Twilight Zone. I recall the commercials for its first season airing on TV with all the hoopla about the coming decade (the 60's)--most of all I recall the omnipresent Mr. Serling standing off center (camera pan left or right), with a cigarette dangling from his first two fingers as he narrates a brief intro, promo, or closing. I watched many of the reruns from time to time on the Sci-Fi (sorry, can't get into the lame syfy moniker) channel. Problem was, you always missed some of the ones you remembered the best. I know the one with Keenan Wynn that I thought was called "The Pitch" (actually it was "One for the Angels") was as clear in my memory as if I were a nine year old watching it air for the first time, back in my old homestead. Yet I never got to see it again and was delighted that it was among the first in season 1 of this set (actually it was the SECOND TZ episode to air). The Twilight Zone was one of those very special shows that left an indelible mark on your memory. I was an imaginative child to begin with, and sci-fi/fantasy were among my favorite genre. This made Twilight Zone an absolute "must" every Friday night! What I especially like is that you have them ALL! How can any TZ fan not be impressed with that? And wonder of wonders, the specials are incredible! 1.) Each disc has a sub menu for each episode (usually the scene menu) which includes Mr. Serling's promo for the next week's show AND a link to "specials" which run the gamut from isolated scores, where you can watch in a muted episode and hear the haunting score behind it. The imagination runs WILD. 2.) Among the specials, you also get interviews with many of the stars who were featured on the episodes, including Burgess Meredith discussing "Time Enough At Last", while the episode plays in the background. The list of stars, writers, producers, is very impressive and too lengthy to list here--suffice it to say, you'll love hearing their own views of the shows they were a part of. Even Mr. Serling graces us with lectures he gives to students with his unique self-deprecating humor while looking back at special episodes. 3.) The old CBS logo appears after each show, and you get promos from other shows like Danny Thomas and Wanted Dead or Alive-- even an occassional PSA about things like "take your family to church or synagogue this week" (imagine THAT in today's PC world!) there are others--but THAT one struck me as special-- takes you right back to those better times! For me, this is a welcome retreat back to a better time. Yes, I know we need to live in the present, and concern ourselves with the future--nobody better, and I do that; but once or twice a week, I cherish the opportunity to put in one of these discs and relive a time in my life when things were just less chaotic, and more filled with childlike fancy. Perhaps I'm a tad like the actress who, watching her old films wished to retreat back to her glory days as a star of celluloid (so many of the TZ episodes focused on the desire to recapture the past; remembere "Kick the Can"? --perhaps one day my own children will come into my house and see a rerun of "Walking Distance" and see me playing the role of Martin, walking back into the time of his childhood. Anyone who knows about the episode "Next Stop Willoughby" will understand why I'm not quite ready for THAT one! Bottom line, it's a GREAT collection, with GREAT specials you'll LOVE if you are a real TZ fan, and that I am! The only drawback, if one could call it that, was the packaging. The discs slide open inside a book-like package and sit on plastic spools in dual-stacks offset somewhat. This makes for an awkward effort to dislodge the discs, some of which are a bit loose--others of which are very tight, and on one particular instance I was frightfully worried I might break DVD which resisted my every effort to dislodge it. If I ever have another episode like that, I'll just transfer them into a set of easy access DVD packages--problem solved, and the money saved over buying them in the season-by-season packages is still astounding. You can NOT do better than this set if you love the Twilight Zone, and want to learn more about those wonderful episodes imprinted permanently in your memory! Quite frankly, one of the two or three BEST TV series--EVER! -- At a price you won't beat... ANYWHERE!

I do not give 5 stars to very many items that I purchase - in fact, I believe that this is the first time when a product has warranted such a rating. The Complete Definitive Collection is all that it claims, and more! The packaging is eye-catching, with its laser-etched hologram logo and artwork, and the 28 DVDs are securely packed in their book-style covers, with five separate inner volumes covering the five seasons which the series ran. There are innumerable extras included, which will provide commentary and insight into this classic Sci-Fi series, as well as a glimpse back in time to the fashions, adverts, and general 'feeling' of the late 1950s and the early 1960s. The video transfers are stunning. The 4:3 format monochrome images are clear and crisp, and the sound, while only monaural, is nicely recorded, and at no time does it seem to be overpowering or 'boomy'. The music of Bernard Herrmann and other contemporary composers is succinct and beautifully recorded. Some episodes have 'Isolated scores' which enable you to listen to the music track independently of the dialogue. The late, great Rod Serling presents and narrates each episode (or at least he has, as I have so far seen) and he also gives a quick outline of "next weeks episode" at the end. However, if you choose to wait until 'next week' to watch each episode, then it will take you years to view the whole series. I am currently restricting myself to watching two half-hour episodes per evening, and I do not recall looking forward to something on the 'idiot box' as much as this for many, many years. It's like seeing it all over for the first time! Some of the episodes are familiar, and are well remembered from their original airings, all those years ago. Others tend to unfold as you watch, and you may recall just one or two scenes, or situations, and you will find yourself saying "Aha! That's where I saw that!" The various tales are set in strange, almost two-dimensional settings, and the use of the basic props, combined with stark, low-key lighting, (which was warranted by the production costs at the time) are quite evident, but this fact only seems to add to the charm and ethereal quality of the tales. Even the exterior scenes have something of a 'magical' quality which is almost surreal. It is very hard to describe these sensations, but you will surely feel it, as you watch. Whether younger viewers will be similarly affected depends on how much they are prepared to suspend belief, but I am sure that most of them will draw something positive from the various episodes. The actors playing the parts in the series read like a Who's-Who of television and screen of the period. Some of them you will be able to identify on sight, while others may seem strangely familiar, and you will only be able to pick their names up from the end credits. Others still - very many - are 'unknowns' of the era, who never went on to act in anything else, but all the actors' appearances are nicely done, within the constraints of the late 1950s. Now, to my only two criticisms of this excellent series (and they are only tiny ones): The DVD menus, while of very good format, require that one navigates to each episode individually. What I mean is that you cannot just press 'Play All' and have the episodes play in unbroken order. At the end of each episode, you have to use the cursor on your remote control to navigate back to the main disc menu, and then select the next episode manually. This is not really a problem, and after the first few episodes, becomes quite acceptable. The second criticism I have is that one of the small booklets which shows the episode numbers and order on the disc, as well as giving a short precis on the stories, was missing from my set. I am currently trying to contact the producers of the boxed set (Image Entertainment) in order to ascertain whether I can obtain the missing booklet. So far, I have not had very much success. My verdict then: Top value, top production, top presentation, and top marks for the Definitive Series. It is a very welcome addition to my DVD collection, and will be re-watched and enjoyed over and over again, many times in the future. (Or is it the past? One can never tell - in the Twilight Zone....) ^-^

“The Twilight Zone” was the greatest television series of the 1950s and 60s, and may rank as the finest series of all time. Its superiority rested on several factors: quality of acting; superb direction by Douglas Heyes, Don Medford, Buzz Kulik and others; atmospheric music by Marius Constant and Bernard Herrmann; and, most of all, imaginative scripts by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, and of course, Rod Serling. Serling had already established himself before the “Zone” as the best TV playwright in the business, contributing scripts to “Playhouse 90,” “Desilu Playhouse,” and others. But he had grown frustrated by the censorship of TV sponsors and other parties by 1958, who had objected to various aspects of his social and ethical themes. Particularly significant in this connection is a clip from the “Mark Wallace” show in 1959 (just one of many interviews in this box set) – on this occasion, the playwright detailed some of the reasons for embarking on “The Twilight Zone,” which included his desire to escape the petty bowdlerization of TV authorities. By now it’s a veritable cliché: this notion that serious themes can be treated more safely in commercial media through the “camouflage” of fantasy. In the Wallace interview, however, Serling did not actually cite this as a rationale for the “Zone.” What he did say, while neither affirming nor refuting that notion, was couched in ambiguity. On one hand, he vouched for the need to relinquish such themes for the “Zone,” partly for reasons of censorship, and partly owing to the abbreviated length of the new series (30 minutes as compared to the 90-minute length of most teleplays). Yet he also claimed genuine merit for the series, asserting that the shows were of high quality and had their own aesthetic legitimacy. Serling’s demeanor was serious, to be sure, but he was obviously hedging his bets. Because when viewing the general landscape, we find that a significant number of episodes tackled serious themes. Here is just a sampling of the subjects “Twilight Zone” addressed during its five-season run: Totalitarianism – “The Obsolete Man” Nuclear war – “Two,” “The Shelter”; “Time Enough at Last” Hypocrisy – “Four O’Clock”; “The Masks” Racism – “The Encounter”; “I Am the Night – Color Me Black” Greed – “The Fever” Juvenile delinquency - “Black Leather Jackets” Marital discord – “A World of Difference”; “Living Doll” Crime & recrimination – “You Drive” The societal obsession with beauty – “Eye of the Beholder” & “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” Loneliness of the elderly – “Nothing in the Dark”; “Night Call” Childhood isolation and fear of “the other” – “Mute” Labor issues – “The Brain Center at Whipple’s” The Holocaust (or Naziism generally) – “Death’s Head Revisited”; “Judgement Night” These and other examples prove that Serling did not abandon serious themes when embarking on “The Twilight Zone.” To the contrary, he explored them often, not only in his own writing, but in the stories he chose from others. Worthy as this was, the series went further. For one thing, it created a mood of existential isolation that had never been achieved before and has never been equaled since. Protagonists find themselves in strange environments they cannot fathom, and which leave them helpless and disoriented. We see this most clearly in episodes like “Where is Everybody” (the subject of a space project is forced to undergo sensory deprivation and suffers hallucinatory terrors as a result); “Mirror Image” (in which doppelgangers haunt the principal actors as ostensible manifestations of a parallel universe); “The After Hours” (where the protagonist finds herself trapped on an uninhabited level of a department store); and “A World of Difference” (which, anticipating the film, “The Truman Show,” shows an actor trapped in the spurious reality of a movie script). This series, in other words, created the most vivid portrait of what W.H. Auden called the “Age of Anxiety” – there was rarely an episode that did not touch upon this theme in one way or another. Even when loneliness and isolation were not the focus of an episode, they often seemed to lurk somewhere in the background, and were reflected in the form of prejudicial backlashes against real or imagined enemies --- see “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” (a barely-concealed commentary on McCarthyism) or “Living Doll” (a little girl’s plastic companion serves as the catalyst for an estranged husband’s cruelty). In other words, “The Twilight Zone” wasn’t merely about imaginative ideas dressed in strange attire, or even about existential angst. It also had important things to say about human nature, about American culture in the twentieth century, and about the frequent inability of people to establish even the most basic forms of communication. By contrast, even the best of its TV rivals, “The Outer Limits” and “Thriller,’ had little to say in these regards. (The episode called “The Cheaters” in the “Thriller” series was an exception that proved the rule). Ray Bradbury, while contributing only one story for “Twilight Zone,” was ultimately the writer with the greatest influence on the series overall (at least on its serious and more literary episodes). This is evident in two ways: first, in particulars – e.g., “The Lonely” showed the strong influence of Bradbury’s “The Long Years,” while “Little Girl Lost” was an interesting variation on Bradbury’s “Tomorrow’s Child.” Moreover, at least two episodes allude to Bradbury by name – see “A Stop at Willoughby,” and “Walking Distance.” Second, and more importantly, Bradbury’s work suffused the series in that it transferred his concern for lonely and alienated people (especially in his early fiction) into what was, at the time, a comparatively new medium. We should remember that while TV had been available as early as the late 1940s, it was still at a rudimentary stage in 1959, and during most of its first decade, existed as live entertainment that had only recently been superseded by the filming of programs for long-term preservation. Bradbury’s influence can be seen, at any rate, in a significant number of Serling’s scripts. Readers sampling stories like those in The Martian Chronicles, The Golden Apples of the Sun, and Dandelion Wine – as well as dystopias like “The Pedestrian” and Fahrenheit 451 – will see some of the tales that inspired Serling and other contributors to the series. The latter included Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont who, while very original fantasists in their own right, were both mentored by Bradbury in their apprentice years. While it’s true that Bradbury had little direct input to the “Zone,” the mood of his early work had strong and definite echoes that made a permanent impact. Some people, including “Zone” critic Marc Scott Zicree, feel that the series suffered when it changed to an hour format in 1962. Zicree does point out some notable exceptions, however, and I would agree that “Death Ship” and “Jess-Belle” were among the best shows in the series. “Jess-Belle,” scripted by “Waltons” creator Earl Hamner, Jr. is in my opinion a masterpiece of horror-oriented folklore, and strikes me as occupying the same plane as Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Jar” and Thriller’s “Pigeons from Hell.” “Death Ship,” for its part, is almost like an extraterrestrial variant on Ambrose Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (which itself was appropriated – from a French adaptation – for the “Zone”). This set is well worth having, not just for the episodes themselves, but for the many interviews and commentaries that illuminate the work of Serling and his entourage of fantasists. Especially notable (though excluded from the Blu-ray edition) is the 90-minute documentary, “Submitted for Your Approval,” which effectively chronicles Serling’s career, including his powerful pre-Zone dramatic works like “Patterns“ and “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” In addition, it points out how strong an influence Serling’s military service had on his writing – episodes like “The Encounter,” “The Purple Testament,” “King Nine Will Not Return,” and even Civil War forays like “Still Valley, show the influence of his wartime experience. I find it mysterious, however, that Serling’s Jewish ancestry is not cited as a salient influence on the “Zone.” Given that fantasists like Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz had to endure the oppression that stems from ethnic discrimination, it’s hard to believe Serling was immune from that oppression, even if this was less virulent in latterday America than in old-world Europe. We can speculate on the specific ways prejudice may have manifested itself in Serling’s personal life without reaching sound conclusions. It seems plausible, nevertheless, to infer that a sense of alienation due to lingering anti-Semitism may have dogged the writer throughout his life, and that this partially accounts for what Jack Klugman called Serling’s “great sense of morality.” “The Twilight Zone” covered a wide canvas, and not everything to which Serling applied his brush was successful. His comedy writing, in particular, seemed forced and artificial (though occasionally entertaining, as in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up”). Even his serious work could implode – in episodes like “He's Alive,” the moral message drowns in didacticism and sinks from its own pretensions. The frequent twist endings, moreover, could sometimes be puerile and a bit too “cute.” Whatever these failings, the best works – and there were a remarkably high percentage of them – rank as the screen equivalent of fine literature, and – probably because Serling was originally a playwright – were the most genuinely dramatic in TV history. There was, as Lois Nettleton observed in her commentary to “The Midnight Sun,” an intimacy about them that penetrated to the core of the human experience, and made us aware of our place in the universe. So, yes – there were pratfalls on occasion, as there are in every series. But overall, “The Twilight Zone” set a standard that rose above mere entertainment, and that will forever be a touchstone for everything that follows.

"The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection" is just that! This set is one of the best DVD box sets on a classic television series ever put together and all other "Twilight Zone" collections pale in comparison to this splendid and marvelous set. The price itself is also amazing when you consider fans shelved out hundreds of dollars to own "The Twilight Zone" on VHS, as well as around $80.00 for individual season sets. Here you get all five seasons worth of shows, all 156 episodes that are uncut with their original network openings along with Rod Serlings' "preview for next weeks episodes" tags that were cut from their syndicated airings. The shows themselves look impeccable being cleaned and restored from their network CBS master copies and the sound is wonderful. The bonuses are great as well with audio commentaries on certain episodes from different actors and writers who worked on "The Twilight Zone". There is also an array of interviews that offer insights into the making of this television classic. If your reading this review you must be an ardent "Twilight Zone" fan. Your DVD collection will not be complete without this extraordinary collection. If your curious on the series remember "The Twilight Zone" has been made in many different forms since the original went off network televison in 1964. Movies and new series remakes have been made, but all pale to this original series that ran from 1959-1964. Like "Star trek" that came after it, "The Twilight Zone" was never a hit in the Nielsen ratings, but the critics loved it for its original scripts and innovative storytelling. Today, many college campuses throughout the country offer courses in dramatic writing, televison directing, and producing using these "Twilight Zone" episodes as examples for study. Out of all the episodes made of this series, many are standouts including "Eye of the Beholder", "Uncle Simon" (my personal favorite due to Rod Serling's writing), "The Midnight Sun", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "Time Enough At Last", "Living Doll", "It's A Good Life", and Time magazine's all-time favorite "The Monster's Are Due On Maple Street". There is also an excellent book available on the making of "The Twilight Zone" called "The Twilight Zone-Unlocking The Door To A Television Classic". This is an exceptional piece of work due to the care and time invested by its author. The best part is the chapter dealing with all the individual episodes that includes airdates, production schedules, shooting locales, budget costs, salaries, and more. This softcover gem is fastly going-out-of-print so garb a copy as soon as you see one available. The price is a bit high, but it's worth the cost especially if your a huge "Twilight Zone" fan like me. Important to note too is the fact that CBS is releasing season one on Blue-ray on September 14, 2010 making "The Twilight Zone" one of the few 1960's TV series being made available in this new format.

I'm a big fan of The Twilight Zone and shows in a similar vein like The Outer Limits , Night Gallery , and The Ray Bradbury Theater . My wife loves it as well so I purchased this collection as a birthday gift for her. The digital remastering is excellent and the image and sound quality of (most of) the shows is better than I ever remember it looking/sounding when they aired on TV. Most of the shows are half-hour episodes, but in season four they are one hour long. It's wonderful to have all 156 episodes in one collection, as well as all of the plethora of extra goodies that accompany almost every episode. Having the commercials and next week previews that aired with the original shows adds extra depth to the viewing experience. Discovering episodes I've never seen is quite a thrill too. I might have thought twice about buying this for the list price, but I was able to get it as a Gold Box deal for under a hundred dollar mark so I'm quite pleased. That works out to about 60¢ and episode! I don't see how the quality of a program recorded so long ago could be any better on Blu-ray, so the DVD set is perfect. The only reason I'd want the Blue-ray edition is that it is supposed to include the rare teleplay pilot episode, the "Time Element" in the season one extras. My 6 year old daughter and 10 year old son have come to enjoy it too, so we watch it together as a family activity. The kids have even taking to calling our eclectically decorated home the "Mr. Bevis" house, hah! The plot twists and concepts presented in Mr. Serling's series are as gripping and innovative today as they were in 1959 and the 60s. The scripts are not dumbed down like so many of today's sitcoms, and actually make one think. The plethora of great actors that starred in the various stories is yet another plus. Are there any negatives? A few, but nothing that detracts from my family's enjoyment of this set. A smattering of episodes have an odd video quality that looks as though they were plays filmed live with a handheld camera. I've seen a similar effect on old BBC shows. They often have dark halos around high contrast portions of the recording. The DVDs are a little difficult to remove from the boxes and I fear that I might break one in the process--though I never have. The set also lacks any closed captioning (season one only) or subtitles, and you have to click through each single episode rather than having a "play all" feature, which would have been a nice option. When on sale, The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection DVD is a spectacular deal and a must have for fans of the original series. As the great man once said, "Imagination... its limits are only those of the mind itself." Get this set and lose yourself for a while... in the Twilight Zone. ~ Kort

In recent years I always looked forward to holiday weekends so I could sample some of the episodes during "The Twilight Zone" marathons on SyFy. But alas it seemed the network always showed the same 30 or 40 episodes. Although the series was available on DVD I found the price tag on Image Entertainment's 2006 release "The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series" to be quite a bit more than I was willing to pay. Then in 2013 the folks at Image decided to release a scaled-back version featuring each and every one of the 156 classic episodes minus all of the special features. This 5 disc box was much more reasonably priced and I jumped at the chance to purchase it. And let me tell you I was not disappointed. I have spent the last few months watching the entire series and save for a handful of clunkers found the overwhelming majority of the episodes to be thoughtfully written and highly entertaining. It was fun to see so many stars from the golden age of television as well as up-and-coming young actors like Jack Klugman, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds and William Shatner to name but a few. Then there all of those terrific character actors you have seen a million times. You recognize the faces but are hard pressed to come up with the names. Great stuff! The writing is almost always superb and the camera work top notch. Meanwhile, depending on the episode creator Rod Serling's clever introductions add a welcome touch of intrigue or humor. I was quite surprised at the large number of these episodes that I had never even seen before. I was especially impressed by a chilling episode from the fifth and final season entitled "Number 12 Looks Just Like You". "The Twilight Zone" is one of a handful of TV shows from that period that hold up well even to this day. If you are a fan of science fiction or classic television then "The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series" would be the perfect choice for you. This set is very reasonably priced and would be a great gift for that Baby Boomer in your life. A truly outstanding series. Very highly recommended!

Excellent picture and sound. You don’t want the ending given away so have to sneak around the menu after you choose a program so you don’t see too much before you watch the show. This ties in with the lack of a “play all” choice so that you can just start the shows and it will keep going. It only returns back to the menu with the particular show that you were watching and you have to go back to the main menu which makes you go through another bit of animation to get to and then choose another show.

As a teenager and as a young adult, I loved "The Twilight Zone", which I only knew in reruns and mostly featured after hours on independent TV stations. Now my 12 year old son has discovered the "Twilight Zone" though a "marathon" that was featured on the Sci-Fi Channel last New Years Day, and he loves this series. I guess that through the mind of a younger person, the inherit weaknesses of the "Twilight Zone" are not as apparent (over-acting, flowery camp-like dialogue, predictable endings, contrived "lessons", recycled and cliché themes). Even so, in coming back to it after so many years and seeing it; and once again, seeing it through the eyes of a younger person (that being my 12 year old son), I've come to appreciate how well-done this series was, despite it's obvious flaws. Taken into the context of when the series was made, the beautiful thing about the "Twilight Zone" is that it brings something completely new to the medium of television; something intellectual and provocative. With so much of TV being completely mindless, Rod Serling tries to bring forth something that attempts to make us all "think". I see this in my son, as each episode seems to trigger his mind into assigning a meaning to what he's seen and heard. In a larger sense, "Twilight Zone" has opened my son's mind to the genre of science-fiction and how science-fiction serves to place characters in fantastic situations in order to comment upon the human condition. Indeed, I's say that "Twilight Zone" was something that opened my mind to a more abstract way of perceiving reality way back when I was young. Truly ground-braking is the "the Big Tall Wish" which must have been one of the only times (if not the first the FIRST time) that a TV show featured a cast of Black characters in a more respectable light, where they weren't comic stereotypes or sidelined as butlers and maids. "in Praise of Pip" is also interesting in that it must have been one of the first times a reference was made to the Vietnam War in TV history. Indeed, while some episodes are weak, the truly outstanding ones more than make up for what it's worth to understand Rod Serling's vision. Seeing a galaxy of TV and movie stars of years gone by (such as Jack Klugman, Burgess Meredith, Telly Savalas, Art Carney, Mickey Rooney and many, many others) is an added bonus of nostalgic value. The packaging of this particular set is awkward and contains almost nothing in the way of liner notes.

This dvd box set contains the complete series of the original Twilight Zone created by Rod Serling. All five wonderful seasons are included. The picture and sound quality are excellent having been remastered. The dvd set comes in a plastic amery style case that houses all the disks. Please note this is the American release and is region 1 coded - so you will need a multi region dvd player to watch them. If you enjoy classic sci fi television then this box set is for you. Next stop The Twilight Zone.

映像もきれい、値段も安く感激です。ロッド・サーリングの次回予告がこんなにあったとはびっくりしました。

In my twilight years, I can rate this series before purchase, having watched many of them when I was about 9 years old. At that age, some were too scary so my mother sent me out of the lounge! Now, I can watch them all.

El producto llegó en tiempo y en excelentes condiciones. La colección de Twilight Zone serie original de los 60's es simplemente maravillosa, refleja el ambiente misterioso e intrigante que Rod Serling seguramente quería crear para los televidentes de aquella época, y que sigue creando para nosotros los fans de esta fantástica serie.

I was in two minds as to whether the show would stand the test of time. For the majority of what I have seen so far, it has. There are a couple of episodes that don't quite come up to standard, but, the majority are great.