~In Praise Of Pip~

Air date: 9/27/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"Submitted for your approval, one Max Phillips, a slightly-the-worse-for-wear maker of books, whose life has been as drab and undistinguished as a bundle of dirty clothes. And, though it's very late in his day, he has an errant wish that the rest of his life might be sent out to a laundry to come back shiny and clean, this to be a gift of love to a son named Pip. Mr. Max Phillips, Homo sapiens, who is soon to discover that man is not as wise as he thinks--said lesson to be learned in the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Max Phillips........Jack Klugman
Pip...................Billy Mumy
Pvt. Pip.............Bob Diamond
Mrs. Feeny......Connie Gilchrist
Moran................John Launer
Doctor..............Ross Elliott
Surgeon............Stuart Nisbet
George Reynold....Russell Horton
Lieutenant.........Gerald Gordon
Gunman...............Kreg Martin

"Very little comment here, save for this small aside: that the ties of flesh are deep and strong, that the capacity to love is a vital, rich and all-consuming function of the human animal, and that you can find nobility and sacrifice and love wherever you may seek it out; down the block, in the heart, or in the Twilight Zone."

~Steel~

Air date: 10/4/63
Written by: Richard Matheson

"Sports item, circa 1974: Battling Maxo, B2, heavyweight, accompanied by his manager and handler, arrives in Maynard, Kansas, for a scheduled six-round bout. Battling Maxo is a robot, or, to be exact, an android, definition: 'an automaton resembling a human being.' Only these automatons have been permitted in the ring since prizefighting was legally abolished in 1968. This is the story of that scheduled six-round bout, more specifically the story of two men shortly to face that remorseless truth: that no law can be passed which will abolish cruelty or desperate need--nor, for that matter, blind animal courage. Location for the facing of said truth a small, smoke-filled arena just this side of the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Steel Kelly........Lee Marvin
Pole..............Joe Mantell
Maynard Flash.....Chuck Hicks
Battling Maxo....Tipp McClure
Nolan............Merritt Bohn
Maxwell..........Frank London
Man's voice......Larry Barton

"Portrait of a losing side, proof positive that you can't outpunch machinery. Proof also of something else: that no matter what the future brings, man's capacity to rise to the occasion will remain unaltered. His potential for tenacity and optimism continues, as always, to outfight, outpoint and outlive any and all changes made by his society, for which three cheers and a unanimous decision rendered from the Twilight Zone."

~Nightmare At 20,000 Feet~

Air date: 10/11/63
Written by: Richard Matheson

"Portrait of a frightened man: Mr. Robert Wilson, thirty-seven, husband, father, and salesman on sick leave. Mr. Wilson has just been discharged from a sanitarium where he spent the last six months recovering from a nervous breakdown, the onset of which took place on an evening not dissimilar to this one, on an airliner very much like the one in which Mr. Wilson is about to be flown home--the difference being that, on that evening half a year ago, Mr. Wilson's flight was terminated by the onslaught of his mental breakdown. Tonight, he's travelling all the way to his appointed destination which, contrary to Mr. Wilson's plan, happens to be the darkest corner of the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Bob Wilson......William Shatner
Ruth Wilson.....Christine White
Gremlin.............Nick Cravat
Flight engineer...Edward Kemmer
Stewardess...........Asa Maynor

"The flight of Mr. Robert Wilson has ended now, a flight not only from point A to point B, but also from the fear of recurring mental breakdown. Mr. Wilson has that fear no longer, though, for the moment, he is, as he has said, alone in this assurance. Happily, his canviction will not remain isolated too much longer, for happily, tangible manifestation is very often left as evidence of trespass, even from so intangible a quarter as the Twilight Zone."

~A Kind Of Stopwatch~

Air date: 10/18/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"Submitted for your approval or at least your analysis: one Patrick Thomas McNultry, who at age forty-one is the biggest bore on Earth. He holds a ten-year record for the most meaningless words spewed out during a coffee break. And it's very likely that, as of this moment, he would have gone through life in precisely this manner, a dull, argumentative bigmouth who sets back the art of conversation a thousand years. I say he very likely would have, except for something that will soon happen to him, something that will considerably alter his existence--and ours. Now you think about that now, because this is the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

McNulty..........Richard Erdman
Potts..............Leon Belasco
Mr. Cooper..........Roy Roberts
Joe the Bartender...Herbie Faye
Secretary.......Doris Singleton
Attendant...........Ray Kellogg
TV announcer.........Sam Balter
Charlie..........Richard Wessel
Man...................Ken Drake

"Mr. Patrick Thomas McNulty, who had a gift of time. He used it and he misused it, now he's just been handed the bill. Tonight's tale of motion and McNulty--in the Twilight Zone."

~The Last Night Of A Jockey~

Air date: 10/25/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"The name is Grady, five-feet short in stockings and boots, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. He happens to be one of the rotten apples, bruised and yellowed by dealing in dirt, a short man with a short memory who's forgotten that he's worked for the sport of kings and helped turn it into a cesspool, used and misused by the two-legged animals who've hung around sporting events since the days of the Coliseum. So this is Grady, on his last night as a jockey. Behind him are Hialeah, Hollywood Park and Saratoga. Rounding the far turn and coming up fast on the rail--is the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Grady.....Mickey Rooney

"The name is Grady, ten feet tall, a slightly distorted offshoot of a good breed of humans who race horses. Unfortunately for Mr. Grady, he learned too late that you don't measure size with a yardstick and you never judge a man by how tall he looks in a mirror. The giant is as he does. You can make a parimutuel bet on this, win, place or show, in or out of the Twilight Zone."

~Living Doll~

Air date: 11/1/63
Written by: Jerry Sohl

"Talky Tina, a doll that does everything, a lifelike creation of plastic and springs and painted smile. To Erich Streator, she is a most unwelcome addition to his household--but without her he'd never enter the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Erich Streator....Telly Savalas
Annabelle..........Mary LaRoche
Christie........Tracy Stratford
Talky Tina voice.....June Foray

"Of course, we all know dolls can't really talk, and they certainly can't commit murder. But to a child caught in the middle of turmoil and conflict, a doll can become many things: friend, defender, guardian. Especially a doll like Talky Tina, who did talk and did commit murder--in the misty region of the Twilight Zone."

~The Old Man In The Cave~

Air date: 11/8/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"What you're looking at is a legacy that man left to himself. A decade previous he pushed his buttons and, a nightmarish moment later, woke up to find that he had set the clock back a thousand years. His engines, his medicines, his science were buried in a mass tomb, covered over by the biggest gravedigger of them all: a Bomb. And this is the Earth ten years later, a fragment of what was once a whole, a remnant of what was once a race. The year is 1974, and this is the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Mr. Goldsmith....John Anderson
Major French......James Coburn
Jason..............John Marley
Evelyn.............Josie Lloyd
Harber...........Frank Watkins
Douglas.............Lenny Geer
Man................John Craven
Woman..........Natalie Masters
Furman............Don Wilbanks

"Mr. Goldsmith, survivor, an eye witness to man's imperfection, an observer of the very human trait of greed and a chronicler of the last chapter--the one reading 'suicide.' Not a prediction of what is to be, just a projection of what could be. This has been the Twilight Zone."

~Uncle Simon~

Air date: 11/15/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"Dramatis personae: Mr. Simon Polk, a gentleman who has lived out his life in a gleeful rage; and the young lady who's just beat the hasty retreat is Mr. Polk's niece, Barbara. She's lived her life as if during each ensuing hour she had a dentist appointment. There's yet a third member of the company soon to be seen. He now resides in the laboratory and he is the kind of character to be found only in th Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Uncle Simon.....Cedric Hardwicke
Barbara...........Constance Ford
Schwimmer..............Ian Wolfe
Policeman............John McLiam
Robot................Dion Hansen

"Dramatis personae: a metal man, who will go by the name of Simon, whose life as well as his body has been stamped out for him: and the woman who tends to him, the lady Barbara, who's discovered belatedly that all bad things don't come to an end, and that once a bed is made it's quite necessary that you sleep in it. Tonight's uncomfortable little exercise in avarice and automatons--from the Twilight Zone."

~Probe 7 - Over And Out~

Air date: 11/29/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"One Colonel Cook, a traveller in space. He's landed on a remote planet several million miles from his point of departure. He can make an inventory of his plight by just one 360-degree movement of the head and eyes. Colonel Cook has been set adrift in an ocean of space in a metal lifeboat that has been scorched and destroyed and will never fly again. He survived the crash but his ordeal is yet to begin. Now he must give battle to lonliness. Now Colonel Cook must meet the unknown. It's a small planet set deep in space, but for Colonel Cook it's the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Col. Adam Cook.....Richard Basehart
Eve Norda..........Antoinette Bower
Lt. Blane.............Barton Heyman
Gen. Larrabee..........Harold Gould

"Do you know these people? Names familiar, are they? They lived a long time ago. Perhaps they're part fable, perhaps they're part fantasy. And perhaps the place they're walking to now is not really called 'Eden.' We offer it only as a presumption. This has been the Twilight Zone."

~The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms~

Air date: 12/6/63
Written by: Rod Serling

"June twenty-fifth, 1964--or , if you prefer, June twenty-fifth, 1876. The cast of characters in order of their appearance: a patrol of General Custer's cavalry and a patrol of National Guardsmen on a maneuver. Past and present are about to collide head-on, as they are wont to do in a very special bivouac area known as...the Twilight Zone."

Cast:

Sgt. Conners.........Ron Foster
Pfc. McCluskey......Randy Boone
Cpl. Langsford.....Warren Oates
Captain.............Robert Bray
Lieutenant..........Greg Morris
Scout.............Wayne Mallory
Sergeant..............Lew Brown
Corporal.........Jacque Shelton
Radio operator...Jeffrey Morris

"Sergeant William Conners, Trooper Michael McCluskey and Trooper Richard Langsford, who on a hot afternoon in June made a charge over a hill--and never returned. Look for this one under 'P' for phantom, in a historical ledger located in a readin room known as the Twilight Zone."