7 Forgotten Twilight Zone Episodes

Submitted for your approval… 7 Forgotten Twilight Zone episodes.

Over the July 4th Syfy Twilight Zone Marathon, I did a list of the 20 Best Twilight Zone Episodes. (Click here to read Part 1, and click here to read Part Two).

But there are some obscure rarely seen episodes that won’t be on the New Year’s Syfy Marathon (click here for this year’s complete schedule).

Why? Copyright lawsuits, controversial material, or some that for unknown reasons just don’t get into regular rotation.

Here are 7 lost episodes worth rediscovering…

(Luckily for TZ fans, you can finally view them on The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series Blu-ray Box Set:)

I’ll also mention which episodes are available on Netflix Streaming. Click Here for a free trial.

1. The Time Element

The Time Element was the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on Desilu Playhouse. It revolves around a man who visits a psychiatrist, as he’s plagued by nightmares of waking up in Honolulu just before the Pearl Harbor attack. It was never shown again, until its inclusion on the Season One Blu-ray Set.

It certainly feels like a pilot episode, in that the show’s familiar rhythm and macabre feel are somewhat muted, but it’s still engrossing and shows the potential of what was to come.

Click here to read why The Twilight Zone is The Best Show Ever.

 

2. Miniature

This excellent hour-long episode wasn’t in syndication until the 80’s due to copyright issues. It’s the story of a young introvert (played by Robert Duvall), fascinated by a large dollhouse in a museum. He becomes convinced that the figurine inside the house is alive, and falls in love with her.

His family questions his sanity, but he can’t be kept away, and it ends with a perfect twist ending.

3. Sounds And Silences

Available on Netflix Streaming.

A man who hates loud noises becomes plagued when ordinary sounds become deafening. This was another show that missed syndication until the 80’s due to copyright issues, but it now occasionally airs on marathons.

Click here for my list of the best episodes written by the late sci-fi author Richard Matheson

 

4. An Occurence At Owl Creek Bridge

Available on Netflix Streaming.

The producers of  The Twilight Zone bought the rights to this short film as a cost saving measure during their fifth and final season. This is a wonderfully surreal French adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s short story of the same name. It wasn’t  included in syndication, but it’s now available on Blu-ray and YouTube.

 

5. Come Wander With Me

Available on Netflix Streaming.

Floyd Burney is a rockabilly musician who hears a woman singing a hypnotic melody. They fall in love, and he tries to help her escape her abusive family. But fate has other plans for the star-crossed lovers.  Why this episode is rarely shown is unknown. It’s certainly flawed, but it has a haunting title theme and moody cinematography.

Click here for my list of most prophetic Twilight Zone episodes.

 

6. Printer’s Devil

A desperate editor of a doomed newspaper agrees to a mysterious man’s (Mr Smith) offer to bail him out financially. He also begins providing outlandish tabloid headlines and the paper begins raking in huge profits. Then the editor discovers the dark genesis of these headlines… Burgess Meredith is wonderful as the mischievous Smith, and its one of the best 60 minute episodes, which don’t get as much air-play as the 30 minute episodes.

Click here to find out where Rod Serling’s Night Gallery ranks on our Most Underrated TV Shows list.

 

7. The Encounter

Available on Netflix Streaming.

George Takei is Takamori, a gardener looking for work. He knocks on the door of a man named Fenton, who invites him in for a beer. Takamori learns Fenton is a WWII veteran. He notices a samurai sword, which Fenton took from a Japanese soldier.

Takamori holds it and is overcome by a murderous rage. As the tension builds, we find out two dark secrets; (1) how Fenton acquired the sword, and (2) Takamori’s shameful family secret. This sets up the climactic finale.

Racial epithets and offensive revisionist history angered Japanese Americans so much that The Encounter never re-aired. For a show which railed against prejudice valiantly, it was a jarring tone-deaf exception. For the TZ completest it remains a curious, tragically flawed aberration.

But there were also two lost scripts, adapted long after the original series concluded:

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics

Rod Serling’s widow discovered two unproduced manuscripts from The Twilight Zone creator years after his passing. In 1994, they were aired on CBS, and narrated by James Earl Jones. The first episode was The Theater, about a woman who sees premonitions of her future while watching a film at a theater.

The other episode, Where The Dead Are is about a man whose gift of reanimating the dead has dire consequences.  (Currently only available on VHS). Here’s a review from Letterboxd.com

**Honorable mention; the cult classic movie Carnival Of Souls was loosely based off the classic TZ episode The Hitch-Hiker). Read more about the Best Forgotten Horror Movie Of All Time.

If you’re a die-hard TZ fan, be sure and seek out these Forgotten Twilight Zone Episodes, and if you’ve seen them, feel free to share your thoughts below.

And be sure to read why I think the Twilight Zone is The Best TV Show Of All Time! And check out my list of best episodes written by late sci-fi author Richard Matheson.

You might also enjoy reading about a classic apocalyptic sci-fi film written by Rod Serling.

Below are some great books about the series with more factoids on these episodes, as well as some cool collectibles from Entertainment Earth.