The Twilight Zone: Season 5 - The Definitive Edition

By 1963-64, when the final season of Twilight Zone was being filmed/aired, the show had already gone through a cancellation, a name change, a change in length and was going on it's 3rd president in office. So many wonderous ideas had made it onto the screen that the well understandably began to run dry. In the realm of science fiction, quite often a writer will begin to rely on cliches more so often after years in the genre.

Such is the case with season 5 of Twilight Zone. Shows of this season lacked the precise structuring and engaging story lines of earlier seasons. Episodes such as 'Uncle Simon', 'Ring-A-Ding Girl' and 'Ninety Years Without Slumbering' simply lacked a feeling of involvement, and others such as 'The Bewitching Pool' were just poorly made, going so far as to intercut an overdubbed adult voice for that of a child character. Yet with all these complaints, I would be the first to say that with a show like Twilight Zone, I find myself returning to the clunkers with blissful abandonment, as there is a certain charm to even the worst that this series has to offer. And there are certainly plenty of clunkers available here for those viewers so inclined to induldge.

But in a strictly objective sense, season 5 was arguably the worst of the series, with season 4 the only other contendor (although the different length format makes the two almost impossible to compare). However, the winners of this season unquestionably stand with the best of any other, amongst them being 'The Masks', 'Living Doll', 'Garrity and the Graves', 'Steel', 'In Praise of Pip', 'Last Night of a Jockey' and probably the most well known of the season, 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet'.

The probable cause of the downfall of this season (other than Serling just becoming drained and disinterested), as mentioned in Mark Scott Zicree's companion book, has to do with the fact that the final 10 to 15 shows of the season were written by authors who had never previously done work on the show and who probably had no deeper understanding of the mechanics inherant therein. Twilight Zone always had certain thematic elements that were steadfast, involving evil getting it's 'just dessert' alla 'Death's Head Revisited', and depicting human tradegy as devastating, alla 'Time Enough At Last'. However, you will notice that shows in the 5th season written by these lesser authors thematically violated the time-tested zone structure, although again I find this to be curiously interesting from a fan's point of view.

I suppose the bottom line is that, regardless of how poor many of the shows from season 5 were, they are still better than 99% of the trash on TV today, and any fan of the series should own this one. Flaws aside, the gems included more than make up for any shortcomings.

It's a real shame that The Twilight Zone didn't go beyond a 5th season. I have been a die-hard fan of the show when it was popular as a rerun in the 1980s. Personally, season 5 was my favorite of the Twilight Zone.

To me there were many underrated classics in this season: "You Drive," "Night Call," "An Occurance At Owl Creek Bridge" (actually this episode is a French film. The story was written by Ambrose Bierce), "What's in The Box," "Stopover In A Quiet Town" and the rare non-syndicated episode "The Encounter." It also includes the more well-known classics: "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet," "Mr. Garrity And The Graves," "The Masks" and "Living Doll."

There are also some great bonus features including a 90-minute in-depth documentary about the life of Rod Serling titled "Submitted For Your Approval."

Also included are audio commentary with some of the stars like Martin Landau (The Jeopardy Room), Mickey Rooney (The Last Night Of A Jockey), Bill Mumy (Praise Of Pip) and Alan Sues (The Masks). Interviews with Rod Serling; remastered picture and sound for superior quality and much, much more.

This box set is worth every penny. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I am not sure why none of the product descriptions online have the correct information about the audio commentaries and video interviews for Season 5. Here is what's included on Season 5:
Audio commentaries: Mickey Rooney, Mariette Hartley, Martin Landau, June Foray, Bill Mumy, (and TZ Companion author Marc Zicree). Video interviews: Terry Becker, June Foray, Nancy Malone, Bill Mumy, Carolyn Kearney, Michael Forest, and writers Earl Hamner, Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson.
These were splendidly produced...and I sure wish Seasons 1-3 had the video interviews. Oh well, hopefully they'll release TZ again someday and they'll be included. Although the video interviews are all great, a few of the audio commentaries (for this set, and on the previous seasons) leave something to be desired. Mickey Rooney's borders on insane - he's so elderly now and obviously sick of discussing his career. He pretty much grumbles his way through the 23 minutes of his episode and obviously only agreed to do it for the money. Martin Landau, too, fakes his way through the episode he appeared in, obviously remembering nothing significant about it.
The video interviews were edited well, and the actors & writers mostly comment on their careers and the time period of Twilight Zone, not quite as much about the episodes they starred in/wrote. The other bonus features on this set, including "Conversations with Rod Serling" and a bonus disc of "Submitted for Your Approval" (90 minute documentary) are great. I hope someday more of Rod Serling's stuff is released on DVD. This Definitive Edition series is splendid, overall.

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