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The Twilight Zone (1959) - 18 trivia entries

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Season: Whole show 1 2 3 4 5 All

A Passage for Trumpet (series 1)

In an era with no CGI, Twilight Zone used an inventive ruse to keep Joey from reflecting in the movie theater's mirrored wall. The "mirror" was clear glass, with a reverse duplicate of the set built on the other side. To "replicate" the girl in the ticket booth, they hired identical twins.

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The Big Tall Wish (series 1)

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The role of prize fighter Bolie Jackson was initially cast with real-life boxing legend Archie Moore. But when the retired champion was unable to keep up with the rigorous filming pace, Twilight Zone's casting director was forced to replace him, and chose actor Ivan Dixon for the part instead.

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The Purple Testament (series 1)

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This episode holds the absolute record in TZ for having the most actors who also appeared in other episodes. Barney Philips (Gunther) appeared in "Miniature," "A Thing About Machines" and most notably as a Venusian diner in "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?" and is one of only two actors who appeared in four episodes (the other being Burgess Meredith). Dick York (Riker) had a memorable role in "Penny For Your Thoughts," while William Oates (Jeep Driver) appeared in "The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms." Despite being the main star in this episode, William Reynolds (Fitzgerald) never appeared in any other TZ episode.

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The Fever (series 1)

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The slot machines in this episode had to be obtained from the LAPD's impound lockers, because slots were illegal in California at the time. Said producer Buck Houghton, "There was a policeman on the set at all times, to make damn sure that somebody didn't take one off and set it up in his uncle's barber shop."

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The Hitch-Hiker (series 1)

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Rod Serling adapted "The Hitch-Hiker" from a 1941 Mercury Theatre on the Air radio play that had originally starred Orson Welles. Playwright Lucille Fletcher was displeased with the result, primarily because Serling changed the gender of the lead character from male to female, naming her after his daughter Nan.

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One for the Angels (series 1)

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The centerpiece of Lou's sidewalk toy display is a wind-up Robbie the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet.

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The Silence (series 2)

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Midway through shooting, Franchot Tone got into a brawl that left him with facial abrasions on one side so severe they couldn't be covered with make-up. So, in the "glass room" scenes, shots of him are, bizarrely, in profile only or taken from behind barriers obscuring half his face. Some profile shots were reversed to create the illusion that in various takes, we were seeing both sides of him.

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Long Distance Call (series 2)

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When the script called for 6-year-old Billy Mumy's character to be found floating in a fountain full of water, the child actor's mother objected, and the scene was changed. Says Mumy, "I wanted to do it. I was a very good swimmer. But Mom was terrified I'd get some weird ideas about suicide if I did."

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The Odyssey of Flight 33 (series 2)

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The most expensive footage ever shot for Twilight Zone occurs here, with the stop-motion dinosaur. The 10-second shot cost $2500 - a fortune in 1960 - and didn't even include having to build the model. The "toy" dinosaur was a borrowed prop from the movie Dinosaurus.

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Little Girl Lost (series 3)

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Writer Richard Matheson based this story on a true incident. His young daughter fell out of bed one night and rolled against the wall just far enough away that when he reached under the bed, he at first couldn't find her. This inspired both a short story and this TZ script, where a child falls into another dimension.

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The Midnight Sun (series 3)

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The effect of the melting artwork was accomplished by painting a picture in wax onto a hotplate and then simply turning the hotplate on.

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Miniature (series 4)

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This was the only hour-long TZ episode never put into syndication. At the time the series was originally syndicated, "Miniature" was involved in a lawsuit due to an earlier script being submitted that dealt with inanimate figures coming to life. The suit claimed that "Miniature" had stolen the idea. The case was dismissed by the initial judge and on appeal, but the damage was done. The episode was aired only once, on February 21, 1963; however, the episode is available on DVD.

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Jess-Belle (series 4)

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Jess-Belle was supposed to turn into a tiger instead of a leopard, but director Buzz Kulik auditioned dozens of tigers and told writer Earl Hamner, "Not one of 'em can act; can we make it another animal?" The cat that got the job had problems too. After Kulik put his crew inside a cage to protect them from the "vicious" beast, the mildly-tranquilized trained leopard missed his walking and leaping cues and kept falling asleep.

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Come Wander with Me (series 5)

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Producer William Froug rejected an extremely nervous young singer/actress auditioning for the part of Mary Rachel, and recalls thinking that "I'll probably kick myself. She'll probably be a big star." He turned out to be right on both counts. The aspiring young singer's name was Liza Minnelli.

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Caesar and Me (series 5)

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This is the only episode of the entire Twilight Zone series scripted by a woman. Adele (credited as "A.T.") Strassfield was producer William Froug's secretary.

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Uncle Simon (series 5)

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Uncle Simon's mechanical man is a thinly-disguised Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet, with a different head and "face" under his glass dome. Robby guest-stars with his original head a few Twilight Zone episodes later, in "The Brain Center at Whipple's."

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Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (series 5)

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Rod Serling set up a practical joke on writer Richard Matheson when the two were flying to San Francisco aboard a propeller-driven plane. Serling collaborated with the airline to tape a poster blow-up of the "Nightmare" gremlin's ugly face to the outside of the plane window. Just as Serling prompted Matheson to open the curtain, however, the plane's engines and props fired up, blowing away both the poster and Serling's intended gag.

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Writer Richard Matheson says he was pleased with most of Twilight Zone's film version of his short story - except for the gremlin. He'd conceived it as a dark, creepy and nearly-invisible humanoid figure. "But this thing," he complains, "looked more like a panda bear."

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