Stevens, Robert

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 3

Episodes: "Steel" (Ep. 122, October 4, 1963) - In the future, only androids are allowed to box. Desperate to raise money, penniless manager Steel Kelly (Lee Marvin) must fight disguised as his own broken-down robot. "A Game of Pool" (Ep. 70, October 13, 1961) - Jesse (Jack Klugman) is a brilliant pool player whose dream of a showdown with the legendary (and dead) Fats Brown (Jonathan Winters) comes true. The stakes: his life. "Walking Distance" (Ep. 5, October 30, 1959) - Martin Sloan (Gig Young) is a frazzled executive who learns that you can't go home again after he steps back in time and meets his mom, his dad--and himself! "Kick the Can" (Ep. 86, February 9, 1962) - Has an old man at Sunnyvale Rest Home discovered a secret to regaining youth? After playing a simple child's game, he and the other residents are rewarded with rejuvenating powers!

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 9

Episodes: "Nick of Time" (Ep. 43, November 18, 1960) - A superstitious newlywed (William Shatner) becomes obsessed by a penny fortune-telling machine. But are his pennies revealing his future--or determining it? "The Prime Mover" (Ep. 57, March 24, 1961) - Ace Larsen has discovered that his business partner (Buddy Ebsen) can move things with his mind! They set out for Las Vegas and win--for a while anyway. "It's a Good Life" (Ep. 73, November 3, 1961) - He knows your every thought, can feel your every emotion. He can eliminate all you hold dear. Who is he? A 6 year old boy (Billy Mumy) from Peaksville, Ohio! "The Mind and the Matter" (Ep. 63, May 12, 1961) - A book on the power of thought enables an irritable worker (Shelley Berman) to re-create the world exactly as he wants it. But what he wants and what he gets are two different things!

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 6

Episodes: "The Passerby" (Ep. 69, October 6, 1961) - On the road home from the Civil War, a Confederate soldier stops at a house. He and the owner, a recent widow, soon realize that all who pass are dead. Including them! "The Grave" (Ep. 72, October 27, 1961) - Before he died, notorious badman Pinto Sykes put a curse on hired-gun Conny Miller (Lee Marvin). If Miller ever sets foot on his grave, he will kill him--a threat Sykes carries out! "Death's Head Revisited" (Ep. 74, November 10, 1961) - A former Nazi SS Captain returns to the ruins of a concentration camp to re-live the good old days--until his long-dead victims appear to deliver overdue justice! "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" (Ep. 88, February 23, 1962) - Ever since he came back to life at his own funeral, Jeff hasn't been the same! The townspeople want him out of town, but Jeff says they have no reason to fear him. Or do they?

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 36

"The Chaser"
Based on a story by John Collier, this comic tale of ill-gotten love features a spurned lover (George Grizzard) gaining the affections of his phlegmatic coquette (Patricia Barry) through the agency of a love potion--with not quite the delightful outcome he had expected. The bookish, wizened dealer in potions is played with crusty effectiveness by John McIntire.

"The Rip Van Winkle Caper"
A criminal mastermind (Oscar Beregi) and his ruthless accomplice (Simon Oakland) steal a fortune in gold bullion, then go into suspended animation so they can enjoy their take a hundred years hence. Only the desert in which they wake up makes water more precious than gold. Splendidly acted by the two leads, though the episode's ironies are too easily anticipated.

"The New Exhibit"
This tale of murder and madness stars Martin Balsam as Martin Lombard Senescu, curator of a wax museum's murderer's row and soon-to-be inheritor of his charges' indecent fame. When the museum closes, Senescu houses the waxy simulacra in his air-conditioned basement, and eventually his obsession with the likenesses of Jack the Ripper and Landru causes them to act out his unconscious yearnings. Although credited to Charles Beaumont, the script is actually by science fiction writer Jerry Sohl, one of several friends who ghosted for Beaumont when he suffered from near-senile dementia toward the end of his life. As a result, the episode lacks the slick elegance and grim humor that marked Beaumont's best work, but it is nevertheless funny.

When you stumble onto this disc's hidden features, you'll find isolated music tracks, original ads, and program bumpers for the three episodes. --Jim Gay

Episodes: "The Chaser" (Ep. 31, May 13, 1960) - Roger Shackleforth (George Grizzard), desperate to win the affection of the beautiful Leila (Patricia Barry), slips her a love potion. He is overjoyed that the potion works so well--at first. "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" (Ep. 60, April 21, 1961) - Thieves put themselves into suspended animation for 100 years after hiding a million dollars worth of gold bars. But even in the future, wealth is still far out of reach for two greedy crooks (Oscar Beregi, Simon Oakland). "The New Exhibit" (Ep. 115, April 4, 1963, 50 min.) - The curator (Martin Balsam) of a murderers' row in a soon-to-be-defunct wax museum persuades the owner to let him keep the figures for awhile. When his wife attempts to destroy them, a new murderous rampage begins.

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 5

Episodes: "Long Distance Call" (Ep. 58, March 31, 1961) - Before Grandma dies, she gave Billy a toy telephone. When he uses it to talk to her, his parents dismiss it as imagination--until Billy decides to join his Grandma! "I Sing the Body Electric" (Ep. 100, May 18, 1962) - Anne (Veronica Cartwright) must learn to understand and accept that her new grandmother can be tender, loving, thoughtful and caring. Even if she is a robot. "The Lonely" (Ep. 7, November 13, 1959) - A convicted murderer (Jack Warden) incarcerated on a distant asteroid is dying of loneliness. Then a supply ship captain leaves him a female robot--and a dilemma! "Probe 7, Over & Out" (Ep. 129, November 29, 1963) - The lone survivors of two annihilated planets become stranded on the same remote world. Together they must begin new lives on this new planet. A planet called Earth.

The Twilight Zone, Vol. 43

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 17

Episodes: "What You Need" (Ep. 12, December 25, 1959) - A two-bit thug thinks he's found the key to a better life in an old sidewalk salesman who has the uncanny ability to tell people what they need the most. "What's in the Box" (Ep. 144, March 13, 1964) - Joe Britt (William Demarest) sees his secret revealed and its horrible consequences on his just-repaired TV set. He frantically tries to alter his fate by confronting his wife (Joan Blondell). "The Mirror" (Ep. 71, October 20, 1961) - After a poor, but ambitious Central American farm worker (Peter Falk) overthrows his country's tyrannical leader, he believes he sees assassins everywhere. A look in the mirror reveals his most dangerous enemy. "The Old Man in the Cave" (Ep. 127, November 8, 1963) - A mysterious guardian helps a tiny community survive after the Bomb destroys much of the earth. But spurred on by the bullying outsider Major French (James Coburn), the townspeople become an angry mob bent on learning the secret of "The Old Man in the Cave."

More Treasures of the Twilight Zone

The second collection of Twilight Zone "Treasures" features three quintessential examples of the show at its metaphorical, ironic best, allegories and morality plays disguised as thrillers and science fiction tales. "The Masks" (directed by Ida Lupino) stars Robert Keith as a dying patriarch with a death-bed Mardi Gras surprise for his petty family. John Carradine stars as a secretive monk with a mysterious prisoner locked in his hidden monastery in "The Howling Man." "Eye of the Beholder" is perhaps the most famous episode of the series, played almost completely in a twilight fog as the camera takes a behind-the-bandages view of a recovering plastic surgery patient until the startling revelation at the conclusion. Panasonic's package features the same supplements as the first Treasures collection, most notably a TV interview with Rod Serling conducted by Mike Wallace and an industrial film starring Serling to "pitch" potential advertisers for the in-production series, both from 1959. In addition a number of brief text presentations (taken from Mark Scott Zicree's definitive book The Twilight Zone Companion) offer historical background on the series and the individual episodes. The menu is designed around the floating eyeball from the series's credits sequence--just roll the gazing eyeball around to the item of your choice! --Sean Axmaker

Episodes: "The Masks" (Ep. 145, March 20, 1964) - Knowing he is about to die, Foster summons his greedy heirs to his mansion for a bizarre Mardi Gras ritual--and gives them the inheritance they so richly deserve! "Eye of the Beholder" (Ep. 42, November 11, 1960) - Janet's hideous face has made her an outcast all her life. As she awaits the results of her last-chance surgery, she ponders the consequences of failure--to be banished forever to a village of freaks! "The Howling Man" (Ep. 41, November 4, 1960) - During a walking trip of central Europe following WWII, Ellington loses his way. Exhausted, he comes upon a monastery where an insane monk claims he's captured the Devil himself! Atmospheric music by Bernard Hermann gives strength to this devilish tale.

The Twilight Zone - Vol. 35

"Static"
Dean Jagger turns in a finely tuned performance as an aging curmudgeon who eschews the picture tube for the old-time radio. But the radio in question tunes in only to the past, where Jagger might make amends for lost opportunities. The fact that Rod Serling repeatedly revisited this subject matter in episodes like this one and "A Stop at Willoughby" suggests a deep-seated penchant for romanticism--or that he was greatly overworked. One of only six episodes shot on videotape, the downgrade in visual quality lends a chamber-drama quality to the episode's return-to-simpler-times theme.

"Four O'Clock"
A lone bigot holed up in his little apartment with a vast card catalog of "subversives" has come up with the answer to all the "evil" people in the world: At four o'clock he will make them all two feet tall! Only--as so often happens on TZ--the biter gets bitten and comes up a little short himself. Theodore Bikel plays the paranoiac with relish.

"The Parallel"
Bearing a striking resemblance to the classic 1969 film Journey to the Far Side of the Sun this is one TZ episode that deals strictly with science fiction, in this case the possibility of parallel universes. Steve Forrest plays an astronaut returning from a space mission only to find himself in a world askew, where everything looks the same but small differences keep cropping up (JFK isn't president, for example). Space exploration and the depths of the unknown make familiar bedfellows in this hour-long piece from the fourth season that earns every minute of screen time. --Jim Gay

Episodes: "Static" (Ep. 56, March 10, 1961) - Life seems to have passed by a grouchy old man (Dean Jagger). However, everything changes when an antique radio starts to broadcast programs from his youth that only he can hear. "Four O'Clock" (Ep. 94, April 6, 1962) - Political fanatic Oliver Crangle (Theodore Bikel) has determined that at 4 p.m. he will eliminate all his enemies by shrinking them. But his plan proves to be a little short-sighted. "The Parallel" (Ep. 113, March 14, 1963, 50 min.) - Astronaut Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) finds himself back on Earth in a world very similar to, but not quite his own. Even his wife and daughter seem to be strangers.

The Twilight Zone: Vol. 16

Episodes: "And When the Sky Was Opened" (Ep. 11, December 11, 1959) - Col. Clegg Forbes (Rod Taylor) and two fellow astronauts have returned from their first space flight. They soon discover that no one remembers them--as if they never existed. "In His Image" (Ep. 103, January 3, 1963, 50 min.) - Alan Talbot doesn't understand why his hometown seems so unfamiliar; why is he driven to kill and what are those strange noises in his head? He's about to get some answers when he comes face to face with his double. "The Last Night of a Jockey" (Ep. 125, October 25, 1963) - Mickey Rooney is Grady, a former jockey, banned from horse racing and down on his luck. When he gets one wish, he grows to over eight-feet tall--which, he'll find out, can be too big.