I want to thank you all who have stuck with me through this long haul. We are now finished with the 3rd season! The next season will be quick with only 18 hour long episodes. If you want… please comment on what you think I got wrong, right, or just your favorite episodes.
Season three was not as consistent as seasons 1 and 2 but it still contained some classics such as To Serve Man, A Game Of Pool, The Midnight Sun, Deaths-Head Revisited, Nothing In The Dark, The Dummy, and more.
By the close of the third season, The Twilight Zone had made cultural inroads beyond its status as a mere television series. The show started to fit into popular culture, the twilight zone was a phrase perfectly suited to describe any number of strange situations.
Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State, in a speech to the Senate, referred to the Twilight Zone in diplomacy, Serling noted. When that happened, I thought, My gosh, we’ve arrived! During the 1962 California gubernatorial primaries, Governor Pat Brown said he was looking forward to the post-election TV logs reading, Richard Nixon Returns to Twilight Zone.
In the spring of 1962, The Twilight Zone was late in finding a sponsor for its fourth season. As a result, CBS programmed a new show, Fair Exchange, into its time slot for the fall. Suddenly and without prior warning, The Twilight Zone was off the air.
After CBS dropped The Twilight Zone, Serling accepted a teaching post at Antioch College, effective September, 1962, through January, 1963. CBS did of course pick the series back up after a while. The series renewal made no change in this decision. Serling was tired of The Twilight Zone and burned out. Over the next two seasons, his involvement in the show would be greatly decreased. He would still host the show and contribute his share of scripts, but his input on the details of production would be minimal. Those decisions would be made by others.
CBS ordered only 18 episodes for the 4th season but…they would now be an hour long in format. With Serling’s less involvement combined with the hour format…the shows quality declined in this season. It would somewhat bounce back in the 5th season.
Season 3 | ||||
Total | Episode | Date | Episode | Stars |
66 | 1 | Sept 15, 1961 | Two | 4 |
67 | 2 | Sept 22, 1961 | The Arrival | 4 |
68 | 3 | Sept 29, 1961 | The Shelter | 5 |
69 | 4 | Oct 6, 1961 | The Passersby | 4 |
70 | 5 | Oct 13, 1961 | A Game Of Pool | 5 |
71 | 6 | Oct 20, 1961 | The Mirror | 3.5 |
72 | 7 | Oct 27, 1961 | The Grave | 4.5 |
73 | 8 | Nov 3, 1961 | It’s A Good Life | 5 |
74 | 9 | Nov 10, 1961 | Deaths-Head Revisited | 5 |
75 | 10 | Nov 17, 1961 | The Midnight Sun | 5 |
76 | 11 | Nov 24, 1961 | Still Valley | 3.5 |
77 | 12 | Dec 1, 1961 | The Jungle | 4 |
78 | 13 | Dec 15, 1961 | Once Upon A Time | 3.5 |
79 | 14 | Dec 22, 1961 | Five Characters In Search Of An Exit | 5 |
80 | 15 | Dec 29, 1961 | A Quality Of Mercy | 4 |
81 | 16 | Jan 5, 1962 | Nothing In The Dark | 5 |
82 | 17 | Jan 12, 1962 | One More Pallbearer | 4 |
83 | 18 | Jan 19, 1962 | Dead Man’s Shoes | 4 |
84 | 19 | Jan 26, 1962 | The Hunt | 4.5 |
85 | 20 | Feb 2, 1962 | Showdown With Rance McGrew | 3 |
86 | 21 | Feb 9, 1962 | Kick The Can | 4.5 |
87 | 22 | Feb 16, 1962 | A Piano In The House | 4 |
88 | 23 | Feb 23, 1962 | The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank | 4 |
89 | 24 | Mar 2, 1962 | To Serve Man | 5 |
90 | 25 | Mar 9, 1962 | The Fugitive | 3.5 |
91 | 26 | Mar 16, 1962 | Little Girl Lost | 5 |
92 | 27 | Mar 23, 1962 | Person Or Persons Unknown | 4.5 |
93 | 28 | Mar 30, 1962 | The Little People | 4.5 |
94 | 29 | April 6, 1962 | Four O’Clock | 2 |
95 | 30 | April 13, 1962 | Hocus-Pocus And Frisby | 4 |
96 | 31 | April 20, 1962 | The Trade-Ins | 4.5 |
97 | 32 | April 27, 1962 | The Gift | 3.5 |
98 | 33 | May 4, 1962 | The Dummy | 5 |
99 | 34 | May 11, 1962 | Young Man’s Fancy | 4 |
100 | 35 | May 18, 1962 | I Sing The Body Electric | 4 |
101 | 36 | May 25, 1962 | Cavender Is Coming | 2 |
102 | 37 | June 1, 1962 | Changing Of The Guard | 5 |
Season 3 |
Review |
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i’ve been enjoying your series and love the backnotes
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Thank you Beth I appreciate. it.
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Finally to the end of season 3. As we’ve talked about it before amazing so many episodes and amazing the amount of work Serling had put in. It had its ups and downs but a lot of good episodes – the 3 in a row 5s are a highlight for me – I guess my favorites overall are Deaths Head revisited and To Serve Man
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Those two are great…my personal favorite for some reason is The Midnight Sun. I love the twist but yes…there were some classics in this season.
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Interesting notes about season 4 – never knew back then shows had to get their own sponsors – as opposed to the network getting the sponsors and deciding what shows to put on
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I could see why the TZ would be a little harder for sponsors as opposed to family comedies like Leave It To Beaver or I Love Lucy.
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Yea agree – good point
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S3 has very few duds. Hard to pick favorites out of this bunch. I’ll say it again: I’m happy you are doing this series; it’s been so much fun watching them and reading your posts and the comments.
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