Rod Serling

TV Episode

The Time Element

by Rod Serling

Serling wrote this one-hour time-travel episode as a pilot for a one-hour anthology show, but after it was filmed, William Dozier at CBS requested a change to a half-hour format. So, “The Time Element” was shelved while Serling worked on a new pilot (which also had a stormy history). Meanwhile, Bert Granet, producer of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, caught wind of the original Serling pilot and quickly snapped up the production for which he had to then fight hard with the Westinghouse bigwigs in order to air.

The story involves a time traveler, Pete Jensen, who couldn’t stop the attack on Pearl Harbor, but he certainly made his mark as the Twilight Zone precursor.

—

I have information that the Japanese are gonna bomb Pearl Harbor tomorrow morning at approximately 8am Honolulu time.

“The Time Element” by Rod Serling (CBS-TV, USA, 24 November 1958).

Weird Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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TV Series

The Twilight Zone

by Rod Serling

Five seasons with many time-travel episodes. Four (marked with ¤) were written by Richard Matheson, one was by E. Jack Neuman (“Templeton”), one by Reginold Rose (“Horace Ford”), and the rest were by Serling (including “What You Need” based on a Lewis Padgett story with prescience only and no real time travel, “Execution” from a story of George Clayton Johnson, “A Quality of Mercy” from a Sam Rolfe story featuring a young Dean Stockwell, and “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville” from Malcolm Jameson’s “Blind Alley”).

—

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone by Rod Serling (30 October 1959).

Eloi Gold Medal

Weird Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e05)

Walking Distance

by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Stevens

Stopped at a gas station outside of his boyhood hometown, burnt-out executive Martin Sloan decides to explore the town, which surprisingly has not changed at all in twenty-some years.

—Michael Main

I know you’ve come from a long way from here . . . a long way and a long time.

“Walking Distance” by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Stevens (CBS-TV, USA, 30 October 1959).

Michael Montgomery (as young Marty) carves his name into a post on a bandstand,
while Gig Young (as old Martin) looks on.

Eloi Honorable Mention

Fantasy
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e10)

Judgment Night

by Rod Serling, directed by John Brahm

Carl Lanser finds himself on a transatlantic voyage of the cargo liner S.S. Queen of Glasgow, in 1942, not knowing much about himself or how he got there, but knowing volumes about submarine warfare.

—Michael Main

There’d be no wolf packs converging on a single ship, Major Devereaux. The principle of the submarine pack is based on the convoy attack.

“Judgment Night” by Rod Serling, directed by John Brahm (CBS-TV, USA, 4 December 1959).

Patrick Macnee (as First Officer McLeod) stands behind a disoriented Nehemiah
Persoff (as Carl Lanser) in the bar of the S.S. Queen of Glasgow.

Weird Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e12)

What You Need

by Rod Serling, directed by Alvin Ganzer

Rod Serling does an admirable job translating the original story by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore to the small screen. The story’s two main incidents (the scissors and the shoes) come through with little change. In this version, the curious shopkeeper has become a street vendor, and the man who’s interested in the vendor’s goods is now a darker lowlife than the original newspaperman. Also, the science fiction aspect has been replaced by psychic precognition, solidly in the realm of fantasy, but not quite into weird fiction.

—Michael Main

What have you got in there? Some sort of machine? Crystal ball? . . . You can see ahead, can’t you? You can look into the future.

“What You Need” by Rod Serling, directed by Alvin Ganzer (CBS-TV, USA, 25 December 1959).

On a city sidewalk at night, Steve Cochran (as Fred Renard) menacingly
approaches Ernest Truex (as the street vendor Pedott).

Eloi Honorable Mention

Fantasy
Time Phenomena

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e18)

The Last Flight

by Rod Serling, directed by William F. Claxton

World War I pilot Terry Decker flies through a white cloud and emerges 42 years later, landing at an American Air Force Base in France, at which point he proves that a Nieuport 28 biplane is capable of doing a causal loop just as well as he can do an Immelmann Turn.

—Michael Main

“The Last Flight” by Rod Serling, directed by William F. Claxton (CBS-TV, USA, 5 February 1960).

Kenneth Haigh (as Leftenant Terry Decker) stands in his Royal Flight Corps
uniform in front of his Nieuport 28 biplane.

Eloi Bronze Medal

Fantasy
War
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e26)

Execution

by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon

Back in the 1880s, just after a man without conscience is dropped from a lone tree with a rope around his neck, a scientist pulls him into 20th-century New York City.

Serling wrote this script based on a George Clayton Johnson’s bare bones, present-tense treatment for a TV script, complete with an indication of where the commercial break should go. For this episode, Serling filled in the flesh and cut the fat from a bare bones, present-tense treatment by George Clayton Johnson. The treatment appeared in Johnson’s 1977 retrospective collection of scripts and stories, and in Volume 9 of Serling’s collected Twilight Zone scripts, Johnson commented that “Rod took my idea and went off to the races with it. He had a remarkable knowledge of what would and wouldn’t work on television, and he took everything that wouldn’t work out of ‘Execution’. He worked like a surgeon; a little snip here, a complete amputation over there, move this bone into place, graft over that one. When he was done, my little story had grown into a television script that lived and breathed on its own.” Serling also added a nice twist at the end that, for us, warranted the TV episode an Eloi Honorable Mention.
Rod Serling wrote this script based on a 1960 Twilight Zone episode of the same name, but I’m uncertain whether the story was published before Johnson’s 1977 retrospective collection.

—Michael Main

Caswell: I wanna see if there are things out there like you described to me. Carriages without horses and the buildings that rise to—

Professor Manion: They’re out there, Caswell. . . . Things you can’t imagine.

“Execution” by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon (CBS-TV, USA, 1 April 1960).

Dressed in a tie and black jacket, and holding his trademarked cigarette, Rod
Serling stands in front of a time machine.

Eloi Honorable Mention

Fantasy
Weird Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e30)

A Stop at Willoughby

by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Parrish

On a snowy November evening during his train commute home from New York City, John Daly falls asleep and, perhaps in a dream, sees a simpler life with bands playing in the bandstand, people riding penny farthings through the park, and kids fishin’ at their fishin’ holes the 1888 summertime of idyllic Willoughby.

—Michael Main

Willoughby, sir? That’s Willoughby right outside. Willoughby, July, summer. It’s 1888—really a lovely little village. You ought to try it sometime. Peaceful, restful, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his live full-measure.

“A Stop at Willoughby” by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Parrish (CBS-TV, USA, 6 May 1960).

A man cycles on a penny farthing in an idyllic city park beside James Daly (as
38-year-old New York City executive Gart Williams).

Eloi Silver Medal

Fantasy
Debatable Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e09)

The Trouble with Templeton

by E. Jack Neuman, directed by Buzz Kulik

The trouble with aging actor Booth Templeton is that he sees life as useless even decades after his young wife died. The answer to his trouble may lie in the people he meets—including his dead wife, Laura!—in what appears to be his hangouts from some thirty years ago. Actual time travel or something more fantastical? You be the judge.

—Michael Main

Laura! The freshest, most radiant creature God ever created. Eighteen when I married her, Marty, . . . twenty-five when she died.

“The Trouble with Templeton” by E. Jack Neuman, directed by Buzz Kulik (CBS-TV, USA, 9 December 1960).

Dressed as a flapper, Pippa Scott (as young Laura Templeton), pushes aside a
curtain and strikes a pose.

Eloi Bronze Medal

Fantasy
Debatable Time Travel

> More Details . . .

TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e10)

A Most Unusual Camera

by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich

Petty thieves Chet and Paula Diedrich are frustrated, angry, and in a bickering mood when they find nothing but cheap junk in the 400-lbs. of stuff they lifted from a curios store in the middle of the night, . . . until that boxy looking camera with the indecipherable label—dix à la propriétaire—produces a photo of the immediate future.

—Michael Main

Yeah, it takes dopey pictures—dopey pictures like things that haven’t happened yet, but they do happen.

“A Most Unusual Camera” by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich (CBS-TV, 16 December 1960).

Jean Carson (as Paula Diedrich) holds up an unusual, boxy camera.

Weird Fiction
Debatable Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e13)

Back There

by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon

An engineer in the 1960s slips back to the night of Lincoln’s assassination.

—Michael Main

I’ve got a devil of a lot more than a premonition. Lincole will be assassinated unless somebody tries to prevent it!

“Back There” by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon (CBS-TV, 13 January 1961).

In a dark alley, Russell Johnson (as Corrigan) pounds on a closed stage door
beside a poster announcing the play Our American Cousin.

Fantasy
Definite Time Travel

> More Details . . .

TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e18)

The Odyssey of Flight 33

by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss

“The Odyssey of Flight 33” by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss (CBS-TV, 24 February 1961).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e23)

A Hundred Yards Over the Rim

by Rod Serling, directed by Buzz Kulik

“A Hundred Yards Over the Rim” by Rod Serling, directed by Buzz Kulik (CBS-TV, 7 April 1961).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e29)

The Rip Van Winkle Caper

by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss

“The Rip Van Winkle Caper” by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss (cbs-tv, usa, 21 April 1961).

Undetermined Genre
Time Phenomena

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s03e13)

Once Upon a Time

by Richard Matheson, directed by Norman Z. McLeod

“Once Upon a Time” by Richard Matheson, directed by Norman Z. McLeod (CBS-TV, 15 December 1961).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s03e15)

A Quality of Mercy

by Rod Serling, directed by Buzz Kulik

“A Quality of Mercy” by Rod Serling, directed by Buzz Kulik (CBS-TV, 29 December 1961).

Undetermined Genre
Debatable Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s04e06)

Death Ship

by Richard Matheson, directed by Don Medford

“Death Ship” by Richard Matheson, directed by Don Medford (CBS-TV, 7 February 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s04e07)

Jess-Belle

by Earl Hamner, Jr., directed by Buzz Kulik

“Jess-Belle” by Earl Hamner, Jr., directed by Buzz Kulik (CBS-TV, 14 February 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s04e10)

No Time Like the Past

by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss

“No Time Like the Past” by Rod Serling, directed by Justus Addiss (CBS-TV, 7 March 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s04e14)

Of Late I Think of Cliffordsville

by Rod Serling, directed by David Lowell Rich

“Of Late I Think of Cliffordsville” by Rod Serling, directed by David Lowell Rich (CBS-TV, 11 April 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Definite Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s04e15)

The Incredible World of Horace Ford

by Rod Serling, directed by Abner Biberman

“The Incredible World of Horace Ford” by Rod Serling, directed by Abner Biberman (CBS-TV, 18 April 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s05e04)

A Kind of a Stopwatch

by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich

“A Kind of a Stopwatch” by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich (CBS-TV, 18 October 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s05e10)

The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms

by Rod Serling, directed by Alan Crosland, Jr.

“The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms” by Rod Serling, directed by Alan Crosland, Jr. (CBS-TV, 6 December 1963).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s05e15)

The Long Morrow

by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Florey

“The Long Morrow” by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Florey (CBS-TV, 10 January 1964).

Undetermined Genre
Time Phenomena

> More Details . . .

TV Episode

The Twilight Zone (v1s05e21)

Spur of the Moment

by Richard Matheson, directed by Elliot Silverstein

“Spur of the Moment” by Richard Matheson, directed by Elliot Silverstein (CBS-TV, 21 February 1964).

Undetermined Genre
Undetermined Time Travel

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Feature Film

Planet of the Apes

by Michael WIlson and Rod Serling, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Planet of the Apes by Michael WIlson and Rod Serling, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner (at movie theaters, USA, 8 February 1968).

A black-and-white photo of Roddy McDowall (as the ape Cornelius) on top of a
cage enclosing ten humans.

Science Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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Feature Film

Time Travelers

by Jackson Gillis, directed by Alexander Singer

ABC-TV picked up this failed pilot (a proposed revival of The Time Tunnel) and aired it as a made-for-TV movie in which Dr. Clinton Earnshaw and his government-sent sidekick Jeff Adams venture back to 1871 to track down a cure for a modern-day epidemic.

—Michael Main

He didn’t tell you that we do time research here? That you’re going to travel back in time to 1871?

Time Travelers by Jackson Gillis, directed by Alexander Singer (ABC-TV, USA, 19 March 1976).

ABC Friday Night Movie: A mob races through the Great Chicago Fire.

Science Fiction
Definite Time Travel

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Short Film

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Time Out

written and directed by John Landis

The Twilight Zone anthology movie reprises three of the original show’s stories along with one new story, “Time Out” by John Landis, in which disgruntled bigot Bill Connor finds himself as a Jew in World War II German occupied Europe, a black man facing the clan in mid-20th century America, and a man in a Vietnamese jungle during the Second Indochina War.

—Michael Main

Ray, help! Larry! It’s me!

“Time Out,” written and directed by John Landis (at movie theaters, USA, 24 June 1983).

Weird Fiction
Definite Time Travel

> More Details . . .

TV Series

The Twilight Zone

by Rod Serling

Three seasons with 7 time-travel episodes. Harlan Ellison was a consultant on the series that included an adaptation of his “One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty.” The series also adapted Sturgeon’s “Yesterday Was Monday’, altering the plot and renaming it to “A Matter of Minutes,” and George R.R. Martin did the script for the time-travel episode “The Once and Future King” based on an idea submitted by Bryce Maritano.

—

Let the record show that in any age—good or bad—there are men of high ideals: men of courage, men who do more than that for which they are called upon. You will not always know their names. But let their deeds stand as monuments, so that when the human race is called to judgment, we may say, ‘This too was humanity!’