The Twilight Zone (radio series)
The Twilight Zone is a nationally syndicated radio series featuring radio play adaptations of the classic television series The Twilight Zone first produced for the British station BBC Radio 4 Extra in October 2002[1] with the final show released in 2012 for 176 episodes in all.
Many of the stories are based on Rod Serling's scripts from the original Twilight Zone series, and are slightly expanded and updated to reflect contemporary technology and trends (e.g., the mention of "cell phones" and "CD-ROMs" which, of course, were not around when the television show aired in the 1960s). In addition to adapting all of the original episodes aired on the 1959-1964 TV series, the radio series has also adapted some Twilight Zone TV scripts which were never produced, scripts from other Serling TV productions, and new stories written especially for the radio series. Taking Serling's role as narrator is Stacy Keach.[2] Different Hollywood actors, such as Blair Underwood and James Caviezel, take the lead role in each radio drama. In addition, several stars who appeared on the original TV series, such as H.M. Wynant, Orson Bean and Morgan Brittany, appear, although purposely not in the roles they originated on television. The series features a full cast, music and sound effects and is produced in the flavor of classic radio dramas but using today's technology. In addition to being an homage to the original Twilight Zone TV series (in many cases using the original music), the radio dramas pay tribute to the era of classic radio drama, including allusions to radio dramas such as Gunsmoke, the presence of radio legend Stan Freberg in many episodes, and the sons of radio drama personalities Stacy Keach, Sr., (director, Tales of the Texas Rangers) and Ed Begley, Sr., (actor, Richard Diamond, Private Detective) as stars in the series.
Licensed by CBS Enterprises and The Rod Serling Estate, The Twilight Zone radio series is produced by Carl Amari, CEO of Falcon Picture Group who hosts his own weekly nationally syndicated radio series, featuring classic radio, called "Hollywood 360."[3] The scripts from the original Twilight Zone are adapted by Dennis Etchison and others, including one episode by Chas Holloway and several by British writer M. J. Elliott. New stories by Etchison and others that are not based on the original TV series are also featured. In Britain it has been heard on the digital channel BBC Radio 4 Extra. In the United States, it airs on nearly 200 radio stations including many large stations like WCCO-Minneapolis, KSL-Salt Lake City, KOA-Denver and WIND-Chicago. All of the stations and airtimes are available at the series official website. It also airs regularly on XM satellite radio channel 163 and Sirius channel 117, Sirius XM Book Radio. Most of the stations air two episodes each week, usually on the weekends and many times back to back.
The sound mix was produced at Falcon Picture Group studios and later at the Cerny Sound-to-Picture studio at Cerny American Creative in Chicago. The sound engineers that work on the series include Roger Wolski, Bob Benson, Craig Lee, Tim Cerny and Jason Rizzo. The episodes are produced and directed by Carl Amari.
Episodes
The following episodes include stories that were adapted for radio from the original Twilight Zone television scripts, as well as original stories produced exclusively for this radio series.
Volume 1
- "A Kind of a Stopwatch" – Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips
- "The Lateness of the Hour" – Starring: Jane Seymour and James Keach
- "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "The Man in the Bottle" – Starring: Ed Begley, Jr.
- "The Night of the Meek" – Starring: Christopher McDonald
- "The After Hours" – Starring: Kim Fields
- "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "A Stop at Willoughby" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
- "The Lonely" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" – Starring: H. M. Wynant
Volume 2
- "The Obsolete Man" – Starring: Jason Alexander
- "The Bard" – Starring: John Ratzenberger & Stacy Keach
- "Back There" – Starring: James Caviezel
- "A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain" – Starring: Adam West
- "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" – Starring: Adam Baldwin
- "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" – Starring: Frank John Hughes
- "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" – Starring: Christopher McDonald
- "Escape Clause" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "Four O'Clock" – Starring: Stan Freberg
- "Uncle Simon" – Starring: Peter Mark Richman & Beverly Garland
Volume 3
- "The Fear" – Starring: Jane Seymour and James Keach
- "The Parallel" – Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips
- "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" – Starring: James Caviezel
- "One for the Angels" – Starring: Ed Begley, Jr.
- "The Midnight Sun" – Starring: Kim Fields
- "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "A Most Unusual Camera" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "Twenty Two" – Starring: Andrea Evans
- "Walking Distance" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
- "The Passersby" – Starring: Morgan Brittany
Volume 4
- "The Dummy" – Starring: Bruno Kirby
- "No Time Like the Past" – Starring: Jason Alexander
- "Still Valley" – Starring: Adam West
- "King Nine Will Not Return" – Starring: Adam Baldwin
- "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" – Starring: John Ratzenberger
- "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "One More Pallbearer" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
- "The Little People" – Starring: Daniel J. Travanti
- "Cavender Is Coming" – Starring: Andrea Evans
- "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" – Starring: Shelley Berman
Volume 5
- "Living Doll" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "The Big Tall Wish" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "The Fever" – Starring: Stacy Keach and Kathy Garver
- "The Last Night of a Jockey" – Starring: Bruno Kirby
- "A Thing About Machines" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "Mirror Image" – Starring: Morgan Brittany and Frank John Hughes
- "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" – Starring: Richard Grieco
- "The Long Morrow" – Starring: Kathy Garver
- "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" – Starring: Richard Kind
- "The Trade-Ins" – Starring: H. M. Wynant and Peggy Webber
Volume 6
- "Time Enough at Last" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "A Passage for Trumpet" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
- "The Brain Center at Whipple's" – Starring: Stan Freberg
- "The Grave" – Starring: Michael Rooker
- "The Hitch-Hiker" – Starring: Kate Jackson
- "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" – Starring: Adam Baldwin
- "Sounds and Silences" – Starring: Richard Kind
- "The Odyssey of Flight 33" – Starring: Daniel J. Travanti
- "The Changing of the Guard" – Starring: Orson Bean
Volume 7
- "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" – Starring: Jason Alexander
- "The Arrival" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "Queen of the Nile" – Starring: Kate Jackson
- "I Dream of Genie" – Starring: Hal Sparks
- "It's a Good Life" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "The Masks" – Starring: Stan Freberg
- "Mr. Bevis" – Starring: Bruno Kirby
- "Showdown with Rance McGrew" – Starring: Christopher McDonald
- "The Old Man in the Cave" – Starring: Adam Baldwin
- "Ninety Years Without Slumbering" – Starring: Bill Erwin
Volume 8
- "The Howling Man" – Starring: Fred Willard
- "Caesar and Me" – Starring: Jason Alexander
- "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross" – Starring: Luke Perry
- "The Time Element" – Starring: Bobby Slayton
- "The Mind and the Matter" – Starring: Hal Sparks
- "People Are Alike All Over" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "What You Need" – Starring: Bruno Kirby and Bruce Kirby
- "Dead Man's Shoes" – Starring: Bill Smitrovich
- "What's in the Box" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "Deaths-Head Revisited" – Starring: H. M. Wynant
Volume 9
- "To Serve Man" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "A World of Difference" – Starring: Luke Perry
- "From Agnes—With Love" – Starring: Ed Begley, Jr.
- "Perchance to Dream" – Starring: Fred Willard
- "The Purple Testament" – Starring: Michael Rooker
- "Printer's Devil" – Starring: Bobby Slayton
- "Dust" – Starring: Bill Smitrovich
- "The Jeopardy Room" – Starring: Yasen Peyankov
- "The Fugitive" – Starring: Stan Freberg
- "The Silence" – Starring: Christopher McDonald
Volume 10
- "Miniature" – Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips
- "The Jungle" – Starring: Ed Begley, Jr.
- "The Mighty Casey" – Starring: Paul Dooley
- "Ring-a-Ding Girl" – Starring: Sarah Wayne Callies
- "Mute" – Starring: Wade Williams
- "Black Leather Jackets" – Starring: Marshall Allman
- "A Quality of Mercy" – Starring: Robert Knepper
- "Where Is Everybody?" – Starring: John Schneider
- "A Nice Place to Visit" – Starring: Hal Sparks
- "In His Image" – Starring: John Heard
Volume 11
- "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" – Starring: John Schneider
- "Elegy" – Starring: Blair Underwood
- "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" – Starring: Robert Knepper
- "Spur of the Moment" – Starring: Sarah Wayne Callies
- "He's Alive" – Starring: Marshall Allman
- "Long Distance Call" – Starring: Hal Sparks
- "The Gift" – Starring: Danny Goldring
- "Gentlemen, Be Seated" – Starring: Stan Freberg
- "You Drive" – Starring: John Heard
- "In Praise of Pip" – Starring: Fred Willard
Volume 12
- "The Last Flight" – Starring: Charles Shaughnessy
- "Long Live Walter Jameson" – Starring: Lou Diamond Phillips
- "Person or Persons Unknown" – Starring: John Schneider
- "The Whole Truth" – Starring: Henry Rollins
- "Stopover in a Quiet Town" – Starring: Stephanie Weir
- "Judgment Night" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
- "The Chaser" – Starring: Stephen Tobolowsky
- "Shadow Play" – Starring: Ernie Hudson
- "Nick of Time" – Starring: Marshall Allman
- "Static" – Starring: Stan Freberg
Volume 13
- "Death Ship" – Starring: John Schneider
- "Pattern for Doomsday" – Starring: Henry Rollins
- "Nightmare as a Child" – Starring: Bonnie Somerville
- "And When the Sky Was Opened" – Starring: Barry Bostwick
- "Little Girl Lost" – Starring: Stephen Tobolowsky
- "Jess-Belle" – Starring: Stephanie Weir
- "The Encounter" – Starring: Stacy Keach & Byron Mann
- "A World of His Own" – Starring: Charles Shaughnessy
- "The New Exhibit" – Starring: JoBe Cerny
- "Valley of the Shadow" – Starring: Chelcie Ross
Volume 14
This collection was only released as an online digital download, rather than on CD.
- "Night Call" – Starring: Mariette Hartley
- "Kick the Can" – Starring: Shelley Berman & Stan Freberg
- "A Game of Pool" – Starring: Wade Williams
- "A Penny For Your Thoughts" – Starring: David Eigenberg
- "Free Dirt" – Starring: Eric Bogosian
- "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" – Starring: Bonnie Somerville
- "On Thursday We Leave for Home" – Starring: Barry Bostwick
- "Third from the Sun" – Starring: Fred Willard
- "The Trouble With Templeton" – Starring: Michael York
- "The Mirror" – Starring: Tony Plana
Volume 15
This collection was only released as an online digital download, rather than on CD.
- "The Prime Mover" – Starring: David Eigenberg
- "A Piano in the House" – Starring: Michael York
- "The Four of Us Are Dying" – Starring: Eric Bogosian
- "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" – Starring:Kathy Garver and Charles Shaughnessy
- "The Shelter" – Starring: Ernie Hudson
- "Young Man's Fancy" – Starring: Tony Plana
- "Probe 7, Over and Out" – Starring: Louis Gossett, Jr.
- "Two" – Starring: Don Johnson
- "Who Am I?" – Starring: Sean Astin
- "The Bewitchin' Pool" – Starring: Karen Black
Volume 16
This collection was only released as an online digital download, rather than on CD.
- "The Hunt" – Starring: Shelley Berman & Karen Black
- "Passage on the Lady Anne" – Starring: Martin Jarvis & Rosalind Ayres
- "Execution" – Starring: Don Johnson
- "Steel" – Starring: Lou Gossett, Jr.
- "The Amazing Dr. Kyle Powers" – Starring: Sean Astin
- "Nothing in the Dark" – Starring: Marshall Allman
- "There Goes the Neighborhood" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "The Walk-Abouts" – Starring: Mike Starr
- "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" – Starring: Christian Stolte
- "Now You Hear It, Now You Don't" – Starring: Dee Wallace
Volume 17
This collection was only released as an online digital download, rather than on CD.
- "Once Upon a Time" – Starring: John Rhys-Davies
- "The Invaders" – Starring: Kathy Garver
- "Beewinjapeedee" – Starring: Sean Astin
- "Eye of the Beholder" – Starring: Virginia Williams
- "I Sing the Body Electric" – Starring: Dee Wallace
- "Mrs. Pierce is Praying for Me" – Starring: Tim Kazurinsky
- "The Time of Your Life" – Starring: John Rhys-Davies
- "Ten Days" – Starring: Ned Bellamy
- "Snow Angel" – Starring: Sean Astin
- "The Nanobots" – Starring: David Pasquesi
Volume 18
This collection was only released as an online digital download, rather than on CD.
- "Twenty-Twelve" – Starring: Christian Stolte
- "...And Cauldron Bubble" – Starring: Virginia Williams
- "Missing, Presumed Dead" – Starring: Danny Goldring
- "Rest Stop" – Starring Brandon Eels
- "The 25th Hour" – Starring Mike Nussbaum
- "Another Place in Time" – Starring Malcolm McDowell
Releases
Website
The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas were initially produced in 2002 and made available for sale on-line with the launch of the Twilight Zone Radio website. They were originally available in audio cassette tape and CD "collections" of 4 episodes apiece. Eight episodes were produced in 2002, and eight more in 2003. By late 2004, after the first 24 episodes were released between 6 numbered collections, the series would no longer be made available on cassette and new CD "volumes" comprising 10 episodes each were introduced with the release of six additional episodes, ending the year with 14 episodes for 30 in total, which were reorganized and shuffled between these first 3 volumes.
In 2006, volumes 4 through 9 were released (60 episodes), then volumes 10 through 12 appeared in 2007 (30 episodes), and volume 13 in 2008 (10 episodes) would be the last volume made available on CD. Beginning in 2007, the shows were made available for individual MP3 download at $1.95 each, with most of volumes 14 through 17 released in 2009 and 2010 (38 episodes), and the last 8 episodes were produced between 2011 and 2012; leaving volume 18 incomplete with only 6 episodes. The final episode is titled "Another Place in Time" with no plans for further production.
By mid 2015, the website moved off the www.twilightzoneradio.com website, and the domain redirected to hollywood360radio.net/TZ.
In 2016, the website went completely offline, and the latter web address now redirects to www.classicradiostore.com with no reference to Twilight Zone Radio anywhere on the website.
CDs and digital downloads of the shows can be purchased on Amazon and Audible from a variety of sources, with no real consistency in show or volume or collection composition, making it rather challenging to acquire all 176 episodes as of 2018.
Additionally, there were several of the download-able episodes that were different from the CD version. These two excerpts from "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" The Twilight Zone (radio series)#Volume 3 (volume 3 episode 3) are an example.
DVD & Blu-ray
Some episodes of the radio drama were included on the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the TV series as special features alongside the original episodes. Although all 156 episodes of the TV series were remade as radio dramas, only 30 are included on the DVD releases[4][5][6][7][8] and 82 on the Blu-rays.[9][10][11][12][13]
The radio episodes included on the Blu-rays are listed below in TV series order. Those that were previously included on DVD releases are noted.
Season 1
- "Where Is Everybody?"
- "One for the Angels" (also on DVD)
- "Walking Distance"
- "Escape Clause"
- "The Lonely" (also on DVD)
- "Time Enough at Last"
- "Perchance to Dream"
- "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" (also on DVD)
- "The Hitch-Hiker"
- "The Fever"
- "The Last Flight"
- "Mirror Image"
- "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (also on DVD)
- "Long Live Walter Jameson"
- "People Are Alike All Over"
- "The Big Tall Wish" (also on DVD)
- "The After Hours" (also on DVD)
- "The Mighty Casey"
Season 2
- "The Man in the Bottle"
- "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" (also on DVD)
- "The Howling Man"
- "Nick of Time"
- "The Lateness of the Hour" (also on DVD)
- "The Trouble with Templeton"
- "The Night of the Meek"
- "Back There"
- "The Whole Truth"
- "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (also on DVD)
- "Static"
- "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (also on DVD)
- "The Silence"
- "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" (also on DVD)
- "The Obsolete Man" (also on DVD)
Season 3
- "Two"
- "The Arrival"
- "The Shelter"
- "The Passersby" (also on DVD)
- "The Mirror"
- "The Grave"
- "Deaths-Head Revisited" (also on DVD)
- "Still Valley" (also on DVD)
- "The Jungle"
- "Five Characters in Search of an Exit"
- "One More Pallbearer" (also on DVD)
- "Dead Man's Shoes"
- "Kick the Can"
- "A Piano in the House"
- "To Serve Man"
- "Four O'Clock" (also on DVD)
- "The Trade-Ins"
- "The Dummy" (also on DVD)
- "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4
- "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" (also on DVD)
- "No Time Like the Past" (also on DVD)
- "The Parallel" (also on DVD)
- "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" (also on DVD)
- "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" (also on DVD)
- "On Thursday We Leave for Home"
- "The Bard" (also on DVD)
Season 5
- "Steel"
- "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"
- "A Kind of a Stopwatch" (also on DVD)
- "Living Doll" (also on DVD)
- "The Old Man in the Cave"
- "Uncle Simon"
- "Probe 7, Over and Out"
- "The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms" (also on DVD)
- "A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain"
- "Ninety Years Without Slumbering"
- "The Long Morrow" (also on DVD)
- "The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross"
- "Night Call"
- "From Agnes—With Love"
- "Queen of the Nile"
- "What's in the Box"
- "The Masks"
- "Sounds and Silences" (also on DVD)
- "Caesar and Me"
- "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" (also on DVD)
- "The Brain Center at Whipple's"
- "The Fear"
- "The Bewitchin' Pool"
References
- Sherwin, Adam (20 February 2016). "The Twilight Zone: Cult sci-fi show to return for BBC Radio 4 Extra series". The Independent. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- Eddy, Cheryl (22 February 2016). "The BBC Is Bringing Back The Twilight Zone As a Radio Drama". io9. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- Green, Paul (2016). Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television and Games, 2d ed. McFarland p. 256. ISBN 978-1-4766-2402-0.
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 1 (TV) (1959-1960)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 2 (TV) (1960-1961)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 3 (TV) (1961-1962)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 4 (TV) (1963)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 5 (TV) (1963-1964)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 1 (TV) (Blu-ray) (1959-1960)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 2 (TV) (Blu-ray) (1960-1961)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 3 (TV) (Blu-ray) (1961-1962)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- "Twilight Zone (The): Season 4 (TV) (Blu-ray) (1963)", Rewind, retrieved 21 June 2019
- Broadwater, Casey (8 September 2011), "The Twilight Zone: Season 5 Blu-ray Review", Blu-ray.com, retrieved 21 June 2019