Twilight Zone Abridged

Entry posted by JAG18 April 11, 2019

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Not too long ago I was re-watching (or watching for the first time more often then not) all 5 seasons of the original run of "The Twilight Zone" (I talked about it here when I started) and while making my way through I was reading A.V. Club's reviews of each episode. The recent talk of Jordon Peele's reboot (which I haven't seen) made me think back to the review of "To Serve Man" mostly a point the author made about how the episode was basically a plot twist in search of a story, which lead to the following discussion in the comments section:

"To Serve Man" fits the theory that some TZ episodes are best used as anecdote fuel, like the conversation between Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd at the start of the Twilight Zone movie; you have to spend thirty or so minutes with this stuff, it can wear thin, but at as a story you tell your friends at two in the morning? It's dynamite. (See also: "The Box.")

Some of the lesser TZ episodes are like the Kilgore Trout books Vonnegut refers to; they work fine as a two or three-episode summary but you can't figure out how the actual story would work (or, in this case, the story's kind of flat and dull aside from the twist).

The Scary Door bits from Futurama were based on the idea that the Twilight Zone would be the best show ever if every episode were 30 seconds long. It's not always true, but…

I'm just wondering if this would be a good idea for a zero budget "Twilight Zone" adaption made by a bunch of broke high school/film school students. You know, 5 minute or less minisodes uploaded straight to Youtube, with the whole point being to get to the twist as quickly as possible. Now, I'd be the first to argue that "Twilight Zone" was more than it's twist, but as a cheap spin-off it might be fun to see. I'd watch it.