The 1980s Twilight Zone is my all-time favorite television show. (I think the original series is great, too.) I’ve always kind of preferred anthology series to other types of television shows, generally.
In this thread I will list some of my favorite episodes from anthology series and you are welcome to do so as well.
Here are a couple from the 1980s Twilight Zone:
"A Little Peace and Quiet"
In this episode, which was directed by Wes Craven, a woman who gets irritated with all the noise in her life finds a locket buried in her garden. She accidentally discovers that while wearing it she can freeze and unfreeze time for everything and everyone but her. (The other actors are obviously just holding still.)
She uses this power in different situations until the striking conclusion.
Night Visions - Darkness
Michael Rapreport inherits a mansion from his uncle filled with bright lights all over the house. apparently, his uncle was afraid of the dark, and maybe he should be, too.
Night Visions - A View Through a Window
Bill Pullman is an army man who finds a giant window peering into another time and or dimension in the middle of the desert trying to figure out a way to open the window.
Twilight Zone 8x - Shadowman
The story of a boy and the shadowman that came from under his bed
Twilight Zone OG - Where is Everybody?
Everybody suddenly disappears and a man begins to lose his mind desperately seeking someone.
Night Gallery - Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture
Carl Reiner talks some shit about an ancient pagan cult, invoking their names and possibly their ire during a freak storm.
Tales from the Darkside - Mookie and Pookie
A girl’s brother dies and is contacted by her brother from beyond the grave via the computer network.
Monsters - Far Below
A man who runs the division of the subway system that deal with CHUDs has to deal with a nosy accountant who doesn’t understand the importance of what’s being done.
Cigarette Burns is the best John Carpetner film imo.
With a torrid past that haunts him, a movie theatre owner is hired to search for the only existing print of a film so notorious that its single screening caused the viewers to become homicidally insane.
a film that ends with a man projecting his own intestines
A few years ago, my uncle informed me that there was a 2006 show called “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” that was based on Stephen King stories, but that only one episode was worth watching. So I only ever watched that one episode.
"Battleground"
This is, of course, based on the story from Night Shift about an assassin who kills the head of a toy company. Later, the assassin receives a package full of animate military toys and they chase him around his apartment. I don’t remember this including any talking at all.
There are also a ton of good Tales from the Crypts, too.
Tales from the Crypt - Death of Some Salesman
A family of Tim Curries eat door to door salesmen, but Ed Begley Jr. isn’t just Some Salesman.
Tales from the Crypt - Cold War
A robbery goes bad and Ewan McGregor and his American Accent try to figure out what a wanker is. Also features the guy who played Jax for like 30 seconds in the first MK movie/the leader of the group that gets chopped up into little pieces by the laser grid in the first RE movie.
Tales from the Crypt - Television Terror
Morton Downey Jr. playing Morton Downey Jr. takes the audience on a tour through a haunted house.
Tales from the Darkside - Trick or Treat
This is the pilot episode directed by George Romero. “Town miser Gideon Hackles spends Halloween hiding IOU’s in his house, which he then rigs as haunted and invites local kids to search for the IOU’s so he can scare them.”
Tales from the Crypt – And All Through the House…
A woman murders her husband and then Santa shows up.
the only Tales from the Crypt that I remember seeing is this one about a magic trick that involves this coffin/iron maiden thing that the assistant? I guess has to get into and then big huge fuckin’ blades that are rigged up on the ceiling i guess? swing down and stab into the coffin thing completely owning all trapped inside, only oh no it is a trick they are fine, but sometimes it turns out they are not fine they are dead
Based on a 1976 Ray Bradbury story. A woman and her nephew pick up a man who asks them for a ride. His conversation becomes steadily more bizarre. I can’t get enough of Roberts Blossom’s performance in this. He reportedly hesitated to take the role, afraid that his character might frighten children.
A 1985 teenager and a 1700 teenager somehow form a telepathic link while sick with a fever. They discuss how things are in their respective times, until Peter realizes that he might be putting Charity in danger. Based on a 1967 short story by William M. Lee.
