Brock Posted September 12, 2010 Report Share Posted September 12, 2010 Season One of The Twilight Zone is re-released on BluRay this week, complete with the pilot hosted by Desi: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension, in which your guide to all things twisty and bizarre isn’t Rod Serling but . . . Desi Arnaz? Unquestionably, the highlight of this week’s Blu-ray debut of “The Twilight Zone’’: Season 1 (1959-60) is “The Time Element,’’ a de facto pilot that aired in 1958 on the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse’’ anthology hour. The segment’s production owed to convenience and chance. “Time Element’’ was a Serling script that had been nixed by network head-scratching over its unfamiliar, paradoxical story line, in which a low-living schmo (William Bendix) finds himself inexplicably transported from ’58 New York back to the attack on Pearl Harbor. For Arnaz and Lucille Ball, “Playhouse’’ was a vehicle for delivering new “Lucy’’ installments without continuing to make a full-time sitcom commitment. A bargain-price shelved teleplay by Emmy-winner Serling was just the thing to fill an off-week programming slot. Even with the curious sight of Ricky Ricardo handling the black-suited intro, the resonant story feels thoroughly recognizable as “Twilight Zone.’’ (The presentation here also looks sharper than you’d expect for a decades-old “lost’’ episode.) Bendix, who’d demonstrated his character-actor chops in everything from Hitchcock’s “Lifeboat’’ to “The Life of Riley,’’ is at his best as he agonizes over how to warn a doomed USS Arizona sailor and his new bride. “Twilight Zone’’ historian Marc Scott Zicree provides packed, occasionally exhausting commentary, one of 19 new tracks on the set. (Image, $99.98) http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2010/09/12/dvd_report_this_weeks_new_releases_sept_12_2010/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Was just reading a review of this title elsewhere. Has anyone gotten it and screened TTZ pilot referenced therein?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted March 21, 2012 Report Share Posted March 21, 2012 Tvland showed this many, many years ago complete with the Desi open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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