The Syfy channel is treating us to its 21st annual Twilight Zone marathon at 6 tonight because the network has tapped into our obsession of binge-watching -- a viewing habit that could be its own Twilight Zone episode.
This year, the 156-episode marathon is available in high-def and plans to show the episodes in chronological order with a break for the WWE Smackdown on Thursday. Here's a guide.
The marathon always sparks the debate: What's the best Twilight Zone episode? Well, we have an answer thanks to Google reserach. Using timeless best-episode lists from Buzzfeed, IMDB.com, Time, Huffington Post, Esquire, WhatCulture.com, Paste, ListVerse, IGN.com, Flavorwire and Ranker, a pecking order can be determined using a points system based on their rank (10 for first, nine for second, etc.)
The winner isn't what most Twilight Zone fans would expect.
You would've thought that William Shatner's campy reactions to the gremlin in Nightmare at 20,000 Feet or the Miss Piggy people in The Eye of the Beholder would be No. 1. Maybe even those tall human-eating aliens in To Serve Man.
Nope. The top choice in this compilation of compilation lists was Time Enough at Last, which Time, Esquire and IGN.com chose as their favorite.
1. Time Enough at Last: In the episode, Burgess Meredith's character, Henry Bemis, is a timid book lover who's chastised for reading too much. To escape the ridicule and find a place to read, Bemis, a bank teller, takes refuge in his bank's vault to find a place to read. Soon, an explosion shakes the vault, and when he regains consciousness, he emerges to find a world devastated by war. Lonely, he decides to take his life, but sees a library in the distance. As he approaches the library, he sees a fallen clock with time frozen. Realizing he now has time to read and no one to stop him, he reaches down to pick up the first book -- and wouldn't you know it? -- he breaks his glasses. Cue, Rod Serling. (BTW, you'd think if books could survive devastation, so could an eyeglass shop. Just saying).
2. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Starring Shatner as a passenger freaked out by a gremlin on the wing of an airplane he's riding.
3. The Eye of the Beholder: Donna Douglas, who gained fame as The Beverly Hillbillies' Ellie May, seeks beauty in a world full of people with snouts.
4. It's a Good Life: An Ohio town is ruled by a 6-year-old boy with mental powers that wreak destruction.
5. Living Doll: The world is introduced to the nightmarish Talky Tina doll, which was inspired by the Chatty Cathy doll. They were voiced by the same person.
The rest: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, To Serve Man, A Stop at Willoughby, The Invaders and Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up.
What's your fave #TwilightZone episode? @TheNightGallery
— Tommy Cummings (@tommycummings) December 30, 2015
