Twilight Zone (Time Travel)

Next Stop Willoughby

“You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Twilight Zone.”

Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone was arguably the best TV series to ever be broadcast. Its stories, mostly written by Serling himself continue to stand up today.

It has been reported that Rod Serling was afraid of the dark. In turn, he made us all a little afraid. He and I shared one major interest, time travel. I compiled a list of all the Twilight Zone episodes dealing with this subject. Throughout its five seasons, I counted 19 episodes containing time travel stories.

The original Planet of the Apes. In 1968, the secret and surprise was that it WAS indeed time travel.

Rod Serling also co-wrote The Planet of the Apes (1968) and a made-for-TV movie in 1976 called The Time Travelers. The latter aired after his death which was in 1975. The characters are loosely based on the original Irwin Allen TV series, The Time Tunnel (1966). An interesting fact. The Time Travelers was about two travelers who are on a mission and end up in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This movie came out after my original fantasy about the same subject. That fantasy would later become Katya and Cyrus Time Pilgrims. I always stated that Rod Serling just beat me to it.

This poster says it was unaired, but it did indeed air as a made for TV movie in 1976.

One of the better time travel Twilight Zone episodes was called, A Stop at Willoughby. It aired in 1959 in Season 1. In it an advertising executive is fed up with his “Push Push Push” life. While on the train ride home, he falls asleep and dreams of the train pulling into a utopian town in the late 1800s called Willoughby.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the Jack Finney TV movie called The Love Letter. The producers of that film gave homage to the made up town of Willoughby. (Even though there is a real Willoughby, Ohio)

In the year 2000, a film aired on the Lifetime network called For All Time. It was a remake of Rod Serlings, A Stop at Willoughby. Rod Serling is given credit for being the writer, while the teleplay was written by Vivienne Radkoff. What Radkoff did was expand the half hour Twilight Zone episode into a great full length time travel movie.

For All Time starred Mark Harmon, Mary McDonnell and Catherine Hicks. The actors were fantastic in this film, especially Mary McDonnell. There is a scene where Mark Harmon’s character, Charles Lattimer tells Laura Brown (McDonnell) that he is married. (He hadn’t revealed that his wife wasn’t even born yet) The emotion coming from her face and body was so real and moving. What a fine actress she is.

Mark Harmon also did a great job in the film as the bored executive who becomes obsessed with the old town (they renamed it Summerville for this movie) and with Laura Brown.

Catherine Hicks plays his modern day wife who is not nearly as terrible as the wife in Serling’s original episode. I also wrote about Hicks in another blog post, who played in Peggy Sue Got Married and Star Trek IV (The Voyage Home).

Unfortunately, For All Time is not available for purchase anywhere. I have a burned copy obtained years ago which had been recorded off the Lifetime Movie channel.

NOTE: This film has since been released and is available. {LINK}

The Time Travelers is available on volume 2 of the complete DVD set of The Time Tunnel.

Here is the list of all time travel related Twilight Zone episodes. Note: All are written by Rod Serling except where noted. Out of the 19 episodes, 3 were written by Richard Matheson, author of Somewhere in Time. See my Blog post.

Season 1
Walking Distance
Judgement Night
The Last Flight (Written by Richard Matheson)
Execution
A Stop at Willoughby

Season 2
A Most Unusual Camera
Back There
Odyssey of Flight 33
Static (Written by Charles Beaumont)
A Hundred Yards over the Rim
The Rip Van Winkle Caper

Season 3
Once Upon a Time (Written by Richard Matheson)
Showdown with Rance McGrew
Young Man’s Fancy (Written by Richard Matheson)

Season 4
No Time Like the Past
Of Late I Think of Cliffordville
The Incredible World of Horace Ford (Written by Reginald Rose)

Season 5
A Kind of Stopwatch
The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms

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