MovieChat Forums > The Outer Limits (1963) Discussion > If i love twilight zone , will i enjoy t...

If i love twilight zone , will i enjoy this?


Twilight zone is hands down in my top 5 favorite shows. Im surprised i havent seen even 1 episode of this show. i was wondering if fans of twilight zone enjoy this show?

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No, the stories are full pf plot holes, the scripts are unimaginative, the effects bad and almost every episode could have been shortened to 30 minutes rather than the tedious fiftysomething they were.

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wow thats a bummer lol, alright thanks

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You may like it. The Twilight Zone is my favorite tv show of all-time. Don't expect the quality of The Twilight Zone, but it's a pretty good show. The big difference(other than the obvious difference in run-times) is that The Outer Limits is a strait Sci-Fi show. Almost all the episode have to do with outer space and some sort of alien. The Twilight Zone had a story about outer space and aliens one week and the next have a story about the civil war. The Twilight Zone should be considered Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror/War/Western/Comedy/Drama! While The Outer Limits would only be considered Sci-Fi and maybe some Fantasy. If you have never seen the show "Thriller"(1960) I would start there. It would be considered Horror/Crime/Mystery/Fantasy/Sci-Fi. Give both shows a try.


You can watch The Outer Limits here: http://www.hulu.com/search?q=The+Outer+Limits+-+Original

You can watch Thriller here: http://www.youtube.com/user/dennisovich

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There is s longer version, this one is 51 minutes
O.B.I.T.
https://archive.org/details/TheOuterLimits-Tos-1x07-O.b.i.t.avi_90

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Watch some of the episodes first-THEN give an opinion, ya twit

I submit that OL is as good as or better than the TZ....TZ had many old times themes and a poor budget for SPFX;

and was full of old time character actors

OL saw many up and coming actors and had many stories that delved into theoretical physics..true sci fi

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Watch some of the episodes first-THEN give an opinion, ya twit

I submit that OL is as good as or better than the TZ....TZ had many old times themes and a poor budget for SPFX;

and was full of old time character actors there were a few standouts but the film drags things from the 1940s and 1950s culture

OL saw many up and coming actors and had many stories that delved into theoretical physics..true sci fi

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Character actors aplenty on TZ, but lots of stars-to-be, including:

Claude Akins, Dennis Hopper, Lee Marvin, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, Carol Burnett, Peter Falk, Jack Klugman, Elizabeth Montgomery, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, William Shatner, Anne Francis...

Here's a list: http://www.ranker.com/list/guest-stars-on-the-twilight-zone/general_crack

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Johny is correct.

The scripts are generally a bit of a mess and don't have enough content to fill 50mins. Intro & outro narrations are pretty much gibberish. The science is wonky as hell, which would be fine if it was masked by other merits.

They look rather nice (lighting is generally excellent), there are a small number of gems, the opticals are clean if unimaginative.

A bluray remaster of all the episodes would be time wasted.
Twilight zone is rightly much better regarded.

Pick ~4 episodes that others have recommended and leave it at that. Life is too short to waste on sub standard fare such as this.

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I think you might like a minority of the TOL episodes, but it's not nearly as good as TZ.

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My suggestion is to watch it and decide for yourself, and not be swayed by simple opinions.

Best episodes to watch include:

THE ARCHITECTS OF FEAR
NIGHTMARE
DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND
OBIT
THE GALAXY BEING
THE SIXTH FINGER
THE INHERITORS (a two-parter)
THE CHAMELEON
CORPUS EARTHLING
A FEASIBILITY STUDY

It's moodier and darker than most TZ episodes, but rewarding if you're willing to watch the show on it's own terms.



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Yeah, those are among the best ones. But I'd recommend that the OP not necessarily skip over all the other ones. As you say, the OP should watch it and decide. But watching just the episodes you listed would be a biased sample, so it wouldn't give an accurate picture of the series if the OP wants a fair comparison.

The other thing the OP has to remember is that TZ is primarily fantasy, while TOL is science fiction. And as I mentioned in another related thread (don't recall whether it was here or on the TZ board), the thing I found weak and tiresome about TOL is its too frequent reliance on monsters: just about every week, a new misunderstood and/or aggrieved monster who causes havoc.

In contrast, when TZ sometimes strayed from fantasy into sci fi, at least each sci fi-based TZ episode was relatively original and different--a much more creative approach to sci fi.

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I agree that the OP should see all the episodes, and I'm just trying to get him started with the suggestions I've made.

But of course I utterly disagree with your assessment about the SF in TZ and that in TOL. TZ's forays into SF were, with a few exceptions, sloppier and wildly dismissive of actual science. But TOL was also far more about the consequences of technology (as in OBIT, It Crawled Out of the Woodwork, Soldier, The Galaxy Being, etc.), the question of what constitutes a "monster" (Nightmare, Architects of Fear, The Zanti Misfits, The Man Who Was Never Born, etc.), and were in the end as much about our "inner minds" as about what might be "out there". Most people who know science fiction would definitely say The Outer Limits had the more creative approach, and the deeper understanding of it. TZ was clearly more of a fantasy anthology.

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We'll never agree on this issue. But I still think that TOL got way too fixated on monsters, and I think there are a lot of folks who would agree with that assessment.

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Can we at least agree that the OP should watch them and decide for him/herself?

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Precisely. And there weren't that many episodes of TOL, so why not watch all of them.

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Yes, as long as the OP watches either a census sample or a random sample of the episodes.

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I would say the OP can watch TOL episodes any way he or she wants. We can make suggestions, but they're only suggestions. Not requirements.

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I'm not saying the OP has to do anything. All I'm saying is that if one really wants to do a *fair* comparison, then either a census sample or a random sample would be the statistically proper way to do it. He/she can do whatever they please, of course.

Now I think we've beaten this to death. Let's not waste any more time going back and forth.

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NIGHTMARE
DEMON WITH A GLASS HAND
OBIT

My three favorite episodes. Demon is fantastic and has been called the finest hour in broadcast television history. I never get tired of watching it and Robert Culp is superb. These three episodes have no filler as far too many others do. One of the lousier episodes (Specimen Unknown) had the most viewers the day it was first broadcast. It would have been
pretty good except for the aforementioned 30 minutes of filler. My Dad's Hollywood High buddy Richard Jaeckel starred in it btw. Six degrees of separation and all that.

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You may, I don't think it is as good a production as The Twilight Zone, but it has just as good stories and characters. Your tolerance for science-fiction is perhaps the biggest factor, since this is very sci-fi and TZ was more supernatural fantasy.

It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid. - The Stranger

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I'm curious as to why you don't think it's as "good a production" as TZ, kronos. I mean, Conrad Hall, who won three Oscars, was a primary cinematographer on The Outer Limits. Very innovative production values on The Outer Limits.

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Just my opinion about OL compared to TZ overall seemed more consistent quality. You are right though, Outer Limits was an excellent production. Demon With a Glass Hand, for example, was amazing. Example of a bit lacking, was Man Who Was Never Born. In the beginning when the space ship lands, looks a bit clunky. Surely, TZ had its moments too.

It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid. - The Stranger

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Oh, when it comes to SFX like spaceships, both TOL and TZ are going to be found severely lacking if you want to judge by today's standards half a century later. TZ stole liberally in props and footage from the 1950s SF film FORBIDDEN PLANET, while TOL used a lot of props and footage from an earlier TV series called MEN INTO SPACE. Not bad for the early 1960s, but all of this was definitely before 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY completely redefined even the production expectations of SF. I have to add, however, that John Dykstra, who ended up doing the SFX on STAR WARS, also got his start on The Outer Limits, and actually didn't do too badly considering the budget and other constraints of the time. And the alien/monster (or "bear") concepts and realizations in TOL, which definitely were revolutionary in SF make-up, almost all hold up strikingly well.

If you want to focus on substance, both TZ and TOL make things like their spaceship SFX almost irrelevant to their real impact.

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I couldn't disagree more with those that thought Twilight Zone was better than The Outer Limits. TOL is Sci-Fi,so you need to like that. TOL had more developed,thought provoking writing. I've seen every episode of TZ and TOL and their both good but I do prefer TOL. Watch and decide for yourself! : )

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I've just started watching the first season box set and am enjoying the stories immensely.

Just seen youthful Bruce Dern in one episode. I love the TZ too.

Having read through the other posts you've received it would seem the best thing to do is let them argue amongst themselves.

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One thing to note is that Outer Limits has very little whimsey compared to Twilight Zone episodes. Not saying that's bad, just don't expect many laughs.

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I grew up on TZ, so I got hooked on TOL---I have to admit that certain episodes of TOL were visually more innovative, especially for TV of that era, than TZ. And,yeah, like some other posters have said, TOL was much darker and even more thought provoking about science and other things---in fact,that's what I like about some of the most well-made episodes---they were filmed like sci-fi movies, with close-ups of actors' faces, more complications and depth to them than the average sci-fi (with the exception of TZ,of course.) TZ is like the ancestor of modern sci-fi shows, but TOL was definitely one of the few serious sci-fi shows that could really hold its own with TZ. Which is why, over a half a century later, it's still fun to watch (for me,anyway.)

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DO NOT listen to the guy who trashes Outer Limits. It was an excellent series with some of the finest writing ever seen on television. It's a MUCH darker show than Twilight Zone, and gets into some pretty heavy territory at times, so be aware of that if you decide to watch it.

Here's a good description of the style that the show tended to utilize:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech-noir

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Keep in mind Executive producer Joe Stefano did the screenplay on Hitchcocks' "Psycho".

"What is TRUTH?"

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