The Twilight Zone
(1988-89)

By Jim Davidson
Posted 6/7/2007



Esai Morales and Maury Chaykin in the remake episode "A Game of Pool."


TZ Buy the complete 1980s Twilight Zone series (all three seasons).

(This website receives a commission on products ordered through the above link.)
 

The original Twilight Zone series (1959-1964) is widely regarded as one of the classics of television. The late 1980s revival of that show is less so.

The latter's first two seasons originally aired on CBS from 1985 to 1987. After a hiatus of a year, the show reappeared in first-run syndication, it's only raison d'etre being to fill out enough episodes for stripped (five days a week) syndicated reruns. With an all-new production staff headed by executive producers Mark Shelmerdine and Michael MacMillan and including story editor J. Michael Straczynski (who went on to greater fame as the creator and executive producer of Babylon 5), it struggled under the yoke of a greatly reduced budget.

Despite the challenges, it turned in a few good efforts, most notably The Hellgrammite Method, Dream Me a Life, and Extra Innings. But overall, it's generally agreed that the 1988-89 Twilight Zone fails to live up to the original. Perhaps its biggest handicap was that viewers, having been fed a steady diet of ironic twist endings on the original series, as well as on contemporary shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and in an earlier era, in the fiction of writer O. Henry, came to expect and even anticipate them. And if the story didn't deliver enough of a punch, it was disappointing.

I've chosen to list episodes from the third season only, since these are the ones about which there's the most confusion when it comes to original airdates.

The Episodes

Sources: TV Guide (San Francisco Metro edition), TV listings from The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times, the websites Postcards From The Zone and John's Twilight Zone Page.

The Twilight Zone - 1988-89 Season
30 half-hour episodes. This is the third and final season of the 1985-89 series. Because this season was syndicated, stations placed the show wherever it fit into their schedules. Many aired it on Saturdays in the late afternoon or late night, with a rerun on Sunday of the previous day's episode. The dates listed below are for Saturday airings in San Francisco on KBHK-TV, channel 44.

My main contribution to this episode guide is in the airdates. At this writing, tv.com has incorrect airdates for five of the episodes (as do all the other websites that have pulled their information from tv.com). In fact, to my knowledge, this is the first time the correct dates have ever appeared on the web.

Series
#
Season
#
Airdate
Titles & Credits
036
3-01
9/24/1988
The Curious Case of Edgar Witherspoon
Written by Haskell Barkin (story by Haskell Barkin & J. Michael Straczynski)
Directed by René Bonnière
Stars: Harry Morgan, Cedric Smith
037
3-02
10/1/1988
Extra Innings
Written by Tom Palmer
Directed by Doug Jackson
Stars: Marc Singer, Amer Lea Weston, Tracey Cunningham
038
3-03
10/8/1988

The Crossing
Written by Ralph Philips
Directed by Paul Lynch
Stars: Ted Shackelford, Gerard Parkes

039
3-04
10/15/1988
The Hunters
Written by Paul Chitlik & Jeremy Bertrand Finch
Directed by Paul Lynch
Stars: Louise Fletcher, Michael Hogan, Les Carlson
040
3-05
10/22/1988
Dream Me a Life
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Allan King
Stars: Eddie Albert, Frances Hyland, Barry Morse
041
3-06
10/29/1988
Memories
Written by Bob Underwood
Directed by Richard Bugajski
Stars: Barbara Stock, Nigel Bennett, Alan Rosenthal
042
3-07
11/5/1988
The Hellgrammite Method
Written by William Selby
Directed by Gilbert M. Shilton
Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Leslie Yeo
043
3-08
11/12/1988
Our Selena is Dying
Written by J. Michael Straczynski (story by Rod Serling)
Directed by Bruce Pittman
Stars: Terri Garber, Jennifer Dale, R.H. Thompson, Charmion King
044
3-09
11/19/1988
The Call
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Gilbert Shilton
Stars: William Sanderson, Julie Khaner, Dan Redican
045
3-10
11/26/1988
The Trance
Written by J. Michael Straczynski & Jeff Stuart
Directed by Randy Bradshaw
Stars: Peter Scolari, Neil Munro
046
3-11
12/3/1988
Acts of Terror
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Brad Turner
Stars: Melanie Mayron, Kenneth Welsh
047
3-12
12/10/1988
20/20 Vision
Written by Robert Walden
Directed by Jim Purdy
Stars: Michael Moriarty, David Hemblen, Cynthia Belliveau
048
3-13
12/17/1988
There Was an Old Woman
Written by Tom J. Astle
Directed by Otta Hanus
Stars: Colleen Dewhurst, Zachary Bennett
049
3-14
12/24/1988
The Trunk
Written by Jeremy Bertrand Finch & Paul Chitlik
Directed by Steve DiMarco
Stars: Bud Cort, Lisa Schrage
050
3-15
12/31/1988
Appointment on Route 17
Written by Haskell Barkin
Directed by René Bonnière
Stars: Paul Le Mat, Marianna Pascal
051
3-16
1/7/1989
The Cold Equations
Written by Alan Brennert (story by Tom Goodwin)
Directed by Martin Lavut
Stars: Terence Knox, Christianne Hirt
052
3-17
1/14/1989
Stranger in Possum Meadows
Written by Jeremy Bertrand Finch & Paul Chitlik
Directed by Sturla Gunnarson
Stars: Benjamin Barrett, Steve Kanaly, Laura Press
053
3-18
1/21/1989
Street of Shadows
Written by Michael Reaves
Directed by Richard Bugajski
Stars: Charles Haid, Shawn Lawrence
054
3-19
1/28/1989
Something in the Walls
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Stars: Damir Andrei, Deborah Raffin
055
3-20
2/4/1989
A Game of Pool
Written by George Clayton Johnson
Directed by Randy Bradshaw
Stars: Esai Morales, Maury Chaykin
Note: tv.com gives a date of 12/31/1989 for this episode, which is illogical, since the show had ceased production by that point, and no new episodes were airing. This was a remake of an original series episode that starred Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters. Probably due to the tight budget, it was produced without paying - or even notifying - the writer, George Clayton Johnson.
056
3-21
2/11/1989
The Wall
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Atom Egoyan
Stars: John Beck, Eugene Clark
Note: tv.com gives a date of 2/25/1989 for this episode.
057
3-22
2/18/1989
Room 2426
Written by J. Bertrand Finch & Paul Chitlik
Directed by Richard Bugajski
Stars: Dean Stockwell, Brent Carver
Note: tv.com gives a date of 2/11/1989 for this episode.
058
3-23
2/25/1989
The Mind of Simon Foster
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Doug Jackson
Stars: Bruce Weitz, Geza Kovacs
Note: tv.com gives a date of 2/18/1989 for this episode.
059
3-24
3/4/1989
Cat and Mouse
Written by Christy Marx
Directed by Eric Till
Stars: Pamela Bellwood, Page Fletcher, Gwynyth Walsh, John Blackwood
060
3-25
3/11/1989
Rendezvous in a Dark Place
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by René Bonnière
Stars: Janet Leigh, Steven McHattie, Todd Duckworth, Malcolm Stewart, Eric House
Note: tv.com gives a date of 3/12/1989 for this episode - a Sunday, instead of a Saturday.
061
3-26
3/18/1989
Many, Many Monkeys
Written by William Froug
Directed by Richard Bugajski
Stars: Karen Valentine, Jackie Burroughs, Ken Pogue, Jan Filips
062
3-27
3/25/1989
Love Is Blind
Written by Cal Willingham
Directed by Gilbert Shilton
Stars: Ben Murphy, Sneezy Waters, Eric Keevleyside
063
3-28
4/1/1989
Crazy as a Soup Sandwich
Written by Harlan Ellison
Directed by Paul Lynch
Stars: Anthony Franciosa, Wayne Robson, Susan Wright, Laurie Paton
064
3-29
4/8/1989
Special Service
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by Randy Bradshaw
Stars: David Naughton, Keith Knight, Susan Roman, Elias Zarou
065
3-30
4/15/1989
Father and Son Game
Written by Jeremy Bertrand Finch and Paul Chitlik
Directed by Randy Bradshaw
Stars: Ed Marinaro, Eugene Robert Glazer, Patricia Phillips

Copyright 2007 by Jim Davidson. All Rights Reserved.