TZ Promo: “The Odyssey of Flight 33” (2/24/1961)

“The Odyssey of Flight 33”

Season Two, Episode 18 (54 overall)
Cayuga Production # 173-3651

Are you afraid to fly? If you are, it’s likely because you’re afraid that your plane will crash. It’s not an irrational fear --- planes do in fact crash. They say it’s statistically safer to fly than drive a car, but who knows?


Air disasters are a recurring event on The Twilight Zone. It usually involves spaceships ("I Shot an Arrow into the Air," "People Are Alike All Over," "Death Ship," "Probe 7 – Over and Out"), but we’ve lost a few planes too ("Twenty Two," "The Arrival," "Ring-A-Ding Girl"). But what if your particular air catastrophe didn’t involve a crash at all? What if instead your plane became dislodged in time…? Fifty years ago tonight, it happened in “The Odyssey of Flight 33,” written by Rod Serling and directed by Justuss Addiss. A commercial airliner hits a freak tailwind and breaks the time barrier. Where do they end up? I don’t want to give anything away, but here’s a clue…

I am dino, hear me roar!

Yeah, it's a friggin' dinosaur, and a pretty unconvincing one at that. But hey, it was 1961! Turns out the two brief glimpses of this beast constituted the single most expensive shot in the show's five year history. As a Ray Harryhausen fan, I find her (I've always thought of it as female, don't ask me why) most appealing.

Ain't no such thing as a No Smoking sign on my plane.

The episode stars John Anderson as our intrepid pilot, Captain Farver. We last saw him in season one's "A Passage for Trumpet" (which, coincidentally, was repeated fifty years ago last week), and we'll see him again in season four's "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" and season five's "The Old Man in the Cave"). He keeps his cool in spite of the outlandish circumstances that befall his crew. Call him The Twilight Zone's Captain Sully. Anderson might be best remembered as California Charlie, the used car salesman Marion Crane sells her car to in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Fans of TV's The Outer Limits can tell you that he was quite good as the Ebonite Interrogator in that series' excellent "Nightmare." And speaking of The Outer Limits... well, stay tuned.


Speaking of "People Are Alike All Over," Paul Comi (above, left) makes his second Twilight Zone appearance here, this time as Anderson's copilot, First Officer Craig. In the former, he's the one that, ahem, didn't survive the crash; here we find him trapped aboard a doomed flight (man, this guy should just stay on the ground). Rounding out our cockpit crew is Navigator "Magellan" Hatch, played by Sandy Kenyon (above, right), who appeared in damn near every TV show in the 50's and 60's. You may not know the name, but you will absolutely recognize the guy. He'll visit The Twilight Zone again in season three's "The Shelter" and season four's "Valley of the Shadow."

We're called Flight Attendants now.

“The Odyssey of Flight 33” is generally well-regarded, but I’ve never been particularly fond of it. Oh sure, it’s a great idea, but Serling never really develops it. There’s also no moral dilemma, no character development, and no twist at the end. There’s really no resolution to the plight of Flight 33 at all, which doesn’t help matters. We’re left wondering if they ever made it home. Interestingly, the same can be said of season four’s “Death Ship,” which is one of my favorite episodes, but the characters there are quite well developed, which makes all the difference. Still, for 25 minutes, “Odyssey” sufficiently holds one’s interest. And it’s certainly well done on a technical level… even that goofy Claymation brontosaurus is charming. It certainly ain’t bad, but it’s nothing spectacular either. Your (air) mileage may vary.

Next week: And speaking of bad…. Burgess Meredith and Don Rickles can’t even save the day. Uh-oh.

That's right, Rod. Hang your head in shame.

TZ Promo: "People Are Alike All Over" (3/25/1960)

Fifty years ago tonight, The Twilight Zone took viewers to Mars for the first and only time in its five-year run. Oh, we’ll see Martians in future episodes, but we’ll find them here on earth, either visiting (“Mr. Dingle, the Strong”) or invading (“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”). Tonight, we get to see the Red Planet in all its Forbidden Planet-recycled glory.

In Rod Serling’s “People Are Alike All Over" (adapted from a short story by Paul W. Fairman), two astronauts from earth crash-land on Mars. One is thrilled at the prospect of meeting the Martians… whoever (or whatever) they may be. His co-pilot, meanwhile, isn’t thrilled at all. He’s terrified.

Roddy McDowall is perfect as Sam Conrad, a man whose fear of the unknown is both profound and perplexing (what the hell is he doing going to Mars in the first place?). His fear is amplified when Marcusson, his co-pilot (played by Sam Comi), dies of injuries sustained in the crash. As the story progresses, Conrad will (somewhat) overcome his fear and meet the Martians, who seem surprisingly similar to Earthlings. One Martian of note is Teenya, played by the impossibly gorgeous Susan Oliver.

Sigh.

Genre fans know Ms. Oliver better as Vina, the green-skinned Orion slave girl from Star Trek’s original pilot episode “The Cage.”

Susan Oliver, going green way before it was the P.C. thing to do.

The fairly flat direction by Mitchell Leisen won’t win any awards (especially when compared to some of the more elaborate season one productions), but it gets the job done. The end of act one, in which McDowell cowers in the shadows, gun in hand, as the spacecraft door opens (seemingly of its own accord), is sufficiently tense. And while I strive to avoid spoilers in these episode promos, the surprise ending…. well, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Less than ten years after this episode aired, McDowell would land a pivotal role in Planet of the Apes, a film that plays very much like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone… likely because Serling worked on the screenplay! In fact, the film is essentially an expansion of this very episode (with sentient apes standing in for the Martians), crossed with TZ's earlier “I Shot an Arrow into the Air.”

Roddy McDowall in full makeup. That damn dirty ape.

While the flying saucer from Forbidden Planet is (surprisingly) nowhere to be found here, the “Pac-Man wall lights” from the film’s Krell laboratory can be seen inside the wrecked earth ship. The backdrop paintings that comprise the Martian exteriors are leftovers from the film as well.

Who wouldn't kill to have this thing hanging on their wall?

You know, one could almost devise a drinking game here: every time you see something from Forbidden Planet in a Twilight Zone episode, you have to down a shot. Try it next time SyFy or KTLA does a marathon. You might just end up hammered.



Next week: A down-and-dirty outlaw is about to hang for murder. At the last possible moment… he vanishes into thin air. Where he went isn’t nearly as interesting as when. Drop in and hang around for it.