Source-DVD-r recording of the original TV airing.
It was few years ago I finally got to see Svengoolie for the first time. Sven has been a horror host in the Chicago greater area for decades now. And thanks to him getting a slot on MeTV,Saturday nights at 8pm central,Svengoolie is one of the few horror hosts that has nationwide TV. Until earlier this year I didn't MeTV.Dish network wasn't carrying it in my area. And I would have to spend a bit over 100 bucks for an antenna to get the channel. So I had a friend that got the show that would record the episodes to DVDs then mail me boxes of DVDs a few times a year.
Ever since I have been watching Sven on MeTV he shows horror films from the Universal library. Which I do enjoy cause Universal has made some great horror films. I know that before Sven was on MeTV he was airing films from many different studios. But until I was sent this DVD I had no idea he had ever did a Twilight Zone mini marathon.
The show starts off like most episodes of Svengoolie does. We get some info about what we are about to watch. Sven cracks some bad jokes and the movie starts. This time instead of a film we get 4 episodes of from the original run of the science ficiton anthology classic The Twilight Zone.
Growing up my parents would tell me all the time about the Twilight Zone. Even at a young age I was into horror. Not long after Twilight Zone the Movie had come out one of the local UHF channels started airing the classic Twilight Zone episodes every night at 10pm. Even though at the time my bedtime was 10pm,my parents would most nights let me stay up to watch Twilight Zone. It wasn't long after this that the 80s Twilight Zone series started up. And I was so happy. Not only did I get 5 episodes off the classic show each week,but I also got a new episodes each week.
So what episodes is Sven showing us the loyal viewers? The first one is the infamous "Wish you into the cornfield" episode. Starring a young Bill Mumy this one is about a young boy who has God like powers. It is considered one of the best episodes of the original run. And was even remade as part of the previously mentioned Twilight Zone the Movie.
The second episode is one that I don't remember seeing as a kid. I think the first time I saw it was during one of SyFy Channels New Years Twilight Zone marathons. It is titled,I think,Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.Our lead has her head wrapped in bandages. And we find out she has had surgery to "make her no so ugly". Of course near the end of the episode the bandages are removed and we see our lead is played by Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who is far from being an ugly woman. It is after this reveal that we noticed that all through out this episode we never saw anyone's face. They were always in shadow or blocked by something. When the other peoples' faces are revealed we see that everyone has this weird deformed pig like face.
The third episode is another one that is considered a classic. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner it is about a man who has had some mental issues. He is flying and sees what at first he thinks is a man on the airplane wing. But this is no man. It is one of the gremlins some fighter pilots in the big war claimed to have seen. The Shat starts freaking out cause he is sure this creature is damaging the planes wing and engine. Like the first episode in this Sven mini marathon this one was also redone in Twilight Zone the movie. It was the last story in the film. With John Lithgow in the role Shatner played. It is one that I saw the original episode after having seen the film. Which explains why while I get why this episode is considered a classic to me cause of how cheesy the suit the gremlin is wearing I prefer the version from Twilight Zone the Movie.
The final episode is another I didn't see until the Syfy marathons. We got a group of older men that hang out at the local general store. One of whom is Floyd the Barber of Andy Griffith fame. The lead guy is able to weave a fairly entertaining tall tale about his time in the war. He ends up getting kidnapped by some aliens. Then discovers a weakness the aliens have. Lets just say that I get the feeling Tim Burton got the idea for the Martians in the Mars Attacks film's weakness from this episode.
Out of the four episodes included in this Svengoolie Twilight Zone Mini Marathon 3 of them are episodes I would consider some of the best the original Twilight Zone produced. But that final episode is just not that good. It has a decent cast and a good idea. But the execution fails.
Still this was a fun watch. I got to see 3 great episodes of TZ. Plus got to see the ads and stuff from Sven's non-MeTV show. There is even a commercial for the midnight airings of Sven's old shows. If anyone reading this has copies of the pre-MeTV episodes of Svengoolie please leave a comment. I am more than willing to pay you for copies of these episodes.
Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon gets a A-.