Remember how this morning’s movie — Robot Monster — featured dinosaurs?
Well so does tonight’s episode of The Twilight Zone! In The Odyssey of Flight 33, a commercial airline flight somehow flies straight into the past, where they see …. dinosaurs! Now, I’ll be honest here. These are not dinosaurs like the dinosaurs in Jurassic World. But I imagine for 1961, those dinosaurs were pretty impressive!
And this episode holds up as well. I especially love the ambiguous ending.
The Odyssey of Flight 33 originally aired on February 24th, 1961.
In this episode of Baywatch Nights, David Hasselhoff and Angie Harmon are hired to track down a missing man and his daughter. Their search leads to them becoming literally trapped inside a virtual reality where they either have to defeat the crazed Game Master (Vincent Schiavelli) or die! There’s even a scene where Angie Harmon has to pick up and roll a giant die! Taking full advantage of the inherent ludicrousness of David Hasselhoff’s screen persona, this is an episode that has to be seen to be believed.
On tonight’s episode of horror on TV, we have an episode of Baywatch Nights that originally aired on February 2nd, 1997. In this one, two 900 year-old Vikings are causing chaos in Los Angeles! Who can stop them?
This is one of my favorite episode of The Twilight Zone. I originally shared it two years ago but it has subsequently been taken off of YouTube. At first, that upset me but then I realized that it gave me the perfect excuse to share it again!
In The Howling Man, American wanderer Dave Ellington (H.M. Wynant) comes across a castle. There’s a man (Robin Hughes) being held prisoner in the castle. Brother Jerome (the great John Carradine) explains that the man is the devil. The man says that Brother Jerome is crazy. Dave Ellington has to decide who to believe.
This well-acted, dream-like episode was written by Charles Beaumont and directed by Douglas Heyes. It originally aired on November 4th, 1960.
In this episode of The Twilight Zone, a Confederate soldier (Gary Merrill) meets an old man (Vaughn Taylor) who claims that, through magic, he can help the Confederacy win the Civil War. However, as often happens when it comes to weird old men and magic, there’s a price that must be paid.
I like this episode, largely because I’m obsessed with three things: history, the Civil War, and magic. And this one has all three!
In this episode of The Twilight Zone, a thief is shot by the police and finds himself in the afterlife. After a life of struggle and crime, the thief finally finds himself with the opportunity to have everything that he’s ever wanted. Even if you’ve never seen this episode before, you’ll probably be able to guess the twist after a minute or two. But it’s still a pretty good episode, featuring good performances from Larry Blyden and Sebastian Cabot and an typically fun script from Charles Beaumont.
A Nice Place To Visit originally aired on April 15th, 1960.
For tonight’s horror on TV, we have an episode of The Twilight Zone entitled The Fever. In this one, Franklin (Everett Sloane) and his wife Flora (Vivi Janiss) visit Las Vegas. Franklin detests gambling but, once he finds himself in Vegas, he finds himself being pursued by a slot machine that, literally, calls his name.
This episode was written by Rod Serling and directed by Robert Florey. (Reportedly, Serling wrote it after losing a good deal of money in Vegas.) It originally aired on January 29th, 1960.
I like this episode. Everett Sloane, who played the beloved Mr. Bernstein in Citizen Kane, gives a great performance and the taunting slot machine starts out as slightly ludicrous but then becomes genuinely menacing as the episode reaches its conclusion.
For tonight’s horror on TV, we have another episode of Baywatch Nights! In this one, David Hasselhoff and friends battle a half-woman, half-fish creature named Silver Eyes! That’s right — it’s basically Killer Mermaid all over again but this time, David Hasselhoff’s involved!
And yes, it’s just as silly as you’d think. But that’s okay. Sometimes, we need a little silliness…
This episode, entitled The Creature, originally aired on October 6th, 1996.
So, my original plan for tonight and tomorrow was to post the Graduation Day two-part season 3 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But, without any warning, Hulu has decided that they are no longer going to offer season 3 of Buffy for free. Now, if you want to watch season 3, you have to subscribe to Hulu.
And, quite frankly, that’s not a bad idea. I subscribe to Hulu. I like it. But, at the same time, if you’re going to advertise a show as being free then it should at least remain free until November.
Anyway, the point is that I like subscribing to Hulu but I’m not going to demand that our readers do the same thing just so they can watch something on this site. So, with Buffy no longer an option, I’m instead going to share an episode from another supernatural show from the 1990s. On Baywatch Nights, David Hasselhoff battled supernatural creatures while defending the beaches of California. And it’s all just as campy and silly as you might think.
And, even better, every episode of Baywatch Nights is available (for free!) on YouTube. (Or, at least they are until the copyright holder finds out…) Anyway, here’s the 1st episode of the 2nd season of Baywatch Nights. It originally aired on September 29th, 1996 and it features David Hasselhoff and a sea monster!
Through the Shattered Lens 