![]() I'd love for you to expand on your comments here. Of course, considering all the great stuff Van never released, it's surprising even Veedon Fleece came out. (I wouldn't touch side one - one of the best sides of vinyl I own.) Anyone else agree? It would definitely have changed the mood of side two. I've never seen any discussion about this in any Van Morrison interviews or articles, but I wish that Van Morrison had included it on side 2 of Veedon Fleece. This lead me to wonder if Twilight Zone came close to being included on Veedon Fleece. (Previously, it was only available on boot called "Pure.") I also love the version recorded on the Montreaux Jazz Festival recording from 1975 that was recently released on DVD. It includes an acoustic guitar soloist as well as the piano that is similar to the longer take on Philospher's Stone. This version is shorter than the version included on The Philosopher's Stone. I recently picked up a copy of the Veedon Fleece 96K/24 bit CD and discovered it has an alternative shorter take of Twilight Zone as a bonus track. It's an odd song but Van's falsetto and the piano solos give the song a mood and feel that is singular in Van's recordings. Whether comedy, mystery, horror, sci-fi, human drama, or any other genre is your game, you'll likely find something to enjoy in the breadth of The Twilight Zone.One of my favorite Van Morrison songs is Twilight Zone on the Philosopher's Stone. Despite premiering well before it could fully be appreciated, having to deal with the inane TV standards and practices of the era, and being constantly underfunded, Serling managed to keep everything afloat and write some of the best multi-genre material ever seen on the small screen. When taking the long view, however, The Twilight Zone firmly resides in my top-five television programs of all-time. Those efforts aren't bad, per se, but are simply padded with dialogue to fill time rather than written for a longer runtime, for the most part. About the only reason I would even consider dropping this from a perfect ranking is the fourth season of the show, which produced hour-long episodes. The others largely depend on personal sci-fi tastes or the time-period in which they are viewed. But only a true handful of episodes are truly bad. Does the show have its share of clunkers? Of course. Like I said, the best TZ episodes are treasures that will be enjoyed and studied for decades to come. ![]() That was ten years before the moon landing! I can't imagine what my grandparents would have thought about a show like this, dealing with space travels, aliens, and all manner of oddities hardly a decade removed from the Second World War and firmly in the Cold War. It absolutely astounds me that this show premiered in 1959. The deeper themes about society or humanity are just as relevant now (if not sometimes more so!) than they were upon original airing. The lion's share of the credit here goes to show creator and writer Rod Serling, who is truly one of the most inspired individuals to ever put pen to paper in screenplay format. ![]() When TZ is hitting on all cylinders, it is easily one of the greatest anthology pieces ever produced. Yet, when looked at as a whole rather than the sum of its parts, The Twilight Zone is 10/10 all the way. If I were to average out all my individual episode rankings, that number would probably fall between 7-8 stars. Just recently, I finished a kick of re-watching all 156 episodes of the original Twilight Zone series.
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