Twilight Zone's "Most Conservative" Episodes

[GeoBQn]

I was looking for a list of Twilight Zone quotes and found this . . . I don't know how to describe it. Was this guy watching the same show?

newsrealblog.com/2011/01/11/the-top-8-most-conservative-episodes-of-the-twilight-zone-1/

So, here's the messages got from these episodes. These are so off-base that there is no need for a spoiler alert.

8. The Masks--The Democratic Party is full of horrible people.

7. In Praise of Pip--Parents need to do more to teach their kids to avoid divorce and teen pregnancy. (Never mind that Jack Klugman's character explicitly criticizes the US involvement in Vietnam.)

6. To Serve Man--Obama shouldn't be trusted.

5. The Shelter--People need to take more responsibility for their safety.

4. Still Valley--Don't compromise.

3. The Howling Man--Democrats are unable to recognize evil.

2. The Obsolete Man--Religion is good.

1. Number 12 Looks Just Like You--Fuck, this is just a giant diatribe of missing the point.

[debrand]

It has been so long since I watched the Twilight Zone, I don't know. When I was a kid, one of the episode had a man look into a box and someone get horrified by what he saw in it? I can't remember anything else except that it's creepy atmosphere frightened the heck out of my ten year old self. Maybe the message was the sight of the poor getting health care will drive you insane? :lol:

[thoughtful]

:shock:

Rod Serling speaks:

"Submitted for your disapproval; a raging right-winger, blind to any interpretation but his own, and clearly lacking knowledge about the series and how it was developed. Caught up in his own warped world-view, he will continue to live in . . . the Twilight Zone."

-b5aW08ivHU

[Trynn]

6. To Serve Man--Obama shouldn't be trusted.

I've been watching TZ a lot lately, and this is one of the episodes I recently watched, and all I have to say about his interpretation is.... what in the actual FUCK?!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

This thread just reminds me that I need to hunt up and watch some Twilight Zone. This type of "what if" is my absolutely favorite type of creepy show, in all the best ways.

As for the box and looking horrified - I haven't seen them enough recently to know, but I do recall one that was about someone being given a box that grants a wish, seemingly no downside, you get your wish, but... the trick is that the previous owner of the box dies horribly. And now of course, you give the box back so that someone else gets it!

So you got your wish, but now you never know if someone else will kill you instantly at any time.

It's the best kind of delicious horror twist. I always liked horror comics like this too.

[artdecades]

I love the Twilight Zone. I always look forward to the Syfy Channel's New Years marathon. For anyone who wants to watch online, Amazon has them streaming for free if you are a Prime member.

This is ridiculous to me because the Twilight Zone was pretty obvious with their messages. There was a lot of commentary on McCarthyism and the Red Scare. There was also that fantastic episode Deaths-head Revisited, which deals with intolerance and hate. I didn't read this guy's ramblings because after the one on the masks I couldn't continue. I don't know how a conservative, the party that doesn't believe in social welfare, can think that being spoiled, rich, and self centered is a liberal trait. :cray-cray:

[snarkyjan]

Wonder what spin he would put on the episode about the little boy with unlimited power, who consigned anyone who displeased him "to the cornfield". His interpretations would probably be "Spare the rod and spoil the child" or, worse yet, "Michael Pearl was right".

[Fun-Dee]

One of my favorite episodes, not on this list, actually does have a conservative slant to it. Night Call is about a bedridden elderly lady who is getting mysterious phone calls that end up being from her dead fiance. He died in a car accident. They were out one night and she insisted on driving. (bossy female) He always let her have her own way. She crashed the car, (woman driver) and he was killed. The calls scare her at first, and she tells the caller to leave her alone. Later, after finding out who they are from, she wants to talk to him. He tells her that she said to leave him alone, and he always did what she said. That'll teach that bossy liberal female!

I have no idea what 'To Serve Man' has to do with Obama.

[Lainey]

What was the one where the kid gets her parents to take her to "a zoo," but it's actually a place where kids can take their no-good parents to trade them in for new ones? That's the only one I kinda, sorta vaguely remember.

Now I wanna watch the Twilight Zone!

[Tangy Bee]

What about the one with the little who got a toy phone from his granny? She died and he was talking to her on his phone.

[anniebgood]

I have 2 favorites, the one with Robert Redford as the wounded policeman who the woman won't let in because she thinks he's Mr Death. Then the one with Agnes Moorehead as the poor woman who's got a spaceship with robots that shoot electric bolts at her, and she destroys it. That one scared the shit out of me.

[PennySycamore]

I have 2 favorites, the one with Robert Redford as the wounded policeman who the woman won't let in because she thinks he's Mr Death. Then the one with Agnes Moorehead as the poor woman who's got a spaceship with robots that shoot electric bolts at her, and she destroys it. That one scared the shit out of me.

Anniebgood, that episode with Robert Redford also starred Dame Gladys Cooper who was the star of Night Call. I just love Gladys Cooper!

[GeoBQn]

What was the one where the kid gets her parents to take her to "a zoo," but it's actually a place where kids can take their no-good parents to trade them in for new ones? That's the only one I kinda, sorta vaguely remember.

Now I wanna watch the Twilight Zone!

That one was from the 1980's series.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I remember the movie, it had an updated version of the "wish them into the cornfields" kid who could have anything he wanted, and he trapped his sister in an endless cartoon, and at one point she turns around and... she HAS NO MOUTH.

One of the most deliciously horrifying things evar.

But, I love that kind of horror. The world is wrong, for whatever reason. The rules don't work and anything goes and there will be bloody death!

[Avalondaughter]

Perhaps fundies feel guilty about watching this type of TV program, so attempting to see some kind of right wing spin on it makes them feel better about it.

[JesusFightClub]

I was looking for a list of Twilight Zone quotes and found this . . . I don't know how to describe it. Was this guy watching the same show?

newsrealblog.com/2011/01/11/the-top-8-most-conservative-episodes-of-the-twilight-zone-1/

So, here's the messages got from these episodes. These are so off-base that there is no need for a spoiler alert.

8. The Masks--The Democratic Party is full of horrible people.

7. In Praise of Pip--Parents need to do more to teach their kids to avoid divorce and teen pregnancy. (Never mind that Jack Klugman's character explicitly criticizes the US involvement in Vietnam.)

6. To Serve Man--Obama shouldn't be trusted.

5. The Shelter--People need to take more responsibility for their safety.

4. Still Valley--Don't compromise.

3. The Howling Man--Democrats are unable to recognize evil.

2. The Obsolete Man--Religion is good.

1. Number 12 Looks Just Like You--Fuck, this is just a giant diatribe of missing the point.

WHAT

(#6. He's never read Alinsky, that's fairly obvious. It's like the people over at Free Republic bleating on about Gramsci and "cultural Marxists".)

You could rewrite all of those to make left-wing points. And like you, GeoBQn, I could make absolutely no fucking sense at all of #1.

[Palimpsest]

I love the Twilight Zone.

"Five Characters in Search of an Exit" makes me think of the Maxwell children. With Steve as the bell-ringer collecting toys for the orphanage.

[twin2]

I love the Twilight Zone.

"Five Characters in Search of an Exit" makes me think of the Maxwell children. With Steve as the bell-ringer collecting toys for the orphanage.

I'm a big fan of the Twilight Zone, that is one of my favorites.

The first one I thought about when I saw that list was the one where there was a group of townsfolk after some kind of nuclear event that wouldn't do anything unless some mysterious man in a cave told them too. Can't remember the title, but that is another one that makes me think of Steve and our other favorite fundies.....

[thoughtful]

Anniebgood, that episode with Robert Redford also starred Dame Gladys Cooper who was the star of Night Call. I just love Gladys Cooper!

Another Gladys Cooper fan here. She had a career for her whole life, first as a child model, then as a beauty whose face was everywhere, then as an actress who could play bitchy like nobody else, or kind, or aristocratic but down-to-earth, or vulnerable

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0178066/

[mamallama]

I keep remembering an episode where the earth is getting hotter and hotter but I can't find it on Netflix. Guess that one will never make the conservative list.

[sparkles]

One of my favorites is "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street." I think of it often in relation to fundies and all the other right-wingnuts, hoping that their fear and paranoia will cause them to similarly self-destruct. If only...

As to "Number 12," another all time fave...WTF?

[thoughtful]

I keep remembering an episode where the earth is getting hotter and hotter but I can't find it on Netflix. Guess that one will never make the conservative list.

That's Midnight Sun. You can watch it for free here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi4191921945/

[mamallama]

Thank you!!!

[Palimpsest]

To me - consumate bookworm and introvert - the most awful Twilight Zone ever was "Time Enough at Last."

I screamed when Meredith Burgess broke his glasses. I never want to watch it again.

Back to topic: the person who complied that list of Twilight Zone episodes needs his brains tested. If he has enough brains to knit a pair of ankle socks for a canary!

[thoughtful]

To me - consumate bookworm and introvert - the most awful Twilight Zone ever was "Time Enough at Last."

I screamed when Meredith Burgess broke his glasses. I never want to watch it again.

Back to topic: the person who complied that list of Twilight Zone episodes needs his brains tested. If he has enough brains to knit a pair of ankle socks for a canary!

If it makes you feel better, Time Enough at Last isn't upsetting to me, because, as a fellow bookworm and introvert who also happens to be just as visually impaired as that character is supposed to be, I know he could still have read. :D