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The Twilight Zone Season 1 Episode 22

The Monsters are Due on Maple Street

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AIRED: 3/4/60

Paranoia strikes the residents of Maple Street when they believe human-looking aliens have invaded the neighborhood.

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Fan Episode Reviews (16)

Quite a cleverly plotted episode.

10

By marbles01, Jul 20, 2012

In this episode the people of Maple Street fear that an alien that is disguised as a person is among them due to a kid saying that the power cut which is taking place is part of an alien invasion. Towards the end the people of Maple Street begin to panic and they all start breaking windows with stones and blaming each other. A very good episode. It was quite well written. There is an excellent twist at the end of the episode that is not to be missed. Anyway, that just about raps it up for this review. Thanks for reading!moreless
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invasion of the body snatchers, part II

10

By OmarCayenne, Sep 24, 2011

As perfect a parable about Communism as ever there was! Here, though the aliens really do constitute a threat, they prove to be nowhere near the threat that people are to each other...thus the sardonic, vintage Serling twist at the end. This one always reminds me of the interview Mike Wallace did with Serling, where (hearing about his plans to do TZ) he said something like: "So you're not going to do anything serious anymore?" LOLmoreless
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Classics episode is anti-McCarthyism, and anti Communism.

9.0

By tvking1, May 17, 2010

When machines and appliances suddenly and inexplicably stop working, the townsfolk on Maple Street start suspecting each other of being infiltrators of some sort of group bent on conquest. A teenage boy obsessed with sci-fi comic books tells the others that it must be aliens from another planet. When some of the residents appliances suddenly start working again, each in turn becomes the object of suspicion. Paranoia ensues, and the neighborhood becomes a mob, especially Charlie (Jack Weston), who accuses everybody in turn, before becoming suspect himself, which unfortunately doesn't stop him. Steve Brand (Claude Akins) is the lone voice of reason, but to no avail. It is often said that "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" is a reminder against what is sometimes referred to as the Second Red Scare (McCarthyism, and HUAC activities), but it's not another one of those tales that tells us there's really nothing at all to worry about. After all, there were real aliens trying to conquer earth, so it can also be interpreted as a warning against communism.moreless
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When something unexplainable happens, you'll point fingers at everyone. That's kinda what's happening on Maple Street.........

9.5

By violet_mist, Jan 10, 2009

A mysterious power outage causes chaos on Maple Street. Everyone wants to know why and they start blaming everyone they can apply an oddity to…..

Everybody points a finger at anyone with a recently learned oddity. What do you have a ham radio for? Why are you so quick to accuse? Why are YOUR lights flickering on and off? Why did YOUR car start and not mine? Why did it start by itself?

In a situation/ problem in which there is no apparent answer, you'll accuse everyone and anyone just to have some substance to stand on.

This episode really shows how fear is created and how it can rip groups of people apart. Fear can really get to you and cause a large amount of chaos. It really can get to people if they are all talking and put ideas in your head. For example, what Tommy said put the whole alien idea into people's heads. When all sense is abandoned, anything seems reasonable. Even the idea of alien agents is something that is accepted. It really shows how people will act in unfamiliar situations, and I think that if this situation really happened, the people will act just like the people in this episode. The episode really shows that man himself is his greatest enemy.moreless
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When Maple Street is hit with a mysterious blackout, the residents become convinced that aliens have invaded and are hiding among them. Soon the usually friendly residents start suspecting one another of being the alien and chaos erupts.moreless

9.0

By meathead704, May 19, 2008

The trivia section for this episode mentions that a version of this episode's script appears in a seventh grade textbook. When I was in the seventh grade I remember reading that story in the mentioned textbook. That story sparked my interest in "The Twilight Zone" and I have been a fan ever since. One of the great things about "The Twilight Zone" is how many of its themes are always a reflection of the world and culture. This episode's theme of how easily neighbors can turn against one another is as true today as when this episode premiered. Excellent episode.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Rod Serling	Narrator/Host
Claude Akins	Steve Brand
Jack Weston	Charlie

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Barry Atwater	Mr. Goodman	Guest Star
Amzie Strickland	Woman	Guest Star
Anne Barton	Mrs. Brand	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (7)
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- Don: Well there's no need getting so upset, Steve. It's just that... well Myra's talked about how there's been plenty of nights you've spent hours down in your basement, working on some kind of radio or somethin'. Well, none of us have ever seen that radio...
  (Long, suspenseful silence)
  Charlie: Go ahead, Steve. What kind of radio set you working on? I never seen it. Neither has anyone else. Who talks to you on that radio set, and who do you talk to?
  Steve: Well I'm surprised at you, Charlie. How come you're so dense all of the sudden? Who do I talk to? I talk to monsters from outer space! I talk to three-headed green men who fly over here in what looked like meteors!
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- Les: Stay right where you are, Steve! We don't want any trouble. But this time anyone who sets foot on my porch, that's what he's gonna get. Trouble!
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- Alien #1: Understand the procedure now? Just stop a few of their machines, and radios, and telephones, and lawnmowers, throw them into darkness for a few hours and then, sit back and watch the pattern.
  Alien #2: And this pattern is always the same?
  Alien #1: With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find. And it's themselves. All we need do is sit back and watch.
  Alien #2: Then I take it that this place- This "Maple Street" is not unique?
  Alien #1: By no means. The world is full of Maple Streets. And we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves. One to the other...One to the other...One to the other...
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- Charlie: No! No it's nothing of the sort! It isn't me I swear it isn't! Someone's pulling a gag or something!
  Steve: A gag? A gag?! Charlie there's a man lying dead in the street and you killed him does that look like a gag to you?
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- Charlie: Look! Look, I swear it isn't me! I swear it isn't! But I know who it is! I know who the monster is! I know who it is that doesn't belong among us! I swear I know who it is!
  Don: Alright, Charlie, let's hear it.
  Charlie: It's...it's...
  Les: Well, what are you waiting for!
  Don: Come on Charlie, come on!
  Old Man: Who is it, Charlie? Tell us!
  Charlie: It's the kid! It's Tommy! He's the one!
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- (Closing Narration)
  Narrator: The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own - for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.
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- (Opening Narration)
  Narrator: Maple Street, U.S.A. Late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice-cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43pm on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moment before the monsters came.
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NOTES (5)
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- Late greats Claude Akins and Jack Weston would both return to TZ in "The Little People" and, respectively, "The Bard."
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- Redone (and updated) four decades later in the UPN edition of The Twilight Zone (2003).
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- A shortened script is published in a 7th grade Holt Rinhart and Winston textbook.
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- The ice cream wagon uses in this episode was previously seen in episode #20, "Elegy."
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- Included on volume 2 of Image-Entertainment's DVD collection.
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