The Twilight Zone: Where is Everybody?

Air Date

October 2, 1959

Production Code

173-3601

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  7.5 Good

  A man wanders in a deserted town with no memory of who he is or how he got there and starts questioning his sanity... hide show

  It is without a doubt a very special episode that marked the beginnings of the new television era. An era when entertainment met depth and when TV started looking into giving more than action or a few laughs to its audience but food for thought as well.
  
  This is not the best episode of the show by far... the storytelling gets stale after about 10 mn and the outcome is outdated by a half century but it remains a classic in the format, in the genre and in the production and it is a must-see for anyone who ever enjoyed high-minded short stories.
  
  This is real scifi, a genre that has been trashed for years, a bare storyline with no special effects that requires suspending your disbelief to learn a valuable lesson on human kind...

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  Badfluffy Added Jan 22, 2008 All my reviews
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  8 Great

  Locked In A Phonebooth With Myself hide show

  A solid beginning to this classic series that suffers from a bit of bad acting and a rather unconvincing ending. It's a brave choice to use only a single actor to carry the episode but it forces that actor to engage in a running monologue that becomes tedious as he yaps on about how much money he has in his pocket and so on. A better actor might have made the monologue seem less awkward or perhaps the script needed some tightening.
  
  There are moments of brilliance to be found in this episode. The camera work is very, very good throughout this episode, in particular during the theatre scene, which is a tour de force of fear and paranoia. The shot of Ferris running into his reflection in the mirror is genius, suggesting the shattering of his own psyche as he is forced to confront the internal terror he feels at being left alone. The Bernard Herrmann score is, of course, very good, with a definite 'Vertigo' sound and feel ('Vertigo' had been released the year before this episode aired).

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  Anon67683 Added Jul 26, 2007 All my reviews
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  9.3 Superb

  a man wakes up to find he is all alone in a strange town hide show

  a really well written episode. even though there is only one person until the conclusion, the actor keeps the episode going and does not let it get boring. this episode was the first episode i have watched of the twilgith zone and because this episode was so good, i became a hugh fan of the series.

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  maleko222 Added May 10, 2007 All my reviews
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  8.2 Great

  A man who doesn't know who he is or even how he woke up in the morning finds himself in an empty town, and it doesn't take long for him to start to lose his mind. hide show

  One of television's most rightly revered series, The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959-64) stands as the role model for TV anthologies. Its trenchant sci-fi/fantasy parables explore humanity's hopes, despairs, prides and prejudices in metaphoric ways conventional drama cannot.
  Creator Rod Serling wrote the majority of the scripts, and produced those of such now-legendary writers as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont. The series featured such soon-to-be-famous actors as Robert Redford, William Shatner, Burt Reynolds, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Peter Falk and Bill Mumy, as well as such established stars as silent-film giant Buster Keaton, Art Carney, Mickey Rooney, Ida Lupino and John Carradine.

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  investiga86 Added Mar 4, 2007 All my reviews
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  8.6 Great

  Great pilot. A man who doesn't know who he is or even how he woke up in the morning finds himself in an empty town, and it doesn't take long for him to start to lose his mind. hide show

  This episode is really cool. This guy finds himself in an empty town and has no idea who he is, yet he manages to keep his cool for a surprisingly long time. But eventually he loses it and really needs to talk to people. It's really great acting too, considering that there is only one character for 95% of the episode, and he really does a great job. One of the coolest parts is when the man runs full speed into a mirror and it looks like he's running at the camera. A great twist at the end, and a great way to start one of the greatest mystery series ever.

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  kurtysskasten9 Added Jan 1, 2007 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Paul Langton Air Force Colonel
  • James McCallion Reporter #1
  • John Conwell Air Force Colonel
  • Jay Overholts Reporter Two
  • Carter Mullaly Air Force Captain
  • Garry Walberg Reporter #3
  • Jim Johnson Air Force Staff Sergeant

• Stars

  • Rod Serling Narrator/Host
  • Earl Holliman Mike Ferris
  • James Gregory Air Force General

• Creators

  • Rod Serling Creator

• Directors

  • Robert Stevens Director

• Writers

  • Rod Serling Writer

• Art Directors

  • Alex Golitzen Art Director
  • Robert Clatworthy Art Director
Episode Cast and Crew Details »

• While Ferris is speaking to the mockup, a fly appears, it lands on the car door and remains there. [edit]
• In the end credits, Jay Overholts is listed as Jay "Overholt" [edit]
• The glass face of the booth's clock is broken into more pieces when shown in close-up. [edit]

• The pilot episode was filmed at Universal-International studios [which is why a movie marquee announced the studio's Battle Hymn (1956), starring Rock Hudson, was playing in the theater]. The series was filmed at MGM. [edit]
• In the original unaired version of the pilot episode, Westbrook Van Voohris (better known as the narrator of the radio and newsreel series The March Of Time") was the narrator. Serling and CBS decided not use him in the series because he sounded "too pompous". Orson Welles' name was then suggested, but his asking price as narrator was considered too high for primary sponsor General Foods {Sanka}. Then someone suggested that Rod himself be the narrator... [edit]
• The pilot version of this episode is included on Image-Entertainment's Volume 43 DVD. It includes an 8 minute intro from Rod Serling, directed at companies considering sponsoring the show. [edit]

• Ferris: Anybody want a sundae? I'm sorry, old buddy, I don't recollect the name. The face is vaguely familiar, but the name escapes me. I'll tell you what my problem is. I'm in the middle of a nightmare I can't wake up from. And you're part of it. You and the ice cream and the police station and the phone booth., that little mannequin. This whole bloody town wherever it is - whatever it is. I just remembered something, Scrooge said it, you remember Scrooge, old buddy, Ebeneezer Scrooge? That's what he said to that ghost Jacob Marley. He said, "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a crumb of cheese, a blot of mustard, a fragment of an undone potato, but there's more of gravy than of grave about you." You see, that's what you are. You're what I had for dinner last night. You must be. But now I've had it, I'd like to wake up. I'd like to wake up now. If I can't wake up, at least I'd like to find somebody to talk to. Well, I must be a very imaginative guy. Nobody in the whole bloody world could have a dream as complete as mine. Right down to the last detail. [edit]
• Reporter #2: What happened to him toward the end, General, before he pushed that button or whatever it was?
  Air Force General: What happened to him is that he cracked. Delusions of some kind we assume. But let me tell you all something, gentlemen. If any one of you were confined in a box five feet square for two and a half weeks, all by your lonesome without hearing a human voice other than your own, I'll give you especially good odds that your imagination would run away with you, too, such as his obviously did. [edit]
• Ferris: Just off my rocker, huh, doc?
  Doctor: Just a kind of a nightmare that your mind manufactured for you. You see, we can feed the stomach with concentrates, we can supply microfilm for reading, recreation, even movies of a sort. We can pump oxygen in and waste material out, but there's one thing we can't simulate that's a very basic need. Man's hunger for companionship. The barrier of loneliness. That's one thing we haven't licked yet.
  Ferris: Next time it won't just be just a box in a hanger, will it?
  Air Force General: No, Mike. Next time you'll really be alone. [edit]

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