History YMMV / TheTwilightZone1959

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E33TheBrainCenterAtWhipples The Brain Center at Whipple's]]" has arguably only become more relevant in the 21st century, as the development of AI has led to renewed debates over automation and labor rights.

* Anvilicious: The show is well-known for its speeches and use of Aesops, and too many episodes to count feature characters summing up the story's message (not to mention Rod's narration). To cite some examples: "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E33TheBrainCenterAtWhipples The Brain Center at Whipple's]]" has a character openly declare why employers should value humans over machines, "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E9DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]" features a character repeatedly condemning a former Nazi commandant, and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E30StopoverInAQuietTown Stopover in a Quiet Town]]" turns out to be a PSA against [[spoiler: drunk driving]]. However, this is averted in some stories, such as "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E8ItsAGoodLife It's a Good Life]]," where Serling specifically notes there is "no comment" at the end. Some of this is also mitigated by ValuesResonance, as mentioned.

* HeReallyCanAct: "A Game of Pool" again. Creator/JonathanWinters was best known for comedy at the time but he turns in a compelling, serious performance as the ghost of a pool hall champion.

** Much of "Static" centers around a radio that plays programs from the Golden Age of Radio, but only when the man who owns the radio is in the same room. Over fifty years later, many radio programs from decades past are readily available for listening pleasure through streaming and on-demand audio services.

** The evergreen episode, ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters are Due on Maple Street]]'', shows us that while the ''tools'' of human suffering may be bombs, guns, knives, or tanks; the actual '''''weapons''''' are always [[spoiler: fear, suspicion, blame, contempt, and mistrust]]. Also, outside agents don't need to lift a ''finger'' to destroy us. [[spoiler: They just need to give us a little nudge, and we'll quickly do it to ourselves]]. Now [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters who are the '''real''' monsters]]...?

** ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E22TheMonstersAreDueOnMapleStreet The Monsters are Due on Maple Street]]'' shows us that while the ''tools'' of human suffering may be bombs, guns, knives, or tanks; the '''''weapons''''' are always [[spoiler: fear, suspicion, blame, contempt, and mistrust]]. Also, outside agents don't need to lift a ''finger'' to destroy us. [[spoiler: They just need to give us a little nudge, and we'll quickly do it to ourselves]]. Now who are the real monsters...?

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Perhaps the UrExample. Every single episode has had its plot reused, redone, or parodied by some sci-fi/horror show, movie, or book. Most modern viewers watching the series for the first time will often find themselves scratching their heads and asking, "How did people think this was scary? The story's been done to death." It's been done to death because ''Twilight Zone'' did it first (and because other shows -- most notably ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' -- have parodied the stories, specifically "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "It's a Good Life", "To Serve Man", among others). It really can't be overstated how explosively original (and at the time, controversial) a lot of the plots were, and the fact that they've since been repeated and redone is a testament to ''The Twilight Zone'''s success as a show.

** Creator/SterlingHolloway, the original voice of [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie-the-Pooh]], appears as a TV repairman in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E144WhatsInTheBox What's in the Box]]".

* NarmCharm: Even at it's campiest, the show can still land a GutPunch, provoke thought, and make the strange feel oddly relatable. Shatner's hammy FreakOut in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", for instance, expresses out loud the feelings of many who find air travel nerve-wracking even without mysterious figures on the wing, while the [[ObscuredSpecialEffects necessarily minimalistic]] special effects give episodes like "It's a Good Life" a certain paradoxical realism.

** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E131AShortDrinkFromACertainFountain A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain]]": Flora is certainly getting punished for marrying an older man purely for money, but one [[FridgeHorror might wonder]] whether her husband will get "punished" along with her, given that she's stuck with him for the next 18 years or so and might not be happy about it. Though, it was implied Harmon's brother who despises Flora and cares deeply for Harmon will regularly check up to ensure Flora's maintaining her responsibilities.
* FairForItsDay: While most episodes are timeless in their Aesops, a few that deal with bad marriages have become less-resonant with modern values, now that divorce isn't as stigmatized as it was back in the 1960s. While "The Bewitchin' Pool"'s message of putting the children's needs into consideration is still potent, its implication that a divorce will drive children away from their parents ''forever'' definitely comes across as short-sighted today (not to mention the implications that the kids are committing suicide by drowning themselves).

** ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145HesAlive He's Alive]]'' focuses on [[Creator/DennisHopper Dennis Hopper]] learning how to influence and mislead people from the ghost of a ruthless dictator. Dennis Hopper would later go on to play one in the 1993 [[Film/SuperMarioBros1993 Super Mario Bros]] movie.
* HollywoodHomely: Paula from "''[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145TheMasks The Masks]]''". While the mask does leave her somewhat homely looking, with eyebags, a slightly large nose and lips, and no eyebrows, compared to her parents and brother she got off fairly easy. Which is ironic, given that her grandfather punished her for her vanity.
* HollywoodPudgy: Justified with Marge Moore in "A Piano in the House." She really is obese, and this makes her determination [[BigFun to be a good sport about her weight]] and her secret fantasy of being as tiny and graceful as a snowflake all the more poignant.
* JerkassWoobie: Erich Streator in "Living Doll". Even the writer of that episode stated that he's not a good guy and yet you can't help but feel for him in this situation. He ''wants'' to improve himself, but the evil talking doll keeps screwing up his chances.

* ParanoiaFuel: Quite a few episodes but "Person or Persons Unknown" stands out as it's completely free of any sci-fi or supernatural elements. You could wake up one morning and find that all memory and record of your existence has been completely erased and you have no idea how or why. On the flip side, you could also wake up and find that you no longer recognize anyone else.
** "The Jeopardy Room" also lacks any supernatural elements. It plays on the idea that just about ANYTHING could be turned into a deadly booby trap within your living quarters without your knowledge. Even something as simple as a [[spoiler: telephone]] could be a deadly bomb.

*** A young Creator/GeorgeTakei appears in the Season 5 episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E151TheEncounter "The Encounter"]], two years before the debut of his StarMakingRole as Hikaru Sulu.
*** Creator/LeonardNimoy appears as a radio operator in the Season 3 episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E80AQualityOfMercy "A Quality of Mercy"]].
*** Of course, Creator/WilliamShatner in the episodes [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E123NightmareAt20000Feet "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"]] and [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E43NickOfTime "Nick of Time"]].
** Creator/CliffRobertson a.k.a. [[Film/SpiderMan1 "Uncle Ben Parker"]] in the episodes [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E59AHundredYardsOverTheRim "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim"]] and [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E98TheDummy "The Dummy"]].
** Creator/DonaldPleasence in the Season 3 finale [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E102TheChangingOfTheGuard "The Changing of the Guard"]] albeit under heavy makeup.
** A pre-''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' Creator/ElizabethMontgomery appears in the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E66Two "Two"]], while her Bewitched hubby Creator/DickYork shows up in [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E52APennyForYourThoughts "A Penny For Your Thoughts"]]
** Creator/MartinLandau in the Season 1 episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E3MrDentonOnDoomsday "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"]] and Season 5's [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E149TheJeopardyRoom "The Jeopardy Room"]] a couple of years before ''Series/MissionImpossible''.
** A year or so before the start of ''Series/TheBeverlyHillbillies'', Creator/BuddyEbsen appears as the telekinitic Jimbo Cobb in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E57ThePrimeMover The Prime Mover]]", and Donna Douglas appears at the end of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E42TheEyeOfTheBeholder The Eye of the Beholder]]" as [[spoiler:the unmasked Janet Tyler]].
** A young Kevin [=McCarthy=] (noted Creator/JoeDante regular) in the episode [[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E24LongLiveWalterJameson "Long Live Walter Jameson"]]. He would later appear in the "It's a Good Life" remake segment in ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie''.
** Creator/SterlingHolloway, the original voice of [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie-the-Pooh]], appears as a TV repairman in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E144WhatsInTheBox What's In The Box]]."

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Perhaps the UrExample. Every single episode has had its plot reused, redone, or parodied by some sci-fi/horror show, movie, or book. Most modern viewers watching the series for the first time will often find themselves scratching their heads and asking, "How did people think this was scary? The story's been done to death." It's been done to death because ''Twilight Zone'' did it first (and because other shows -- most notably ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' -- have parodied the stories, specifically "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "It's a Good Life", "ToServeMan", among others). It really can't be overstated how explosively original (and at the time, controversial) a lot of the plots were, and the fact that they've since been repeated and redone is a testament to ''The Twilight Zone'''s success as a show.

** One scene highly associated with the series is the gremlin being spotted on the plane's wing in [[Recap/{{TheTwilightZoneS5 E123NightmareAt20000Feet}} "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"]], which has been [[ReferencedBy/{{TheTwilightZoneS5 E123NightmareAt20000Feet}} referenced and spoofed]] by several other works.
** Other signature scenes include the twist endings of [[Recap/{{TheTwilightZoneS2 E42TheEyeOfTheBeholder}} "The Eye of the Beholder"]] (where [[spoiler: the "deformed" Janet Tyler turns out to be a beauty in a world of monstrous-looking people]]) and [[Recap/{{TheTwilightZoneS1 E8TimeEnoughAtLast}} "Time Enough at Last"]] (where [[spoiler: Henry Bemis's glasses break just when he finally has all the time in the world to read]]).
* SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel: "The Night of the Meek," "One for the Angels," "I Sing the Body Electric," "A Penny For Your Thoughts." The twists are happy (or quirky), not cruel, and everyone gets what they wanted.
* UnintentionallySympathetic: In "The Lateness of the Hour," Dr. William Loren (and, to a lesser extent, his wife) is condemned as a horrific monster because he creates [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Ridiculously Human Robots]] as servants for his family--and, as it turns out, his daughter Jana is ''also'' a robot, although [[TomatoInTheMirror she doesn't know that]] until TheReveal. The apparent MoralEventHorizon comes when Dr. Loren reprograms Jana to become Mrs. Loren's personal maid, suggesting that the two never really cared about her...but the evidence doesn't support that, as Dr. Loren showed her nothing but love (he even dismantled the other robots to make her happy) and practically breaks into tears when he's trying to tell her that, human or machine, she's still his daughter--especially because either he or Mrs. Loren was infertile and couldn't have children any other way. Even after the reprogramming, he looks at Maid!Jana sadly, as if he regrets what he had to do. With WhatMeasureIsANonHuman becoming a seriously-considered topic of discussion as the twenty-first century continues, Dr. Loren comes across as a lot more sympathetic to contemporary viewers.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Phyllis from "What's In The Box?" Her husband Joe ''is'' a philandering jerk who sees himself killing her on their TV and eventually being executed for the crime [[spoiler: then ends up killing her in real life]] (and who isn't immune to this trope himself), but she is an embittered and unsupportive wife who keeps mocking and goading him when he tries to tell her what he saw, even calling him crazy. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking And her laugh is annoying.]]

*** Averted with “One For The Angels,” as the friendly salesman of the episode is implied to have a good relationship with the children’s parents in the neighborhood, and they seem to know him pretty well.

** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E24LongLiveWalterJameson Long Live Walter Jameson]]", Walter is scolded by his future father-in-law for trying to make his daughter a housewife even though she's getting her Ph. D. which is not only impressive given the time period, but his age too.
** The aesop of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Death's Head Revisited]]" is that we need to remember UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust because if we don't we risk it happening again. This has become more and more relevant over time with all the Holocaust denials and rise of antisemitism, especially in Europe.
** The main character of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E94FourOClock Four O' Clock]]", Crangle, is a ConspiracyTheorist who harasses those he deems "communist" or otherwise "evil". There are simply too many modern examples of persecuting those somebody considers 'evil' to list here.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E110Miniature Miniature]]" has received a lot more praise in recent years for having a main character with a very accurate portrayal of Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological condition that was virtually unknown when the episode first aired, and, for its time, wasn't nearly as accepted as it was today, an interesting contrast with the somewhat ableist undertones of "Mute".
** In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E126LivingDoll Living Doll]]", the fact that Erich is infertile is actually (albeit subtly) mentioned. Even today, male infertility is often stigmatized.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E146IAmTheNightColorMeBlack I Am The Night-Color Me Black]]" is downright ''chilling'' in a modern context. A stark and scathing portrait of systemic racism and inequality with eerie resonance to modern events, both in America and worldwide, the deepest cut is a damning focus on passive participation and profit. The sheriff who bowed to public pressure to keep his office and the newspaper owner who spun the reporting to appeal to the town's prejudices and sell papers are as guilty in the unjust execution as the bigoted deputy who perjured his testimony and stoked the crowd for attention and political gain.

** ''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145HesAlive He's Alive]]'' focuses on [[Creator/DennisHopper Dennis Hopper]] learning how to influence and mislead people from the ghost of a ruthless dictator. Dennis Hopper would later go on to play one in the 1993 [[Film/SuperMarioBros Super Mario Bros]] movie.
* HollywoodHomely: Paula from "''[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E145TheMasks The Masks]]''". While the mask does leave her somewhat homely looking, with eyebags, a slightly large nose and lips, and no eyebrows, compared to her parents and brother she got off fairly easy. Which is ironic, given that her grandfather punished her for her vanity.

* CompleteMonster: In a series that rarely contained anything resembling pure evil, these were the exceptions:
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E71TheMirror The Mirror]]": [[TheCaligula Ramos Clemente]] is a peasant turned general turned revolutionary who overthrows the tyrannical [[TheGeneralissimo General de Cruz]]. When warning signs arise in Clemente's unhinged demand that de Cruz be [[CruelAndUnusualDeath executed]] via being stripped, slathered in honey, and consumed by ants, Clemente becomes enamored with the former dictator's supposedly MagicMirror. [[TheParanoiac Believing his friends plot against]] him upon seeing their images in the glass, Clemente murders them and begins ordering the executions of thousands of prisoners around the clock, becoming a more loathed tyrant than de Cruz himself.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E74DeathsHeadRevisited Deaths-Head Revisited]]": [[CardCarryingVillain Gunther Lutze]] is a former Nazi [[PoWCamp concentration camp]] captain at Dachau, described in the opening narration as "an animal whose function in life was to give pain". Lutze revisits Germany, and plays a game where he mentally torments a woman at a hotel who recognizes him and is utterly terrified. After this, Lutze visits Dachau, [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims reminiscing about his atrocities]] and flashing back to the times when he had innocent victims hanged, shot or experimented on as if those were the best years of his life, until he is confronted by Dachau's "caretaker", a former inmate named Becker. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday Lutze had murdered so many he can't even initially remember he actually killed Becker years ago]] before he is confronted by the ghosts of his victims. As the ending narration states, he is representative of [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust a time]] "when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard", into which they threw away their conscience.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E93TheLittlePeople The Little People]]": [[PsychopathicManchild Peter Craig]], the co-pilot to William Fletcher, is an egotistical man who longs to hold power over others. When Craig and Fletcher land on an alien world seemingly bereft of life, Craig finds an entire civilization of microscopic "little people". In a mad quest to achieve godhood, [[AGodAmI Craig]] declares himself the ruler of the civilization and forces the people to do his bidding, regularly crushing swathes of their land on cruel whims. Craig holds the threat of total annihilation of the civilization over their heads so they will worship him, and when Fletcher confronts Craig on the fact that he's "no god, but has gotten [the little people] to believe in [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters the Devil]]!", Craig threatens to shoot Fletcher dead if he doesn't leave Craig to continue his maniacal tyranny.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E106HesAlive He's Alive]]": UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself turns out to be the [[TheManBehindTheMan shadowy benefactor]] of the troubled neo-Nazi Peter Vollmer, [[TheCorrupter corrupting]] the young man into a solid mouthpiece through which to kickstart a new, hate-fueled Reich. Hitler cajoles Vollmer into murdering one of his own loyal followers to make a martyr out of him to inspire the crowds Vollmer amasses while stamping out any hints of decency or hesitance in Vollmer, ultimately ordering him to murder the old Jewish man who raised Vollmer practically as his own son. When Vollmer is finally gunned down, Hitler has formed him into his exact image of the perfect Nazi: all steel and no heart, with Hitler himself seeping back into the shadow to feed off the prejudice and hate that authored so many millions of deaths during his reign of terror.
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E138BlackLeatherJackets Black Leather Jackets]]": [[AliensAreBastards The leader of the alien race]] wishes to overtake and colonize Earth. [[FantasticRacism Claiming humans are evil and barbaric]], he sends out thousands of aliens disguised as humans to [[WaterSourceTampering poison the city's water supply with bacteria]], leading to the extinction of human life. When the alien Scotty falls in love with a human and attempts to show that humans are not all bad, the leader simply labels him a traitor and sends him off to his [[UncertainDoom fate]], while starting to [[AlienInvasion invade Earth]].
** "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E149TheJeopardyRoom The Jeopardy Room]]": [[FauxAffablyEvil Commissar Vassiloff]] is a cruel [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] whose job is to hunt down and kill defectors from the Soviet Union. With his latest target, Major Ivan Kuchenko, in sniper range, Vassiloff refuses to have him merely shot. Instead, Vassiloff decides to give Kuchenko "[[MadArtist the death of an artist]]". To that end, Vassiloff forces Kuchenko into a trap where he must find and defuse a bomb hidden in his hotel room under a 3-hour time limit. Vassiloff delights in watching his victim suffer a nervous breakdown as time runs out, and [[CruelMercy continues to leave him alive]] even as he pleads, screaming, to be shot. With a ComplexityAddiction that defies all logic, Vassiloff cements himself as one of the most sadistic characters on the show, claiming to have killed 800 people in similar ways purely to satisfy his boredom.