Line #25 YMMV/TheTwilightZone1985


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: There's a surprising amount for the end of "The Shadow Man".
2	** [[spoiler: Either Danny had been mistaken the whole episode and The Shadow Man who had been attacking people was different than the one living under his bed]]
3	** [[spoiler: Or there is more than one Shadow Man attacking people]].
4	** [[spoiler: Or Danny's Shadow Man turned on him for his AcquiredSituationalNarcissism]].
5	** [[spoiler: Or a combination; Danny's Shadow Man wanted Danny to pay for betraying his friends and knowingly letting people get attacked so he got another Shadow Man to attack]].
6	* CrossesTheLineTwice: "Take My Life... Please": Billy Diamond's fate is surprisingly tragic, and yet some dark comedy is wrung from it when he asks his demonic "agent" Max if his IronicHell is going to last for eternity. Max shrugs and says "Forever's a long time, but I've got you booked for the next two eons!"
7	* EsotericHappyEnding: "Leprechaun Artist" is hated enough because of the boys getting off with their horrible attitudes, but there is no indication the parents were broken out of their trance.
8	* HilariousInHindsight:
9	** It's amazing that, within the span of one decade, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Jane_Persky Lisa Jane Persky]][[note]]Sandra in "The Once and Future King"[[/note]] would take part in a story where a time traveler takes the place of Music/ElvisPresley the day before he cuts his first record... ''[[Series/QuantumLeap twice]]''[[note]]she's Marion in "Memphis Melody"[[/note]].
10	** The plot of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E20 Button, Button]]" is nearly identical to the game "Will You Press the Button?".
11	** The plot of "Dead Run" sees a trucker named Johnny Davis getting a job ferrying souls to Main/{{Hell}}, only to start chatting with some of his passengers and realizing that they're not evil in the slightest. It turns out that Main/{{Heaven}} has fallen under the control of a CelestialBureaucracy that's using a literal translation of the Bible to damn nearly everyone that dies. Over thirty years later, this ''exact same plot device''--right down to Heaven being run by well-meaning but horribly inefficient people-- would be used on [[Series/TheGoodPlace another series about the afterlife]] as a major twist in the show.
12	*** Likewise, two particular characters in the episode? The dispatcher (Creator/JohnDeLancie) dictating who is put in the truck, and a Vietnam draft dodger (Creator/BrentSpiner). In other words, [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Q almost sent Data to Hell]].
13	** Ron Glass playing a demon in "I of Newton" is particularly funny in hindsight considering [[{{Series/Firefly}} Shepherd Book]] had a colorful backstory.
14	** Creator/JMichaelStraczynski wrote "Special Service", which features a TrumanShowPlot nine years before ''Film/TheTrumanShow'' was released. ''The Truman Show'' won the 1999 [[UsefulNotes/HugoAward Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation]], beating the ''Series/BabylonFive'' SeriesFinale "[[Recap/BabylonFiveS05E22SleepingInLight Sleeping in Light]]", also written by Straczynski.
15	** "Room 2426" ends with [[Creator/DeanStockwell Martin Decker]] vanishing in a flash of light, and winding up in a completely different location as a result of, as the Narrator puts it, "[stepping] out of the confines of logic and [taking] [[Series/QuantumLeap a leap of faith]]".[[note]]Thus making this ''[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E15AQualityOfMercy the second time]]'' an episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' predicted Dean Stockwell's involvement in ''Series/QuantumLeap''.[[/note]]
16	*** Furthermore, this episode aired in February of 1989, '''one month''' prior to the series premiere of ''Series/QuantumLeap''.
17	* JerkassWoobie: Several episodes of the show featured an unlikable protagonist and humanized them enough to make the viewer feel sorry for them anyway.
18	** Peter Jay Novins from "Shatterday" is a misanthropic, selfish jerk, but his predicament (having his life taken over by a doppelgänger while he fades away) is still quite pitiable. His doppelgänger is a much better man than him, and neither of them control what happens, but Peter still winds up being quite sympathetic both for what he goes through and ultimately [[FaceDeathWithDignity facing the end with grace]].
19	** Billy Diamond in "Take My Life... Please!" He's a vile man who frequently plagiarized other comedians, often physically abused women to the point of once breaking a prostitute's jaw and refusing to call the hospital, and threw his elderly, helpless mother out of the house, indirectly causing her death. Despite all this, his IronicHell causing him to have a HeelRealization makes him surprisingly sympathetic. He realizes he's a monster and that he hates himself, but because he's already dead, he can't change and he's stuck continually having to recount his worst actions for all eternity.
20	* RetroactiveRecognition:
21	** Creator/BruceWillis played Peter Jay Novins in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1 Shatterday]]".
22	** Creator/JudithBarsi played Bertie in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1 A Little Peace and Quiet]]".
23	** Creator/TerryOQuinn (credited as Terrance O'Quinn) played Dr. Curt Lockridge in "Chameleon".
24	** Creator/ArlissHoward played the stranger in "Kentucky Rye".
25	** Tim Russ played a cop in "Kentucky Rye" and Archer in "Voices in the Earth".
26	** Creator/ScottGrimes played Kenny in "Little Boy Lost".
27	** Creator/AndreaBarber played Cathy Marano in "If She Dies".
28	** Musician Music/JennyLewis played Sarah in "If She Dies".
29	** Robert Duncan [=McNeill=] (credited as Duncan [=McNeil=]) played Peter Wood in "A Message from Charity".
30	** Creator/MorganFreeman played Tony in "Dealer's Choice".
31	** Creator/NanaVisitor played Lori in "Dead Woman's Shoes".
32	** Creator/GiovanniRibisi played Teddy in "The Beacon".
33	** Creator/GaryCole played Daniel Gaddis in "Her Pilgrim Soul".
34	** Creator/DanicaMcKellar played the 10-year-old Nola Granville in "Her Pilgrim Soul" and Deidre Dobbs in "Shelter Skelter".
35	** Creator/RonGlass played a demon in "I of Newton".
36	** Benji Gregory played a homeless boy in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E11TheNightOfTheMeek Night of the Meek]]".
37	** Creator/JeffKober played a cop in "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E11TheNightOfTheMeek Night of the Meek]]".
38	** Creator/JonathanFrakes played a single guy named Steve in "But Can She Type?".
39	** Creator/AdamArkin played Michael Wright in "A Matter of Minutes".
40	** Danny Nucci played Buddy in "The Leprechaun-Artist".
41	** Creator/JohnDeLancie and Creator/BrentSpiner, who later appeared together in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', played the afterlife's dispatcher and a [[DraftDodging draft dodger]] respectively in "Dead Run".
42	** Creator/WilliamPetersen played Edward Sayers in "Need to Know".
43	** Creator/LoriPetty played Lori Pendleton in "The Library".
44	** Creator/VictorGarber played Dr. Kevin Carlson in "A Day in Beaumont".
45	** Creator/JohnCameronMitchell played Tom in "The Last Defender of Camelot".
46	** Creator/AnthonyLaPaglia played a punk in "The Last Defender of Camelot".
47	** Creator/FredSavage played Jeff Mattingly in "What Are Friends For?".
48	** Creator/MarkPaulGosselaar played Tim Conrad in "What Are Friends For?".
49	** Creator/ChristopherMcDonald played a delivery man in "Aqua Vita".
50	** David Faustino played Micah Frost in "The Storyteller".
51	** Creator/TerryFarrell played Marsha Cole in "The After Hours".
52	** Richard Biggs played Dr. Tomson in "The Toys of Caliban".
53	** Creator/RobertKnepper (credited as Rob Knepper) played Alonzo in "Joy Ride".
54	** Creator/GinaGershon played Laura Schuppe in "Time and Teresa Golowitz".
55	** Creator/WallaceLangham played Nelson Baxley in "Time and Teresa Golowitz".
56	** Creator/DennisHaskins played Bledsoe in "Voices in the Earth".
57	** R.H. Thomson played Dr. Burrell in "Our Selena is Dying".
58	** Lisa Jakub played Lisa Cranston in "Street of Shadows".
59	** Lally Cadeau played Becky Robb in "Something in the Walls".
60	** Creator/GwynythWalsh played Elaine in "Cat and Mouse".
61	** Creator/GeorgeBuza played Gus in "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich".
62	* JerkassWoobie: Mr. Williams from "Private Channel". You'll be hard-pressed to find someone trying to bomb a plane to be sympathetic, but learning his backstory, his wife and daughter were killed in a plane crash due to negligence and wants revenge because he feels they got away with it, manages to achieve that.
63	* TheScrappy: The three teenage boys (Buddy, J.P. and Richie) from "The Leprechaun Artist". Although they're supposedly the heroes of the story, their behavior is [[SpoiledBrat bratty]] and [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]] at best. Plus, many fans were angry that they got away with their crimes at the end of the episode.
64	* StrawmanHasAPoint: In "Extra Innings", Cindy Hamner tells her husband Ed that he has to move on with his life instead of spending all of his time looking back on the [[CareerEndingInjury knee injury that ended his baseball career]]. She also says that he is being unfair to her as his reluctance to try and get a job means that there is a great deal of financial pressure on her.
65	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece:
66	** As it was made in 1985, the ending of "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1985S1E1 A Little Peace and Quiet]]" is dated to the time of the pre-glasnost, pre-fall of the Berlin Wall cultural fear of a nuclear WorldWarIII between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The same is true of the [[spoiler:apparent]] outbreak of World War III in "Shelter Skelter".
67	** In "Aqua Vita", which was made in 1986, the television anchor Christie Copperfield reports on anti-apartheid demonstrations in Cape Town, the US government considering imposing further economic sanctions on UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica and fighting between Sandinistas and Contras outside UsefulNotes/{{Nicaragua}}'s capital Managua.
68	** In "Private Channel", which was made in 1987, Mr. Williams is able to smuggle a bomb aboard the plane under his shirt. The airport clerk also asks Keith Barnes, who gains his telepathic powers from a Walkman, if he has a smoking or a non-smoking seat.
69	* ValuesDissonance: "The Toys of Caliban" casually uses the word "retarded", nowadays they couldn't get away with that word even if Toby Ross fit the medical definition of the word.
70	* ValuesResonance:
71	** "Dead Run" sympathetically portrayed homosexuality when they condemned a man for sending someone to {{Hell}} for being gay. For an episode from 1986, that was a pretty big step.
72	** "Lost And Found" had a black woman as the main character who was established as being a powerful leader who establishes a bright future for the country and the world

Context YMMV / TheTwilightZone1985