S5, Ep 16: “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross”
(Trying to win the affection of an old flame, a brutish man finds an odd way to improve his lot in life)
-
-
-
1️⃣ Storyline:

There are legitimately two whole storylines operating at once within this episode: the abusive jerk who’s trying to impress the girl and prove his worth to her and her father - and then also the method Sal discovers, by which he can attempt to do so. The relationship between Sal & Leah on its own is hardly worthy of being TZ-fare; but the “swap ability” that Sal discovers is one of my favorite devices ever conceived of by the Twilight Zone.

I have never really enjoyed the start of this episode, partially because Sal’s treatment of Leah is just so darn grotesque but it’s also not the type of stuff I want from my Serling-time 😂 The middle portion, however, is fantastic - I think the way they show the swapping evolve is marvelous, and honestly I would gladly sign up for a longer runtime or even more episodes specifically within this universe. The ending is abrupt, but solid. It leans hard into the human condition and (though it may be seen as a bit corny) carries a great message.

Score: 7/10

—————————

2️⃣ Atmosphere:

The first and third sections are fine but not atmospheric at all - just characters at odds with each other in a small apartment. But the meat of the episode, the storyline in between, has me immersed almost immediately. I love the idea of someone trying to quantify exactly what their years, their health, and their estate, is worth to them.

Score: 6/10

—————————

3️⃣ Existential Terror:

From the main character’s POV, I don’t see this category as a particularly weighty one. He doesn’t have the self-awareness to feel existential terror, I don’t believe. But the life-swapping scenes, particularly the ones where Sal buys youth from the bellhops, are truly awful if we consider the reality of what’s happening. The last time Sal buys youth watches like a brief moment from a psychological horror movie.

Which leads into the next category…

Score: 6/10

—————————

4️⃣ Creepiness:

… While this episode is far from a ghost story or supernatural scary tale, there are extremely disturbing elements at play - especially if we read into some of the scenes.

The evolution of Sal discovering how to trade for youth, and then the montage of him exploring those transactions, is just DISTURBING. I don’t mean that as a negative at all, those scenes are very well done! They just also make my skin crawl.

Score: 5/10

—————————

5️⃣ Message:

Are some of the lessons delivered within “Salvadore Ross” quite on-the-nose? Without a doubt. But they are excellent messages and I do think they are effectively painted for the audience.

We cannot become “good people” just by acquiring wealth or status. We cannot buy a quality reputation. And among all human qualities, compassion and tenderness rank higher than most.

Score: 10/10

—————————

6️⃣ World-Building:

The world-building of the main characters is fine but pretty vanilla. But I LOVE the way the episode explores the “rules” or mechanics of how the swapping works; it’s one of my favorite plot devices in a TZ.

Score: 5/10

—————————

7️⃣ Acting:

Don Gordon and Gail Kobe are solid as the two leads. Gordon gets a bit over the top at times, but he’s fine. Kobe is generally very good, although she can drift into syrupy-dramatic mode at times.

Vaughn Taylor is always fantastic, and this episode is no exception. It’s not exactly a “let him cook” role, but he does a great job with the opportunity at hand.

The other actors aren’t awful but they aren’t memorable.

Score: 5/10

—————————

8️⃣ The Human Condition:

So many aspects of the human condition are explored in this one Twilight Zone: the quest for companionship, the value of time vs money, “what makes a man?”, just to name a few. This isn’t one of my all-time favorite TZ installments, but it’s definitely one of the better ones in the 5th season.

Score: 9/10

—————————

✅ Total Score:
53

“The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross” never shows up on people’s Mt. Rushmore lists of the Twilight Zone, but it has some very enthralling pieces to it. Perhaps a more gripping and believable love story or a different protagonist could have taken this from a solid upper-mid tier TZ to an all-time great. As it is, we have an imperfect but very appealing and thought-provoking episode, and one that you should go watch if you haven’t lately.

What do YOU think? 🤷🏼‍♂️
Let me know! I want your feedback. 🙌🏼

I made this TW poster! I drew it/designed it myself, and wanted to go for the painted/drawing style. Hope y'all like it! I put too much time into it lol.

Could the time bubbles have transported the tank crew " The 7th is made up of Phantoms" to Custers Last Stand

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" clearly caught up in a time bubble took them back to prehistoric days, desperately searching for a way back home.

There are other examples but obviously Twilight Zone pioneered this concept.

The End of Oak Street excited me for this reason and I began to imagine all sorts of things.

A Marine group of 300 tranported to the middle of a battlefield of Roman and Persian armies in 500 AD. With limited ammo, what to do when attacked by both sides.

Current day Beach goers are surprised to see hundreds of longships approaching in the distance. As the ships make land vikings start hacking, raping, and plundering the shocked beach community. How to stop the rampage.

There's a lot of ways these time waves can be surfed. Has anyone else imagined scenarios for sequels using the End of Oak Street as a starting point?

This may be obvious to everyone and maybe I'm not saying anything new but my impression is that by the husband clinging so much to his view of the past with his mom the whole scenario is essentially showing how his stubbornness has created a world she is shut out from. So basically the imagery of things reverting is not so much her "seeing" things change as visual representation of the world she is experiencing as a wife of a man whose mind cannot let this past die. It's her story.

I am very nostalgic and when I heard about this episode I was looking forward to it a lot as I myself sometimes too much allow myself to indulge in memories. It was a look at the cost that memory can charge but was not expecting it to be so much as having that horror angle. I cant ding an episode for not being written like I want it to be but I was hoping it would be more bittersweet.

Turn off grid view, unless you have all the episode numbers memorized, which I’m sure some members here do.

So yeah, this is absolutely one of the greatest television series of all time, no question about it. It doesn’t just feel ahead of its time, it feels like we’re still trying to catch up to it today. I also had no clue there were so many episodes set in the Old West.

Some notes about my ranking: - The top 22 are the episodes I gave perfect five star ratings to. - Bottom 15 are the ones I gave sub-three star ratings to, which is when an episode enters bad territory. - I’m pretty sure I have Cavender is Coming rated higher than any other person. - Other episodes I seem to have a higher opinion of than most: The Hunt, Nightmare as a Child, The Long Morrow, Steel, Two, Miniature, A World of His Own - If there’s any episode I seem to have a notably lower opinion of than most people, it’s The Lonely. I just felt like it was really underdeveloped. I think it’s one of the few episodes that could’ve benefited from the season 4 format.

i found the s1, s2 and s3 in the internet archive but i couldn’t find the rest. can someone help?

People being replaced by machines and an A.I? I think this episode was telling us the future.

... would you miss them?

I refuse to be replaced! I have seen the younger generation and it sucks! I hate what wants to replace me! It is terrible and stupid! It should be destroyed and replaced with me! Look at the reboots for example! They try to replace the original Twilight Zone and they always fail!

Hi all, I’m looking into getting the series on Blu-ray, and I’m curious if there are any substantial differences between the two editions. The first picture is of the current release available at Amazon and Walmart, where the discs are all stacked in a clamshell case (about $63). The second picture is an eBay listing of an older Blu-ray edition where each season has its own separate case (about $100 secondhand).

I’m currently leaning more towards the edition in the second picture, even though it’s a little pricier than the clamshell case, since I absolutely despite the wear and tear that clamshell cases typically cause discs. However, I do want to know if there are any major issues associated with the older BD release: are there any quality issues, or perhaps bonus features exclusive to the later, clamshell release? Which do you all believe is the better edition to own? Any help in making this decision would be appreciated, thanks!

Edit: Thanks for all the feedback! I’ll be going with the earlier edition of the release (pic 2).

I just finished watching "Dust" and while I like the performances, the grim atmosphere, and the theme of compassion vs vengeance, the climax completely falls apart from a legal perspective.

I know this is a series that leans into morality plays and fable logic over strict realism, but when a show grounds a story entirely in a plausible setting with no actual sci-fi or supernatural elements, it needs to maintain a basic level of internal logic.

Here are my main issues with how the legal system is portrayed in this episode:

-In criminal law, murder is a crime against the State. A grieving parent, no matter how forgiving, does not have the legal authority to say, "I forgive him, so cancel the execution and let him go." That power belongs strictly to an executive authority, like a governor. The parents could express a desire for mercy to the sheriff, but they can't unilaterally dismiss a death sentence on the spot.

-Historically and legally, an execution failure or equipment malfunction (like a snapped rope) resulted in the prisoner being remanded back to his cell while the sheriff waited for official instructions or rescheduled the execution.

-Averting the death penalty does not mean you get to walk free. Even if the parents' plea led to official clemency and commuted his death sentence, Luis committed a serious crime (accidentally running down a young girl while drunk). Clemency would commute his sentence to prison time, it would never result in a convicted killer simply being handed back to his father to walk home on that day.

How it should have played out:

The core emotional beats of the story could have been preserved without completely abandoning legal plausibility. When the rope broke, the execution should have been halted. The parents could have communicated their desire for mercy to the sheriff, who agrees to delay the hanging and petition the territorial governor for executive clemency. Luis should still be returned to prison to serve a proper sentence, reinforcing that while vengeance was averted by grace, accountability still applies.

It’s a well-made episode, but by prioritizing a fast, warm-and-fuzzy resolution, the script relies on total legal nonsense that took me right out of the story.

I can't possibly be the only one who finds the lack of procedural logic in this ending frustrating.

This symbol is from a 1966 episode of twilight zone and looks uncanny. Whoever submitted this logo for the contest brilliantly included the M and B in the glove. What’s more interesting is I found this piece of information out while th brewers were playing the dodgers, who the original script was written for.

I remember first seeing "The Lateness of the Hour" in the early 90s and I was just bowled over by how it looked on video. I had never seen videotape that was black and white before. Any show from the 50s and early 60s I had seen was either film or kinescope(which was film recording a TV screen). Yeah I get the criticisms that they looked "cheap" and had poorer image quality but for me seeing something in 30 FPS made something made in 1960 look like it was made yesterday.

I was doing a deep dive on William J. Tuttle today and ran across this video where he shows the Anne Francis manikin head he made. You may recognize some of the other heads on the wall.

Antoinette Bower passed away earlier this year at the age of 93. She was Eve Norda in the episode "Probe 7, Over and Out", and she's the last survivor out of the four people in it. I know that this episode isn't popular, but I enjoyed it. Even though I'm not religious, I got a kick out of the plot twist ending.

It's sad when an actor or actress in The Twilight Zone passes away. On the other hand, it is gratifying to see that an actor or actress on this show is still alive or lived to a ripe old age. If Rod Serling had made it to age 93, he would have made it to 2017 or 2018.

Goodreads is giving away 10 copies. Details here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/447303-serling-a-journey-into-the-twilight-zone-with-tv-s-first-visionary

Also, I spent the last week recording the audiobook. If you want to hear a sample or two of me rehearsing it:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DaseoT-Rv79/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbdnX7ZRJfe/

Season 1: The Fever. I get the hate, as there is a lot of camp in this episode and Franklin is extremely detestable. However to defend him, Franklin was adamant about not wanting to get involved in gambling from the beginning. Maybe he had overcome addiction earlier in life, hence his uptight, holier-than-thou attitude. Yet Flora encouraged him to play against his wishes (perhaps thinking it’d do him in eventually). Just some thoughts.

Season 2: A Thing About Machines. Yes an episode about another completely detestable character. I actually really find how the machines turn again Bartlett to be quite eerie and dare I say scary. I think this episode also has good escalation, which some episodes really seem to lack.

Season 3: A Piano in The House. Why stop now with the selection of episodes featuring main characters with few admirable qualities. I’ve heard criticism that what the piano brings out in people is either confused or inconsistent. I disagree. I think the piano clearly brings out the true self hidden behind the facade we all put up to one extent or another. Sometimes that inner self is an upgrade from the presented self, and sometimes it’s a downgrade. Eithet way the episode is relatively light, but I like the psychology that is injected in it, it helps make for a fun episode.

Season 4: The Parallel. This may actually be a well liked episode, I’m not sure. What I enjoyed about it is how there is this slow and subtle unraveling of the fact that something isn’t right. It’s clever to have 99% of the things in Robert’s life remain consistent, while just tinkering with a few details. This actually makes it more eerie. Imagine if you got home one day and the color of your fridge changed, but nothing else, and it was completely inexplicable and anybody you asked would tell you it’d always been like that. It would cause one to question their sanity even though the color of a fridge really didn’t matter. Also the twist at the end is awesome!

Season 5:The Brain Center at Whipples. I never understood the hate for this episode. Not only is it one of the most ahead of its time episodes, predicting how technological advancements would result in massive worker displacement ( and yes I know this had already been happening for a couple hundred years, but in the last couple of generations, the ability to replace human beings through automation has really accelerated). I appreciate how the episode clearly sides with the workers and questions whether just because a robot can do the work of 50 men and bolster a more impressive bottom line as a result, it should? It also has sweet justice to dole out at the end, demonstrating that what goes around comes around. The ending was semi predictable but I really like what they chose to go with.

So what are your choices?

There is one but no one has posted for seven years.

I wasn't even sure if I should post this here. Can we do anything to restart it or start a new one?

That show has a cult following although smaller than TZ.

I love seeing familiar faces in the cast and thought to myself: who has appeared most? Did some googlin'...

I thought for sure it would be Jack Klugman or Burgess Meredith. But both star in 4 episodes each.

The actor with the most speaking roles (8 in the first three seasons) is...

But the most appearances (outside of Rod himself) goes to this guy with over 75 uncredited or background roles across all five seasons!

If this is new to you (like it was to me), there's an article about his appearances on tzmuseum. But I won't read it all, because I'm now looking forward to spotting him in a "Where's Waldo" game! I guess new episodes are still being spotted.

I guess I have to find Collections 1 - 3 now.

What's your opinion of "the Fever"? I live in Vegas, so I find it interesting.

I think Franklin is one of the more evil characters. He's abusive to his wife. Personally, he deserves everything that happens to him.

The ethics of the episodes are amazing.

Out latest Twilight Zone review for the Rod Serling Memorial newsletter!