[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers from The Twilight Zone Episode 1, “The Comedian,” and Episode 2, “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet.”] CBS All Access’ reimagining of The Twilight Zone delivers true anthology storytelling in that each episode is a standalone plot than can be enjoyed all by itself. But for Twilight Zone diehards, the reboot also has fun paying homage to Rod Serling’s classic series through visual, character, or narrative references. They’re not only an entertaining way to honor the show’s roots, but each nod to the past also creates a connection to the present — as if they all exist in the same universe, or zone. The new Twilight Zone also adds to the mythology with its own references within Jordan Peele’s rebooted universe, creating new connections that knit the episodes together in spirit. “We’ll always try to integrate the world as much as possible, both with the original series and with our own series to try to build out and lean on that mythology to make it something big,” executive producer Win Rosenfeld told IndieWire. “But we always want to be careful also not to just be irritating.” The new series wastes no time with the homage in the very first frame of the first episode “The Comedian.” The camera starts on the back wall of a comedy club that features a mural painted to look like an extension of the room with formally dressed patrons sitting in an auditorium. Some of the most grotesque faces in the audience may look familiar. “That was Michael Wylie, our production designer. Michael had the idea and we all really liked the idea,” said executive producer Simon Kinberg. “There’s a lot of secrets that are buried in the show that get threaded together over the span of the season. That’s one thread that begins something larger.” Below, check out a breakdown of the classic and new universe references found within the first two episodes of The Twilight Zone: “The Comedian” Classic References That comedy club mural: In the back of Eddies comedy club is a photo mural in which a few audience members’ faces appear distorted in such a way that they resemble the grotesque visages in two classic episodes. “Eye of the Beholder” is the bizarre episode where a woman who looks normal is considered “hideous” while all the hospital staff around her have pig-nosed, gruesome faces. In “The Masks,” a greedy and callous family are forced to wear monstrous masks that transform their real faces to reflect their nasty natures. The theatrical drama and comedy masks in “The Comedian” that flank the stage also have a distinct pig-nosed appearance. In the back of Eddies comedy club is a photo mural in which a few audience members’ faces appear distorted in such a way that they resemble the grotesque visages in two classic episodes. “Eye of the Beholder” is the bizarre episode where a woman who looks normal is considered “hideous” while all the hospital staff around her have pig-nosed, gruesome faces. In “The Masks,” a greedy and callous family are forced to wear monstrous masks that transform their real faces to reflect their nasty natures. The theatrical drama and comedy masks in “The Comedian” that flank the stage also have a distinct pig-nosed appearance. Donner: The drunk-misogynist comic Joe Donner (Toby Hargrave) is likely named for classic Twilight Zone director Richard Donner. The drunk-misogynist comic Joe Donner (Toby Hargrave) is likely named for classic Twilight Zone director Richard Donner. Willie the Ventriloquist dummy: Backstage in the dressing room, a dummy is seen similar to the creepy Willie who talks to his ventriloquist Jerry (Cliff Robertson) from the classic episode, “The Dummy.” Cadwallader: The name Al Cadwallader can be seen in the contact list for Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani). A person named Mr. Cadwallader is the alter ego of the devil who tempts a mean hypochondriac with immortality in the episode “Escape Clause.” The name Al Cadwallader can be seen in the contact list for Samir Wassan (Kumail Nanjiani). A person named Mr. Cadwallader is the alter ego of the devil who tempts a mean hypochondriac with immortality in the episode “Escape Clause.” James Corry: Another one of Samir’s phone contacts. In the classic episode “The Lonely,” James A. Corry is a man sentenced to solitary confinement on an asteroid in 2046 when he’s given a female robot companion. Another one of Samir’s phone contacts. In the classic episode “The Lonely,” James A. Corry is a man sentenced to solitary confinement on an asteroid in 2046 when he’s given a female robot companion. Henry Corwin: Another Samir contact, Henry Corwin is also the name of a drunken department store Santa in the episode “Night of the Meek.” Another Samir contact, Henry Corwin is also the name of a drunken department store Santa in the episode “Night of the Meek.” Al Denton: Another Samir contact, this is also the name of the drunken quick draw cowboy from the old episode “Mr. Denton on Doomsday.” Another Samir contact, this is also the name of the drunken quick draw cowboy from the old episode “Mr. Denton on Doomsday.” James Embry: Another Samir contact, this is also the name of a bomber captain who crash-landed in the desert during World War II in “King Nine Will Not Return.” Another Samir contact, this is also the name of a bomber captain who crash-landed in the desert during World War II in “King Nine Will Not Return.” ”Mouth” McGarry: This name is seen onscreen as one of Samir’s old high school buddies. It’s also the name of the manager of a lousy baseball team, the Hoboken Zephyrs, in the comedic episode “The Mighty Casey.” This name is seen onscreen as one of Samir’s old high school buddies. It’s also the name of the manager of a lousy baseball team, the Hoboken Zephyrs, in the comedic episode “The Mighty Casey.” Paul Grinstead: Another one of Samir’s old high school contacts, this is a man who comes to the aid of the frightened woman in the classic episode “Mirror Image” in which she claims she’s seen her doppelgänger at a train station. This episode is also the inspiration for Peele’s Us. Another one of Samir’s old high school contacts, this is a man who comes to the aid of the frightened woman in the classic episode “Mirror Image” in which she claims she’s seen her doppelgänger at a train station. This episode is also the inspiration for Peele’s Us. Joey Crown: Another blast from Samir’s past, this is the name of the trumpet player from the meditative episode “A Passage for Trumpet.” Another blast from Samir’s past, this is the name of the trumpet player from the meditative episode “A Passage for Trumpet.” William “Fitz” Fitzgerald: This is a name that can be seen on the wall of the dressing room. It’s also the name of the poor WWII lieutenant who could see when a fellow soldier was about to die in fatalistic episode “The Purple Testament.” This is a name that can be seen on the wall of the dressing room. It’s also the name of the poor WWII lieutenant who could see when a fellow soldier was about to die in fatalistic episode “The Purple Testament.” Kanamit: Dee Dee (Diarra Kilpatrick) can be seeing drinking Kanamit lager from a bottle. This also happens to be the name of the alien race that sees humans as a delicacy in that infamous episode, “To Serve Man.” “The Comedian” Miscellaneous References The Shining: Just like how Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance is seen in the vintage 1921 ballroom photograph at the end of the movie, Samir Wassan is seen in the mural at the end of the episode. It’s unclear if it’s because he has become one with The Twilight Zone or if this is an indication that he was a reincarnation of another person. Either way, it’s pretty trippy. Just like how Jack Nicholson’s character Jack Torrance is seen in the vintage 1921 ballroom photograph at the end of the movie, Samir Wassan is seen in the mural at the end of the episode.<doc-sep>The Twilight Zone (2019 reboot) type TV Show network CBS All Access Jordan Peele recommends watching these three Twilight Zone episodes from the original series. We spoke to the Get Out and Us director in advance of his upcoming reboot of the anthology sci-fi series for CBS All Access and asked which of the show’s 156 classic episodes (which are currently streaming on Netflix and CBS All Access) he’d most recommend. Not surprisingly, Peele made some great choices. In no particular order… to_serve_hero4 Credit: CBS “To Serve Man”: An advanced alien species invades Earth and proceeds to… make everything better? “‘To Serve Man’ is the one that, I think, is the quintessential Twilight Zone,” Peele says. “It’s perfect. It has everything.” (Including one of the best twists in the whole series.) twilight-zone-peele Credit: CBS “Living Doll,” a.k.a. “Talky Tina”: A girl with an abusive stepfather (Kojack’s Telly Savalas) gets the toy she always wanted, but Tina has a mind of her own. “It’s one of my favorites,” Peele says. “Just scared the sh— out of me as a kid. And you could make the argument that underneath that is a story about consumerism, the one-upsmanship of toys. But in its essence, it’s a great horror story.” Indeed there’s a lot going on in this episode, which functions as a compelling family melodrama in which Savalas’ stepdad is arguably scarier than the haunted doll. Note that the mother’s name is familiar to fans of this genre: Annabelle. 1548868294631.0 Credit: CBS “Mirror Image”: A woman (Psycho’s Vera Miles) at a bus stop is haunted by the appearance of a mysterious doppelgänger. This is a good warm-up — or come-down — to watching Peele’s new doppelgänger-filled horror hit Us. Here’s one particularly clever recurring shot from the episode. Note the way the director cuts off the “LADIES” room sign for an ominous angle: Screen Shot 2019-03-25 at 4.35.45 PM (2) Credit: CBS “Those are my top three,” Peele says. “They’re very scary and very dark ones.” Peele’s fellow Twilight Zone executive producer Simon Kinberg has a few recommendations too: The original “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” starring William Shatner, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is another, and then there’s the fan favorite “Time Enough at Last,” starring Burgess Meredith as book-obsessed bank teller. “Meredith’s performance is so extraordinary, and the twist at the end of that one is as good a twist as you can come up with,” Kinberg says. “What’s interesting about that one is that’s a good example of an episode that was just really about character. It wasn’t really about society or social justice. There are plenty of episodes that we have, even in our first season, that are very much like that — just an exploration of a character’s struggle in the world or struggle with his or herself, with a discovery and an ironic twist toward the end.” The Twilight Zone debuts April 1 on CBS All Access. Related content:<doc-sep>The most stimulating part of The Twilight Zone‘s premiere episode (in as much as “The Comedian” is one of the first two episodes dropped by CBS All Access) is host and executive producer Jordan Peele finally baritone-ing out, “the Twilight Zone” followed by an ever so slight eyebrow raise. It happens 11 minutes into the first episode following an intriguing first 10 spent with Kumail Nanjiani’s Samir, a comedian who’s struggling to get laughs while also focusing on topics he thinks are worthwhile. The perfect cheekiness of Peele’s eyebrow raise, coupled with the homage it suggests to his predecessor and series creator Rod Sterling, give the viewer the confidence that we’re in good hands with this Twilight Zone reboot: in the hands of someone who gets it… The following 42 minutes, however, might find that confidence wavering a bit. The visuals of this episode were stunningly eerie, the performances were excellent, and the premise is there—but somehow, the journey of the main character from “pretentious failure” to mostly unchanged “pretentious success, now complete with murderin’ powers,” rendered the stakes a little hollow. This is not a bad episode of television. But it’s not necessarily a defining episode in a series reboot that needs desperately to define itself in order to be successful. The recapper would soon find that wanting desperately—TOO desperately—to define himself was the very problem facing this episode’s protagonist, and that she had…stepped into the Twilight Zone. That “The Comedian” touches on sacrificing integrity in order to make one’s own unique mark on pop culture is a bold first step to take in a reboot with many, many critical eyes on it. That it kind of winds up doing the opposite—a respectful, but mostly unimpressive homage—could either be seen as a relief…or a bit of a bore. But the episode, and the promised series at large, have an unbelievable cast (both in talent and diversity, thank goodness), and the attachment of Peele’s name (and voice, and eyebrows), who happens to be an expert at evoking universal fear through unique stories. So I’m going to take that eyebrow-raise, and let it assure me that there’s even more to come… Plus, as far as far as modernized-Twilight-Zone-but-still-not-Black-Mirror premises go, “The Comedian” hits a difficult thematic mark. But the one thing this premiere really nails are those tiny details that put the viewer on edge—that make you subconsciously understand something is a little off about this world. The episode opens up on what looks like an audience listening to the voice of Samir saying, “We’re living in crazy times, crazy times.” We don’t get to spend long with that audience, but something isn’t right about them—angry twists of the mouth and too-wide noses—until it’s soon revealed to just be a large photo inside Eddies (no apostrophe) Comedy Club. When we see the real audience listening to Samir, they all look like accountants: french twists and brown blazers. It’s the kind of timeless look that could belong anywhere, and therefore nowhere, making it even harder to get our bearings. But we know one thing: Samir, who is not doing so hot. He’s not bombing exactly, but there are only a few light chuckles here and there at his impassioned observation that all the people obsessed with their Second Amendment right to guns completely gloss over its first three words: “a well-regulated,” which makes up 11 percent of the entire amendment. Samir says that may not seem like a lot, but that’s like a pilot assuring the travelers they’re going to make it 89 percent of the way home…which happens to be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Is that a hint at the next episode?? Maybe. It’s definitely…an observation. Perhaps a good quip for a dinner party, but it’s not a joke that’s making Samir a famous comedian. When he sits down after his set, knowing he didn’t do well, a mysterious man at the end of the bar strikes up a conversation with him. It turns out to be Tracy Morgan, I mean JC Wheeler, I mean Dave Chapelle, I mean—okay, let’s go back. Samir recognizes this man played by cool cat Tracy Morgan as JC Wheeler, a famous comedian who suddenly disappeared at the height of his career, a la Dave Chapelle. There are a couple of tough lines in “The Comedian,” but by far the toughest happen during Samir and JC’s pivotal exchange. “You were everywhere, and then you just disappeared,” Samir tells this man about his own life. “You had it all, what happened?” Samir asks this man who he super doesn’t know. “I had it all?” JC answers in response. In some ways, this capital-e Exposition style of conversing feels like a fun, noir-style throwback to a different time in film. In other ways—it just feels like clumsy writing. Maybe we’ll let a few more episodes be the judge. JC tells Samir that he’s been funnier in their conversation than in anything he said about the second amendment: “The audience doesn’t want to hear you make points.” Samir makes it clear that he thinks talking about his personal life onstage is a cop-out and not really accomplishing anything as a comedian. “You happy with your life? With your career? Don’t you want it all?” JC asks. Samir says he wants it all more than anything. “You have one thing, one natural resource; you are a country with one export, and you are that export” JC tells him, and okay—that’s a good line! JC says if Samir puts himself out there, he will get laughs, but he needs to be sure: “Once you put it out there, the audience will take it in. They will connect, and once they connect to it, it’s theirs. And once it’s theirs? That shit is gone forever.” Sure, that sounds cool and fine! But Samir doesn’t hear the menace; he just hears success. “My life is okay, it’s fine,” he says: “But you don’t choose comedy because you want a fine life, you choose comedy because you want it all.” It is truly a testament to Kumail Nanjiani as a performer that he—a fantastic comedian—could play such a dope of a comedian, and more: that he could say this line with a straight face. Wowza. JC and Samir clink glasses, and the next time he goes on stage and stares into the blank accountant eyes in the audience while talking about the second amendment, Samir spontaneously goes off script: “I wish you could all see your own faces right now. You have the exact same face my dogs has when she’s taking a shit.” They laugh. So he talks about his dog some more: “The other day she peed on my pizza…but that was my fault, I shouldn’t have yelled at her while she was standing on my pizza.” Maybe I’m just one of those idiots in the audience Samir wanted to use comedy to make a point to, but I laughed. It’s funny! And the audience thought so too. Samir heads home floating on air at the successful set… But when he arrives at his apartment with huge windows that seem to constantly have lights from the outside darting through them at fast speeds, he can’t find his dog. He wakes his girlfriend Reina up to ask where the dog is, and she tells him to stop messing around—they don’t have a dog. Host Jordan Peele is suddenly in the scene (a fun new twist!) to tell us how Samir could not immediately know what’s going on here: “Tonight, he felt the rush of the limelight for the first time. Now he’ll have to decide what really matters to him when the laughter stops. And how much is he willing to give…to the Twilight Zone.” The next time we see Samir, he’s putting up lost dog posters with Reina’s nephew even though he couldn’t find a single one of the hundreds of photos he used to have of the dog on his phone. His nephew Devin is an adorable 10-year-old in a leather jacket who also wants to be a comedian, so Samir takes him to watch his next set at Eddies.<doc-sep>
In the aftermath of World War II, and at the height of the civil rights movement, The Twilight Zone confronted our deepest fears, the grave anxieties of poverty, guilt, and death, and decayed morality. So it’s no wonder that Jordan Peele, similarly interrogating our current dystopia through genre films like Get Out and this month’s highly successful Us, would reignite Rod Serling’s series. Having previewed the first few episodes, it’s clear that Peele is ready to chew on another critical time in America’s history. Rebooting The Twilight Zone doesn’t only mean relating to and understanding its original thesis. It takes a voice like Peele’s, one acutely aware of what that metaphorical dimension would look like in today’s era and how it would, for instance, exact justice on the morally bankrupt. Take an episode like “Take My Life…Please!” from the ’80s Twilight Zone reboot. In it, a successful comedian (Tim Thomerson) dies in a car accident after being outed for stealing jokes from another funnyman. When he enters the afterlife, he finds himself back on stage, condemned to spend eternity testifying his most regretful actions in front of an increasingly amused audience. Peele mastered the art of cinematic due process as the writer-director of Get Out, in which a black man (Daniel Kaluuya) breaks free from, then retaliates against, his white captors, and he returns to the concept by seemingly rewiring “Take My Life…Please!” for the second episode of his series. In “The Comedian,” the stand-up comic (Kumail Nanjiani) isn’t dealing with the moral quandary of artistic theft in an industry where originality is invaluable, but navigating comedy with the level of political consciousness that today’s society demands of stars such as Amy Schumer and Dave Chapelle. Samir (Nanjiani) struggles to entertain the crowd with a joke about the hypocrisy of the Second Amendment, but he finds greater success when he sacrifices his morals and begins making fun of real-life people with banal jokes, giving him a sense of superiority reflective of the social media era’s keyboard courage. But in The Twilight Zone, there is always an ominous consequence. The new series also pierces the notion of “fake news” by taking cues from Serling’s unsettling 1963 episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” The original story follows a recently discharged mental patient (William Shatner) who thinks he sees a monster on the wing of a plane, and panics when no one else attests to it, causing him to reconsider what we all covet the most: the ability to determine what is real. Unbeknownst to him, he was released from the hospital, but sentenced to the Twilight Zone. “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet” is set in today’s callout culture, and centers on a similarly unreliable protagonist who uses his version of the truth to attack others. Justin (Adam Scott) is an investigative journalist who’s just completed a stint in therapy and is back to looking for “unbiased truths.” He creates a ruckus when, inspired by a true-crime podcast about Russian mafiosos who conduct dirty business on airplanes, he grows suspicious of a passenger aboard his flight to Tel Aviv. Instead of monsters perched on the outside of a plane, Peele’s Twilight Zone focuses on worst-case-scenario human threats and reactive responses — in this case, grappling with a generation alarmed by Russian influence on U.S. politics. But what happens when our fears turn us into the monsters that most horrify us? As fans of Us know, Peele urges the audience to see how we contribute to our own demise. If we know the consequence is facing a wrath like the Twilight Zone, would that change how we behave? Hindsight may be 20/20, but The Twilight Zone has often tried to give its dubious characters the benefit of the doubt with the wisdom of foresight. In Serling’s 1960 episode “A Most Unusual Camera,” a crime duo takes advantage of a magical camera that photographs future events — by snapping photos of the winning numbers at the horse race for a quick windfall. But even with the perk of clairvoyance, the perpetrators meet their fates when the camera ultimately captures their deaths. Peele’s “Replay” reimagines the device, in this case a camcorder, as a shield against the rise of police brutality. Sanaa Lathan plays a mother driving her son (Damson Idris) to his first year of college. The camcorder she’s using to record their road trip captures her son getting shot and killed by a cop — an event that hasn’t happened yet.