Photo of Dean Jagger from The Twilight Zone episode Static. Jagger plays Ed Lindsay, a man whose old radio is able to receive radio broadcasts from years past. (Source: Wikipedia)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who writes:
[While] watching some original episodes of The Twilight Zone on Netflix, I discovered the March 10, 1961 episode entitled “Static”. I think you’d especially appreciate it. If you haven’t seen it, do check it out–it’s about a radio time machine!
There’re a couple of radios featured in the show (a big console tube radio and a transistor portable) but I couldn’t identify them. Maybe you or readers of the SWLing Post
can?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_(The_Twilight_Zone)
Spoiler Alert — if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you might want to hold off on reading about it on Wikipedia.
Click here to view on Netflix.
If you don’t have Netflix, you can watch this episode on YouTube in “Standard Definition” for $1.99. They also offer it in “High Definition” for $2.99. Apparently YouTube figured out a how to make a TV time machine that converts 1961 B&W TV broadcasts to HDTV!
Thanks so much, Ed! I have not seen this episode yet, but I will soon! I thought I had seen all of The Twilight Zone episodes (as a kid and not in any particular order), but I don’t recall this one. I’m looking forward to it!
If I’m not mistake the voice on the radio is that of Bob Crane.
Regarding the show’s availability in HD online: the show was remastered in 720p HD several years ago. Remember, most of these shows from the 50’s and 60’s were shot on film, and film is inherently high definition. The content is still there, and available with a re-scan of the original prints.
Now, having said that, some episodes in season two, if I remember correctly, were shot on videotape because CBS was cheap and trying to save money. Those will still be SD-only and pretty poor quality at that. But the rest of the show looks brilliantly crisp and clean on streaming and Blu-ray.
Unfortunately on my corner of the world Netflix blocked it.
We can only watch mostly contemporary trash.
Happy Easter from the Holy land.
The complete collection of Twilight Zone episodes is also available on demand as digitally restored streaming content via CBS All Active (in the USA) and 10 All Active (the CBS owned network in Australia).
I’d venture to guess there are only a half dozen or so episodes, if that many, that I haven’t seen. I’ve watched the SyFy 46.5-hour New Years Marathons for the past two years and I catch episodes on SyFy early in the A.M. almost every weekday morning.
I fondly recall this episode (the lead in this episode is Dean Jagger – who played Major Stovall in the 1949 Twelve o’Clock High). It’s definitely one of the better Twilight Zone episodes.
According to this Antique Radio post,the radio was a 1928 RCA:
https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=329931
If this episode looks funny,it is.To cut costs CBS ordered this and 5 other
shows taped in low res low cost soap opera style…they were then transferred
to film for repeats.
Only $30,000 was saved in all and they never repeated this dumb idea again.
An alternative approach would be to listen to the audio. A “theater-of-the-mind” approach that works with some of the “Zone” episodes
https://archive.org/details/TZAudio/056-Static.mp3
An alternative approach would be to listen to the audio. A “theater-of-the-mind” approach that works with some of the “Zone” episodes.
https://archive.org/details/TZAudio/056-Static.mp3
Here is another great link.
https://oldradioprograms.us/Twilight%20Zone%20Audio.htm
Here is another great link.
https://oldradioprograms.us/Twilight%20Zone%20Audio.htm