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Fan quiz: Are these Twilight Zone episodes based on short stories?
Put your 'Twilight' trivia talent to the test with this fan-made quiz!
Thanks to MeTV fan Stoney Setzer for submitting this quiz! Do you have a quiz idea? Share it with us!
One of the things that has made The Twilight Zone so memorable over the decades has been its stories. The writers produced scripts that stimulate the imagination and resonate with our deepest wishes and our darkest fears. Many of the scripts for the 156 episodes were original, but 29 were actually adaptations of previously published short stories.
Sometimes, though, these inspirations were always obvious from the credits on the episode itself. Whenever Rod Serling adapted someone else’s short story, the credit would read, "Written by Rod Serling… From a story by ________________." But if a writer adapted his own short story into a script, as was often the case with Charles Beaumont or Richard Matheson, the credits would simply read "Written by Charles Beaumont" — without referencing its previous incarnation as a short story.
See if you can identify which episodes below were original scripts, and which ones were based on previously published short stories.
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“Mr. Denton on Doomsday”
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“Time Enough at Last”
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“Perchance to Dream”
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“The Purple Testament”
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“People Are Alike All Over”
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“The Howling Man”
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“The Invaders”
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“Nick of Time”
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“It’s a Good Life”
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“The Silence”
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“The Jungle”
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“Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?”
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“To Serve Man”
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“Little Girl Lost”
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“The Dummy”
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“In His Image”
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“Valley of the Shadow”
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“Death Ship”
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“Jess-Belle”
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“The Parallel”
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“Steel”
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“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”
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“The Living Doll”
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“The Old Man in the Cave”
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“I Am the Night — Color Me Black”
Fan quiz: Are these Twilight Zone episodes based on short stories?
Your Result...
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Nostalgia
104 Comments
Many don't know that writing a good Short Story is more difficult to write than a novel (depends on the author's experience, of course). But they make a great foundation for TV episodes. Usually, except for the anecdote about ST's "City on the Edge..." which Harlan Ellison disowned at first. Because it was so extensively rewritten. Which needed to fit into the 4-part formula, and meet budget constraint. It's interesting to read how the original story changed into the final script and presentation. A good lesson, among creative talent.
Setzer is obviously TZ savant. For the rest of us, it would have made it more fair to include a brief synopsis of each episode title. After all, the quiz was about identifying which storylines were or were not an adaptation.
Very good quiz and a 👍 to the author.
