Every year, as the holiday season gets underway, I can count on getting one question from my fellow Serling fans on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Will there be a Twilight Zone marathon this year?”
And every year since I launched my all-things-Serling page in 2010, I’ve been happy to answer my fellow Zone-iacs far more directly than the evasive Mystic Seer ever would: Yes, there will be a marathon! In fact, we’ll get two: one on the Heroes & Icon channel, and one on Syfy.
We all know there are drawbacks to watching the Zone this way. The ads and the edits can drive any serious fan to hit the holiday eggnog a bit harder than usual. The show is best watched on disc. And yet there’s something comforting about the tradition of the NYE marathon. Sure, you can stream pristine episodes any time you like, but it’s nice to watch with so many fellow fans at the same time and interact over social media.
So what will be shown this year? Below you’ll find the line-up for Syfy — which, for all its demerits, is still more easily accessed by most fans than H&I’s. It’s an impressive roster: 140 episodes out of TZ’s 156.
I know some fans like to be surprised, but most fans appreciate a heads-up. So here’s the schedule for the 2023-2024 marathon. (Times shown are EST.)
Saturday, December 30, 2023
8:00am – The Lonely
8:30am – Time Enough At Last
9:00am – Perchance to Dream
9:30am – Judgment Night
10:00am – And When the Sky Was Opened
10:30am – What You Need
11:00am – The Four of Us Are Dying
11:30am – Third From the Sun
12:00pm – I Shot An Arrow Into the Air
12:30pm – The Hitch-Hiker
1:00pm – The Fever
1:30pm – The Last Flight
2:00pm – The Purple Testament
2:30pm – The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
3:00pm – A World of Difference
3:30pm – Long Live Walter Jameson
4:00pm – People Are Alike All Over
4:30pm – Big Tall Wish
5:00pm – A Nice Place to Visit
5:30pm – Nightmare as a Child
6:00pm – A Stop At Willoughby
6:30pm – A Passage For Trumpet
7:00pm – Mr. Bevis
7:30pm – The After Hours
8:00pm – The Mighty Casey
8:30pm – A World of His Own
9:00pm – King Nine Will Not Return
9:30pm – The Man in the Bottle
10:00pm – Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room
10:30pm – A Thing About Machines
11:00pm – The Howling Man
11:30pm – Eye of the Beholder
Sunday, December 31, 2023
12:00am – Nick of Time
12:30am – The Lateness of the Hour
1:00am – The Trouble With Templeton
1:30am – A Most Unusual Camera
2:00am – The Night of the Meek
2:30am – Dust
3:00am – Back There
3:30am – The Whole Truth
4:00am – The Invaders
4:30am – A Penny For Your Thoughts
5:00am – Twenty-Two
5:30am – Mr. Dingle, the Strong
6:00am – Static
6:30am – A Hundred Yards Over the Rim
7:00am – The Rip Van Winkle Caper
7:30am – The Silence
8:00am – Shadow Play
8:30am – Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?
9:00am – The Obsolete Man
9:30am – The Arrival
9:55am – The Mirror
10:20am – The Grave
10:45am – It’s a Good Life
11:10am – Deaths-Head Revisited
11:35am – The Midnight Sun
12:00pm – Five Characters in Search of An Exit
12:25pm – Dead Man’s Shoes
12:50pm – The Hunt
1:15pm – A Piano in the House
1:40pm – The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank
2:05pm – Little Girl Lost
2:30pm – Person or Persons Unknown
2:55pm – The Gift
3:20pm – The Little People
3:45pm – The Dummy
4:10pm – Cavendar is Coming
4:35pm – A Kind of Stopwatch
5:00pm – The Last Night of a Jockey
5:25pm – Living Doll
5:50pm – The Old Man in the Cave
6:15pm – Night Call
6:40pm – Probe 7, Over and Out
7:05pm – The 7th is Made Up of Phantoms
7:30pm – A Drink From a Certain Fountain
7:55pm – Ninety Years Without Slumbering
8:20pm – Ring-a-Ding Girl
8:45pm – You Drive
9:10pm – Black Leather Jackets
9:35pm – From Agnes, With Love
10:00pm – Spur of the Moment
10:25pm – An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
10:50pm – What’s in the Box
11:15pm – The Masks
11:40pm – I Am the Night—Color Me Black
Monday, January 1, 2024
12:05am – Sounds and Silences
12:30am – The Encounter
12:55am – Mr. Garrity and the Graves
1:20am – Come Wander With Me
1:45am – The Fear
2:10am – The Bewitchin’ Pool
2:35am – Stopover in a Quiet Town
3:00am – Two
3:25am – The Shelter
3:50am – The Passersby
4:15am – A Game of Pool
4:40am – Queen of the Nile
5:05am – The Jungle
5:30am – Nothing in the Dark
6:00am – Of Late I Think of Cliffordville
7:00am – Where is Everybody?
7:30am – One For the Angels
8:00am – Mr. Denton on Doomsday
8:30am – Escape Clause
9:00am – The Brain Center at Whipple’s
9:30am – The Long Morrow
10:00am – Steel
10:30am – In Praise of Pip
11:00am – I Sing the Body Electric
11:30am – The Changing of the Guard
12:00pm – Four O’Clock
12:30pm – One More Pallbearer
1:00pm – A Quality of Mercy
1:30pm – Once Upon a Time
2:00pm – The Prime Mover
2:30pm – The Odyssey of Flight 33
3:00pm – The Chaser
3:30pm – Mirror Image
4:00pm – Elegy
4:30pm – The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine
5:00pm – Number 12 Looks Just Like You
5:30pm – Uncle Simon
6:00pm – Still Valley
6:30pm – Long Distance Call
7:00pm – The Trade-Ins
7:30pm – The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross
8:00pm – To Serve Man
8:30pm – The Fugitive
9:00pm – Hocus-Pocus and Frisby
9:30pm – Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
10:00pm – Kick the Can
10:30pm – Young Man’s Fancy
11:00pm – Showdown With Rance McGrew
11:30pm – Execution
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
12:00am – Caesar and Me
12:30am – The Jeopardy Room
1:00am – The Parallel
2:00am – I Dream of Genie
3:00am – No Time Like the Past
Please note that many episodes don’t start on the hour and half-hour! Not crazy about that. It’s bound to confuse some people. I know it lets Syfy include more episodes over a shorter block of time, but they’ll have to cut more scenes than they already do. And the incessant ads are a real mood-breaker.
I guess they figure a lot of viewers will have it on in the background, almost like a holiday playlist. And if they know the episodes well, why should they care? And maybe they’re right. But I still don’t like it. I’m too much of a purist to happily accept anything but uncut, undiluted Zone. But I know not everyone feels as strongly as I do.
Besides, what matters in the end is that we get our Zone fix — and ring in the new year in style. So however you do that, either by rerun or streaming, I hope you have a blast. You know where to find me: x.com/thenightgallery. Hope we get a chance to interact at some point. Enjoy!
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Curious to see how this year’s line-up compares to past marathons? Click here.
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Hope to see you in some corner of the fifth dimension soon!
