No more waiting for special occasions to see a Twilight Zone marathon; now I can watch them any time I like. My only complaint is that the cost keeps going higher and higher. I bought Collection 1 for $75 and now they are $90. I have only two of the collection because of the cost. Oh well..
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p.s. Last weekend I saw the exact same Volume at Target for $29.99. Shop around before you buy...

This review is only about the exorbitant price being charged for these sets (I guess I somehow hope that one of the greedy studio execs will see this!) This show is great, no doubt. One of my all-time favorites, in fact. But 35 episodes for anywhere from $75 to $100 depending on where you buy?!?! I bought 35 HOUR-LONG episodes of the equally excellent Outer Limits for about the same price. The 35 episodes that make up the first season of the Andy Griffith show are going for half that at 30 bucks!! Again, another equally excellent classic. So, I think I'll buy the Andy Griffith show, pass on this latest TV studio rip-off, and catch the TZ marathon on Sci-Fi again!

First: If you're reading this, then you probably enjoy the show and are at least slightly more familiar with it than passing fancy, so don't get me wrong: TZ is an A+, 10.0, five star show, even the final season has enough 'gems' to call it great. The three star rating I give this product goes toward the packaging and price. TZ was originally released on DVD many years ago, back when DVDs were 25 bucks a piece and still a pretty new item. The five collections set available today is the same DVDs repackaged. There is nothing special about the packaging: no program guide or booklet, and it's just a bunch of slim cases put in a nondescript box. I have watched the price for the collections steadily drop until this weekend, when I bought the first collection for thirty-five dollars at a local Wal-Mart: when I got home I realized that 'collection one' does not equate to season one, but just the first eight originally separately-sold DVD collections, which are completely muddled, with episodes spanning the complete span of the series. As one reviewer already mentioned, this doesn't matter because the series was 100% stand-alone, and no two episodes jived or seamed together; if you're a true purist, though, Amazon will be selling the 'Definitive' collection come December 28th for a very reasonable starting price (which should drive down the prices of the currently available 5 collections). This is the complete 1st season (1959-1060, 36 episodes) and includes the 'next week on TZ' previews and commercials originally aired back before I was born. But back to the currently available sets...As an aside: we've been brainwashed into "the last two years of TZ suck, don't bother watching them,' so by jumbling them together we're encouraged to watch, eventually, all the episodes...and some of the last really are the best. This show is forty years old: my advice is to wait for the collections prices to become reasonable: 30-35 bucks, then buy them.

Just would like TW to know that the DVD at Walmart for 40 some dollars is the newer version hosted by Forest Whitaker - NOT the originals from Rod Serling! You get what you pay for!

I don't think I can add any more to what others have said below about "The Twilight Zone" beyond my review title, but there are two complaints:

1. Why couldn't the DVD release of this timeless series have been in broadcast order rather than a collection of random episodes from the many seasons this show was on the air? I would have loved to experience the show the way audiences did in the late 1950s and early 1960s without having to constantly be changing discs in order to see it this way. It is a senseless omission from an overall stellar package.

2. If the producers of the "Gilligan's Island" DVD set could get 14-16 episodes of that show on one double-sided disc, couldn't we get the same for "The Twilight Zone?" There are far too few episodes on each disc.

Perhaps the inevitable re-release of the series at some time in the future can correct these flaws.

Addendum: I originally wrote this review in October 2004. In the interim, "The Twilight Zone" was finally released in full-season form, subtitled "The Definitive Edition." Do not waste your money on this, likely soon-to-be-deleted version. Purchase the new version to see it as should be seen.
-- Art