The Twilight Zone Season 1: Episode 1 - Where Is Everybody?

A man with no recollection of his past walks into a town seemingly empty, yet fully functional.  The jukebox in the cafe is playing, the church bell is ringing, the movie theater automatically starts playing a film, yet no one is around to operate them.  Is he the last man on earth, the sole survivor of a worldwide epidemic, or a lone passenger in... The Twilight Zone!

 

Being the sole person in a town that seems to have recently been resident to hundreds of people is a classic Twilight Zone theme.  While for me an empty town all to myself seems more like a vacation, not a nightmare, I can grasp the eeriness of never truly believing you're alone, the constant feeling that someone or something is creeping behind the corners watching you would be truly unsettling.  The best example we have today of towns such as this are ghost towns.  Towns back in the prolific gold mining era where people simply abandoned their homes or even entire towns.  My favorite ghost town and one I've personally visited has to be Bodie in California.  If you're ever in California I highly recommend checking this place out, it's truly Twilight Zone in full and living detail.  It was a town from the 1800's that everyone literally disappeared from and nobody knows why.  The really creepy part is they left everything and for whatever reason they left they did so in a hurry.  Dishes were left on the kitchen table, books on the school desks, goods on the store selves, it's truly creepy.  I encourage you to browse through the park's website photos (especially the interior ones) and you'll see what I mean. Bodie Photo Album

 

Story - 7/10 - the episode follows a man who has no idea who he is in a town that is seemingly abandoned... it's truly Twilight Zone material.  Although the main character's ranting and raving at no one in particular gets a little tiresome at times.  There's not much to the story, but it's easy to see how it fits into the series and is a decent starting ground.

 

Characters - 6/10 - my biggest problem with the episode is the character of Mike Ferris, the man sole inhabitant of this small town who has no recollection of who he is.  Frankly I found him rather annoying, he seemed more ticked off at the non-existent townspeople than he ever appeared frightened.  I understand some people handle fear differently than others, and eventually the character does have somewhat of a breakdown but I found Ferris mostly cynical as he seemed to think the whole town was playing a big joke on him.

 

Classic Value - 7/10 - I believe over the course of five seasons The Twilight Zone has had multiple episodes that are rather similar to this one in terms of unnatural isolation.  As I've stated before the idea itself is classic to the series, but nothing is truly classic about this particular episode.

 

Re-watch-ability - 6/10 - The Twilight Zone is notorious for pulling you along and then springing the big surprise at the very end.  Usually when you already know the punchline, the joke is not as funny anymore, but that's not usually the case with this series even though you know what ultimately is going on somehow most of the episodes still seem quite enjoyable upon multiple viewings.

Overall Where Is Everybody? is an average episode in the scheme of the series.  Not a very complicated episode, not overly interesting and the main character is quite forgettable.  It's later on in the season and the series where the show really brings it's 'A' game with well known actors and truly classic storylines.

6.5/10