"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", Poll and discussion thread

A power failure causes panic in an idyllic suburban neighborhood.
Originally aired March 4, 1960.

List of musical cues

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Let the discussion begin!

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even with claude aikens, i don't like this one. never have. i understand what it's all about and i can relate to a lot of it, even with present day issues. i just don't like it.

I love the message of this episode, it still applies today. People can be too suspicious easily.

PEACE

A great episode, I love it! It starts off so peacefully--pastoral, almost--you wouldn't expect it to turn into a panic-fest like it does. And the part at the end, where they keep quick cutting from one thing to another--house lights blinking, a close-up of someone's face--really intensifies the fear and terror that's broken out.

I like this one because it is a classic Zone. But I do tire of it with multiple viewings.

I agree that the level of panic and later blame on innocents could apply today.

Leen

The message of this episode is so awesome.

I gave it a 9.

This is a great episode. The way that the quaint little neighborhood turns into a mob and just blossoms into a hell is priceless. Especially when Charlie shoots his neighbor with a shotgun, it is quite a shock.

Absolutely chilling, a definite ten.
And Serling's closing narration is the icing on the cake.
Always chokes me up and gives me goose bumps.

great episode..

**possible spoiler**





my favorite part is at the end when the neighbors are in a frenzy.. trying to figure out who are the 'monsters'.. and then they say it's one of them and that one says "no, it's not me" and then the others ask who is it of the neighbor they just blamed for being the monster -classic!

i also love the long shot of maple street with everyone running around at the end of the episode

Yes Isn't it funny how they say, "It's not me, it's..." and they are willing to accept that and go on to the next person. Or when the lights go on and off in a house or when a car starts by itself.

Spoiler

A little secret..AdamGrant is the monster.

One to the other, one to the other, one to the other...

Leen

thanks leen.. like i don't have enough problems trying to convince the da to call the governor for my stay of execution!!

-ag

I love this one. Message still rings true. A fun one to watch with a group. Pretty campy now, but I can see where it might have floored its original audience. Rod Serling in some episodes had a tendency to repeat or restate phrases of dialogue too much, and this episode is the best example of it that I can think of in the series. It doesn't hamper this one too much because I can believe that, since these people are not too bright in terms of their actions, they are not exactly masters of the English language or very articulate speakers.

I don't like the episode, but I love the message it sends out...is that an oxymoron?

Nope, and not a contradiction either.

Yes, a classic, but it does get a bit cloying with multiple viewings. And the older I get the less true it rings for me.

I don’t think the descent into communal madness works like that. It’s more subtle and plays out over longer periods. It requires manipulative, charismatic leaders. Though fear and suspicion are major components, the process is more profound and insidious than what unfolded on Maple Street.

Aw c'mon Steve, they only had 24 or so minutes to work with! And you, being Steve, and the ringleader should appreciate that!
So what's it all about Steve?

Don’t know what it’s all about, but I think my post on the subject earns me membership in the board’s Analyze-it-to-Death Club.

When do I get my membership card?

Don’t know what it’s all about, but I think my post on the subject earns me membership in the board’s Analyze-it-to-Death Club.

When do I get my membership card?

Well you can start the club, be the president and I'll be the first to join!

Fact is I'm that way about everything in life. If something happens I want to know why how, where, who, and what. I'd make a great investigative reporter.

On the other hand my husband is one of those "I don't know" or "I didn't ask" types whereby I go "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAargh!"

You that way too Steve?

Wait til you see some of these spittle shots coming up. Talk about over-analyzing and guess what Steve? We are not alone!

Leen

I love TMADOMS, but I've always wondered: what do the aliens do if there isn't a comic-book-reading kid on the block?

Well welcome to the over-analyzers' club Cad! I mean Tommy is the one that started the wheels running on the panic. I think he's the monster

Oh btw I was watching a cable tv news channel the other evening and a guest's name was Cadwallader! Whoa!

With apologies to Voltaire, if there were no comic-book-reading kid, it would be necessary to invent him.

(Go here for an explanation of the above.)

Don’t know what it’s all about, but I think my post on the subject earns me membership in the board’s Analyze-it-to-Death Club.

When do I get my membership card?

Well you can start the club, be the president and I'll be the first to join!

I think of it as more of a "Preservation Of A Healthy Level Of TZ Fanaticism" club. That name might be too long, though. Glad that people are still catching the bug!

"POAHLOTZF"...I like it!

this episode is great and funny

What strikes you as funny?

when the people was going to beat up the kid and he took off and he had every body chaseing him

and they busted the man head when they was throwing rocks at him

I'm sorry, Damin. I realize that a sense of humor is unique to every individual, but I just can't understand how anyone could find this amusing, at least in terms of the situation we see dramatized. I do understand that an obstensibly serious piece of drama can be funny because of some incompetence in the way that it's presented, but this doesn't strike me as the case here.

well i find it funny

I never find violence amusing. However, there is something amusingly grotesque (chew on that a while) in the way the mob reacts to every suggestion of "who it is." It almost borders on satire.

Here is the Ozzie and Harriet neighborhood of the 50's early 60's. Everybody knows one another. Notice they are all white too. There is a constant threat from Russia and UFOs are still a mystery. For these folks to go totally ballistic on each other like they did seems unlikely to me.

I think it's more realistic in "The Shelter." If folks think their lives are in danger and have been told a shelter is a good idea I can see this happening. And at least they have hispanic Marty living there.

But this ep amusing or funny...no. When the rock hits the outdoor light and Charlie gets injured all of a sudden the ep changes course even more so than when poor Pete Van Horn gets killed. And you have to wonder why that is. That was tragic.

Leen watching her neighbors.

Perhaps Rod was smart in not explicitly stating Marty's heritage, but since his last name is Weiss, I've always assumed that he's a Jew from Europe. I'm not exactly sure what accent he has, but I can hear it as eastern European more than as Latin American.

Thanks for backing me up, Leen.

its funny be cause they all don't listen and start fighting for no reason

i think i have seen this episode more than any other. i can't help it- it always draws me in. i love the interactions between the once friendly neighbors.

i tend to recite the lines of this one while watching and i think i scared my friend who was in the room while i was watching.

"..what are you dense all of a sudden? who am i talking to? why i'm talking to monsters from outer space who come here in what look like meteors!"

A classic! I give it a 9. Great moral. But the acting was a bit overdramatic at times. And I thought Tommy was a funny-looking kid. Seemed like he had lipstick on or something...

heheh. i could see how that could be funny. I bet you'd laugh your ass off if you read the story called "The Lottery." If you haven't read it already I guess I kinda ruined it for you. Oops

still a funny episode i love it there's nothing wrong with this episode

Jayo


Have to agree, letsee, you live in a nice quite neighborhood, some foreign eastern looking guys are said to have been "seen" lurking near let's say, that quiet guy across the street' from your house,


a bomb goes off blowing off another neighbor's garage (faulty gas line?)

people come out trying to understand it all


a power outage occurs


a lightening storm is now brewing, and the rain seems a little heavy than normal


someone pointing in the direction of your house shouts out he's part of Al ...(but has a heart attack before he can finish)

"whatdya think might happen next?"


One great episode for its message! and I think people laugh as a way to relieve their own tension and supressed realization about how scary it might be to actually be there as it happens. Crowd panic is nothing to mess with!

Agreed.

10
Does this one really need any explanation?

Well said. The neighbor, of course, being my logon namesake

This is a classic! My all-time fav. It so represents the state of sci-fi back in the 50s and 60s. This episode felt like it was a live-action telling of an EC's Weird Science comic story. The whole time you're thinking "ohh I wonder who the monster's going to tutn out to be" you have to sift through the suspects and the red herrings...until....whammo....the twist! Nobody was the monster.....yet the monster in all of them were exposed! Awesome stuff.

BTW, try remembering the first time you saw it, did you also wonder why the hell the camera had an extended close up of Pete Van Horn's hammer, hanging outta his pocket

Pete! Glad you are okay! We were worried about you going over to the next street. You were gone for so long! It is hammer time?