The Twilight Zone: Where Is Everybody?

This is the very first episode of The Twilight Zone. Ever.

It launches with an intro by Rod Serling, in which he addresses potential buyers of commercial time. He relates what the show is about and gives a glimpse of some of the episodes to come, showing off some of the props to be used. He also boldly predicts that this is a high quality products. He turned out to be right, of course.

Where Is Everybody? is about a man walking down a country road and into an empty diner in which the music box plays at full volume and the coffee is still on the stove but nobody appears to be around. He assumes that somebody must be in shouting distances, so he gives his order anyway and starts talking away. One thing he announces is that he is not sure who he is, but he knows he is hungry and has a bit of money to pay for coffee and breakfast. He helps himself to a cup, throws a coin onto the bar and heads off down the road again.

The town he comes into is as deserted as the diner was. He tries and fails to find anybody in the shops. At one point he thinks he sees a woman sitting in a car and starts talking to her immediately, before realizing that it's a mannequin.

Not only does the man not know who he is, he also does not remember waking up. All he remembers is walking. Also, he feels he is being watched.

What is actually happening is he is an astronaut in training, confined in an empty room to test whether he can potentially stay sane locked inside a tiny aircraft. As he gets carried away on a stretcher, he starts talking to the moon he was supposed to travel to.

7/10