The Twilight Zone
The After Hours
TV Flash files “The After Hours” as hour 34 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 1, episode 34, aired 1960-06-10, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E34: listed hour 34 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 34 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1960-06-10 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Mr. Bevis” (S01E33). Next is “The Mighty Casey” (S01E35).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
While shopping at a local department store, a young woman is looking for a thimble to give to her mother as a gift. After being advised to go to a non-existent floor to make her purchase, she has an encounter with a rude clerk and attempts to complain to the store manager, only to be locked in the store as it closes. It is at this time that the young woman comes to the realization that she is one of the store mannequins, who had the opportunity to live life as a real person for a month.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The After Hours sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S01E34 is listed hour 34 of 156 — hour 34 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 34.
When did The Twilight Zone S01E34 air?
The After Hours aired 1960-06-10 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the empty-town opener, then the broken-glasses hour. Isolation first, stolen moral second; those two teach the anthology’s real instrument better than any twist ranking.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Serling used fantasy as a smuggled sermon when sponsors would not let a straight drama talk. Watch for isolation as craft, the twist as a bill coming due, and half-hours built to sit in the blood overnight — not to snack in a dump.
October 1959, CBS: a man walks into an empty town and the country learns a new address. The Twilight Zone did not invent the anthology. It invented the anthology as a national flinch — half-hour moral weather, a host in a dark suit, and a closing turn that was supposed to sting after the sponsor smile. Rod Serling had already fought live-drama censors and lost enough rounds to change weapons. Fantasy was the loophole. Aliens, bargains, small towns that eat themselves: the vocabulary of a writer who wanted to talk…
Filed against
- Rod Serling as Host / Narrator
Rod Serling created and hosted The Twilight Zone — moral fables in a black suit, twist endings that taught America to fear its own reflection. Sponsor and censor battles are as legendary as the episodes. On TV Flash he is prestige…