The Twilight Zone
The Obsolete Man
TV Flash files “The Obsolete Man” as the last listed hour of season 2 — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 2, episode 29, aired 1961-06-02, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E29: listed hour 65 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, last listed hour of season 2. It aired 1961-06-02 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up” (S02E28). Next is “Two” (S03E01).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
In a near-future fascist state, librarian Romney Wordsworth is declared obsolete and allowed to pick the method of his own execution.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Obsolete Man sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S02E29 is listed hour 65 of 156 — last listed hour of season 2, season 2 episode 29.
When did The Twilight Zone S02E29 air?
The Obsolete Man aired 1961-06-02 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…