The Twilight Zone
Five Characters in Search of an Exit
TV Flash files “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” as hour 79 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 3, episode 14, aired 1961-12-22, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E14: listed hour 79 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 14 of 37 in season 3. It aired 1961-12-22 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Once Upon a Time” (S03E13). Next is “A Quality of Mercy” (S03E15).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Five individuals--a major, a clown, a ballerina, a hobo, and a piper--find themselves trapped in a metal cylinder with no memory of how they came there or their past lives... and no apparent hope of a future.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Five Characters in Search of an Exit sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S03E14 is listed hour 79 of 156 — hour 14 of 37 in season 3, season 3 episode 14.
When did The Twilight Zone S03E14 air?
Five Characters in Search of an Exit aired 1961-12-22 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…