The Twilight Zone
Four O'Clock
TV Flash files “Four O'Clock” as hour 94 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 3, episode 29, aired 1962-04-06, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E29: listed hour 94 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 29 of 37 in season 3. It aired 1962-04-06 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Little People” (S03E28). Next is “Hocus-Pocus and Frisby” (S03E30).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A fanatical one-man moral crusader (Theodore Bikel) decides to shrink those he deems evil to a height of two feet at four o'clock.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Four O'Clock sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S03E29 is listed hour 94 of 156 — hour 29 of 37 in season 3, season 3 episode 29.
When did The Twilight Zone S03E29 air?
Four O'Clock aired 1962-04-06 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…