The Twilight Zone
On Thursday We Leave for Home
TV Flash files “On Thursday We Leave for Home” as hour 118 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 4, episode 16, aired 1963-05-02, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E16: listed hour 118 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 16 of 18 in season 4. It aired 1963-05-02 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Incredible World of Horace Ford” (S04E15). Next is “Passage on the Lady Anne” (S04E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The first human space colony is about to be rescued from the forsaken planet they've been on for three decades. But their leader's having a hard time accepting that change will happen when they get back to Earth.
Viewer FAQ
Where does On Thursday We Leave for Home sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S04E16 is listed hour 118 of 156 — hour 16 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 16.
When did The Twilight Zone S04E16 air?
On Thursday We Leave for Home aired 1963-05-02 and is listed at 60 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…