The Twilight Zone
The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross
TV Flash files “The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross” as hour 136 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 5, episode 16, aired 1964-01-17, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E16: listed hour 136 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 16 of 36 in season 5. It aired 1964-01-17 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Long Morrow” (S05E15). Next is “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You” (S05E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Salvadore Ross has a unique talent where he can trade physical characteristics with other people and will do anything to get the love of Leah Maitland.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S05E16 is listed hour 136 of 156 — hour 16 of 36 in season 5, season 5 episode 16.
When did The Twilight Zone S05E16 air?
The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross aired 1964-01-17 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…