The Twilight Zone
The Masks
TV Flash files “The Masks” as hour 145 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 5, episode 25, aired 1964-03-20, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E25: listed hour 145 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 25 of 36 in season 5. It aired 1964-03-20 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “What's in the Box” (S05E24). Next is “I Am the Night - Color Me Black” (S05E26).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A dying man, not liked by his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, invites them for a visit while hosting a Mardi Gras party. Realizing how greedy they are, he makes a proposition to them: wear ugly masks during his party, and he'll leave them his fortune - no questions asked. However, after they meet his conditions, the heirs soon discover they are unable to remove their grotesque masks.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Masks sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S05E25 is listed hour 145 of 156 — hour 25 of 36 in season 5, season 5 episode 25.
When did The Twilight Zone S05E25 air?
The Masks aired 1964-03-20 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…