Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone had a number of truly classic, often poignant episodes. For instance, “Time Enough at Last,” “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” and “The After Hours,” all of which were part of just the first season. But the show remained steadily capable of dropping masterworks on the audience right up until the end and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” alone is proof positive of this. Most anthology horror series, like Tales from the Crypt, take a nosedive towards the end, but not the case for Serling’s masterwork. This iconic piece of television history aired during The Twilight Zone‘s fifth and final season and remains the number one choice for many of the show’s fans.
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There certainly aren’t many horror shows out there that can claim to have what is arguably their best episode come out when everything was coming to an end but without a doubt this is the entire run’s most frequently referenced segment. Part of it has to do with the quirks of its star, William Shatner, who was on the verge of beginning his breakthrough role. But Shatner wasn’t the only star here, as this episode was helmed by a particularly notable director. Let’s unpack just how far off they were from making it big.
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Shatner’s career began all the way back in 1951 and, in 74 years, he hasn’t slowed down a bit. When he led “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” it wasn’t even his first time visiting The Twilight Zone as he had also co-led “Nick of Time” three years earlier. On top of that the actor had also put in appearances in shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and Alfred Hitchcock Presents and had a sizable role in Judgment at Nuremberg alongside Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, and Spencer Tracy.
But he was still three years shy of his most iconic role: Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. Of course, Shatner returned to that role for numerous movies and Star Trek: The Animated Series, but he also found a great deal of success as the lead of T.J. Hooker in the ’80s.
Richard Donner toiled away on small screen projects for about 15 years before directing his first big film, The Omen, in 1976. He helmed a few episodes of Westerns like Wanted: Dead or Alive, The Rifleman and spy shows like The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but he also oversaw a whopping six episodes of The Twilight Zone, all of which were part of Season 5. It’s easy to see why he was invited back so many times because “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” was his debut on the show.
After breaking through with The Omen, Donner was then tasked with directing the first major big-screen superhero movie in Superman. And while that was a task he knocked out of the park, he was nonetheless fired midway through the production of Superman II (fortunately, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released over 25 years later in 2006).
Donner had a dud here and there, e.g. The Toy, Assassins, and Timeline, but he was mostly known as a hitmaker. Examples of the latter included The Goonies, the Lethal Weapons movies, Scrooged, and Maverick, with the cult classic Ladyhawke eventually making an impact as well.
But even after introducing the world to Riggs and Murtaugh, Donner wasn’t done with small screen horror anthologies. In 1989 he helped bring the aforementioned HBO classic Tales to the Crypt to life. He served as an Executive Producer on that classic alongside Back to the Future‘s Robert Zemeckis, The Matrix producer Joel Silver, and 48 Hrs. director Walter Hill. Not to mention, while none of the three Tales from the Crypt episodes he directed were quite as jaw-dropping as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” Season 2’s “The Ventriloquist’s Dummy” was nonetheless proof that Donner could still thrive on the small screen just as much as he could on theatrical releases. We sadly lost Donner in 2021, but we’ll always have his The Twilight Zone classic.
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