The Odyssey of Flight 33

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Odyssey of Flight 33
Series = The Twilight Zone


Caption = Dinosaur as seen in "The Odyssey of Flight 33"
Season = 2
Episode = 54
Airdate =February 24, 1961
Production = 173-3651
Writer =Rod Serling
Director =Justus Addiss
Guests =John Anderson: Captain Farver
Paul Comi: First Officer Craig
Sandy Kenyon: Navigator Hatch
Harp McGuire: Flight Engineer Purcell
Beverly Brown: Janie
Wayne Heffley: 2nd Officer Wyatt
Betty Garde: Passenger
Music =
Episode list = List of Twilight Zone episodes
Prev = Twenty Two
Next = Mr. Dingle, the Strong

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is an episode of the American television anthology series "The Twilight Zone".

Opening narration

ynopsis

This episode takes place on Global Airlines Flight 33, en route from London to New York City. About fifty minutes from Idlewild Airport, Captain Farver and his crew notice that their Boeing 707 has crossed some kind of barrier. They soon realize they have been thrown back in time when they spot a plodding creature resembling a classic "Brontosaurus". They try to get back to 1961, but arrive above the 1939 New York World's Fair instead. Low on fuel, the captain realizes that they have to keep trying to return home.

Closing narration

Preview for Next Week's Story

Trivia

*The dinosaur footage was created for this episode at a cost of $2,500. The work was done in the stop motion animation process by the effects crew of the 1960 film "Dinosaurus!", using the "Brontosaurus" model and miniature jungle set constructed for that production.
*Much of the technically accurate "cockpit dialogue" written by Rod Serling for this episode was based on conversations between his brother, Robert, who was an aviation writer, and an airline pilot friend.
*The plot of "The Langoliers", a novella by Stephen King, bears a striking resemblance to that of "The Odyssey of Flight 33". In this novella, while the plane is in flight, many of the passengers and the entire air crew vanish (fortunately, one of the remaining passengers is actually a pilot,) and they can't reach anyone by radio, tipping them off before they land that something is wrong, and several of the passengers and the new pilot think about, and start talking with each other about, science fiction. When the new pilot wonders aloud what they might see if they take the plane below the cloud cover underneath them, perhaps even dinosaurs, the text mentions him thinking about "an old episode of "The Twilight Zone" where something very similar happened but he decides not to mention it aloud, as bringing up old science fiction television episodes probably would not help his credibility under the circumstances.
*LaGuardia Airport opened in October 1939, and at that time it was called "New York Municipal Airport" until 1947, unlike in the episode.
*There is a major scientific inaccuracy in this episode. Shortly before they spot the "Brontosaurus", Flight 33's crew identify the contours of Manhattan island. But hundreds of millions of years ago, the world's geological landscape was vastly different than today because of continental drift and the action of plate tectonics (this episode was made before continental drift and plate tectonics became widely accepted).

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). "Trivia from The Twilight Zone". Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1593931360
*Grams, Martin. (2008). "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic". Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0970331090

External links

*
* [http://www.tv.com/the-twilight-zone/the-odyssey-of-flight-33/episode/12638/summary.html TV.com episode page]
* [http://www.cbs.com/classics/the_twilight_zone/video/video.php?cid=649555532&pid=J2xsmjzosNjeb2u0OIUm5NNzpCXB0gP7&play=true&cc=1 Full video of the episode at CBS.com]

Twilight Zone links

*The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
*Episode List
*Season 2