Black Leather Jackets

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The Twilight Zone original series Season five (1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5) Fall 1963 – Summer 1964 List of The Twilight Zone episodes

Episodes: In Praise of Pip Steel Nightmare at 20,000 Feet A Kind of a Stopwatch The Last Night of a Jockey Living Doll The Old Man in the Cave Uncle Simon Probe 7, Over and Out The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms A Short Drink From a Certain Fountain Ninety Years Without Slumbering Ring-a-Ding Girl You Drive The Long Morrow The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross Number 12 Looks Just Like You Black Leather Jackets Night Call From Agnes—With Love Spur of the Moment An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Queen of the Nile What's in the Box The Masks I Am the Night—Color Me Black Sounds and Silences Caesar and Me The Jeopardy Room Stopover in a Quiet Town The Encounter Mr. Garrity and the Graves The Brain Center at Whipple's Come Wander With Me The Fear The Bewitchin' Pool

“Black Leather Jackets” is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.

[edit] Details

• Episode number: 138
• Season: 5
• Production code: 2628
• Original air date: January 31, 1964
• Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr.
• Director: Joseph M. Newman
• Producer: William Froug
• Director of photography: George T. Clemens
• Music: Van Cleave

[edit] Cast

• Scott: Lee Kinsolving
• Ellen Tillman: Shelley Fabares
• Stu Tillman: Denver Pyle
• Steve: Michael Forest
• Fred: Tom Gilleran
• Martha Tillman: Irene Hervey

[edit] Synopsis

[edit] Opening Narration

"Three strangers arrive in a small town, three men in black leather jackets in an empty rented house. We'll call them Steve, Scott, and Fred, but their names are not important; their mission is, as three men on motorcycles lead us into the Twilight Zone."

Martians send three men wearing leather jackets to Earth to help contaminate the waters and kill all men and animals. This is a way of taking over the earth for themselves. Their reasoning is that men are violent and hateful and therefore deserve to be exterminated. The youngest of the three men, Scott, falls in love with the girl next door, Ellen played by Shelley Fabares (better known as "Mary" in The Donna Reed Show). He tries to convince the leader of his world that not all men are evil and that love exists among people of the Earth. When he is unsuccessful in getting the Martians to change their minds about invading the planet, he tries to convince Ellen to run away with him so that she could live. Unfortunately, Ellen and the other members of her family do not believe his warnings. They call the local deputy sheriff to take the "disturbed" man away. The deputy turns out to be one of the invaders, and so the family and the Earth are doomed to die.

It is unclear from the story whether the Martians were using violence and hate among men as excuse to invade the earth or whether mankind could have really saved themselves by becoming more peaceful and loving toward each other.

[edit] Closing Narration

"Portrait of an American family on the eve of invasion form outer space. Of course, we know it's merely fiction—and yet, think twice when you drink your next glass of water. Find out if it's from your local reservoir, or possibly it came direct to you—from the Twight Zone."