The Odyssey of Flight 33

"**The Odyssey of Flight 33**"
"The Odyssey of Flight 33"
The Twilight Zone episode
Episode no.	Season 2; Episode 18
Directed by	Justus Addiss
Written by	Rod Serling
Featured music	Stock
Production code	173-3651
Original air date	February 24, 1961
Guest appearances
	John Anderson as Captain "Skipper" Farver; Paul Comi as First Officer Craig; Sandy Kenyon as Navigator "Magellan" Hatch; Harp McGuire as Flight Engineer Purcell; Beverly Brown as Janie; Wayne Heffley as 2nd Officer Wyatt; Betty Garde as Passenger; Jay Overholts as Passenger; Nancy Rennick as Paula; Lester Fletcher as RAF Man; Robert McCord as Passenger;
Episode chronology
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	The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series, season 2)
	List of episodes

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is episode 54 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, the 18th episode of the second season. An unlikely break of the time barrier finds a commercial airliner sent back into the prehistoric age and then to New York City of 1939. The tale is a modern telling of the Flying Dutchman myth, and was written by series creator Rod Serling. It originally aired on February 24, 1961 on CBS.

Opening narration[edit]

You're riding on a jet airliner en route from London to New York. You're at 35,000 feet atop an overcast and roughly fifty-five minutes from Idlewild Airport. But what you've seen occur inside the cockpit of this plane is no reflection on the aircraft or the crew. It's a safe, well-engineered, perfectly designed machine. And the men you've just met are a trained, cool, highly efficient team. The problem is simply that the plane is going too fast, and there is nothing within the realm of knowledge or at least logic to explain it. Unbeknownst to passenger and crew, this airplane is heading into an uncharted region well off the beaten track of commercial travelers—it's moving into The Twilight Zone. What you're about to see we call "The Odyssey of Flight 33."

Plot[edit]

Global Airlines Flight 33 is en route from London to New York City. About 50 minutes from Idlewild Airport, Captain Farver and his crew notice that the ground speed of their Boeing 707 is rapidly increasing beyond all reason. Their true airspeed remains constant, so there is no risk of the plane breaking up. They can no longer contact anyone by radio.

The plane travels through a flash of light and severe turbulence; the captain wonders if they have gone through the sound barrier. There is no apparent damage to the aircraft. Still unable to contact anyone on the ground, and at the risk of potential collision with other aircraft, Farver finally decides to descend below the clouds. The crew is able to identify the coastline of Manhattan Island and other geographic landmarks, but there is no city. The crew realizes that they have traveled far back in time when they see grazing dinosaurs.

Their only hope of returning to the present day is to increase altitude and speed in an attempt to catch the same 'jet stream'. After another flash of light and violent shaking, New York City is once again visible, and although they still cannot contact Idlewild, they are able to reach LaGuardia Airport. However, the air traffic controller on the radio does not understand their technological references. The controller eventually clears the aircraft to land at LaGuardia, but orders the captain to report to the CAA office afterward; the captain remarks that they haven't called the Federal Aviation Agency by that name in years. The copilot spots the buildings and structures from the New York World's Fair of 1939 below, making the crew realize that they did come back, but "not far enough".

The captain attempts one more ascent before the fuel runs out, in an effort to return the plane to 1961. He addresses the passengers, explaining that they have traveled back in time. "All I ask of you is that you remain calm," he tells the passengers over the P.A. system, "...and pray."

Closing narration[edit]

A Global jet airliner, en route from London to New York on an uneventful afternoon in the year 1961, but now reported overdue and missing, and by now, searched for on land, sea, and air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they'll find. But you and I know where she is. You and I know what's happened. So if some moment, any moment, you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast—engines that sound searching and lost—engines that sound desperate—shoot up a flare or do something. That would be Global 33 trying to get home—from The Twilight Zone.

Production notes[edit]

Serling originally developed the idea for the show when he learned that American Airlines had a mockup of a 707 interior, previously used for flight attendant training, that they would make available to TV or film production companies.^[1]

Serling's brother, aviation writer Robert J. Serling, helped Serling with the cockpit dialogue for the show by discussing the show's premise with a Trans World Airlines captain; after the show aired, several pilots later wrote to say that they thought the cockpit dialogue was among the most authentic ever in a television show.^[1]

The Brontosaurus model and miniature jungle set from the 1960 film Dinosaurus! were used for the stop motion animation.

LaGuardia Airport, although it had opened in October 1939 (and thus was open during the second half of the 1939–40 World's Fair held in New York), was not officially named after Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia until 1947; up to that point, its official name was New York Municipal Airport. However, the nickname "LaGuardia Field" was in common use two weeks after the airport opened.^[2]

Graphic novel[edit]

This episode was one of several Twilight Zone stories adapted as a graphic novel. The adaptation expands upon the television episode, including a subplot involving several passengers and flight crew, as well as updating the story to 1973. It also adds a time jump to the future.^[3]

References[edit]

^ ^a ^b Stanyard, Stewart T. Dimensions Behind The Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series. ECW Press, Toronto, 2007, p. 143.
^ Derner, Phil Jr. "La Guardia Turns 75: An In-Depth Look at the Airport's Distinguished History." nycaviation.com, October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
^ Listing of graphic novel The Odyssey of Flight 33 on Amazon.com

DeVoe, Bill. (2008). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
Grams, Martin. (2008). The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0

External links[edit]

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" at IMDb

[stanyard-1] Stanyard, Stewart T. Dimensions Behind The Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series. ECW Press, Toronto, 2007, p. 143.

[2] Derner, Phil Jr. "La Guardia Turns 75: An In-Depth Look at the Airport's Distinguished History." nycaviation.com, October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 17, 2016.

[3] Listing of graphic novel The Odyssey of Flight 33 on Amazon.com

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v t e The Twilight Zone (1959) episodes
Season 1	"Where Is Everybody?" "One for the Angels" "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" "The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine" "Walking Distance" "Escape Clause" "The Lonely" "Time Enough at Last" "Perchance to Dream" "Judgment Night" "And When the Sky Was Opened" "What You Need" "The Four of Us Are Dying" "Third from the Sun" "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" "The Hitch-Hiker" "The Fever" "The Last Flight" "The Purple Testament" "Elegy" "Mirror Image" "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" "A World of Difference" "Long Live Walter Jameson" "People Are Alike All Over" "Execution" "The Big Tall Wish" "A Nice Place to Visit" "Nightmare as a Child" "A Stop at Willoughby" "The Chaser" "A Passage for Trumpet" "Mr. Bevis" "The After Hours" "The Mighty Casey" "A World of His Own"
Season 2	"King Nine Will Not Return" "The Man in the Bottle" "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room" "A Thing About Machines" "The Howling Man" "Eye of the Beholder" "Nick of Time" "The Lateness of the Hour" "The Trouble with Templeton" "A Most Unusual Camera" "The Night of the Meek" "Dust" "Back There" "The Whole Truth" "The Invaders" "A Penny for Your Thoughts" "Twenty Two" "The Odyssey of Flight 33" "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" "Static" "The Prime Mover" "Long Distance Call" "A Hundred Yards Over the Rim" "The Rip Van Winkle Caper" "The Silence" "Shadow Play" "The Mind and the Matter" "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" "The Obsolete Man"
Season 3	"Two" "The Arrival" "The Shelter" "The Passersby" "A Game of Pool" "The Mirror" "The Grave" "It's a Good Life" "Deaths-Head Revisited" "The Midnight Sun" "Still Valley" "The Jungle" "Once Upon a Time" "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" "A Quality of Mercy" "Nothing in the Dark" "One More Pallbearer" "Dead Man's Shoes" "The Hunt" "Showdown with Rance McGrew" "Kick the Can" "A Piano in the House" "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" "To Serve Man" "The Fugitive" "Little Girl Lost" "Person or Persons Unknown" "The Little People" "Four O'Clock" "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" "The Trade-Ins" "The Gift" "The Dummy" "Young Man's Fancy" "I Sing the Body Electric" "Cavender Is Coming" "The Changing of the Guard"
Season 4	"In His Image" "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" "Valley of the Shadow" "He's Alive" "Mute" "Death Ship" "Jess-Belle" "Miniature" "Printer's Devil" "No Time Like the Past" "The Parallel" "I Dream of Genie" "The New Exhibit" "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" "The Incredible World of Horace Ford" "On Thursday We Leave for Home" "Passage on the Lady Anne" "The Bard"
Season 5	"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"