"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is episode 54 of the

American television Television is one of the Mass media in the United States, major mass media outlets in the United States. In 2011, 96.7% of households owned television sets; about 114,200,000 American households owned at least one television set each in August ...

anthology series ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'', 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 The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

'' myth, and was written by series creator

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his Anthology series, anthology television series ''The Twilight Zone (1 ...

. It originally aired on February 24, 1961 on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

Opening narration

Plot

Boeing 707-138B Qantas Jett Clipper Ella N707JT

Global Airlines Flight 33 is en route from

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. About 50 minutes from Idlewild Airport, Captain Farver and his crew notice that the

ground speed Ground speed is the horizontal component of the velocity of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface, also referred to as "speed over the ground". It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that wil ...

of their

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

is rapidly increasing beyond all reason. Their

true airspeed The true airspeed (TAS; also KTAS, for ''knots true airspeed'') of an aircraft is the speed of the aircraft relative to the air mass through which it is flying. The true airspeed is important information for accurate navigation of an aircraft. Tra ...

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 Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York. Located almost entire ...

and other geographic landmarks, but there is no city. The crew realizes that they have traveled far back in time when they see grazing

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s. 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 LaGuardia Airport ( ) – colloquially known as LaGuardia or simply LGA – is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, situated on the North Shore (Long Island), northwestern shore of Long Island, bord ...

. However, the

air traffic controller An Air traffic controller (ATC) is a person responsible for the coordination of traffic in their assigned airspace. Typically stationed in area control centers or control towers, they monitor the position, speed, and altitude of aircraft and c ...

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 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

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

Production notes

Serling originally developed the idea for the show when he learned that

American Airlines American Airlines, Inc. is a major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the Largest airlines in the world, largest airline in the ...

had a

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

of a 707 interior, previously used for flight attendant training, that they would make available to TV or film production companies. 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 Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1930 until it was acquired by American Airlines in 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles ...

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

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from the Ancient Greek, Greek words , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in present-day United States during the Late Jurassic period. It was describe ...

model and miniature jungle set from the 1960 film ''

Dinosaurus! ''Dinosaurus!'' is a 1960 science fiction film directed by Irvin Yeaworth and produced by Jack H. Harris. Plot The film is about an American engineering team led by Bart (Ward Ramsey) building a harbor on a Caribbean island when they accident ...

'' were used for the

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

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.

Graphic novel

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.Listing of graphic novel ''The Odyssey of Flight 33''
on Amazon.com

References

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

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odyssey of Flight 33, The 1961 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) season 2 episodes Television episodes about dinosaurs Television episodes about time travel Television episodes set in New York City Television episodes set in prehistory Fiction set in 1939 Fiction set in 1961 Television episodes written by Rod Serling Television episodes set in the 1930s Television episodes set in the 1960s