The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? (1961) User Reviews

a classic episode to a classic show

[mattkratz · 10/10 · 27 August 2017]

This episode is on my Netflix recommendation list. It is a good example of great writing, terrific ensemble work, and a fantastic surprise ending. Troopers respond to a call that a UFO has crashed into a lake on a dark, snowy night, and track some footprints into a diner, where they find some passengers from a bus and the server...with one extra person. They try to figure out who the extra "person" is, with distractions thrown in.

This is entertaining, and will keep you guessing till the very end, and you will be totally surprised by the ending. I won't reveal it. The guy who plays the edgy businessman later played the grandfather in Gimme a Break. This is a classic example of how great this show was.

**** out of ****

A Classic 'Which One Is It" episode

[dinsmoreted · 10/10 · 2 August 2015]

Love this episode...from Jack Elam identifying himself by his knowledge of baseball to the "couples" being cleared because they were a couple!! (makes sense I suppose LOLOLOL) I am a member of a large (10,000+ members)Twilight Zone fan group on Facebook. Last spring I did an all-episode, random selection, poll in the group to see which episode was everyone's favorite. This episode won the poll!!! Some days I had 300+ people voting. The episodes were LITERALLY selected by random drawing, FROM A HAT. Three episodes were pitted against each other,and the most votes survived and the least were disqualified. It came down to a two episode final that saw "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" verses "A Stop at Willoughby". Real Martian won by less than 10 votes with nearly 400 votes being cast.

'Take me to your leader. Ha Ha!'

[darrenpearce111 · 9/10 · 12 November 2013]

The line above is delivered by Jack Elam to a Jukebox. A delightful mixture of mystery and comedy as seven people in a diner come under suspicion of being a Martian, since one too many got off the bus. Even the two married couples get troubled with uncertainty from one spouse in each case. You might expect this to be a full-on study of paranoia, reflecting recent times of communist witch-hunts or showing us what a suspicious mob humanity easily becomes like in The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. Instead any allusion to more such worldly matters is gently wrapped up in tongue-in-cheek sci-fi. Jack Elam keeps lightening the mood, winking and gesticulating with a larger-than-life performance.

I feel this is a case of The Twilight Zone having a little fun at it's own expense.

Who Is The Alien?

[AaronCapenBanner · 9/10 · 27 October 2014]

Wry episode about two police officers who answer a call about a UFO that has crashed in nearby woods, and whose tracks are traced to a roadside diner, where they find a snowed-in bus with driver and seven passengers, all of whom are initially skeptical about talk of "monsters" until strange things start happening in the diner, and everyone starts wondering who among them is an alien, since they seem to have an extra passenger... Fine cast including Jack Elam, Barney Philips and John Hoyt make this well-tuned episode a delight, with many hilarious lines and scenes, though the final twist is a bit dark when you think about it...

One of my very favorites

[Qanqor · 10/10 · 14 June 2009]

In a series chock-full of brilliant episodes, this one stands out as one of my very favorites. It's not the most profound episode, there's no great meaning or message. But it's a lot of fun, and there are some fine performances.

But what makes it really stand out for me is that it is, to my knowledge, the *only* Twilight Zone episode with a *double* snapper ending. The Zone is rightly famous for providing a big surprise at the end of a story. But this time, you get a surprise, and think that's that, but it turns out there's *another* surprise waiting. I just like that so much, that this is probably one of my two favorite episodes (the other being a deeper, more message-oriented one).

One of the best from this series.

[Guad42 · 9/10 · 7 November 2020]

You can't go wrong with this episode. Well written and well acted. If you don't like this episode, give up the Zone. Conventional directing but it gets the job done. Jack Elam gets to ham it up a little. John Archer does his authority figure gig. John Hoyt can play that wrapped-too-tight guy in his sleep. Barney Phillips plays the working class guy well. Several people get good lines. A character thinks cigarettes taste wonderful. Coffee is a dime and chili is 90 cents. A double twist at the end that nobody who has seen this for the first time will guess is coming. As one reviewer noted, it does end on a dark note. Everyone dies. That's the way with Martians. What can you do?

Adorable

[jcravens42 · 10/10 · 14 February 2008]

This is one of the more adorable episodes of the Twilight Zone, with some fun dialog and amusing characters to break the tension of some creepy moments. There's the usual blond vamp "dancer" (what is up with Serling's fondness for that kind of character, such that she keeps showing up in various episodes?) and other assorted characters, but it's Jack Elam's "old man" who totally steals the show. I consider this the funny, light-hearted version of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" -- or, perhaps, a 20-minute Twilight Zone parody of "The Thing." On another note: I thought the young lover of the episode might be someone who eventually went on to other things -- he looked familiar -- but it seems that "Ron Kipling" disappeared after just two TV credits to his name.

The Invaders

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 1 May 2009]

After an anonymous phone call about a spacecraft that would have crashed in a frozen wood, two police officers find evidences that the event really happened and apparently one Martian had walked away from the spot. They drive to the nearby Hi-Way Café and they find a bus stopped and seven passengers waiting the reopening of a snowed in bridge. However the driver tells that he had only six passengers when he parked the bus. While interrogating the travelers, weird things happen in the diner, with the lights switching on and off and the turntable turning on and off. When the passengers are released and the bus follows his travel, one passenger returns to the diner and discloses a plot of invasion of Earth.

"Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" is one of the best episodes of this great series. The intriguing story has ironic and witty dialogs, funny characters and situations and a surprising and totally unexpected plot point in the very end. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Marciano" ("The Martian")

Note: On 04 July 2018 I saw this episode again.

Who's Messing With My Jukebox

[dougdoepke · 10 June 2006]

Nifty little episode played mainly for laughs, but with clever dollop of suspense. Somehow a Martian has snuck aboard a broken-down bus on its way to nowhere, but which passenger is it, (talk about your illegal immigrants!). All-star supporting cast, from wild-eyed Jack Elam (hamming it up shamelessly), to sexy Jean Willes (if she's the Martian, then I say let's open the borders!), to cruel-faced John Hoyt (the most obvious suspect), along with familiar faces John Archer and Barney Phillips (and a nice turn from Bill Kendis as the bus driver). Makes for a very entertaining half-hour even if the action is confined to a single set.

Scariest, spookiest episode of them all!

[carlloud · 10/10 · 13 May 2020]

I saw this episode of TZ when it was first broadcast in 1961. I was just a 12-year old boy at the time and had a love of horror movies no doubt. I could deal with a Teenage Frankenstein and The Fly and all the others, but this episode really freaked me out. It was the ending that did it! It didn't bother me when Ross was sitting at the counter and revealed his third arm, nope, but when Haley took off his cap and we see his third eye right in the middle of his forehead...well, that was it for me! Of course his sarcastic 'gotcha' laugh only added to the scene and to the overall plot twist and shock of the ending. Great episode! Definitely my favorite episode of all time.

A regular Ray Bradury, that's what it is!

[rmax304823 · 7/10 · 2 January 2010]

A fey story of a Martian attempt to colonize Earth. (Things must be pretty bad back on Mars.) Two state troopers investigate the scene of a reported UFO crash. Whatever landed is buried under the ice at Tracy's Pond but there are footsteps in the snow leading to a nearby diner.

The diner has had no customers since eleven o'clock that morning. Now there are a handful of bus passengers sitting around waiting for permission to cross a structurally weak bridge. The bus driver insists that six passengers were aboard the bus, although he didn't notice who they were. The problem is that there are now SEVEN people waiting for the journey to be resumed. One of them is an alien, but which one? All of them are suspect. There's the crazy old man (Jack Elam), of course, who seems to exercise a sub rosa wit. There's a blustering businessman who must get to Boston (John Hoyt). A young couple on their honeymoon. (Execrable performance by the husband, Ron Kipling.) Except for the couples, nobody has noticed anyone else. And even the couples are suspicious of each other. Bride to newly minted husband: "I could have sworn you had a mole on your chin." The story continues in a sprightly but slightly spooky way -- the phone rings for no reason, the lights go on and off, the juke box turns itself on -- and none of it is to be taken seriously.

It's a thoroughly enjoyable ensemble play and the climactic revelation is worth a chuckle. There is no discernible "depth" to it. It's not a moral message about pod people masquerading as normal citizens. It's not a warning of any kind, just a fairy tale that diverts and amuses.

I always enjoy it when it's on. It's especially interesting to see John Hoyt as the irritable and impatient businessman, knowing that in 1954 he was the Roman Senator who masterminded the assassination of Julius Caesar in MGM's version of Shakespeare's play. And here he is -- with three arms.

Oops.

Martian in a Bottle Episode

[Samuel-Shovel · 9/10 · 26 November 2019]

In "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up" a group of people on a bus take refuge from a snowstorm in a diner. But one of them might be a crash-landed alien from a UFO sighting. The question is... Who didn't get off the bus?

This script reminds me a lot of one of my favorite TZ episodes: The Monsters Are Die in Maple Street. I think the paranoid atmosphere is a little less well done in this episode but it's all still really solid. The inclusion of that final twist is pretty great too. I love a good reveal to end an ep. But all the characters are great here, even kooky grandpa (even if he's got it turned up to 11). I think this has a lot of rewatchability if you want to look for clues once you know the twist ending.

The Inquisition

[Calicodreamin · 7/10 · 8 June 2021]

Solid episode with a good twist ending. Characters were well acted and storyline was authentic. Enjoyable effects.

Serviceable food for the weary traveler

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 3 May 2014]

This Twilight Zone episode has no real guest stars, just an ensemble of recognizable character actors in a story that takes place for the most part in some road side hash house where Barney Phillips serves up serviceable food for the weary traveler.

A bus pulls in to the hash house and the driver notes he seems to have picked up an extra passenger, but he can't remember who. I take the bus a lot for trips and I can tell you that the drivers do remember who's paid to be on their vehicle. It's their business to know and if they let too many people slip on for free rides they don't have that job for long.

In any event all kinds of incidents happen as things like grills and jukeboxes start operating on their own. Talk of interplanetary invasion starts getting everyone worked up.

More I won't say, something does in fact happen to the bus, but that's not the end of the story. One of the passengers is indeed an alien, but he has a surprise coming himself.

Not one of the better Twilight Zone episodes though I will say that Jack Elam delivers a fine performance as an inebriated old sot of a passenger.

One person in this diner isn't what they seem

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 27 October 2017]

Two state troopers try to determine who amongst an assortment of bus passengers at snowed in diner is really an alien in disguise.

Director Montgomery Pittman relates the compelling story at a snappy pace, ably crafts an intriguing mysterious atmosphere, and makes nice use of the bleak wintry landscape. Rod Serling's clever script not only offers an amusing sense of self-mocking humor, but also delivers a real doozy of a nicely ironic surprise twist ending. Moreover, it's well acted by an excellent cast, with especially stand-out contributions from John Hoyt as grouchy businessman Ross, Barney Phillips as amiable counterman Haley, William Kendis as easygoing bus driver Olmstead, and Jean Willis as sultry dancer Ethel McConnell. Jack Elam provides hilarious comic relief with his delightfully over the top portrayal of boisterous old kook Avery. A nifty show.

"Looks like you're kinda marooned!"

[classicsoncall · 9/10 · 3 May 2010]

Man, you don't know how much I wanted there to be a Martian in the story when I saw this as a kid. I mean, it was right there in the title, and Rod Serling even said so introducing the story. I had the grouchy guy Ross (John Hoyt) pegged, but had to consider Jack Elam as well for his over the top delivery and crazy bug-eyes. But hey, he read Ray Bradbury and knew the Pirates beat the Yanks the year before, so he couldn't have been from too far away.

There are so many cool elements in this episode that don't have anything to do with the actual story if you pay close attention. Watching them now in series release order, it's easy enough to pick up on the menu signs at the Hi-Way Cafe being recycled from #2.23 - 'A Hundred Yards Over the Rim', where they hung proudly at Joe's Airflite Cafe. Check it out for yourself - a slice of apple pie for fifteen cents, or a la mode for thirty five. Then there was the standard coffee and donuts for twenty cents, and if you were up for it, buttermilk hot cakes for sixty cents. And just the week before during the last commercial break, Serling himself appeared hawking Oasis Cigarettes, the smoke of choice for the three armed Martian. What a blast!

Oh yeah, one more - Serling's show came courtesy of Cayuga Productions. Did you notice that the passengers were traveling aboard a Cayuga Bus?

But the best of course was that double whammy ending. Just when you got over the sight of old Ross with an extra hand, there was Hi-Way Haley removing his hat and giving the Martian the evil third eye. I recall looking at my Dad and him looking at me and we just bust a gut! Not many TZ episodes could get you to the edge of your seat and then crack you up the way this one did. That's why some of the most memorable TV shows I saw back in the day wound up coming directly from the Twilight Zone.

Barney Phillips

[oneillrobyn · 10/10 · 18 September 2007]

One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes. And the next day we were in the supermarket at Hollywood Blvd. and La Brea, my father and I, and guess who was coming toward us in the aisle! Barney Phillips, but no hat on -- at least, I don't think he had a hat on.

We asked him about his third eye, and he said something like he left it at home, and everybody he met that day had asked him about it.

A friendly guy. We used to see all kinds of character actors in LA in those days.

BTW, I was a teenager and it took a long time for me to get over the "three hands" on the other alien!

Robyn Frisch O'Neill

Hollywood native and resident 1947 to 1963.

My favorite episode of the series!

[hnt_dnl · 10/10 · 8 December 2013]

Haven't gotten around to reviewing the series (but my rating will be very high), but for some reason, this episode "Will the Real Martian Stand Up?" was always my favorite TZ episode and the one I most forward to seeing every holiday marathon! When I first saw it YEARS ago, I liked the mystery element of this episode, because I wanted to know who the alien was! The tone of this episode is one of seriocomedy, with doses of horror. I've always found this episode eerie in that anyone in the diner could have been the culprit and it's fun going trying to figure out who. Even knowing the final result, I still enjoy this episode immensely due to the way each character begins to doubt the other one and size each other up.

The great Jack Elam (who was actually relatively young at the time, but in heavy makeup) is the standout episode as a jolly, accusatory, borderline senile old man, one of the passengers on the busload of people accused of being the potential alien. The other standout character is the stuffy, intelligent Bostonian businessman. The other bus passenger include an attractive older blonde and 2 couples, an elderly one and a younger one (the wife being played by a very young Stefanie Powers, who would go onto fame as half of the famed Hart-to-Hart couple on the popular 70s-80s TV show). The other characters are the diner owner-bartender and the 2 state troopers who found the alien craft.

As the episode moves along, it gets creepier and creepier until the twist ending. A very fun episode!

Oh so childish, but oh so fun!

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 24 April 2019]

If there was a Twilight Zone episode I was ever going to put on to play for a young teenager, I believe this would be it. It is silly, it is filled with outrageous characters and it has so many delightful twists and turns that you may want to watch it twice in a row just to make sure you got them all. The premise is the of the local law searching for the driver of an alleged spaceship that drove into a pond and has the last weekend a bridge that a passenger bus is about to go over. The passengers are stranded in a roadhouse diner, and when the sheriff arrives, he is searching for the passenger who was actually not on the bus.

The fun is in guessing who you think the actual Martian might be, if there really are martians. There are several married couples, a sexy blonde (Jean Willes), a feisty old man (Jack Elam, looking like he's about to do a gymnastics routine, he's that hyper!) and a grouchy businessman (John Hoyt). I was proven to be wrong in my choice, probably having seen this when I was 13 and may have guessed then. But when it is revealed, there are more than just a few twists coming, and believe me, it is quite a delightful surprise! As far as where this stands among the best of The Twilight Zone, I would call this a cult entry of the series that may not be a classic in the true sense but certainly has a unique following!

Wet ... what's wet ???

[rcaliendo-424-345328 · 10/10 · 26 May 2020]

My top personal benchmark for Zone episodes is whether or not - in spite of seeing it - who knows how many times over the decades - I will stop whatever I'm doing and watch it. I'll admit that that may be more indicative of episode favoritism than greatness, but so be it. IMHO, though this episode has that greatness as well.

It has that elusive quality of, besides being really good, mysterious and suspenseful sci fi, it's also a lot of fun. The episode does a great job of building the tension and suspense as we all wonder who, if any of the bus passengers or diner customers is an alien. It's also a very smart plot point to deflect the attention and suspicion onto the weird, funny old man.

Then, just when they satisfy us by revealing the actual alien, doing so in a fairly expected, almost anticlimactic manner, they throw in the completely unexpected twist, which suddenly propels the episode to another level. It deserves to be included in all the TZ marathons and is definitely one of the best.

Lacks depth...but who cares?!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 29 January 2008]

A bus full of passengers is stuck during a snow storm. The police have closed the bridge--saying it's unsafe and they are stuck in a little café until the road has been cleared. However, after a while, their boredom is turned to concern, as it seems that one of the passengers was NOT originally on the bus and may just be an alien!! This leads to a conclusion that is ironic but also rather funny in a low-brow way.

This is another of the fun episodes of The Twilight Zone. Instead of the typical twists or social commentary, this one features no lasting message. However, it's also very and watchable, so who cares?! Exactly WHAT occurs you'll just have to see for yourself.

By the way, this one stars John Hoyt--a face most of you will recognize from countless old TV shows and movies. In almost every case, he played a real grouch (like Charles Lane during the same era), but boy did I love seeing him--as he perfected the grouchy persona and was kind of funny at the same time.

It's Search and Seek Who's Who's.

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 28 November 2019]

This "Twilight Zone" episode from season 2 1961 called "Will the Real Martian Stand Up?" keeps you guessing with some suspense as to who is really who the drama builds thru the episode. It involves a snowstorm in which a landing and crash of a flying saucer has been reported also a bus with apparently 6 passengers have stopped and become stranded at the local diner as the roads have been blocked off. Are Aliens present? And is it 7 passengers instead of 6 you never really know? You just keep guessing only in the end the episode twist for a revealing thing it now makes you believe we are never alone strangers and aliens might just from time to time or always be among you! Overall good suspense episode.

Police try to determine who among 8 people may really be a Martian hiding from them

[Leland-Herder · 7 April 2006]

On a cold, snowy night an alien space ship crashes into a frozen lake, scaring an elderly woman who lives nearby. Two highway patrolmen arrive on the scene, but do not see the ship, only prints in the snow leading from the lake, off towards a diner. Their effort now is to find that Martian in the diner, which is never that easy, of course, in the Twilight Zone. I like this episode because it gives Serling an opportunity to comment upon the various failings of human behavior in a tension-filled adversarial situation. Failings and imperfections that don't have to be confined to humans, but others in our Solar neighborhood. The ending has a totally unexpected twist to it, though the Martian is never discovered by the patrolmen, which might have been more beneficial to him.

Target Earth!

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 7 July 2012]

***SPOILERS*** With the news of a Roswell like crash of a flying saucer at Tracy's Pond two state troopers Padgett & Perry, John Arcer & Dan Perry, are sent out to investigate the incident to see if there's any survivors. Finding the only people in the vicinity all assembled at the Hi-Way Diner after their bus was snowed in the troopers check them out to see if there's any aliens, from outer space not planet earth, among them. Checking out the persons in the diner it's discovered that there's one of them that wasn't on the bus when it became snowbound and that person is very possibly the alien from outer space! But which one of those in the diner is he or, with two women among them, she!

Really crazy story that has everyone in the episode fully believing that the earth is being invaded by aliens from space or better yet Mars where in the real world they,including the two state troopers, would have been apprehended and sent, in straight jackets, to the local state mental hospital and put under observation. In fact the most normal of bunch the wino Avery, Jack Elam, sees the who thing, an alien invasion from space, as the joke that it is and never takes it for once seriously. In fact Avery is so normal that those in the diner don't take him seriously either even though he's about the most obvious person,in his unearthly like actions, that you would suspect of being an alien from Mars of the entire bunch! This back and forth game between those in the diner to who's the alien and who's not abruptly comes to an end when it's reported by the town engineer that the bridge that was impassable because of the snow storm is fixed and they can now all go home with William Kerdis,the bus driver, doing the driving.

**SPOILERS** With the emergency now over and everything under control the bus filled by those in the diner goes off the bridge into the river with everyone but one of those aboard drowning in the icy waters below! As we soon find out the survivor is in fact the alien that everyone was worried about. Not only that he had company from the most unlikely member of the cast who like himself was also an alien from space! But not from the same planet that he came from!

What a waste.

[bombersflyup · 4/10 · 18 September 2019]

Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up is interesting for the most part, the ending's unusually empty though. The interrogation just ends and they all are free to go and then die elsewhere. What was the bloody point? Just to show an extra arm and an extra eye.. really.