The First Twilight Zone Episode Featured A Western Legend In A Starring Role

The first episode of “The Twilight Zone” was called “Where Is Everybody?,” and followed an amnesiac Air Force pilot who found himself all alone in an eerily abandoned town somewhere in America. The jukeboxes are still playing, there is still hot coffee at the local diner, but the people are just mysteriously gone. The first person he sees, a woman in a car, turns out to be a mannequin. It’s all very spooky. He even hears a police radio that might be talking about him, but no one appears to explain anything. 

By the end of the episode, the pilot will be driven mad by the solitude. The twist: the pilot is actually an astronaut in training, and he had been sealed into a sensory deprivation chamber for nearly three weeks, all alone. The empty town was nothing more than a hallucination. A group of army wonks rescue the pilot, named Mike Ferris, and explain that he was being tested to see if he could handle a prolonged space mission to the moon. The human mind, it seems, cannot abide that much solitude, and solitary moon missions may not be possible as a result. It’s a great episode to kick off a great series, although the episode hit a few bumps behind the scenes. 

Mike Ferris is played by Earl Holliman, a film, TV, and stage veteran that had gained a healthy reputation as one of the era’s preeminent Western actors. Prior to his appearance on “The Twilight Zone” in 1959, Holliman turned up in Westerns like “Devil’s Canyon,” “Broken Lance,” “The Rainmaker” (for which he won a Golden Globe), and “Gunfight at the OK Corral.” After “The Twilight Zone,” Holliman would land many lucrative TV jobs, including a leading role in the TV series “Wide Country.”

I first recall seeing Earl Holliman as the irascible starship cook in the 1956 sci-fi classic “Forbidden Planet.” His film career in the 1950s was healthy and diverse. In addition to the Westerns listed above, he was also in adventure films like “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” film noirs like “The Big Combo” and “I Died a Thousand Times,” and even in the Oscar darling “Giant” with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. His handsome jawline and rugged features had him easily filling in the day’s popular “lovable big lug” types, so casting directors loved the guy. He was one of the sons of Katie Elder in “The Sons of Katie Elder.”

As mentioned, Holliman was in all 28 episodes of NBC’s 1962 series “Wide Country,” playing the role of Mitch Guthrie opposite Andrew Prine, who played his brother. The brothers were professional rodeo performers. Holliman’s TV career was common for many actors in the 1960s, taking single appearances in many of the day’s hottest shows. He was in episodes of “The Virginian,” “12 O’Clock High,” and “Bonanza,” but also “Dr. Kildare” and “The Fugitive.” He was in three episodes of “Gunsmoke,” playing three different characters, as well as four episodes of “The F.B.I.,” playing four different characters. 

Earl Holliman’s next major TV gig came in 1974 when he began playing the role of Sergeant Bill Crowley on the hit series “Police Woman,” starring Angie Dickinson. The series lasted for four seasons, and Holliman was in almost every episode. Only one major “Police Woman” actor is still alive. When the series went off the air, Holliman didn’t lose stride. He’s one of those hard-working professionals that never seemed to be hurting for work. He just kept on acting until the year 2000. 

After a brief return to “Gunsmoke” in 1987, in the form of the TV movie “Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge,” Earl Holliman just kept marching forward. He was in 13 episodes of the short-lived con-artist-has-to-pretend-to-be-married-to-a-cop dramedy “P.S.I. Luv U,” a Glen A. Larson joint. He was in 17 of the 18 episodes of “Delta,” the Delta Burke vehicle series. Superhero fans may be startled to learn that Earl Holliman voiced a character on “Captain Planet and the Planeteers,” and also had a regular role on the 1997 Ultraverse movie “The Night Man.” 

Earl Holliman’s final role came in 2000 for the low-budget thriller “The Perfect Tenant.” After that, he seems to have semi-retired, and began showing up as an interview subject in many making-of documentaries, most often reminiscing about “Giant” and “Forbidden Planet.” We don’t talk about “Giant” enough. His final credit overall was in 2021, in a documentary called “Journey to Royal: A WWII Rescue Mission.” He passed away in 2024 at the age of 96. Holliman was never out during his lifetime, but he was married to his husband, Craig Curtis at the time of his death. 

I have long maintained that A-list actors, dazzling movie stars, and headlines come and go, and that Hollywood is, in fact, built on the hard work of prolific character players like Earl Holliman. Holliman possessed all the necessary qualities that showbiz requires: he was prolific, he was reliable, he was definitely talented, he was handsome, and he took whatever jobs he could. And his career happened to steer him through Westerns, sci-fi classics, Oscar-bait movies, cop dramas, and everything in between. Rest in peace, good sir.