Before Jurassic Park (now streaming on Peacock alongside its five sequels) completely changed the game with computer-generated imagery, the closest Hollywood could get to resurrecting dinosaurs was either through puppets or stop-motion photography.
While rather quaint by today’s standards, the latter process — made famous onscreen by such innovators as Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen — was once considered the pinnacle of special effects, which meant it cost a pretty penny to pull off convincingly.
In fact, a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone (airing regularly on SYFY) once shelled out more than $2,000 (nearly $30k in today’s economy) for a seconds-long shot of a Brontosaurus munching on some leaves on the spot where Manhattan would one day be built.
That episode, of course, is “The Odyssey of Flight 33,” which starred a number of repeat Twilight Zone customers like John Anderson “A Passage for Trumpet”), Sandy Kenyon (“The Shelter”), Paul Comi (“People Are Alike All Over”), and Betty Garde (“The Midnight Sun”).
A stop-motion dinosaur was The Twilight Zone‘s most expensive special effect ever
Written by series creator Rod Serling, who got the idea from his brother Robert, the Season 2 installment centers around a commercial aircraft that mysteriously goes back in time to the age of the dinosaurs while on its way to Idlewild Airport (renamed JFK two years later) in New York. The aforementioned Brontosaurus was a miniature figure created for the 1960 film, Dinosaurus!, directed by Irvin Yeaworth.
As producer Buck Houghton reveals in Marc Scott Zicree’s The Twilight Zone Companion, the production channeled John Hammond, as in they spared no expense, when it came to the brief, yet dynamic, shot. “The most expensive piece of film ever shot for The Twilight Zone was the dinosaur watching the plane go by,” he said. “It cost us $2,500 and, God, Business Affairs raised hell with me about it.”
Helmed by Justus Addiss, who would go on to direct two more Twilight Zone tales — “The Rip Van Winkle Caper” and the hour-long “No Time Like the Past” — the episode was adapted into a graphic novel by Walker Books in the late 2000s.
Classic episodes of The Twilight Zone air regularly on SYFY. Click here for complete scheduling info! If you’re craving some dinosaur-related action, then head over to Peacock for the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World trilogies. The latest entry in the blockbuster franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth, is now playing exclusively in theaters. Tickets are on sale here!
