The Twilight Zone Diaries, episode 22

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

originally aired: March 4, 1960
written by: Rod Serling
starring: Claude Akins, Jack Weston

"Maple Street, USA, late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbeques, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light it will be precisely 6:43pm on Maple Street. This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street, in the last calm and reflective moment before the monsters came."

classification: science fiction

story: A meteor sighting and a power shortage causes the residents of Maple Street to suspect each other of being aliens, and eventually, to destroy themselves. Real aliens are revealed to have been behind this paranoia-inducing scenario.

my summary: This is a good lesson for backstabbers and gossips. This will prove how quickly people turn on each other when they're scared (the red guard in china?) Many similarities to THE SHELTER. Manipulation and scapegoat themes make for great episodes.
**Also** Jack Weston = Max Kellerman in Dirty Dancing. What a moron.

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, and predjudices only to be found in the minds of men. For the record, predjudices can kill and suspicions can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own, for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone.