Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (The Twilight Zone)

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.

Trivia

• "Matheson and I were going to fly to San Francisco... It was like three or four weeks in constant daily communication with Western Airlines preparing a given seat for him, having the stewardess close the when he sat down, and I was going to say, "Dick, open it up.' I had this huge, blownup poster stuck on the so that when he opened it there would be a gremlin staring at him. So what happened was we get on the plane, there was the seat, he sits down, the curtains are closed, I lean over and say, 'Dick-' at which point they start the engines and it blows the thing away. It was an old prop airplane... He never saw it. And I had spent hours in the planning of it. I would lie in bed thinking how we could do this."

:? Rod Serling quoted in The Twilight Zone Companion

Related Topics:
Rod Serling - The Twilight Zone Companion

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• This episode was spoofed in The Simpsons fourth installment of the Treehouse of Horror series. Instead of an airplane, the segment took place on the schoolbus where Bart Simpson had a nightmare just before he departed on the bus. The gremlin haunted Bart and nobody believed their gremlin was there but eventually the gremlin was thrown off the bus into the arms of Ned Flanders. Back at school, Bart was committed to a mental hospital even though his claims were verified. Upon seeing a friendly face and believing he was being saved, Bart received a mighty shock when the gremlin instead held Ned's head up against the ambulance window.
• In 1983's ', John Lithgow ? also known for his part on the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun ? appears as the protagonist.
• An episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun featured William Shatner as a guest star as "The Big Giant Head." Lithgow's character picks up Shatner at the airport, and when Shatner mentions he saw something on the wing of the plane, Lithgow asks, "You saw it, too?"
• The episode is referenced in the movie ' when the title character (Jim Carrey) looks out the window of an airplane, and ? while speaking in William Shatner's voice ? joking claims he sees something on the wing of the plane.
• In Futurama, Fry and Bender are watching "The Scary Door" (a spoof of the Twilight Zone). The episode the see is a reference to Nightmare at 20,000 feet. A gambler is run over by a car and finds himself with a slot machine in front of him. He uses it twice then finds out that (as opposed to his theory of being in Heaven, quickly changed to Hell) he is on an airplane. "There's a gremlin on the wing! You gotta believe me!" "Why should I believe you? You're Hitler!" the flight attendant says as he shows the gambler a mirror where his reflection is Hitler.
• A Johnny Bravo episode references this episode, however instead of a gremlin, the antagonist is a clown.