This Classic Episode Of The Twilight Zone Didn't Win An Emmy – It Won An Oscar
At a time when weird tales were often dismissed by respectable critics — a time in which, sadly, we have never actually stopped living — the anthology series "The Twilight Zone" wasn't just popular, it was widely acclaimed. The show even won three Emmy Awards: two for its creator and writer, Rod Serling, for his many impressive and subversive scripts (Serling wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes), and one for the show's primary cinematographer, George T. Clemens.
While it's still unusual for media in the weird horror genre to win any mainstream accolades, it's not altogether strange when a popular TV series wins at least some Emmy Awards. It is, however, exceptionally strange when an episode of a television series — any television series — wins an Academy Award. Because, you know, that's an award that specifically exists to honor movies instead of television.
And yet, that's exactly what happened to a "Twilight Zone" episode called...
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" began as a short story written by Ambrose Bierce in 1890. It tells the story of a Confederate soldier being executed on (checks notes) yup, Owl Creek Bridge. But instead of snapping his neck, or hanging until he's strangled to death, the rope breaks and he falls into the river, where he miraculously swims away from his executors. He runs desperately home to his beloved wife, thinking his horrible nightmare is finally over, and then at the last second [spoiler alert for a 133-year-old story you probably read in high school] his neck snaps, the entire escape having been a panicked last-minute delusion before his life was cut sadly short.
Bierce's story is widely celebrated for its twist ending and stream of consciousness storytelling style, and it's been reprinted many times, and adapted quite a lot of lot as well. Before "The Twilight Zone" got around to it, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" had even been turned into an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" starring Ronald Howard and future Oscar-winner James Coburn (who also appeared in the "Twilight Zone" episode "The Old Man in the Cave").
But unlike the episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," the "Twilight Zone" episode based on Ambrose Bierce's short story wasn't produced for the series. Heck, it wasn't even produced for television.
The 'Zone' collector
The 1961 film version of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" was actually a French production, directed and adapted by Robert Enrico, and by the time it had aired on "The Twilight Zone" it already won the award for Best Live-Action Short at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. William Froug, a producer who worked on the fifth and final season of "The Twilight Zone," had seen the short and decided it was a solution to the show's very immediate problem.
You see, "The Twilight Zone" had already completed 35 of the 36 episodes CBS had ordered that season, and it was, once again, over budget. The show's earlier ploy to save money by filming six episodes on video had, according to series creator Rod Serling himself, been disastrous, but Froug's cost-cutting measure worked out for everyone.
They purchased the rights to air "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" as an episode of series, shortened it slightly to fit into the time slot, and recorded a new introduction from Serling, who broke the fourth wall and introduced the film as a special presentation of an award-winning short, along with a brief closing voice-over declaring that the events at Owl Creek Bridge occurred — like every other episode of the program — in "The Twilight Zone."
"A French film on television? Who ever heard of such a thing?" Froug recalled in an interview in "The Twilight Zone Companion." But although it was an outré concept, Froug did convince the network to air "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," and for significantly less than the cost of a typical "Twilight Zone" episode.
"With that one airing," Froug said, "we immediately took care of the whole year's overage. It brought us out at the end of the year under budget."
Enrico and his 'Creek' of wonders
But that was not the end of the story for Robert Enrico's short film. The "Twilight Zone" version aired on February 28, 1964, and the 36th annual Academy Awards were held six weeks later, on April 23. With his performance in "Lilies of the Field," Sidney Poitier became the first Black performer to win Best Actor, which is certainly what that particular ceremony is most famous for. But a little film called "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" also won an Oscar that night, in the category of Best Live-Action Short Subject.
It probably didn't hurt the movie's chances that it was perhaps the most widely-viewed live-action short in years. Or at least, that's what Variety thought at the time (via "The Twilight Zone Companion"). "This French short film," the trade publication surmised, "which has been nominated for an Oscar, undoubtedly received more exposure than any such candidate in Oscar history when aired on Rod Serling's 'Twilight Zone' Friday." (Sorry, István Szabó's "Koncert." You should have tried to get on "The Outer Limits" or something.)
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" only aired twice on television in its "Twilight Zone" format, but it's now included as part of the show on streaming services, and that's a good thing. The creators of "The Twilight Zone" didn't just get themselves a great episode on the cheap, they also got themselves into the history books with an episode of TV that kinda, sorta, in a tangential and a roundabout way, won an Oscar.