Six season-two Twilight Zone episodes were produced on videotape as a cost-saving measure. CBS programming chief James T. Aubrey ordered a cheaper production plan, and six of the season’s episodes were recorded at CBS Television City instead of being filmed.
The videotaped episodes were “The Lateness of the Hour,” “The Night of the Meek,” “The Whole Truth,” “Twenty Two,” “Static,” and “Long Distance Call.” They have a noticeably different visual appearance from the filmed episodes, partly because videotape production required a studio-based, multi-camera setup.
Editing videotape was difficult with early-1960s technology, so the episodes were effectively camera-cut like live television. The format also made location shooting challenging and restricted the stories’ visual scope. Although the experiment saved roughly $6,000 per episode, it was not repeated. A common mix-up is confusing six videotaped episodes with the season’s total of 29 episodes.