I agree with everybody who thought that this was a terrific episode. It has a great script and a great performance by Inger Stevens.
I just listened to Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater version first broadcast on June 21, 1946. My surprise was that Orson Welles plays the driver. Otherwise the scenes and dialogue are pretty identical. Another twist is that the one hitch-hiker that the driver does pick up is a woman. Just as in the TZ episode there is a nice suggestion that she was open to more than just a ride, but quickly got turned off when the driver starts talking about the man he keeps seeing hitch-hiking on the road. Louise Fletcher, the writer, also wrote the classic "Sorry, Wrong Number," which was done on the radio first and later turned into a movie with Barbara Stanwyck. She was married to Bernard Herman who did the music for both the Orson Welles radio version and the "Twilight Zone" television version. Welles describes the story as something that appeals to the spine and sending a chill up it. That's a good way of putting it. If you wish to compare the two versions, you can find Orson Welles Mercury Theater version on the internet on old time radio aps. and youtube.
I just listened to Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater version first broadcast on June 21, 1946. My surprise was that Orson Welles plays the driver. Otherwise the scenes and dialogue are pretty identical. Another twist is that the one hitch-hiker that the driver does pick up is a woman. Just as in the TZ episode there is a nice suggestion that she was open to more than just a ride, but quickly got turned off when the driver starts talking about the man he keeps seeing hitch-hiking on the road. Louise Fletcher, the writer, also wrote the classic "Sorry, Wrong Number," which was done on the radio first and later turned into a movie with Barbara Stanwyck. She was married to Bernard Herman who did the music for both the Orson Welles radio version and the "Twilight Zone" television version. Welles describes the story as something that appeals to the spine and sending a chill up it. That's a good way of putting it. If you wish to compare the two versions, you can find Orson Welles Mercury Theater version on the internet on old time radio aps. and youtube.