The Twilight Zone
1 9 5 9 - 1 9 6 5 (USA)
1 9 8 5 - 1 9 8 7 (USA/UK)
134 x 30 minute episodes
17 x 60 minute episodes
 Host
Rod Serling introduced (and wrote 89 episodes) eerie and well
constructed weekly dramas in this series set in a monochrome
fantasy world beyond fact or fiction.
Almost every episode had a strange twist at the end and the
series was destined to become a cult classic. Serling's original
opening narration to the show set the scene perfectly:
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known
to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as
infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow,
between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of
man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension
of imagination. It is an area we call - The Twilight Zone".
He managed to encompass the surreal feel of this anthology in a
few short moments. And who can forget the trance-inducing dee dee
dee dee theme which has become shorthand for eerie ambiguity?
With its subtext of escape from reality, a nostalgia for more
simple times, but generally a hunger for other-worldly adventures,
it seems appropriate that the original Twilight Zone series
appeared at about the right time to take viewers away, albeit
briefly, from the contemporary real-life fears of the Cold War,
the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and, eventually, the
tragic events of Dallas.
After three successful seasons in the traditional half-hour
format, The Twilight Zone expanded to a full hour in
January 1963. The longer format was abandoned the following year.
Many famous actors and actresses made guest appearances on the
show, but it was always the story which was the true star.
The Twilight Zone favoured only a dozen or so story
themes. For instance, the most recurring theme appeared to be
Time, involving time warps and accidental journeys through time: a
WWI flier lands at a modern jet air base (The Last Flight),
a man finds himself back in 1865 and tries to prevent the
assassination of President Lincoln (Back There), three
soldiers on National Guard manoeuvres in Montana find themselves
back in 1876 at the Little Big Horn (The 7th Is Made Up of
Phantoms).
Another theme explored the confrontation with death/the dead: a
girl keeps seeing the same hitchhiker on the road ahead, beckoning
her toward a fatal accident (The Hitchhiker), an aged
recluse, fearing a meeting with Death, reluctantly helps a wounded
policeman on her doorstep and cares for him overnight before she
realises that he is Death, coming to claim her (Nothing in the
Dark).
Expected science fiction motifs regarding aliens and alien
contact (both benevolent and hostile) provide another story arena:
a timid little fellow accustomed to being used as a doormat by his
fellow man is endowed with super-human strength by a visiting
scientist from Mars (Mr. Dingle, the Strong), visiting
aliens promise to show the people of earth how to end the misery
of war, pestilence and famine until a code clerk finally deciphers
their master manual for earth and discovers a cook book (To
Serve Man).
The general tone of many Twilight Zone stories was
cautionary, that man can never be too sure of anything that
appears real or otherwise.
Some other memorable examples of The Twilight Zone
include:
Escape Clause - starring David Wayne as a hypochondriac
who, in an effort to escape his dependence on pills and fear of
his environment, makes a pact with the Devil. In exchange for his
soul, he wins immortality. Filled with self-assurance, he kills a
man expecting to be sentenced to death (which is of course
impossible for him) in the electric chair. Instead of a death
sentence, he receives life imprisonment - much worse for someone
who is immortal.
Time Enough At Last - stars Burgess Meredith as a bank
teller who can never find enough time to read. One day at
lunchtime, while tucked away in the banks' underground vault
reading a book, there is a nuclear attack that kills everybody
outside. Now he has all the time in the world to read. A happy
ending - until he breaks his glasses!
The Eye of the Beholder - in which a young woman (born
with a horrible facial deformity) has just undergone her last
possible operation to try and make her less hideous. Her head is
bandaged up and all the doctors and nurses are dimly seen standing
in the shadows around her bed.
The bandages were removed and there she was - beautiful (to us)
and hideous to everyone else! Only then do we see the faces of the
doctors and nurses which are grotesque. She lives in a world where
our "beauty" is considered horribly ugly. At the end of
the show she is led away to her society's equivalent of a leper
colony.
In 1983 Warner Brothers, Steven Spielberg and John Landis
produced Twilight Zone : The Movie, a four segment tribute
to the original series presenting pieces directed by Landis,
Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller.
From 1985 onwards CBS Entertainment produced a new series of The
Twilight Zone. Honoured science fiction scribe Harlan Ellison
acted as creative consultant under executive producer Philip
DeGuere; the series is particularly noted for the participating
name directors, such as Wes Craven, William Friedkin, and Joe
Dante.
The new version ran in an hour-long format, with two or three
stories in each episode. It still had the same mix of sci-fi,
fantasy, whimsy and the occult, but it was definitely a different
show. It was now in colour, the special effects were more
elaborate and, although some of the original episodes were redone,
most of the stories were new.
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