The Twilight Zone

Now I know there was a revival of the twilight zone in 1985 and in 2005 but they pale in comparison the the original series that started in 1959.  That's what I will be referring to in this article.

The Twilight Zone was created and narrated by Rod Serling.  There were many writers and directors that worked on the series too but Serling was the man behind the show.
These days with tv shows that have ongoing storylines he would be the equivalent of a "Showrunner".  They became absolute masters at telling a whole story in 30-60 minutes and they were fantastic stories too.  There was 156 episodes of the original and the majority of them are great.  Its said that Serling would be in his pool, floating in a chair and when some idea hit him he grabbed a tape recorder and recorded his thoughts.  Lots were just random ideas that were later developed into plots and whole episodes.  Many of the episodes are still referenced by popular TV shows to this day especially The Simpsons.

Many actors also got there starts in acting with the Twilight Zone: Robert Redford, Burgess Merideth and William Shatner.  Their performances are sometimes a little "over-the-top" but that's another reason the show was so great.  They had to convey some crazy notions and convince the audience that it was real like William Shatner trying to convince people there was a gremlin on the air plane slowly taking it apart.  The Special FX were obviously rudimentary for the time but the acting and writing make up for it.  Some classic episode are "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "To Serve Man."  The last two are the basis for two Simpsons episodes.

The original Twilight Zone is available in a box set now which I highly recommend tracking down and watching at some point.  Its just too good of a series not to watch at least once.  Even though they are very old by now the episodes still hold up to this day.

I'm going to put two episodes into this article and I would urge you to watch both.  The first is an absolute classic and one of the best.  The second is one that was banned after airing because of an Asian racial slur but the context its used in is understandable.  I only show this one because its rare and its still great.  Enjoy.

"To Serve Man"

"The Encounter"