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The Twilight Zone




Back in the end of 1959 a new television show debuted. It was called The Twilight Zone and was the brainchild of writer/producer Rod Serling. Serling did other notable things besides Twilight Zone. His deep staccato voice got him many gigs as a narrator, like on The Undersea World of Jaques Cousteau. He wrote the Screenplays for Requiem for a Heavyweight, Seven Days in May, The Planet of the Apes (the original), and many others. But it is The Twilight Zone for which he will be best remembered.

It was not the first speculative fiction series on TV, far from it. But it was not your standard 1950’s scifi with bug-eyed monsters, ray guns, and space ships. There was a bit of that in The Twilight Zone, but mostly these were stories about what it was to be human. The perils and pitfalls of the human race. Sometimes our egos leading us to destruction with Mr. Serling delivering the moral. And sometimes with a twist of the imaginative cords of fate showing us how lucky we have it.

There was a lot of talent involved with the show. Music for the series was composed by the likes of Fred Steiner, Jerry Goldsmith, and Bernard Herrmann (if you don’t know who these people are, you seriously need to look them up). The manic repeating four-note theme music that could get under your skin, was composed by Bernard Herrmann. Serling wrote most of the episodes, but some of the episodes were written by Charles Beumont (the Seven Faces of Dr. Lao), Richard Matheson (I am Legend), Earl Hamner Jr. (The Waltons), George Clayton Johnson (Logan’s Run), Jerome Bixby (Star trek), and Ray Bradbury. Actors in the series include a who’s-who of wonderful actors from the 1960’s including: Burgess Merideth, Jack Klugman, J. Pat O’Malley, Billy Mumy, William Shattner (before he got all Kirky), Lee Marvin, Cliff Robertson, Ed Wynn, Dick York, Simon Oakland, Richard Long, Martin Landau, Martin Balsam, Dennis Hopper, Mickey Rooney, Jack Warden, Donald Pleasence, William Windom, Charles Bronson, Buster Keaton, Strother Martin, Gig Young, Roddy McDowell, Jackie Cooper, and I could go on. Is it any wonder the series was so good. [In the foregoing list I am now noticing that all the actors I listed are male, and I could have listed many, many more. Why is that? I can only suppose, Hollywood being what it was (and is), the studio was willing to spend money on actors of note, and not so much for actresses (Agnes Morehead, Carol Burnett, Vera Miles, Ida Lupino, and Joan Blondell being the exceptions)]

I was just a wee lad when I saw my first episode of the show. Some episodes were funny. Some were sci-fi (which I was into even at a young age). But some of them scared the willies out of me. I had to pretend I needed to go to the bathroom or get a drink, to get away from the terror. I wasn’t fooling my brothers or sister, who knew exactly why I left the room. Looking back on it today, even the scariest episodes seem incredibly tame. But you have to remember my delicate age back then, and also, this was way before Stephen King or Freddy Kruger, or Saw.

The series spawned one movie and a bunch of remakes including the current series that started running in 2019 from Jordan Peele. The new series has even reworked some of the stories from the original show. Twilight Zone has become a cultural phenomenon. In the 1980’s Golden Earring released their hit song Twilight Zone (“when the bullet hits the bone”). The phrase “twilight zone” has entered modern usage as something that is uncanny or strange. If someone thinks something is strange, they don’t even have to use the words, all they have to do is start humming the theme music (doo dee doo doo, doo dee doo doo . . .) and you will know exactly what they mean.

I don’t think Rod Serling ever realized that this little anthology show he was doing was going to become a cultural icon. But then, cultural icons are like lightning in a bottle, and one can ever predict when it is going to happen.

(My science fiction novel Star Liner, is now available in paperback or as an e-book through Amazon and other online sources).


Link to Star Liner

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