ABOUT
"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 which we call The Twilight Zone."
The Twilight Zone was a fantasy/science fiction/horror anthology series that originally ran from 1959-1964. Created by Rod Serling, each episode focused on a unique storyline and set of characters who dealt with bizarre or disturbing events, often when they were "in the Twilight Zone."
Spanning 156 episodes, the Twilight Zone featured a healthy mix of well-known actors, nobodys, and soon-to-be somebodys, such as Carol Burnett, William Shatner, and Burgess Meredith.
Although the shows orignal run ended at 5 seasons, 3 more series were created ('85, '02, and '19), as well as a movie. However, I'll only be focusing on the original series.
Twilight Zone was well known for it's twist endings. These endings were particularly effective becuase of Rod's story structure–the ending answered a question posed at the start of the story. They were never random or felt cheap, they were connected thematically and felt satisfying. I think a lot of writers looking to create "twist" endings today could benefit from studying the Twilight Zone.
Another memorable aspect of the Twilight Zone was Rod Serling's narration. Acting as the show's host, Serling delivered an introductary and closing monolouge each episode, setting the stage for the viewer and summarizing the episode's events. Originally acting as just a voice over in season one, he began to make actual appearences during his speeches in seasons 2-5. Oftentimes his dialouge would begin off screen and then the camera would pan dramatically over to him. Peak cinema.
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ABOUT ROD SERLING
Famous for his televsion dramas in the 1950s, Serling was often referred to as the "angry young man" of Hollywood due to his outspoken criticism of censors and clashes with network executives. As the Twilight Zone's creator, Rod wrote or co-wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes.
Rod spent most of his childhood in Binghamton, New York with his parents and older brother. From a young age he was interested in thrillers and fantasy. He loved acting and debating and asking questions.
After highschool, he enlisted in the military, and he actively served as a paratrooper in WWII. In 1944 Serling was transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon. This group was nicknamed "The Death Squad" becuase of its high casualty rate. During his service he was in active combat and experiences many horrific events firsthand. His traumatic experiences in the military stuck with him the rest of his life, and are reflected in many episodes of the Twilight zone.
After the war, Serling pursued an education at Antioch College. It was there that he began working at the local radio station, discovering a love for the arts and broadcasting. He wrote and diected a number of radio dramas, meeting his wife Carol as part of his work study.
Serling continued his relationship with the US Army Air Force by testing parachutes for extra money while enrolled in college. These tests were extremely hazardous, paying him half up front and half after jumps (if he survived). Most jumps paid $50, but in once instance he made $1,000 for testing a jet ejection seat that had killed the three previous testers. Reportedly his last jump was only a few weeks before his wedding.
Serling's writing career began in the 50s, starting off network continuity writer for WLW radio and freelancing with radio & televsion scripts on the side. He eventually moved on from radio and primiarly into televison, writing for many antology series that were popular at the time.
In 1955 Rod Serling witnessed the murder of Emmett Till, which enraged and moved him so deeply that he wrote a number of scripts and teleplays inspired by the event. However, he soon began to struggle with network censors that were wholly unwilling to air any content that could upset white audiences. These frustrations eventually led to the creation of the Twilight Zone, a place where social commentary could take place as long as long as that commentary was wrapped up with a fantasical element.
The Twilight Zone's first season aired to rave reviews, and went on to become a cultural cornerstone. In 2013 TV Guide ranked The Twilight Zone as #5 on their list of the 60 greatest shows of all time.
After the Twilight Zone was cancelled, Serling would continue to write for TV and radio. He also taught at Ithaca college from 1960 until his death in 1975, often connecting with his older students
Like many people of his time, he was an avid smoker. Some people claim he smoked 3 packs a day. Eventually these actions caught up to him, and sadly Rod Serling died in 1975 after a heart attack. He was 50 years old.
FIGHTING CENSORSHIP
- Rod Serling
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In 1955, Rod Serling witnessed the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in Mississippi after a white woman in a grocery store. Months later, an all-white jury would acquit the two killers of all charges. Serling composed a script that mirrored the Till case, critizing racism and the utter lack of repentance he witnesses during the trial. Unsurprisingly, networks were unwilling to pick up such a "controversial" story and offend their white audiences.
Undeterred, Serling changed his approach. He soon found that networks were more than willing to air stories discussing social issues, as long as those ideas were wrapped up in a science-fiction setting and hidden behind some gaudy alien prosthetics.
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“He realized to get the point, or a controversial message, across that you had to do it a certain way. He did feel that it was criminal for writers not to be permitted to address the social evils that exist. The networks and the sponsors did not interfere with The Twilight Zone because they didn’t realize what my father was trying to convey.”
- Jodi, Rod's Daughter
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While on a surface level The Twilight Zone might seem to be a show simply about bizarre or frightening happenings, it was at it's core a social commentary. Serling was loudly outspoken against racism, war, and mccarthyism. These views translated undisputedly into his work.
FAVORITE EPISODES
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I loved the Twiight Zone when I was growing up. The first episode I remember my parents showing me was Five Characters in Search of an Exit, and I remember being terrified during Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. As adolescents, my friends and I used to pile up into a giant group upstairs, turn the lights off, and crowd around the TV watching the Twilight Zone, much to our parents' amusement.
There are so many wonderful episodes, but there's always a handful that stick out above the rest.
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I remember watching this one for the first time as a kid so, so vividly. This episode is almost entirely without dialouge, focusing on a single woman whose home is invaded by small, agressive robots/aliens, only a few inches tall. She and the invaders engage in rather harsh battle. It's a really impressive practically one woman performance.
At the end of the episode, the woman eventually beats the invader to death and then finds the spaceship that landed on top of her house, hacking it apart with an axe. During this moment you hear voices for the first time, a voice inside the ship franically reporting that the first invader is dead. In the last few moments, we see that the spacership is labelled "U.S. Air Force Space Probe No. 1," indicating that the invaders were actually human beings.
Ending spoilers
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THE OBSOLETE MAN (S2E29)
OBSOLETE. OBSOLETE. Fuck. I love this episode.
This episode takes place in a totalitarian future. A man is on trial for being "obsolete." As a librarian, he is useless to the state which has outlawed books, and therefore he will be eliminated in 48 hours. The man is allowed to choose his method of demise. He requests a personal assassin, and for his death to be televised. In the hours before his death, the obsolete man and the Chancellor of the state have a chat.
Starring Burgess Meredith, it's one of my favorite favorite episodes. Everyone in the world should watch it.
"The Chancellor [...] was only partly correct. He was obsolete. But so is the State, the entity he worshiped. Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of Man...that state is obsolete."
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WILL THE REAL MARTIAN PLEASE STAND UP? (S2E28)
I love a good alien episode, and I love a good mystery.
Two state troopers discover a crashed UFO. They follow the trail of whatever survived, leading them to the Hi-Way cafe, where a bus has just pulled in to rest during the snowstorm. The troopers aler the patrons that there may be an alien amongst them, and ask the driver how many passengers he was driving. The driver confirms he was driving 6 people, but the troopers point out that there are 7 patrons.
Tensions fly high, with everyone becoming suspicious of each other. Even the couples begin to notice things about each other, growing wary. Strange happens continue to put everyone on edge as the group is trapped in the diner, unable to leave and unsure of who is human.
Fucking love this ending.
The bus group eventually heads out with 7 passengers, but shortly after one returns. He says to the diner owner that the bridge collapsed, and everyone & the troopers died. When the owned asks why he isn't wet, the patron reveals that he's an alien from Mars, looking to colonize earth. BUT. Then the owner reveals that the alien is too late... the OWNER is from Venus, and his people have already began colonizing and intercepting the Martians.
Incredible stuff.
Ending spoilers
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NUMBER 12 LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU (S5E17)
I think about this episode all the time, especially since we're in an age where plastic surgury and botox are so popularized.
In this dystopian world, when a woman turns into an adult she is able to her body surgically altered via the "the transformation" to look like a prebuilt beautiful model. So many of the beautiful women who have reached adulthood pick the same model that their outfits have their named stitched to the outside. The process is also said to slow aging and stop sickness.
Marilyn is an average looking girl on the cusp of adulthood, and to the confusion of everyone around her, decides not to undergo the transformation. She expresses her love of deep thinking and her dissatisfaction with the shallowness she sees from other people in the world. Privately, Marilyn fears that although it's marketed as a choice, the transformation is required by the state.
This one makes me incredibly sad, but it's very poignant.
Worried about her daughter, Marilyn's mother takes her to a Professor, who tries to convince her to undergo the transformation. He eventually confines her to a hosptial room to observe her mental condition. Marilyn soon realizes that no one who undergoes the transformation can show empathy for her at all, even her best friend Valerie. They only feel happy and serene, no matter how desprate Marilyn gets.
Marilyn is forced to undergo the transformation, and when she seems her mother and friend again she looks and thinks just like them, her greatest fear.
Ending spoilers
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TO SERVE MAN (S3E24)
During an international crisis, large aliens emmisarries land upon Earth. They state that their goal is to provide humanitarian aid and share knowledge, leaving behind a large black book. A codebreaker is assigned the task of cracking the text. A woman named Patty on the team decodes the title as "To Serve Man," which encourages the public belief that the aliens mean no harm.
The aliens turn the Earth into a utopia, solving hunger and ending war everywhere. Patty continues trying to decode the book's meaning, while the codebreaker decides to take advantage of an alien vacation.
Without spoilers, the moral of this one is literally to listen to women.
Iconic iconic ending.
BITCH IT'S A COOKBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ending spoilers
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
- The Eye of the Beholder (S2E6) (IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOWWWW)
- The Masks (S5E25)
- The Hitchhiker (S1E16)
- The After Hours (S1E34)
ART
A Twilight Zone piece I did inspired by one of my favorite eps :)
TOWER OF TERROR
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror my beloved <33333333
Located at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, FL, The Tower of Terror is a drop-tower attraction inspired by the Twilight Zone. Guests walk through a 30s-style hotel that has been rundown and abandoned after a horrifyng event that caused 5 people to dissapear omne night during a storm.
Mimicking the show, the ride has an introductary video that features Rod Serling, who passed away two decades before the ride was built. It uses part of the intro of an old Twilight Zone episode and then cleverly cuts away when the script changes. Rod's remaining dialouge for the voiceover was done by Mark Silverman, who was chosen by Rod's wife Carol to provide the voice for her late husband.
Fun fact: This ride TECHNICALLY isn't a drop tower!!! Disney Imagineering worked with an elevator company to ceate new mechanics that they could precisely control and program with different drop patterns. Additonally the ridecars can move horizonally as well as up and down.
QUOTES
"Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of humanity... That state is obsolete."
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“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices - to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own - for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone."
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"A sickness known as hate; not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ - but a sickness nonetheless, highly contagious, deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone - look for it in a mirror. Look for it before the light goes out altogether."
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"I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply." - Rod Serling
SERLING SUNDAY
Every day is Serling Sunday if you're not a coward
