![]() ![]() ![]() This was the frightening debut show which aired in 1959, which set viewer expectations high from the very start. Here are my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone. Serling even gave some of his actors their very first starring roles. No other television show in history had as many future stars. The list of famous actors who starred in The Twilight Zone reads like a “Who’s Who” of Hollywood. One such program was a story about racial injustice and civil rights ( The Gift - 1962), which was drastically altered to feature Latinos fighting amongst each other in a small town, supposedly a metaphor of the terror many Blacks were facing in the American South at the time. Serling had to revise several scripts because they were considered too controversial. There were also instances of network censorship. However, CBS also demanded the show be expanded to one-hour (1962), which outraged Serling since all of his material was written specifically for a 30-minute format. Following the third season, CBS wanted to cancel the show but agreed to renew it for another season at the last minute when a suitable replacement program couldn’t be found. There were other problems that led to the show’s demise. ![]() Some corporate sponsors didn’t like the direction the show was heading and demanded to know the storylines in advance. He even took on the Cold War as a topic and wrote scripts with messaging which embraced a greater common understanding. Serling purposefully examined ailments that affect the human spirit - fear, ignorance, hypocrisy, and paranoia. But the biting social commentary and frequent surprises at the end of most shows very much represented Serling’s signature critique of both domestic and world events. The show may have outwardly seemed to be about spaceships, other worlds, and fantasy. Serling’s grand vision was to address the major events of the day, disguised as broadcast entertainment through the medium of science fiction. After being rejected elsewhere, he pitched a television series to CBS that would examine controversial issues and would even become a vehicle for social criticism. Serling was a dogmatic a three-pack-a-day chain smoker who in 1959 came up with a novel idea for a new television show. Remarkably, he fought constantly with the network, censorship boards, and even corporate sponsors while working on the show, finally surrendering to the typical frustrations which burden all great artists forced to compromise their vision for superficial commercial appeal. No other television writer aside from the great Paddy Chayefsky penned more memorable stories that made audiences think than the show’s creator, director, and star - Rod Serling. Indeed, the cross-generational success of the show was sustained by the brilliant writing and shocking plot twists. Perhaps that’s why this iconic series continues to run in syndication and has become such a popular on-demand option more than five decades after the final program was filmed. Aside from the outdated fashions of the early 1960s, any episode plucked from vast The Twilight Zone treasury could air on modern television today and would be just as interesting to many viewers. That’s a relatively short time for a television show which still enjoys quite an enduring legacy to this day. The weekly series on CBS lasted just five years. The Twilight Zone, one of the greatest television series in history, went off the air 50 years ago. Next Stop….”The Twilight Zone” (The Dozen Best Episodes) ![]()
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