On October 2, 1959, the first episode of The Twilight Zone, “Where Is Everybody,” premiered on CBS-TV. Though that was 50 years ago Friday, The Twilight Zone remains a fixture in syndication on cable television. The series’ blend of sci-fi and social commentary makes for timeless entertainment, while its title and unforgettable theme are used in everyday conversation as short-hand for any bizarre or strange occurrence that happens to us. When I was in college, my roommate and I “entered” The Twilight Zone daily, eagerly lapping up each episode as they aired in syndication. In honor of the series’ 50th anniversary, I thought I would revisit The Twilight Zone by investigating the story behind the show and recalling some of my favorite episodes.

 Created by the inimitable Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone grew out of a script he wrote called “The Time Element,” which he sold to CBS in 1957. Before submitting it, he typed the umbrella title “The Twilight Zone” above “The Time Element,” suggesting this story was part of a larger whole. By this time, Serling had become a much-admired writer for the small screen, having won Emmys for the teleplays “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” But, the network did not like “The Time Element” and shelved it. The following year, producer Bert Granet for Desilu Playhouse, a drama anthology owned by Desi Arnaz’s production company, purchased it from the network for the 1958-1959 season. Westinghouse, the show’s sponsor told Granet that they did not approve of the script because it had an open ending, but Arnaz backed Granet.  “The Time Element,” about a man who confesses to his psychiatrist that he dreams of going back in time to the attack on Pearl Harbor, aired on November 24, 1958. At the end of the story, the man has disappeared from the present, and the psychiatrist has no memory of him, but the good doctor is vaguely troubled by a photo of the man on the wall of the local bar. The bartender tells him that the man in the photo had died on Pearl Harbor Day. Apparently the suits at Westinghouse were no more imaginative than corporate types are now, because they were upset with the ambiguous ending. To appease them, Arnaz came out at the end for an epilogue in which he speculated on a logical interpretation for the doctor’s experience, and then closed with “Any of you out there have any other answers? Let me know.”

THE TIME ELEMENT

“The Time Element” received more fan mail than any other episode of the series that year, and CBS decided to make a pilot for a series titled The Twilight Zone, with Serling as executive producer and primary writer. At the time, there was some criticism of Serling, who was renowned for “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” for selling out to a science fiction series. In an on-air interview, Mike Wallace (yes, that Mike Wallace) remarked, “You’re going to be, obviously, working so hard on The Twilight Zone that, in essence, for the time being and for the foreseeable future, you’ve given up on writing anything important for television, right?”  Ouch! 

However, Serling, a master storyteller who understood the nature of subtext, had good reason for turning his back on straight television drama. In 1956, he had written a script for the United States Steel Hour called “Noon on Doomsday,” about a violent bully who kills an elderly Jew but is acquitted by the residents of the small Southern town where he lives. A reporter asked Serling if the story had been influenced by the Emmett Till case, in which a 13-year-old black kid from Chicago was murdered in Mississippi by a small group of men who were acquitted by all-white local jury. When Serling indicated it was, about 3000 people wrote to U.S. Steel and threatened a boycott. U.S. Steel forced changes in the script before it was to air live, including moving the setting to New England, cutting out the word “lynch,” and depicting the town where the murder occurred as unusual and perverse to suggest that the town is an anomaly. Unhappy with the final version of his script, Serling tried to interpret the Emmett Till story again in “A Town Has Turned to Dust” for Playhouse 90, but once again his original script was watered down and changed, not only because of the controversial content but also for trite reasons that infuriated the writer. For example, a character in the story could not commit suicide because one of the sponsors was an insurance company, and they said that suicide often leads to complications in settling claims. The victim of lynching in the story was called Clemson, but the name was changed because of the South Carolina college with the same name, which was all-white at the time. Serling realized that he could do serious topics about human and social issues within the conventions of science fiction and not be bothered by networks and sponsors who compared every detail to the real world.

Another reason for pursuing The Twilight Zone, a filmed series, was because the live anthology dramas, which had made Serling’s career, were rapidly disappearing. Most of the industry was moving to the West Coast to produce programs and series shot on film to be aired at a later date. Episodes from filmed series could be shown in reruns, while live dramas were aired only once. Economically, episodic series shot on film were more viable. While The Twilight Zone was in the works, eight live anthology dramas were cancelled. It was the right time for Serling to turn his talents in a different direction while still writing for the small screen.

 Over the five seasons that The Twilight Zone was on the air, the behind-the-scenes personnel included many talented and dedicated craftsmen. Chief among them was producer Buck Houghton, who had gotten his start with famed horror producer Val Lewton.  Lewton hired the young college grad to be a story editor when the writer-producer worked for David O. Selznick. Houghton later worked at RKO where he assisted in the production of Lewton’s Curse of the Cat People, The Body Snatchers, and Bedlam. Lewton’s subtle style of suggestive horror made an impact on Houghton who brought some the RKO style to the series. Houghton left the show after the third season, when the title of the show was changed to Twilight Zone (sans “The”) for inexplicable reasons. Houghton was replaced by Bert Granet and Herbert Hirschman, who pushed the show to an hour in length. By the last season, however, the show had returned to its original half-hour format.

Many of the episodes that are among my favorites include performances by Golden Age movie stars or veteran character actors whose charisma and presence added life and spark to the material. Everyone from Buster Keaton to Mickey Rooney to Joan Blondell starred in episodes that took advantage of their star power long after the studio system had died, and the film industry was transitioning to a different era that didn’t need them anymore. Likewise, the series hired a number of unknown young actors, like Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, and William Shatner, who would soon make their mark in film or television.

The Twilight Zone yielded 156 episodes; below are a few of my favorites. I would love to hear what episodes are your favorites, even if you can’t remember the exact title. 

“Walking Distance,” Season One, October 30, 1959. Gig Young stars Martin Sloane, the weary VP of an ad agency in charge of media. While on a drive in the country, he stops at a gas station to take a walk and ends up at his hometown, aptly named Homewood. Not only has he returned home unexpectedly, he has gone back in time to his childhood. While savoring the pleasures of summertime in a small town, Sloane visits his parents. He decides to find himself as a boy to warn him to savor his youth while he can, but his father stops him, telling him that people only get that one carefree summer where no cares or problems interfere. And, this had been Martin’s carefree summer as a young boy. With that, the older Martin leaves his past behind. I have always liked Gig Young, not only because of his star image as the handsome, witty sophisticate, but also because he seemed to have some sort of inner pain that occasionally bled through his performances, most notably in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? In “Walking Distance” —a haunting story about the painful side of nostalgia—Young offers a subtle performance where his surface charm barely masks a bittersweet core. If you’ve ever left a small town to live in a big city, this episode  . . . well, it will hit home. 

"WALKING DISTANCE" WITH GIG YOUNG

“Nothing in the Dark,” Season Three, January 5, 1962. A young and handsome Robert Redford stars as Death who is coming after an elderly woman, played by Gladys Cooper. She expects Death to be ugly and sinister, but he turns out to be Redford. Well, if you have to die, being taken by Robert Redford is not a bad way to go. Even at this early stage, Redford is playing against his star image as an extraordinarily good-looking man, something he will pursue later when he is a major star, as in The Way We Were.

A YOUNG ROBERT REDFORD IN "NOTHING IN THE DARK"

 “The Hunt,” Season Three, January 26, 1962. Written by Earl Hamner, Jr. who would later write The Waltons, this story about an old man and his hunting dog is set in the Near South, a setting that reminds me of West Virginia, where my family is from. Character actor Arthur Hunnicut is charming as the old man who jumps into the creek to save his best hunting dog, Rip. After he realizes that neither he nor Rip made it out of the creek, he begins to travel down a country road that is both familiar and strange. When a stranger beckons him to cross through the gate into heaven, the old man considers it, but the stranger says that no dogs are allowed. The old man won’t go anywhere without Rip, so he continues down the road where he finds an angel who has been sent to bring both him and Rip to heaven. The first gate had been hell, and Rip wasn’t allowed because he would have known it was the Devil. I liked this one because it reminded me of the old country folk I knew when I was a kid. Besides, any place that wouldn’t allow animals would be hell for me, too.

ARTHUR HUNICUTT AND RIP IN "THE HUNT"

 “Once Upon a Time,” Season Three, December 15, 1961. Written by the great sci-fi author Richard Matheson, this episode stars comedy legend Buster Keaton as a janitor from 1890 who is transported into 1962. The sequences that occur in 1890 are silent, complete with intertitles, allowing Keaton to engage in the physical comedy and pantomime that made him famous. According to producer Buck Houghton, Keaton couldn’t resist helping the filmmakers get the physical comedy right, knowing just how to orchestrate the gags.

BUSTER KEATON ON THE RIGHT IN "ONCE UPON A TIME"

 “The Changing of the Guard,” Season Three, June 1, 1962. A teacher at a boys’ school is forced into retirement by the headmaster. Convinced that he has devoted his whole life to teaching for nothing, he returns to his classroom to commit suicide. There the ghosts of students who have died explain how his teachings helped them do the right thing when the moment called for it. Seeing the impact he had on the world through his students makes the professor content to retire. Despite the expense, Donald Pleasence was flown from England to play the role of the aged professor at the request of the casting director. According to Houghton, it was his first acting job in the States.

DONALD PLEASENCE IN "CHANGING OF THE GUARD"

“The Bard,” Season Four, May 23, 1963. Through magic, a hack writer conjures up William Shakespeare to help him write successful teleplays for the small screen. When he successfully sells a script to television, the writer and Shakespeare become involved in the production process, which sends the Bard off the deep end. This episode’s lighter tone and gentle spoof of show business is highly entertaining, but it’s Burt Reynold’s interpretation of a Brando-like method actor named Rocky Rhoads that is downright hilarious. This episode is one of the hour-long shows from the fourth season and rarely shows in reruns.

JACK WESTON ON "THE BARD"

 “In Praise of Pip,” Season Five, September 27, 1963. This episode is my absolute favorite, partly because of the performance of Jack Klugman and partly because it may be the first reference to the Vietnam conflict in pop culture. The story’s poignant ending of sacrifice and loss makes for a powerful anti-Vietnam statement in 1963—a time when most viewers did not even know where Vietnam was. Klugman plays two-bit bookmaker Max Phillips, who learns that his son Pip has been wounded in a far off country called South Vietnam where military advisors have been sent, but where there is not supposed to be a war. Remorseful that he was not a better father or person, Max commits an act of kindness by returning money to a luckless bettor. In response, the mobster he works for shoots Max, fatally wounding him. Max stumbles into the local amusement park, where he had taken his son as a boy. To his surprise, Max runs into young Pip, played by Twilight Zone favorite Billy Mumy, and the two relive their few good times. However, Pip can’t stay because he’s dying in the jungle half a world away, and it’s time for him to move on. After he disappears, Max makes a deal with God—take him instead of Pip.  In retrospect, considering the date—1963—Max’s plea, “My kid is dying. In a place called South Vietnam. There isn’t even supposed to be a war going on there, but my son is dying,” is downright haunting and a lament soon echoed by many parents.  

BILLY MUMY IN "IN PRAISE OF PIP"

 “The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms,” Season Five, December 6, 1963. The Battle of the Little Big Horn  has always fascinated me, which is why I like this episode about three modern-day National Guardsmen who get lost near the area where Custer and his men were killed. As they move over a ridge, they see remnants of the Custer battle as though they have gone back in time to 1876. Warren Oates, one of my favorite character actors, plays one of the Guardsmen.

"THE 7th IS MADE UP OF PHANTOMS"

 Though 50 years old, most Twilight Zone episodes still hold up, a testament to Rod Serling’s writing talent and understanding of the television medium. I leave you with an opening by Serling never used on the show:

 “This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality; you’re on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable . . . Go as far as you like on this road. Its limits are only those of the mind itself. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re entering the wondrous dimension of imagination. Next stop—THE TWILIGHT ZONE.”

 Brode, Douglas and Carol Serling. Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone: The 50th Anniversary Tribute. Barricade Books, 2009. 

Zicree, Marc Scott. The Twilight Zone Companion. NYC: Bantam Books, 1982.