Starting this Friday, July 3rd, on the Sci-Fi channel, they will be showing a Twilight Zone marathon. Check your local listings for times. Many of these episodes have great memories for me. I remember the times that my brother would stand by the doorway of the room we were playing in, imitating Rod Serling, and talking about what was going to happen. We just had so much fun playing out our favorite episodes.The Twilight Zone is an American television collection of series written by various writers, created by Rod Serling, and aired from 1959 to 1964. Each episode is a combination of fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist. It was a popular and critical success, and introduced many Americans to serious science fiction and theoretical ideas through television. The program followed in the tradition of earlier radio programs with the success of the original series leading to the creation of two revival series. It would also lead to a feature film, a radio series, a comic book, a magazine and various other spin-offs that would span five decades.
Rod Serling created the title himself, but only after the series aired did he discover that the "twilight zone" was a term applied by the US Air Force to the terminator, the imaginary border between "night" and "day" on a planetary body. CBS purchased a teleplay in 1958 that writer Rod Serling hoped to produce as the pilot of a weekly anthology series. The Twilight Zone episode "The Time Element" marked Serling's first entry in the field of science fiction. The story is a time
travel fantasy of sorts, involving a man named Peter Jenson visiting a psychoanalyst, Dr. Gillespie, with complaints of a recurring dream in which he imagines waking up in Honolulu just prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.Throughout the 1950s, Rod Serling had established himself as one of the hottest names in television, equally famous for his success in writing televised drama as he was for criticizing the medium's limitations. His most vocal complaints concerned the censorship frequently practiced by sponsors and networks. "I was not permitted to have my Senators discuss any current or pressing problem," he said of his 1957 production The Arena, intended to be an involving look into contemporary politics. "To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to s
uggest control by the Democrats. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was absolutely prohibited."Twilight Zone's writers frequently used science fiction as a communication medium for social comment. The networks and sponsors who had censored all potentially "inflammatory" material from most of the live shows, were lacking knowledge of the methods developed by such writers as Ray Bradbury for dealing with important issues through seemingly harmless fantasy. Frequent themes include nuclear war, mass hysteria, and McCarthyism, subjects that were strictly forbidden on more "serious" prime-time drama. Episodes such as "The Shelter" or "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" offered specific commentary on current events. Other stories, such as "The Masks" or "The Howling Man," operated around a central genrey, moral, or legend that reflected the characters' moral or philosophical choices.
Despite his regard for the writing community, Serling found The Twilight Zone difficult to sell. Few critics felt that science fiction could go beyond the limit of empty indulgance in fanasties and enter the scope of an adult drama. While Serling's appearances on the show became one of its most distinctive features, with his neatly trimmed delivery still widely imitated today, he was reportedly nervous about it and had to be persuaded to appear on camera. Serling often steps into the middle of the action and the characters remain seemingly oblivious to him.
So on this long holiday weekend if you don’t have the money or desire to go anywhere, get your favorite beverage and snacks, kick back and get into the Zone.
--Julie--
