glowing-fish posted:

The Twilight Zone was a science-fiction/fantasy/horror anthology series that ran on CBS from 1959-1964, for five seasons. There were two later rebootings of the show, but this thread will focus on the original Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone was created and produced by Rod Serling, who also wrote a sizable chunk of the episodes. Other than Serling, many episodes were written by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, both excellent science-fiction writers in their own right. Rod Serling wanted a show that could focus on topics he found interesting and important, and thought that using a science-fiction format would be a way to spread his message without being directly confrontational. Much like Gene Roddenberry would do later with Star Trek, the show could discuss topics like war, racism and social injustice in a way that was palatable to the audience.

The Twilight Zone was a half hour (22 minute) show for four of its seasons (1-3 and 5) and was an hour (45 minute show) for the 4th season, due to being a mid-season replacement for a canceled drama. All episodes were shot in black and white. Due to it being an anthology show, it had no regular "cast", other than Rod Serling, who would announce the premise and moral lesson of the show. Because it was an anthology show, the amount of actors in the Twilight Zone is remarkable. Many of the episodes featured well-known actors, going back to the silent film era, while many new talents were introduced to the world on The Twilight Zone, including child stars Ron Howard and Bill Mumy. For a Hollywood historian, the show has many fascinating bits of trivia!

Stereotypically, each episode featured a clearly delineated way in which an aspect of the fantastic or supernatural would intrude into people's lives, and would be wrapped up in the final scene by a "twist" ending, which would reverse the viewer's expectations. Although this is often true, the show was not quite as gimmicky as it has been stereotyped to be.

One of the biggest problems with The Twilight Zone is that most Americans (at least) are familiar with episodes through a process of osmosis, or through half-attentive late night viewings. Most people know how "Time Enough At Last" and "The Eye of the Beholder" end, even if those people have never seen the episodes, or don't even know they are Twilight Zone episodes. While today this might be seen as a sign of triteness, at the time these episodes came out, they were wildly original: original enough to implant themselves into our collective subconscious. The subtitle of this thread refers to the fact that after several decades of reruns, the show is remembered by many viewer as being somewhat corny and gimmicky (as well as having fairly limited special effects), rather than being a diverse and groundbreaking science-fiction show.

There are several reasons to watch The Twilight Zone: as mentioned, it has a lot of Hollywood history, as well as being full of interesting insights into the United States of the late 50s/early 60s. The foremost reason I would recommend for watching it is the fact that it is incredibly diverse. From week to week, a Twilight Zone episode might go from slapstick comedy, to hard science-fiction, to magical realism. I can't think of another anthology show that has done exactly what the Twilight Zone has done.