I've seen every Twilight Zone many times, I did think of that show....but I was aiming more for the late 60's stuff.
Original series (1959–1964)
Main article:
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
Throughout the
1950s, Alfred Hitchcock 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 suggest 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 vehicle for social comment; networks and sponsors who had infamously censored all potentially "inflammatory" material from the then predominant
live dramas were ignorant of the methods developed by writers such as
Ray Bradbury for dealing with important issues through seemingly innocuous 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
allegory,
parable, or
fable that reflected the characters' moral or philosophical choices.
Despite his esteem in the writing community, Serling found
The Twilight Zone difficult to sell. Few critics felt that science fiction could transcend empty escapism and enter the realm of adult drama. In a September 22, 1959, interview with Serling,
Mike Wallace asked a question illustrative of the times: "...[Y]ou'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?" While Serling's appearances on the show became one of its most distinctive features, with his clipped 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, but on one notable occasion they are aware he's there: In the episode "
A World of His Own", a writer with the power to alter his reality objects to Serling's unflattering narration, and promptly erases Serling from the show.
The original series contained 156 episodes. Seasons 1, 2, 3, 5 were half hour shows. The fourth season (1962–1963) contained one-hour episodes.
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