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Part of series: The Twilight Zone [TV Series] [1959-1964]: Youre traveling to another dimension...a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind...a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone. Originally telecast on CBS from October 2, 1959, to September 18, 1964 (not counting a brief spate of network reruns in the summer of 1965), The Twilight Zone was one of the foremost filmed dramatic anthologies on TV and one of a precious few that specialized in fantasy and science fiction. Created by Rod Serling, whose previous TV writing credits included such classic live dramas as Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, the series specialized in concise, economical playlets dealing with the offbeat andsupernatural, many of them with surprising and ironic climactic twists. Many of the individual episodes have stood the test of time as indisputable classics, among them Eye of the Beholder, The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, The Invaders, Its a Good Life, To Serve Man, The Invaders, and Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Rod Serling served as the series host and narrator, and also wrote most of the dramas. Other noteworthy contributors included Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, and, on one memorable occasion (the episode I Sing the Body Electric), Ray Bradbury. A veritable constellation of guest stars brought the stories to life; among those making multiple appearances were Burgess Meredith, Jack Klugman, William Shatner, Martin Landau, Anne Francis, Bill Mumy, Ed Wynn, and Lee Marvin, while many more showed up for memorable single performances including Charles Bronson, Elizabeth Montgomery, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, James Coburn, Mickey Rooney, and Dennis Hopper. The series famous theme music (heard from the second season onward) was composed by Marius Constant with unforgettable incidental music provided by the likes of Bernard Herrmann and Jerry Goldsmith. Although the series title has become a household word and many of its episodes are acknowledged masterpieces, Twilight Zone was never a huge ratings attraction during its network run. Indeed, after only three seasons, CBS decided to yank the show. It was saved at the last minute and brought back as a mid-season replacement, expanded from 30 to 60 minutes per week in the process. For its fifth and final season, Twilight Zone returned to its familiar half-hour format, still playing to appreciative but comparatively small audiences. It was not until the series went into off-network reruns that Twilight Zone truly built its fan following, which has increased many times over in the ensuing years. Twilight Zone was revived twice with new, full-color episodes, first as a CBS (and later syndicated) weekly in 1985, then on UPN in 2002. Rod Serling was not involved with these revivals, having passed away in 1975; the 1985 version had no host, though its narrators included Charles Aidman and Robin Ward, but the 2002 version was hosted by Forest Whitaker. In addition, a theatrical feature, Twilight Zone: The Movie, was released in 1983. ~ All Movie Guide Includes seasons: The Twilight Zone: Season 01: Even non-devotees of The Twilight Zone are able to distinguish the series first-season episodes from the later installments. Instead of the familiar dee-dee-dee-doo, dee-dee-dee-doo theme music by Marius Constant, each season-one Twilight Zone was introduced with a more lugubrious, string-dominated theme by the great Bernard Herrmann, who also composed the incidental music for such classic first-season episodes as The Lonely and Walking Distance. Also, series creator and host narrator Rod Serling does not appear on camera to deliver his opening and closing narration -- except for a delightful gag appearance at the end of the seasons final episode, A World of His Own. The series two most frequent guest stars make their inaugural Twilight Zone appearances in the course of season one. Burgess Meredith is poignantly cast as a myopic bookworm who ends up a sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust in Time Enough at Last, while Jack Klugman is seen as a luckless musician whose life is turned around by a remarkable near-death experience in A Passage for Trumpet. Other notable actors appearing in this seasons 36 episodes include Martin Landau, Fritz Weaver, Ed Wynn, David Wayne, Vera Miles, Ida Lupino, Anne Francis, and Roddy McDowall. Among the best and most memorable episodes of the first-season Twilight Zone crop are Third From the Sun, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, People Are Alike All Over, and A Stop at Willoughby. Lesser episodes, though still worthy of special mention, include the series opener Where Is Everybody?, one of the few Zones with a logical rather than supernatural ending; The Hitch-Hiker, a haunting adaptation of Lucille Fletchers classic radio play; The Mighty Casey, a baseball fantasy which had to be filmed twice so that Jack Warden could replace the original story by Paul Douglas, who fell ill during shooting and died shortly afterward; and Mr. Bevis, which Rod Serling intended as the pilot for a series about a bumbling guardian angel. ~ All Movie Guide The Twilight Zone: Season 05: Although CBS decision to rescue Rod Serlings classic fantasy anthology The Twilight Zone from cancelation and bring the series back for a fourth season in January of 1963 enabled the property to be renewed in the fall of that year, everybody realized that expanding the half-hour series to a weekly sixty minutes was a mistake. Thus, Twilight Zone showed up for its fifth and final season in its familiar 30-minute format, much to the relief of its fans. Rod Serling of course is back for season five as both host/narrator and frequent scriptwriter; also making return appearances this season are such past Twilight Zone guest stars as Jack Klugman, Lee Marvin, Ed Wynn, Bill Mumy, Martin Landau, and William Shatner, the latter starring in what is regarded as the fifth seasons best and most terrifying episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (more popularly known as The Thing on the Wing). Not all of the series episodes during its terminal season are on the same leval as Nightmare at 20,000 Feet; in fact, there are arguably more misses than hits in the series final 36 installments. That said, one cannot deny the excellence of such fifth-season efforts as The Last Night of a Jockey, a solo tour de force for star Mickey Rooney; Number Twelve Looks Just Like You, featuring both Richard Long and Suzy Parker in multiple roles; From Agnes-With Love, a comic episode in which Wally Cox is tormented by an amorous computer; and The Masks, directed by former Twilight Zone leading lady Ida Lupino, wherein four greedy relatives get their just desserts from their disillusioned wealthy benefactors. Until very recently, four of Twilight Zones fifth-season episodes were withheld from the series syndication package. Both A Short Drink From a Certain Founain and Sounds and Silences were removed for legal reasons, while The Encounter was withdrawn because of its (unintended) overtones of racism. The fourth missing Twilight Zone episode was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which was not actually filmed for the series but instead was adapted from an award-winning French short subject directed by Robert Enrico. (Both the edited Zone version and the original uncut short subject are currently available on the public-domain market.) ~ All Movie Guide The Twilight Zone: Season 02: Although The Twilight Zone suffered from anemic ratings and a certain degree of sponsor dissatisfaction during its first season on CBS, the network could not ignore the prestige value of a series created and largely written by Rod Serling -- nor could it ignore the millions of loyal fans who demanded that the series return for a second season...which, of course, it did. Due to budget cutbacks, only 29 episodes were produced for season two; six of these were economically shot on videotape, an experiment that proved esthetically unsatisfying and was not repeated. Even so, the six taped installments yielded at least one imperishable classic: The Christmas Fantasy Night of the Meek starring Art Carney as a drunken department-store Santa who experiences quite an epiphany on Christmas Eve. Twilight Zones second season saw the introduction of the series now-immortal dee-dee-dee-doo, dee-dee-dee-doo theme music composed by Marius Constant. Also, host Rod Serling began making on-camera appearances as he introduced the various playlets. A number of guest stars from season one make return appearances for season two, among them Burgess Meredith (seen twice this season), Inger Stevens, Dick York, Russell Johnson, and Fritz Weaver. Others make their first (but definitely not last!) Zone appearances during this season, including William Shatner, Bill Mumy, Jonathan Harris, and Cliff Robertson. And finally, a handful of celebrated performers show up for their only Twilight Zone gigs, notably Shelley Berman, Richard Haydn, Jack Carson, and Bob Cummings. Of the seasons 29 episodes, at least three can be designated as imperishable classics: The Howling Man, a grim gothic tale of demonic deception; The Eye of the Beholder, in which a young woman designated as hideously ugly by a totalitarian government undergoes a grueling session of plastic surgery; and The Invaders, starring Agnes Moorehead as a terrified farm woman who single-handedly fends off an army of tiny extraterrestrials. ~ All Movie Guide Includes episodes: The Twilight Zone: Time Enough at Last: In his first Twilight Zone appearance, Burgess Meredith stars as Henry Bemis, a miopic bank clerk who wants nothing more out of life than to be left alone to read his precious books. He unexpectedly gets his wish when, while hiding in a bank vault with a book in his hands, a hydrogen bomb devastates the city around him. The sole survivor of this nuclear attack, Henry is at first stricken with panic, then becomes delighted at the prospect of reading to his hearts content, without being nagged by his wife (Jacqueline De Wit) or his boss (Vaughn Taylor). The episodes ironic payoff is so well known that it does not bear repeating here; suffice to say that the ending was invoked in the first few moments of 1983s Twilight Zone: The Movie. First telecast November 20, 1959, Time Enough at Last was scripted by Rod Serling from a short story by Lynn Venable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide The Twilight Zone: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street: A neighborhood full of friendly people degenerates into a mob when Maple Street is suddenly plagued by strange and seemingly pre-planned power outages. Steve Brand (Claude Akins) tries to act as the voice of reason, but he is shouted down by his hotheaded neighbor Charlie (Jack Weston). Meanwhile, suspicion is cast upon young Tommy (Jan Handzlik), a science-fiction fanatic who apparently knows more than he should about the recurring power failures. Even after the passage of four decades, this Rod Serling-scripted Twilight Zone episode has lost none of its impact, and it is justifiably one of the series best-remembered installments. Keep an eye out for future M*A*S*H producer-director Burt Metcalfe in a featured role. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street originally aired March 4, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Cited by many aficionados as the all-time best Twilight Zone episode, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet benefits immeasurably from a bravura performance by star William Shatner. While travelling through rough weather on a passenger plane, former mental patient Bob Wilson (Shatner) peers out of his window -- and sees a hideous gremlin balanced on the planes wing. Doubting his own sanity, Bob tries to convince himself that he is merely hallucinating. . .and then the gremlin begins to tear the wing apart. Adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet was originally telecast October 11, 1963. The basic story was later incorporated into the omnibus theatrical feature Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and has since been mercilessly lampooned in TV comedy series ranging from The Simpsons to 3rd Rock from the Sun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide The Twilight Zone: The Odyssey of Flight 33: Thrown off course by a freak tailwind, a passenger jet finds itself flying over a prehistoric landscape, festooned with dinosaurs. Deducing that theyve somehow passed through a time warp, the crew of Flight 33, headed by Captain Farver (John Anderson), desperately seek out a way of returning to their own time. Managing to retrieve the tailwind, the crew succeeds in its goal -- almost. Written by Rod Serling, with technical advice from his novelist brother Robert J. Serling (then an aviation writer for American Airlines), this Twilight Zone episode is highlighted by some disturbingly convincing monster animation, courtesy of film producer Jack H. Harris (of Dinosaurus! fame) and the special-effects wizards at Project Unlimited. The Odyssey of Flight 33 first aired February 24, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide