ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 19th
"THE TWILIGHT ZONE" ended on TV in 1964
"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone."
Television audiences around the world heard that very introduction from Rod Serling every week for almost five years, as The Twilight Zone featured an anthology of stories; ranging from the paranormal and futuristic to monsters and aliens! Created by Rod Sterling, who by the late 1950's, was a regular name in television with successful teleplays for Kraft Television Theater and Playhouse 90. In 1957 Serling wrote a pilot for "new kind of show" titled "The Time Element" - a time travel adventure about a man who travels back to Honolulu in 1941 and unsuccessfully tries to warn everyone about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. The script, however, was rejected and shelved for a year until Bert Granet discovered and produced it as an episode of Desilu Playhouse in 1958. With the success of the show, and the episode, Serling would use it as inspiration for his new anthology TV show - The Twilight Zone.
The premiere episode "Where Is Everybody?" aired on CBS on October 2nd, 1959. Running for 36 episodes, the first season was hugely successful and led to CBS ordering another four seasons; for a total of 156 episodes (over 60 combined hours of television). The Twilight Zone featured the major stars of the 50's and 60's, including; Charles Bronson, William Shatner (in "Nightmare at 20,000'"), Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Peter Falk, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dean Stockwell, Ron Howard, Dennis Hopper, and Mickey Rooney (and that's just to name a few!).
But after five successful years, The Twilight Zone came to end. The final episode, "The Bewitchin' Pool", tells the story of a sister and brother who constantly ignored by their cold and self-centered parents and discover a portal to another dimension at the bottom of their swimming pool. There they are loved unconditionally by kind warm-hearted elderly woman known as "Aunt T" (Georgia Simmons), who has many "children", all of whom came from parents who did not deserve them. Given the chance to remain in their own world, they are confronted by their parents who announce they are divorcing and demand the children choose who they live with (further insulting them when the children hesitate in answering). Deciding to return to Aunt T, the children swim through the portal, followed by their father who finds nothing but the bottom of the pool. Too late, the parents find concern, and perhaps love, for their children, as they live happily ever after.
The Twilight Zone became a landmark TV series; it was beloved by critics and the public as well. Serlings' follow up series Night Gallery, and the other shows he did after that never had the same impact. Then, in 1983, Steven Spielberg produced and co-directed Twilight Zone: The Movie (incidentally, one of Spielberg's first directing credits was on Serling's Night Gallery). Despite the lukewarm response to Twilight Zone: The Movie, CBS gave the new Twilight Zone a green-light in 1984 under the supervision of Carla Singer, then Vice President of Drama Development. "Twilight Zone was a series I always liked as a kid," said Singer, "...and at that point it sounded like an interesting challenge for me personally." The revival series would run for three seasons, ending in 1989. Yet another revival of the Twilight Zone was produced in 2002, Serling's narration role being assumed by Forrest Whitaker. This version was not as successful as it's predecessors and was cancelled after one season.
Watch the Twilight Zone classic Intro video
Television audiences around the world heard that very introduction from Rod Serling every week for almost five years, as The Twilight Zone featured an anthology of stories; ranging from the paranormal and futuristic to monsters and aliens! Created by Rod Sterling, who by the late 1950's, was a regular name in television with successful teleplays for Kraft Television Theater and Playhouse 90. In 1957 Serling wrote a pilot for "new kind of show" titled "The Time Element" - a time travel adventure about a man who travels back to Honolulu in 1941 and unsuccessfully tries to warn everyone about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. The script, however, was rejected and shelved for a year until Bert Granet discovered and produced it as an episode of Desilu Playhouse in 1958. With the success of the show, and the episode, Serling would use it as inspiration for his new anthology TV show - The Twilight Zone.
The premiere episode "Where Is Everybody?" aired on CBS on October 2nd, 1959. Running for 36 episodes, the first season was hugely successful and led to CBS ordering another four seasons; for a total of 156 episodes (over 60 combined hours of television). The Twilight Zone featured the major stars of the 50's and 60's, including; Charles Bronson, William Shatner (in "Nightmare at 20,000'"), Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Peter Falk, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dean Stockwell, Ron Howard, Dennis Hopper, and Mickey Rooney (and that's just to name a few!).
But after five successful years, The Twilight Zone came to end. The final episode, "The Bewitchin' Pool", tells the story of a sister and brother who constantly ignored by their cold and self-centered parents and discover a portal to another dimension at the bottom of their swimming pool. There they are loved unconditionally by kind warm-hearted elderly woman known as "Aunt T" (Georgia Simmons), who has many "children", all of whom came from parents who did not deserve them. Given the chance to remain in their own world, they are confronted by their parents who announce they are divorcing and demand the children choose who they live with (further insulting them when the children hesitate in answering). Deciding to return to Aunt T, the children swim through the portal, followed by their father who finds nothing but the bottom of the pool. Too late, the parents find concern, and perhaps love, for their children, as they live happily ever after.
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