Entering the ‘Zone’

We have been living through strange times. And while they may seem extra strange to us, they don’t get stranger than The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s classic speculative fiction anthology series. Though it first aired in 1959, the show itself may feel like it eerily reflects our current reality.

Beginning with these words, both invitation and warning, Serling brings us into a world that mirrors the subconscious of our own:

"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."

In an era when television was just finding its place as a more serious medium (remember just as many theatrical performers eschewed film, most film stars would not do television), Rod Serling was known as TV’s “last angry man” in that he had devoted himself to making television into a serious story-telling medium and fighting against the total commercialization of television in favor of its literary potential.

While many episodes of this over-65-year-old-show have become iconic, such as “the pig nose episode”, “the one with the evil doll”, “that one with William Shatner seeing a monster on the wing of a plane” or, perhaps most famously, “the one where Burgess Meredith just wants to read and then becomes the last man on earth and breaks his glasses”, everyone who watches The Twilight Zone has their own favorite.

While many future television and film stars found some of their first high-profile work on The Twilight Zone, for instance Robert Redford playing the role of Death, The Twilight Zone remains one of those rare television series where the story of the show is central and the performances and scripts seem to form a perfect symbiotic experience.

Often, there might be a life-lesson or “moral to the story” in an episode of The Twilight Zone. The theme might be something like “be careful what you wish for”, “live in the present”, “appreciate what you have”, and others – each one speaking to some aspect of the human condition. Discussion about these aspects of The Twilight Zone were central to the recently concluded, “Twilight Zone: Viewing and Discussion” program at the MCLS’s Hickory Corner Branch. Conversation might range from how the themes in The Twilight Zone are still applicable – perhaps even more applicable – today than they were 65 years ago, to putting the show’s social commentary into the context of its time.

Ending in 1964, as the anthology format began to fade in popularity, the original Twilight Zone has had a number of iterations, but none have captured the sheer existential sublimity of Rod Serling’s classic. If you watch and listen closely you might even be able to identify which episodes were written by each of the three main writers: Serling, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont.

You can check out the entire Twilight Zone series through the MCLS. If you’re new to The Twilight Zone or returning to it as an old favorite, let me know which episodes resonate with you – and, remember, when things get strange they’re always stranger in The Twilight Zone.

- by Chip, Hopewell Branch