Facts about "The Twilight Zone"

It was innovative to say the least.

Plaque honoring Rod SerlingPhoto byCreative Commons: File:Rod_Serling_Memorial.JPG: I'm nonpartisan Derivative work: PawełMM (talk) and

The Twilight Zone was any many ways ahead of its time. The series creator, Rod Serling, wanted to address deep subjects that were often considered taboo by network censors. To do that Rod had to be really creative in his writing.

I still watch episodes of the series today, though not every episode is my cut of tea. I don’t care for the episodes dealing with the supernatural, but I find the ones dealing with science fiction or other genres to be interesting. So, here are some things you didn’t know about The Twighlight Zone.

1: Rod Serling was not the original choice to be the show’s narrator.

CBS wanted someone with a bigger cache. And when you think of big caches you think of Orson Welles. Actually, Welles proved to be too expensive for CBS. Serling didn’t want Welles, in part, because he thought his delivery was too pompous. It’s hard to imagine anyone besides Serling narrating the series.

2: Rod Serling sold his rights to residuals for a lump sum payment.

While the sum was large, Rod lost money. I guess that money he lost is in The Twighlight Zone.

3: The “Twighlight Zone” was somewhat of a steppingstone to “Star Trek.”

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan, and George Takei were all “in the zone.”

4: “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starring William Shatner is one of the most famous of the episodes.

You might remember that’s the episode where airline passenger sees a gremlin on the wing of the plane. It seems the gremlin was part of an experimental sub-coach ticket plan.

5: George Takei was in the most controversial episode in the series.

It was so controversial it was taken out of syndication until 2016. Oh my!

6: A Big Tall Wish” was the first TV show to feature a predominately black cast.

And race wasn’t presented as an element of the story. It’s interested a point was made without hitting the audience over the head.

7: While Serling wrote 94 of the 156 episodes of the series, he did farm some of the writing out to other gifted writers.

One of those writers was Charles Beaumont. Beaumont contracted a mysterious brain disease which aged him tremendously. He died at the age of 38 but looked like he was 95. It was like a tragic episode of The Twight Zone.

8: One of the episodes was considered a springboard for a sitcom, and even had a laugh track.

The episode was Cavender is Coming and starred Jesse White and Carol Burnett. It didn’t become a sitcom, and the laugh track was removed for syndication. Hey, nobody bats a thousand.

9: How many dimensions are there?

When Rod did the first voiceover for the show he said, there was “a sixth dimension” to explore. When Rod was questioned about it, he was surprised to learn there ware only four dimensions. Unless you count the musical group with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.

10: “To Serve Man” featured a James Bond villain and a memorable catch phrase.

The alien ambassador, Kanamit, was played by Richard Kiel who went on to play Jaws in a couple of James Bond movies. And while the phrase, “It’s a cookbook!” may not be, “It’s people!” it’s still memorable.

11: Dream a little dream.

Some of Rod Serling’s dreams ended up as episodes of The Twighlight Zone.” It was really hard to tell if Rod was sleeping or working.