The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’S Wondrous Land

Copyright © 2006, 2014 Kenneth Reynolds.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-2012-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-2013-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-2014-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013923797

iUniverse rev. date: 04/30/2014

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1: Rod Serling: A Short Biography

Chapter 2: What Is The Twilight Zone?

Chapter 3: The Episodes

Afterword

Appendix 1: The Themes

Appendix 2: Episode Index & Description

Appendix 3: The Writers

Appendix 4: Writers’ Index

Acknowledgements

DEDICATION

To the entire cast and crew of The Twilight Zone, for proving that television production can be a great and lasting work of art.

Rod Serling’s classic TV exploration of the uncanny, the unknown and the unforgettable takes you beyond the deepest realms of imagination!

Image Entertainment, April 2004

From 1959 to 1964, it was the show that enticed, disturbed-and caused more than a few nightmares! Rod Serling’s groundbreaking TV series…the all-too-helpful aliens of To Serve Man to the hauntingly tranquil village in A Stop at Willoughby. Open your mind and dare to re-enter this classic dimension of sight, sound, and nail-biting fear!

The Video Collection, January 2004, p.12

Have you entered The Twilight Zone?! Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone has to rank as the greatest sci-fi/fantasy series ever to air on television…

Collector’s Choice Music Catalog, January 2003, p.36

It’s Time to Re-Enter The Twilight Zone! The Twilight Zone was easily one of the most-brilliant series ever to air on television…

Ibid., p. 37

The demand from fans and newcomers alike have kept reruns of this show on the air decades after its original airings, still opening people’s eyes to mysterious, uncanny happenings from other dimensions!

Video Preview catalog, March 2003, p. 23

The Twilight Zone. The original classic. We still remember that eerie theme song and the creepy introductions by Rod Serling.

Columbia House Video brochure, January 2003

The Twilight Zone. From the first few notes of that eerie theme song, audiences knew they were in for a bizarre ride to another dimension.

Ibid., undated

Enter a new dimension of sight and sound… Rod Serling’s classic series of strange and macabre tales.

Columbia House catalog, September 2003

The Twilight Zone… Rod Serling’s brilliant episodes…timeless tales…Serling’s trademark plot twists…

Critic’s Choice catalog, October 2003

In 1959, Rod Serling led a journey into that dimension with one of the most unique series ever broadcast on network television. The show was The Twilight Zone-a drama so powerful it changed the way we looked at space, time-and at our very existence! Now you can journey to ‘… the wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination’ whenever you want… No one was more of a master at assembling off-screen talent than Rod Serling. You’ll marvel at the superb artistry of the show’s directors… memorable scripts… dazzling make-up and special effects… and the haunting TWILIGHT ZONE theme… ENTER A NEW DIMENSION.

Columbia House Video Library flier

Rod Serling’s brilliant episodes that laid the groundwork for all science-fiction shows that would follow.

Critic’s Choice catalog, April 2003, p. 42

The Twilight Zone… Rod Serling’s timeless series of fantasy and imagination…

Movies Unlimited catalog, 25th Anniversary Edition

…Rod Serling’s mind-bending series…

Movies Unlimited catalog, March 2003

TV’s most-far-out show…

TV Guide, Summer 1963

…Twilight Zone helped pave the pathway for the great sci-fi and fantasy series to come.

www.twilightzonemuseum.com

INTRODUCTION

After reading the acclaim from various media sources, one comes away thinking that there must have been something very special about The Twilight Zone.

Various factors contributed to the specialness of this outstanding TV show, which debuted October 2, 1959 and finished its run on June 19, 1964. Why, fifty years after its departure, are 24-hour to 48-hour marathons, sometimes of even greater length than 48 hours, shown on cable or satellite television, usually semi-annually, and watched by millions? Why have the rerun ratings been so successful? Why do people in everyday conversation use the term The Twilight Zone to describe or define some eerie, unusual experience they went through? Why does this show hold people’s attention and thinking so much that various episodes and/or their characters are still talked about, thought about, and analyzed?

I believe the answer to all the preceding questions boils down to a superb television production, where every facet of it-the acting, the scripts, the sets, the dialogue, the direction, the music, inter alia-was flawless. In the words of director Elliot Silverstein, who directed four Twilight Zone episodes, It was a class act all the way (www. twilight zone museum.com).

That being said, it was the great storytelling that, in my opinion, undergirded this show, and the aforementioned qualities strengthened and enhanced the production. Mankind, young and old, from all walks of life and all backgrounds, loves a great story well-told, and there may well be no man in the history of television writing with a greater gift for great storytelling than Rod Serling-creator of The Twilight Zone and called …television’s greatest storyteller by actor James Earl Jones.

The book company Easton Press mentions stories that carry you away to faraway places and past times…into realms of the mind and heart. Easton also claims that A great short story becomes a part of you and your life experience. Earl Hammer Jr.-the writer of eight Twilight Zone episodes-said of the show: They’re great stories well-told (The Twilight Zone Companion, by Marc Zicree, author’s notes). As with all great art, his [Serling’s] writing will be with us forever, says painter Harley Brown (www.rodserling.com).

Whether you are a TZ devotee like me, who has seen each episode innumerable times, or someone who has seen a few episodes a few times, or someone who has never seen an episode, The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Wondrous Land will hopefully appeal to all by assembling the major themes and subjects that are showcased and then elaborate on the messages and teachings that are conveyed to the viewers. Simply put, it will endeavor to answer the perennial question directed at stories requiring deep thought and introspection: What are they trying to tell us?

Each of the 156 episodes will be thoroughly critiqued, determining which of the themes are involved in the particular episodes. I spent 2 to 3 years researching and analyzing this series (2003-2006), reviewing and taking notes on each episode, connecting the related episodes to each other and assembling a list of 52 themes covered throughout the series. Whether you’re a veteran or a novice of The Twilight Zone, there is almost always something missed, something that escapes, something not quite understood, even after numerous viewings. I believe that Serling and the other writers of the various episodes wanted it that way; they wanted the audience to participate, to concentrate, to get involved vicariously in the stories.

Chapter 1 of this work is self-explanatory. Chapter 2 gives all of Serling’s introductions to the series, summarizes his descriptions of TTZ, defines and elaborates on the words Twilight and Zone, provides an acronym to help us understand the series, and defines and elaborates on the words represented by the acronym; this chapter helps us to grasp the meaning, the purpose, the essence of TTZ before any reading or review of an episode.

Chapter 3 contains a thorough review of each episode. The episodes are chronologically arranged, with each one beginning with the title, the debut date and the writer of that episode. An image from a scene in the episode follows, which I believe represents the episode’s motif. An epigraph follows the image, seeking to describe in words what the image symbolizes. Thus we have a visual and a literal lead-in and representation of each episode. Serling’s prologue follows, and then a thorough review or retelling of the episode, citing selected dialogue and important points and turns in the story. Side points and annotation are sometimes made at certain points in the bulk of the episodes, like the actor’s name playing a part and how many other episodes, if any, he appeared in. Serling’s epilogue comes next, and then a commentary on the episode. Anecdotes are occasionally used to demonstrate how true-to-life the episode’s events are. Interesting information from actors and actresses at three Twilight Zone conventions I attended, mostly from the episodes they appeared in, adds a personal touch to the review and commentary and leads to a greater understanding of the episode. After the commentary comes a listing of the themes covered in the episode, and then a listing of the Lessons to Be Learned, since Serling closed 4 episodes using such language.

The Afterword-my favorite part of this book-is a summary of what we’ve absorbed after reading, reviewing, analyzing and commenting on each episode and linking the related ones. I list ten PZEs (Personal Zone Experiences) that befell me during this book’s writing. Some of the other TV series that dealt with sci-fi/fantasy stories and how they relate to TTZ are cited.

The first of 4 appendixes lists 52 themes that run throughout the series, with each one having a parenthesized number indicating the number of episodes dealing with that theme. I believe this would be a helpful tool for use in any kind of curriculum that deals with a host of psychological, sociological, philosophical or educational fields or subjects. Appendix 2 is a chronological episode index with a brief description of each episode. Appendixes 3 and 4 deal with the series’ writers, with Appendix 3 listing how many episodes were written by each writer and closing out with episode titles that have something in common. And the last appendix lists which episodes were written by each of the writers and who wrote the hour-long episodes. An index closes out this work.

Timeless precepts and human experiences, like love, friendship, charity, magnanimity, etc., are elicited in the The Twilight Zone characters so effectively and realistically, that it achieves what is probably the chief objective in acting: to make the audience believe that the actors aren’t acting.

Rod Serling was obviously fascinated by the mystery and wonder of life itself, by the universe and its infinite vastness, and by mankind. He brought his varied life experiences into his work of art, to share what he’d learned about life and what his views are on vitally important issues and dilemmas; his characters brought to life his deep thoughts and perspectives. He believed that You just need characters you…identify with (Film Fax magazine, December 2000/January 2001), and everyone who watches The Twilight Zone will identify with not one, but many, of the characters, because the roles are so true to life.

The Zone is unique in many ways, but in the largest way by the inability to characterize it as a particular genre, like a sitcom or a love story. Its main description has been as a science-fiction show, but that applies to only a few of the episodes. It’s a combination of sci-fi, fantasy, drama, mystery, suspense, horror, fright, adventure, social commentary, and yes, even comedy. And the grand result was a major reason why the era in which it was shown was called, is still called, The Golden Age of Television.

The world around all of us, life itself, the universe and all its wonders, it’s all part of the great mystery of our existence. And there’s no better place than Rod Serling’s magical world to get a taste of that great mystery.

The Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Wondrous Land is a thorough analysis of the series, and endeavors to help the reader to establish a greater understanding of and appreciation for each episode. I hope it will continue to preserve the series’ legacy and the work of its creator Rod Serling.

So let’s take that …journey into a wondrous land, whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead! Your next stop: The Twilight Zone!

CHAPTER ONE

ROD SERLING: A

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Rodman Serling was born on Christmas Day, 1924, in Syracuse, NY. He said of this event: I was a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped (The Twilight Zone Companion, p. 3). His family in 1926 moved to Binghamton-a small city about 70 miles south of Syracuse and about 10 miles north of the northeast Pa. border. It was in Binghamton where Serling would spend the rest of his childhood and almost all of his adolescence. He was very fond of Binghamton and his growing up there, which may have led him to later say: Everybody has to have a hometown; Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive make-up of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat or a kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up. When I dig back through memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling-and that’s one of warmth, comfort, and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find-I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s [going to] take away from me (www.rodserling.com, introduction page).

Serling’s father Samuel-the same name as a book in the Bible-was a wholesale meat dealer. Serling’s mother’s first name was Esther-also the name of a book in the Bible. The Serlings had two children: their sons Robert and Rodman, Robert being seven years older than Rod. The Serlings were Reform Jews but attended synagogue mostly for holy days or special occasions.

While the Serling boys were growing up, they loved reading the so-called pulp magazines of that era (named pulp after the rough, crusty paper used in printing the magazines). Magazines with enchanting, imaginative, spooky titles like Amazing Stories, Astounding Stories, Weird Tales were read enthusiastically, even though Rod Serling had no childhood dreams or ambitions for a literary or writing career; they ostensibly just loved the great storytelling in the pulps of the 1930s and 1940s.

Robert would say of six-or seven-year-old Rod: He was in a world all by himself (The Twilight Zone Companion, p. 4). Maybe this was the start of Rod Serling’s unique, powerful imagination, starting to take him into other worlds, other dimensions. He joined the Boy Scouts, and was enrolled with Robert in Sunday School at the local Jewish community center. While enrolled in Binghamton Central High School, there was one teacher that had a great influence on him: Helen Foley. Binghamton newspaper columnist David Rossie said of her: Just about all of us…who passed through her classroom, left it a little better, if for no other reason than the discovery that learning didn’t have to be painful, that it could, in fact, be pleasant. He added, She had a love of the language that is born into the Irish. And, most importantly, as far as understanding Rod Serling goes, she was the teacher who unlocked that magnificent imagination [of Rod Serling]. Serling even named the lead character in the Zone episode Nightmare as a Child after her, and the character was a school teacher.

On the day he graduated high school, Rod enlisted in US Army, 11th Airborne Division paratroopers. He took up boxing during basic training, and went on to win 17 out of 18 bouts, in addition to getting a broken nose. This experience must have influenced the Zone episodes The Big Tall Wish, and Steel-both portraying the gritty, painful world of boxing.

He was assigned in May 1944 to the Pacific Theater in New Guinea and the Philippines as a member of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He was wounded twice, and was awarded the Purple Heart for a severe shrapnel wound to his knee and wrist requiring hospitalization. While Serling brought almost all of his major life experiences into The Twilight Zone, his war experience led to 21 episodes dealing with the circumstances of war; he suffered from flashbacks, nightmares and insomnia for the rest of his life.

In 1945, Samuel Serling died of a heart attack at age 52. Rod was denied a furlough by the army, which must have intensified the bereavement. He was very close to his father, said Serling’s daughter Anne (Paul Mandell, American Cinematographer, June 1988). He was discharged in 1946, returned home, and was unsure what direction to take in his life. Via the GI Bill, he enrolled at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in the southwestern part of the state, about 15 miles east of Dayton. Antioch was the same school attended by his brother Robert. He majored in phys. ed., because he …was interested in working with kids (TTZC, p. 5), but he soon changed to language and literature. As a 21-year-old freshman in Fall 1946, he met Carolyn Kramer-a 17-year-old-fellow student majoring in education and psychology. Since neither Rod nor Carolyn were practicing the faiths they were raised in, Ms. Kramer suggested Unitarianism as a compromise. Horace Mann, the first president of Antioch College, was a Unitarian educator. They were married at the Unitarian chapel in Columbus, OH in Summer 1948 and would go on to have two children: daughters Jodi and Anne.

Rod graduated in 1950 with a literature degree, moved to Cincinnati, and got a staff-writing job at radio station WLW; but after work he was writing scripts at the kitchen table, hankering to become his own writer instead of writing for someone else. In 1952 the Serlings moved to Westport, CT to be near New York City, so he could submit scripts for live network-TV productions (this was a time before Fed Ex, e-mail, fax machines, etc.). His initial claim to fame would be Patterns-a play he wrote for Kraft Television Theater in January 1955. The performance was so superb that, by popular demand, it was performed live again about a month later (the first TV rerun, so to speak). More success would follow, with Serling’s scripts and stories being broadcast live on other network theaters like Playhouse 90 and United States Steel Hour: Requiem For a Heavyweight, The Comedian, The Rack, Bomber’s Moon, etc. Eventually, Serling would receive six Emmy awards, and the name Rod Serling was now a household name throughout America.

Live television began to fade in the late 1950s, so Serling moved to Pacific Palisades, CA, becoming next-door neighbors of Ron and Nancy Reagan. Since Hollywood offered more resources conducive to network television, the industry was moving its major operations from New York to Los Angeles, and Serling followed it.

Since many of his scripts were being heavily edited and censored due to sponsor pressure and threats and the fear of angry public reaction, he considered a sci-fi/fantasy anthology where he could, allegorically, metaphorically, symbolically, get his points across with fictional or quasi-fictional characters and stories; he also liked the idea of rerunning or repeating a show, unlike the teleplays he wrote for live TV. So he submitted the script The Twilight Zone/The Time Element to CBS, which, ironically, never became a Twilight Zone episode, but did air on Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse in November 1958. It received more mail than any other Desilu presentation, and the newspaper reviews were virtually all positive. CBS decided to offer Serling a contract to produce The Twilight Zone, and Serling’s company Cayuga Productions (named after Cayuga Lake-one of the Finger Lakes in upstate NY where the Serlings vacationed each Summer) got to work, and the rest is history.

The first half-hour episode aired October 2, 1959, on a Friday, at 10 p.m. (What a perfect time!). The 1963 season debuted hour-long episodes, and the airdate was moved to Thursday night at 9 p.m. Throughout its 156-episodes’ run, from 1959 to 1964, The Twilight Zone never finished any season in the top 25, but it always had respectable ratings. Like so many other successful shows, syndication engendered more of a large and devoted viewership than the original airings. Like fine wine, fine art is appreciated more over time, and no better proof of that is The Twilight Zone.

After the last Zone episode was shown in June 1964, Serling still wrote for TV. The Loner-a Western with Lloyd Bridges in the title role-was a series about a cowboy who travels the West, intervening in various conflicts and dilemmas by using persuasion, reason, and other non-six-gun tactics. Some TV movies followed, along with co-writing the script for the motion picture Planet of the Apes. His swansong was Night Gallery, which aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973. While this anthology series was similar to The Zone, it centered more on horror and terror, and Serling didn’t have the creative leeway he had with The Zone. His TV career ended, for the most part, when Night Gallery went off the air.

He taught and lectured at colleges across America, speaking out strongly on social issues and the Vietnam conflict. Even while still producing The Zone, he took a year-long teaching position at Antioch College, where his writing career all began. He also taught at Ithaca College in New York, about 20 miles southeast of the Serling Summer home in the Cayuga Lake town of Interlaken.

While mowing the lawn at their Interlaken home, Rod Serling suffered a heart attack in May 1975. In Rochester, NY on June 28, 1975, he died of complications from a coronary bypass operation. Memorial services were simultaneously held at Sage Chapel at Cornell University in New York and at Unitarian Community Church in Santa Monica, CA. He was 50-years-old when he died.

CHAPTER TWO

WHAT IS THE TWILIGHT ZONE?

This is the explanation that Rod Serling gave for coming up with the title The Twilight Zone: …there is an Air Force term relating to a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and it cannot see the horizon; it’s called the twilight zone (TTZC, p. 24).

To help us grasp just what Rod Serling’s wondrous land is, let’s read and dwell on his introductions to the show:

1: You’re traveling through 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. That’s the signpost up ahead! Your next stop: The Twilight Zone! "(The screen images show gossamers, a protruding black line, the sun, the sun descends, and the words The Twilight Zone pop up, like a signpost, and they come right at the viewer and then break up. The words are in white, all in capitals, except the h and the e in The. The letters in Twilight Zone are staggered).

2: 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’s an area which we call: The Twilight Zone. (The screen images: gossamers, clouds/clear sky, shadows from figures on a barren landscape, a dark pit or cave-like opening, a rising up to glittering stars, the words The Twilight Zone (once again, in white, with only the h and the e in The in small case) assemble, and the camera pans down).

3: You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension: a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into: The Twilight Zone. (The screen images: a shut door which fully opens, a window which shatters, a big eyeball (the cover for TTZC), Einstein’s formula E=mc2, a robotic figure moving through space, the face of a clock, and the words Twilight Zone assemble (The was omitted), all this set against a starry universe).

4: You are about to enter another dimension-a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind-a journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop: The Twilight Zone. (The screen images: an open female eye, a protruding black line, the sun replaces the eyeball, the eye closes, the sun descends, the words The Twilight Zone pop up out of the black line, in black capital letters, but turn to white when the sun descends. The words come right at the viewer. This introduction, especially with the haunting music, is the scariest intro in the series, in my opinion).

5: The same as #1, without That’s the signpost up ahead! (The screen images: a black-and-white spiral cone traveling through space, out of the mist come the words THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and those words break apart and the pieces scatter).

This Serling intro never aired:

This highway leads to the shadowy tip of reality; you’re on a through route to the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable. Go as far as you like on this road; its limits are only those of the mind itself. Ladies and gentlemen, you’re entering the wondrous dimension of imagination. Next stop: The Twilight Zone (from TTZC).

So, Rod Serling defined The Twilight Zone as: another dimension, a wondrous land, a fifth dimension (not the 1960s singing group The Fifth Dimension), a middle ground between light and shadow and between science and superstition, a dimension of imagination, a land of both shadow and substance and of things and ideas, a wondrous land of imagination, the shadowy tip of reality-the land of the different, the bizarre, the unexplainable.

Additional descriptions from Serling come from his own prologues and epilogues to the episodes: …the journey into the shadows (from the episode Where Is Everybody?), …somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the Earth, lies The Twilight Zone (The Last Flight), …that most unpredictable region (Mr. Dingle the Strong), …another world (The Trouble with Templeton), …a very bizarre casino (The Silence), …the odd stage (Five Characters in Search of an Exit), …that gray, shaded area in space and time (The Little People), …that small, dark intimate place (The Dummy), …a strange new world, too incredible to be real, too real to be a dream (In His Image), …very late at night…between wakefulness and sleep (The Valley of the Shadow), …a shadowland (He’s Alive) …a special province, uncharted and unmapped, a country of both shadow and substance (The Incredible World of Horace Ford), …a special plate (ditto), …a better port (Passage on the Lady Anne), …an odd market place (Of Late I Think of Cliffordville), …a vast question mark (The Parallel), …a very special bivouac area (The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms), …a reading room (ditto), …a distant port (Sounds and Silences).

Of course, a good way to understand terms is to define them. Webster’s defines zone as a region or area set off as distinct from surrounding or adjoining parts; one of the sections of an area or territory created for a particular purpose. The beautiful time of twilight is defined as the light from the sky between full night and sunrise or between sunset and full night; an intermediate state that is not clearly defined. Using Webster’s as a judge, Rod Serling picked the two perfect words to title his show.

Since we live in an age of acronyms, I’d like to throw in one of my own to help us in our journey into The Twilight Zone (TTZ): DIMS.

D: dimension

I: imagination

M: mystery/magic

S: story (or history, his-story)

Dimension is defined as one of three or four coordinates determining a position in space and time. Science tells us there are four dimensions: matter, space, time, energy-but Rod Serling tells us there’s a fifth dimension: The Twilight Zone! It’s a place that transcends, makes contact with, intrudes on, ignores, variegates, violates, disobeys, and sometimes even replaces the laws and standards of one or all four of the dimensions that science has established in trying to define and determine life and the workings of the universe.

Imagination is greatly understood by the word image (picture, illusion, figure, idea, appearance, copy), but Webster, in the true spirit of TTZ, defines it perfectly: the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality (my emphasis); creative ability; ability to confront and deal with a problem.

If there’s one word to describe Rod Serling’s TTZ, it’s imagination. Supernatural, phenomenal, incredible, spectacular, inexplicable things happen in this wondrous land, and man’s imagination has a big role to play in it. Many times, imagination beckons people to enter The Zone, and they enter willingly or unwillingly, knowingly or unknowingly, not even realizing why or how they are taking a journey into a shadowland, a misty region. How far and for how long this journey goes, no one knows; that’s left up to the imagination.

Mystery: something not understood or beyond understanding; a religious truth that man can know by revelation alone and cannot fully understand.

Magic: the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces; an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural force; something that seems to cast a spell.

Virtually every Zone episode contains mystery and magic, the recognition that there is more to this world than meets the eye. Serling’s epilogue in the episode Mirror Image could very well sum up man’s frustration in dealing with the mysterious and the magical: Obscure metaphysical explanation to cover a phenomenon, reasons dredged out of the shadows to explain away that which cannot be explained. Call it parallel planes or just insanity. Whatever it is, you find it, in The Twilight Zone. And in The Parallel, an Air Force officer says: We’re only starting to find the mysteries, General; we haven’t even begun to solve them…we have a long way to go, sir. Indeed, we do have a long way to go, but TTZ gives us a glimpse, a baptism of fire, a rough outline of just what may be out there, or somewhere out there. As stated in the nostalgia magazine Reminisce: There are things that are known and things that are unknown…in between are doors (March/April 2004, p. 33). In one of the show’s introductions, a shut door appears-only to have Serling tell us, You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Unlocking and entering through that door leads to one of the greatest adventures ever embarked on in television history.

Story: an account of incidents or events; narrative, tale, legend, fable, report, account, description.

TTZ epitomized …the magical art of storytelling (from a Folio Society flier). There’s much enchantment and amazement with great stories, like Scheherazade not only preventing her death by continuously telling stories to the sultan, but by causing him to fall in love with her (1,001 Arabian Nights). From a child pleading, Daddy, tell me a story!, before he goes to sleep, to a septuagenarian grandmother wanting to hear her grandchildren’s fantasies and yarns, mankind eats up a great story, well told; such is the essence of TTZ.

Serling was not just the creator, executive producer, and writer (92 episodes) of TTZ; he was also the narrator, a wordsmith, an English teacher, a commentator, an elocutionist, a deep thinker, an adventurer, a pioneer, a minister, a counselor, but most of all, an extremely gifted and imaginative storyteller, ardently devoted to his work.

So, TTZ has many definitions and characterizations. It’s a place, an experience, a happening, an odyssey into another world, another land. Its purpose is to teach timeless principles and precepts; to offer deliverance and redemption to the despondent, the hopeless, the persecuted; to render judgment and justice to the villain; to bring us to places …where no man has gone before (from the Star Trek intro).

It’s sometimes A World of Difference, Back There, A Hundred Yards Over the Rim, The Bewitchin’ Pool; other times it’s The Grave, Death’s-Head Revisited, or A Stop at Willoughby. And beware: it’s within Walking Distance.

CHAPTER THREE

THE EPISODES

This chapter contains a review and commentary on each of the 156 episodes, chronologically arranged, from the debut Where Is Everybody? on October, 2, 1959 to the finale The Bewitchin’ Pool on June 19, 1964.

Each review will be prefaced by an epigraph and a photograph from the episode that tries to capture the essence of the story. Following the commentary will be a listing of the themes touched on in each episode. Serling’s prologue will precede each review, with the epilogue at the review’s end. Sometimes the prologues and epilogues contain clues that help the viewer understand the gist or major points and messages of the story. There was very little, if any, wasted, unnecessary or meaningless dialogue in TTZ, and I will strive to emphasize the unforgettable, the crystal-clear, cogent exchanges or soliloquies.

Since four epilogues contained Lesson to be learned (twice), Object lesson for and Tonight’s lesson in, each review will close with Lessons to be learned." I believe this is appropriate because Serling and the other writers were almost always touching on some moral truth, some exploration or discovery of the mystery of man and the universe. I think the best question to ask ourselves while watching or reading about these episodes is: Just what is or where is TTZ in this story?

Now, let’s begin our journey into Rod Serling’s wondrous land of imagination.

EPISODE 1:

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

Debuted: 10/2/1959

Written by: Rod Serling

All still images from the episodes are courtesy of CBS Corp.

"Where is a voice to answer mine back?

Where are two shoes that click to my clack?

I’m all alone in the world."

From the song I’m All Alone in the World, in

the TV special Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol

Serling’s Prologue

The place is here, the time is now. And the journey into the shadows that we’re about to watch, could be our journey.

Review

It’s quite appropriate that Rod Serling defined The Twilight Zone so perfectly in this debut episode and in its prologue, for every episode is a …journey into the shadows… And at one point or another in our lives, we may take a similar journey, knowingly or unknowingly, willingly or unwillingly. The journey, depending on the people and circumstances involved, is full of adventure, mystery, wonder, amazement, bizarreness, fascination, drama, suspense, edification-but it also can contain darkness, terror, fear, desolation, trepidation, fright.

A man (Earl Holliman), about thirty, dressed in a jumpsuit and black boots, is ambling down a dirt road, occasionally hitting the ground with a twig that he’s carrying in his right hand. It’s a rustic scene, with the only sign of life being a small café playing loud, bouncy jazz music, situated just off the road. As he enters the café-symbolic of the quaint eateries of 1950s’ America-he hears and sees signs of life, but there are no people. The juke box plays, cooking smells come from the kitchen; but there’s no counterman, no cook, no waitress.

The man calls out a food order, declaring he’s a customer, and he’s hungry. When no one appears or responds, he decides to help himself. He passes the counter, enters the kitchen, and pours himself a cup of coffee. Once again he calls for service, and he again says he’s hungry. While drinking coffee and munching on some food, he stops to say, thinking someone is somewhere around: …there’s some question about my identity…I’m not sure who I am. He adds, I don’t seem to remember who I am. He returns to the counter, leans on it, drinks coffee, and says to himself that this must be a dream and he’s going to wake up.

He leaves the café and starts down the road, eventually entering a small town with all the basics: town square, drug store, police station, bakery, etc. But just like the café, there are no people. He scans the square, looking at it through a fence and through the glass of a phone booth. As he walks about, he gets tantalized with the appearance of a populated town: a store mannequin, a lit cigar in an ashtray, a phone directory. The directory even gives the name of Oakwood-a town just south of Dayton, Ohio and not far from Serling’s college town of Yellow Springs. Coincidence? The traveling man then almost gets locked inside the phone booth and then a jail cell, and winds up in a drug store (a 1950s’-era drug store, that is). He proceeds to make himself an ice-cream sundae and starts a conversation with (Who else?) himself in the wall mirror behind the counter. Again he ponders: Is this a dream? A nightmare? Who am I? Where am I? What’s going on here?

After his full of ice-cream, he strolls about the store and comes upon a book gondola-and it’s full of paperback copies of only one book: The Last Man on Earth. Interestingly, a few years after this debut episode, in 1962, a movie with the same title debuted, with Vincent Price in the lead role as a vampire killer who believes he really is the last man on Earth. It was based on the novel I am Legend, by Richard Matheson, who wrote fourteen episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Finally, the solitary man gets a clue as to who he is: he’s in the air force. After seeing a movie theater’s marquee light up with the title Battle Hymn of the Republic, he enters the theater and sees a poster with an airman and planes flying above him. Clutching a lapel of his jumpsuit, he quietly says, I’m in the air force. He repeats this, louder and louder, even shouting up the winding stairway: Hey, everybody, I’m in the air force! But again, no one hears him; no one’s around.

He sees the film projected on the screen, but no one’s in the audience. And no one is in the projection room! He runs out of the theater, obviously now in a panic. While gasping for air as he’s running down the street, he trips over a bicycle and lands on his back, only to have a big painted eye from an optometrist’s office staring down on him. He screams, gets up, and continues running, from fear, panic, desperation. Near exhaustion, he leans against a support pole for a traffic signal and starts pressing the walk button. He pleads for somebody to help him, saying that someone is watching him.

With that, the scene turns to a highly vaulted room, with a group of uniformed men staring intently at the subject: the man desperate to know who he is, where he is, and where everybody is––he is US airman Mike Ferris, placed in an isolation booth for almost 2 ½ weeks to simulate a one-man space trip to the moon. The Air Force wanted to see how a man would react to being all by himself for an extended time-in outer space.

So, airman Ferris was dreaming; he had a nightmare of being all alone in the world. And that would soon be his world, for as long as the trip to and from the moon would last. He cracked, says the general (James Gregory) to some newsmen covering the story.

While being carried out of the hangar on a stretcher, an officer looks down at Ferris and says: …there’s one thing we can’t simulate, that’s a very basic need: man’s hunger for companionship, the barrier of loneliness… The general regretfully adds: Next time you’ll really be alone.

Serling’s Epilogue

Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars, waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting, in The Twilight Zone.

Commentary

While several themes are covered in Where Is Everybody?, the motif apparently is loneliness/isolation. The fascinating world of dreams is also shown to be the powerful presence in a person’s life as it was in Mike Ferris’s. As Serling wrote in this story for his book Stories from the Twilight Zone-published after the TV episode: …there were a thousand closed doors to his [Ferris’s] subconscious he was close to opening (The Twilight Zone: Complete Stories, p. 121).

Windows of the Soul-a book written by Paul Meier, MD, and Robert Wise, Ph.D.-describes how the dreamer reveals his innermost thoughts, desires, fears while dreaming, via the opening up of the subconscious, at least a part of it. Symbolism and metaphor are used in dreams to signify a reality, a desire, a great yearning. One reality in Ferris’s dream was the eye in the window looking down on him, while in reality he was being observed by his Air Force superiors. His hunger in the café in the story’s beginning symbolized …hunger for companionship…; his wandering on the road and into the deserted town was a search for humanity, for company. Almost getting locked into the jail cell and the phone booth showed the fear and anguish of being trapped by isolation, solitary confinement. When he looked at the town square through the phone-booth glass and the wire fence, it symbolized him being trapped, closed in, like in the 1950s’ song by Little Anthony and the Imperials: I’m on the Outside Looking In.

The barrier of loneliness. The palpable, desperate need of the human animal to be with his fellow man. This closing comment by Serling wasn’t included in the TV epilogue, but it’s his clue to what Where Is Everybody? is primarily about.

The written story contains a great surprise, a great wonder of an ending, which helps many, if not most, people remember TTZ for as long as they live: When Ferris enters the movie house, he goes to the booth to buy a ticket, but since (again, he’s being tantalized) there’s no ticket girl, he takes one himself and puts the stub in his breast pocket. When he wakes from the nightmare and is carried out on the stretcher to an ambulance, he reaches into that pocket and pulls out the ticket stub! What’s also interesting is that Serling read about isolation experiments on astronaut trainees and was once all alone on an empty movie-studio lot; hence his basis for the episode.

So, was Mike Ferris dreaming? Or did he really visit those lonely, haunted places in another dimension, in a place called The Twilight Zone?

Themes

Loneliness

Space Travel & Exploration

The Dream World

The Unknown/Other Dimensions/Other Worlds

Individuality/Identity (Loss of or Looking For)

Lessons to Be Learned (LTBL)

Loneliness and isolation is an enemy. As John Donne said, No man is an island. Avoid …an enemy known as isolation. Fight to escape it, call for help if you have to. Solitude is one thing; but loneliness, loneliness is quite another (from TTZ episode The Mind and the Matter).

EPISODE 2:

ONE FOR THE ANGELS

Debuted: 10/9/1959

Written by: Rod Serling

Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.

From the Book of John, chapter 15:13

Serling’s Prologue

Street scene: Summer, the present. Man on a sidewalk named Lew Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Lew Bookman-a fixture of the Summer, a rather minor component to a hot July, a non-descript, commonplace little man whose life is a treadmill built out of sidewalks. And in just a moment, Lew Bookman will have to concern himself with survival, because as of three o’clock this hot July afternoon, he’ll be stalked by, Mr. Death.

Review

Lew Bookman (Ed Wynn) is a 69-year-old pitchman, i.e., a sidewalk salesman who, like a baseball pitcher, throws his pitch to passersby, selling all kinds of items out of a big suitcase, from toothpaste to toys. As he returns to his small apartment, a man in a suit and tie (Murray Hamilton) is sitting down in a chair. He has a pen and pad in his hands and he begins the conversation by citing biographical information on Lew to verify its accuracy, like asking him if his mom was born in Syracuse, NY-Rod Serling’s birthplace. He eventually identifies himself as Mr. Death, and he’s arranging Lew Bookman’s departure. This doesn’t sit right with Lew, however, saying he’s not ready to die, he has things to do that he’s never done before, like: I have never seen a Zulu war dance. So you’ll have to give me a couple of months to let me go over there to that Zulu country… Although amused, Mr. Death finds this unacceptable, saying the only exception for delaying Lew’s death is some great feat, some magnum opus that he needs to finish before dying. During this discussion, Maggie (Dana Dillaway) knocks to come in. She’s a young girl, about 10, and she’s one of Lew’s friends; he told Death that he’s always had a special fondness for children, and that he had no family of his own, not even a wife. Maggie brings a toy robot for Lew to fix, and when it’s fixed and she’s leaving, he reminds her of her manners, asking her to say goodbye to his uninvited guest; but Maggie doesn’t see him. She thinks Lew is just kidding around with her, and says goodbye to the invisible man.

After more bickering with Death, Lew says he wants to make a real great pitch-one for the angels-before he dies. Mr. Death accepts, but Lew tries to fool him by saying he doesn’t know when the pitch will come, implying it may never come. Lew Bookman just doesn’t want to die at this time; he loves his simple life with his friends-the neighborhood children-so much so that he has no intention of departing.

Mr. Death doesn’t appreciate being taken advantage of, so he tells him he must choose an alternative: a truck strikes Maggie on the street just outside the apartment. Lew hustles out and kneels by Maggie, holding her hand in his, assuring her she’ll be OK. While face up on the street, she looks up at the apartment steps and asks Lew: Who’s that man? She sees Mr. Death, but she didn’t see him in the apartment a few minutes before. Lew rises and pursues Death as he strolls down the street away from the crowd huddled around Maggie, telling him that she’s too young to die and to take him instead. Death disappears around the block and Lew returns to Maggie.

It’s now close to midnight, and Maggie is lying down in her bedroom, with the doctor treating her. Lew keeps vigil outside on the steps, and the doctor tells him she may or may not make it.

Mr. Death returns, and tells Lew he must be in Maggie’s room exactly at midnight, or else his whole timetable will be upset. Lew decides to make the best of the time and starts opening up his overstuffed suitcase, which sells everything but the proverbial kitchen sink. He starts making pitches to Death, and before you know it, he’s loaded down with umpteen items. With that, church bells ring: it’s midnight, and Death has missed his appointment. Maggie’s eyes open wide, and the doctor comes down the stairs and tells Lew that she’s alright.

Lew says to Death: Well, I guess it’s time for me now? As per our agreement, answers Death. Lew Bookman wanted to make one big pitch before he died: he gave his life so Maggie-one of his friends-could live. Lew decides to bring his suitcase up there, thinking that someone in heaven may need something he’s selling. Mr. Death assures him: You made it.

Serling’s Epilogue

Lewis J. Bookman, age sixtyish. Occupation: pitchman. Formerly a fixture of the Summer, formerly a rather minor component to a hot July. But, throughout his life, a man beloved by the children, and therefore a most important man. Couldn’t happen, you say? Probably not in most places, but it did happen, in The Twilight Zone.

Commentary

Ed Wynn was Lew Bookman, and in the other Zone episode he appears in-Ninety Years Without Slumbering-he also plays an older man near, afraid of, and fighting death, primarily because he loves children so much that he doesn’t want to leave them. One for the Angels is a heart-warming tale of an aging man with no family of his own, who lives alone, but gets much fulfillment from the time he spends with the neighborhood kids, giving and receiving the special joy and wonder that being around children provides. While he lost his duel with Mr. Death, Lew went down fighting by making his big pitch, one delivered only in, The Twilight Zone.

Themes

Respect and Learn from the Elderly

Friendship/Companionship

Fear and Avoidance of Death

Sacrifice/Heroism

Contentment/Peace