The Twilight Zone: Difference between revisions

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[[File:twilight-zone.jpg|frame|Your next stop... the Twilight Zone.]]

 

{{quote|''"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 middleground 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... [[Title Drop|the Twilight Zone]]."''|'''[[Rod Serling]]''', the first [[Opening Narration]]}}

 

 

Creator [[Rod Serling]] wrote the majority of the scripts, and produced those of such now-legendary writers as [[Richard Matheson]] and Charles Beaumont. The series featured such soon-to-be-famous actors as Robert Redford, [[William Shatner]], Burt Reynolds, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Peter Falk, [[Donald Pleasence]] and Bill Mumy, as well as such established stars as silent-film giant [[Buster Keaton]], Art Carney, Mickey Rooney, Ida Lupino, and John Carradine.

 

 

 

 

'''''The Twilight Zone''''' had a rather remarkable ability to take silly story concepts, combine them with [[Anvilicious|preachy, moralistic writing]], and produce some truly outstanding episodes (seriously, you think ''[[The West Wing]]'' was heavy-handed? Take a gander at one of the original ''TZ'' episodes). The ghost of [[Adolf Hitler]] travels to the United States and teaches Dennis Hopper to become an effective demagogue ("He's Alive")? It works. A former concentration camp commander travels back to Dachau after [[World War Two]] and is put on trial by the ghosts of his victims ("Death's Head Revisited")? It works. [[William Shatner]] hams it up and yells about the monster on the wing of the plane ("Nightmare at 20,000 Feet")? It works.

* [[Immortality Immorality]]: "Love Live Walter Jameson", "Queen of the Nile".

* [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum]]

* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]: There were actually two of them. The first season featured a haunting, string-laden theme composed by [[Bernard Herrmann]]; this was replaced in Season 2 with a different and much more familiar theme (featuring the iconic high-pitched four-note guitar riff) composed by Marius Constant.

* [[Interactive Narrator]]: At the end of "A World of His Own", Rod Serling appears to give his closing speech, only to be interrupted and then erased by Gregory's [[Reality Warper]] powers (complete with a [[This Is Gonna Suck]] remark from Rod before he vanishes). This was actually his very first onscreen appearance: it proved so popular that it set the tradition of him appearing onscreen to give the episode narration.

* [[Take That]]: The entirety of "Showdown with Rance McGrew" against [[The Western|the TV westerns]] of the time. It also serves as a deconstruction of sorts. Serling hated the Westerns of the time, deeming them too unrealistic and predictable, and later went on to make a [[Western]] series (''The Loner'') himself.

** The hour long episode "The Bard" features a hack writer who, while researching a book of black magic, inadvertently brings [[William Shakespeare]] back from the dead, and uses him as a literal ghost writer. Serling uses this setup to parody everything about television at the time including sponsors making inane changes, and the concept of taking a half hour show and making an hour show of it, such as CBS did to ''Zone'' that season, much to Serling's dismay.

* [[This Isn't Heaven]]: "A Nice Place to Visit".

* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: A number of episodes leave open the question of how much of what the audience sees is real. Most overtly explored in the episode "The Arrival", which ends with Rod Serling outright asking the audience to decide whether we've been watching the main character's mental breakdown or his encounter with the supernatural, and "The Mirror" is much the same.

* [[Stable Time Loop]]: "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty", "The Once and Future King", "The Convict's Piano" [1980s Revival].

* [[Subtext]]: "Extra Innings" [1980s Revival] had a washed-up former baseball star who was good friends with a tween or teen girl. Nothing too creepy, yet. He and she trade cards a lot, and she gets him this 1910 card of a rookie who looked just like him and had exactly the same stats as him. Then, he discovers that the card allows him to take control of the rookie on the card, which also takes him back to 1910. Then, the next day, he tells the girl about it, and at first she doesn't believe him. When he shows her the stats, she believes him, as they have changed. Then, when he takes her back in time with him, before the card opens the portal, he puts his arm around her. Between her face there and the dialog, which sounds like it came from a [[Very Special Episode]] about child molestation, the creepy subtext is amazing.

* [[Tall Tale]]: "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" features a man who continually tells tall tales. When he tells them he was abducted by aliens, they believe he is just [[Crying Wolf]] (of course, the whole episode could be a tall tale... from Rod Serling's point of view).

* [[Tanks for The Memories]]: "The Mind of Simon Foster" [1980s Revival].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Series]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Series]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Twilight Zone, The}}