"The Twilight Zone" - A Major Influencer

The Twilight Zone at Amazon

I hadn't been born yet during the five years that "The Twilight Zone" shows were filmed and broadcast. But I can appreciate and respect the incredible influence these shows had on the future of science fiction and fantasy in all areas of entertainment (movies, TV shows, books). Let us pay homage and review...

"Twilight Zone" (1959–1964), also "The Twilight Zone" (original title). 156 episodes.

TV Series - Rated TV-PG,  Fantasy | Horror | Mystery.
Score: 9.3 out of a 10 from 15,637 users/voters at Internet Movie Database.

Synopsis: Rod Serling's seminal anthology series focused on ordinary folks who suddenly found themselves in extraordinary, usually supernatural, situations. The stories would typically end with an ironic twist that would see the guilty punished.

Creator: Rod Serling
Stars: Rod Serling, Robert McCord and Jay Overholts

"Twilight Zone" Video Clips: Here and Here

Official Show Website - "The Twilight Zone"

Trivia:

>CBS wanted Orson Welles as the narrator/host, but the producers felt that he asked for too much money.

>All episodes in Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 were thirty minutes in length. Episodes in Season 4 (airing from January to May 1963) were one hour in length due to CBS' switching the show's available time-slot where only an hour could be taken.

>Rod Serling thought he had come up with the term "Twilight Zone" on his own (he liked the sound of it), but after the show aired he found out that it is an actual term used by Air Force pilots when crossing the day/ night sides above the world.

>Rod Serling invited any viewers to submit a script. He was flooded with over 14,000 scripts, and he actually got around to reading 500 of them. But only two were any good, and he couldn't use them because they didn't fit the format of the show.

>The TV Show was followed by:
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
The Twilight Zone (1985)
Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994)
The Twilight Zone (2002)

>Here are the famous quotes narrated by Rod Serling at the start of the episodes (each season varied a bit):

Season 1: "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."

Season 2: "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!"

Season 3: "You are traveling through 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!"

Season 4 & 5: "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."

Wow. Don't you just love that?!? I think I like Season One's Quote the best! I swear I'm about to open my back door and recite it to the world (or at least my husband who is actually out there!).