The Secret Society Of Fiction and Science:5 Reason Why We Love The Twilight Zone and Marathon
Words By Raymond Tyler
I first came upon The Twilight Zone as a teenager watching WPIX channel 11 out of New York City but I was living in Atlantic City , NJ.
I had always loved comics and every since my kindergarten teacher Miss Barbara read us the story of Bremen Town Musicians and 3 Billy Goats Gruff , I loved "odd stories" with not the "usual characters." The idea that trolls could live under bridges made the world exciting if not always safe.
By the time I was a teen I was into Reggie Jackson and Yankee Baseball was my passion.
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During a rain delay...I heard the great broadcast announcer Phil Rizzutto say..."We'll be back and hopefully finish the rest of this game. In the meantime we're going to show The Twilight Zone...already in progress."
That is my earliest memory of The Twilight Zone. Watching the last 15 minutes or so of In Praise Of Pip with Jack Klugman.
Through the years I happily celebrated Dec 31st/ Jan 1st and July 4th's in the Twilight Zone. First on WPIX Channel 11 and then on Sy Fy. I am not a teen any more but this grown man is still swept away by a series that was old by the time I was born. It has inspired several revivals and none as good or impactful as the original 156 episodes.
I could easily give you 500 reasons but here are 5 Reasons myself, my friends and enemies still enjoy The Twilight Zone.
1. The Black and White Is Spooky
The Black and White and lighting adds to the wonder and awe somehow.
Here's a production note to Jordan Peele. Man do one episode a season in Black and White, no cursing, for a half hour. It would be the greatest Easter Egg of all for all of us original TZ heads that watch the new show.
2. The Marathon Brings Us All Together
I could do a list of 5 reasons why The TZ Marathon brings us all together. One thing I know is that when The New Year Marathon is on ...we're all nerds. People I would have never guessed enjoy the show start tweeting and facebooking about it. The amazing thing is some of us can identify an episode just from a line.
Some of us have seen our favorite episodes a hundred times or more and we still watch as if the ending this time will be different.
3. The Acting Performances
The list of great acting performances is astounding and surprising. You have Robert Redford in Nothing In The Dark and Ivan Dixon in The Big Tall Wish. You have Collin Wilcox-Paxton from the film To Kill A Mockingbird in the episode Number 12 Looks Just Like You , you have Johnathan Winters in a dramatic role as pool player Fats Brown.
The two performers I always come back to are Jack Klugman and Burgess Meredith who both appear in 3 episodes.
You will see actors from other series like Star Trek, Bonanza , The Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched all on TZ.
4. The Prophetic Writing
The things that came to pass in the years since still spook me.
TZ was supposed to be a warning that human nature was often on the wrong path. Rather than change course more governments have decided to embrace their inner "super villain."
We seem closer to being the type of civilized people that would lock the door on our neighbors and listen as they died than we did in the 50's and 60's.
5. Rod Serling/Plot Twists
Rod Serling and the plot twists at the end.
Now despite popular belief all of the episodes were not based on or written with crazy plot twists.
I think because of the ones that do have surprise endings...they pay off the viewer so well...that people are disappointed when the story ends the way it has too to be ground in reality.
And there is no better person to explain the 5th Dimension in opening and closing a story, with such dead pan timing than Rodman Edward Serling.
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What ever your reason. I hope as always you enjoyed our annual trip to the black and white world of multiple talking dolls, alternate earths that blew up, astronauts trying to get home and humans facing the odd and unusual within the 5 dimension.
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