La quatrième dimension

Just recently, I finished a kick of re-watching all 156 episodes of the original Twilight Zone series. If I were to average out all my individual episode rankings, that number would probably fall between 7-8 stars. Yet, when looked at as a whole rather than the sum of its parts, The Twilight Zone is 10/10 all the way.

When TZ is hitting on all cylinders, it is easily one of the greatest anthology pieces ever produced. The lion's share of the credit here goes to show creator and writer Rod Serling, who is truly one of the most inspired individuals to ever put pen to paper in screenplay format. The deeper themes about society or humanity are just as relevant now (if not sometimes more so!) than they were upon original airing.

It absolutely astounds me that this show premiered in 1959. That was ten years before the moon landing! I can't imagine what my grandparents would have thought about a show like this, dealing with space travels, aliens, and all manner of oddities hardly a decade removed from the Second World War and firmly in the Cold War.

Like I said, the best TZ episodes are treasures that will be enjoyed and studied for decades to come. Does the show have its share of clunkers? Of course. But only a true handful of episodes are truly bad. The others largely depend on personal sci-fi tastes or the time-period in which they are viewed.

About the only reason I would even consider dropping this from a perfect ranking is the fourth season of the show, which produced hour-long episodes. Those efforts aren't bad, per se, but are simply padded with dialogue to fill time rather than written for a longer runtime, for the most part.

When taking the long view, however, The Twilight Zone firmly resides in my top-five television programs of all-time. Despite premiering well before it could fully be appreciated, having to deal with the inane TV standards and practices of the era, and being constantly underfunded, Serling managed to keep everything afloat and write some of the best multi-genre material ever seen on the small screen. Whether comedy, mystery, horror, sci-fi, human drama, or any other genre is your game, you'll likely find something to enjoy in the breadth of The Twilight Zone.

Whatever incantation, whatever form, whatever decade, this show has managed to intrigue and defy logic with its use of imaginary story lines and ideas, mixing a palate of intrigue and genius to allow the common viewer to become engrossed in the weirdest television has to offer. While the original series was cheesy at some points, this show was always different, always something to look forward to in regards to the eeriness it created. Rod Serling helped usher in a generation of paranoia and science fiction thanks to this groundbreaking show, and I'm thankful for this. I could only imagine what the world would be like if all we had were terrible dramas and average sitcoms filling the airwaves. This show will rank as one of the best in my book, no matter what people say.

"The Twilight Zone" brought a complexity and maturity to television that had never existed before and probably hasn't been seen since. The stories were always ironic, briliant, and fascinating, and they often came with a moral lesson. Episodes like "A Kind of a Stopwatch", with Richard Erdmann, "Time Enough At Last", with Burgess Meredith, "Nightmare at 20,00 Feet", with William Shatner, and "Where is Everybody," with Earl Holliman, dove into concepts and situations no other show would have even touched. The entertainment brought on by "The Twilight Zone" was as vast as the Zone itself. Its principal writers, Sterling, Beaumont, and Matheson, were the best of their era. For sheer television entertainment, nothing compares to the brilliant, heavyweight stories of "The Twilight Zone." TO be frank, "The Twilight Zone" was the first show that didn't insult the viewer's intelligence.

There is probably no one who doesn't remember the Twilight Zone and have a favorite episode. I was 11 or 12 and so many of the episodes stick in my mind. Many friends and co-workers are similarly afflicted. When a group of us are discussing the woes of commuting, someone is sure to suggest that they get off at Willoughby. Stuck in a long line for whatever, with the beginning of the line no where in sight - someone might rant "It's a cookbook!". We laugh now but some episodes gave us cause for concern.

Did you ever notice how many 50's, 60's and even 70's tv shows are represented by the guest cast of TZ? Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, Star Trek, Lost In Space, Beverly Hillbillies, The Farmer's Daughter, Dobie Gillis, My Three Sons, Batman, Big Valley, The Bob Cummings Show, My Favorite Doll (or is that My Living Doll - Julie Newmar plays a robot), Honey West, Police Woman, The Odd Couple and who knows how many more!

What a series - serious actresses like Ida Lupino and Agnes Moorehead and clowns like Don Rickles. Big screen names like Mickey Rooney and Charles Bronson. Lost In Space is represented by Johnathan Harris, Billy Mumy (numerous appearances -and its a good thing you did,Anthony) and Angela Cartwright. Batman has Adam West, Julie Newmar and the great Burgess! You have a James Bond villain (Joseph Wiseman) and the first James Bond himself (for the really entrenched trivia fans - I'm not telling you who he is but it ain't Connery).

An earlier commenter put it best - this show bred most of today's horror, suspense and occult films.

Wow! Where should I start? "The Twilight Zone" is arguably the greatest science fiction television show ever! Almost every single episode is a masterpiece of modern Sci-Fi. I feel "The Twilight Zone" is responsible for the way we view science fiction today...provocative, strangely eerie, and wildly entertaining. The shows creator and writer, Rod Sterling, was a master of creating a show that caused you to stop and think, re-examine reality, consider the impossible, check the closet before going to bed, and sleep with the lights on! I watched this program religiously as a child. Every Saturday night I had to bribe my little brother to stay up and watch "The Twilight Zone" with me because I was afraid to watch it alone. It came on at 11:00 p.m. By 10:45 my little brother was sound asleep with chocolate smeared around his mouth, and I would be alone, curled in a blanket, awaiting the next spine tingling episode. I was never disappointed. By the time it went off, I would usually be sitting there alone...in a comatose-like daze, staring at the static on the television screen, too afraid to turn it off because to do so would ensure that you met with some hideous fate similar to the one you just saw earlier. "The Twilight Zone" was also a spring board for many young and talented actors/actresses during its run from the late 50's well into the 60's.

Thanks to mail order companies, I have ordered and received every single episode of "The Twilight Zone"! It would be impossible for me to say which episode is my absolute favorite because I loved so many. But a couple do stick out in my mind. They are "Time Enough At Last" and "Eye Of The Beholder". If you've never watched this wonderful example of television at it's best, I plead with you to check it out. It can be found on the Sci-Fi channel as well as various other stations via cable T.V. There's no sex, no foul language, and no graphic violence. But you will find a solid plot, famous actors/actresses years before before they became famous, and a story with a very surprising twist at the end that will leave a smile on your face, or, a cringe as you wake up your someone else in the house to turn off the T.V.