Sixty Years of The Twilight Zone

By Steve Vertlieb: Rod Serling’s iconic, landmark television series The Twilight Zone, premiered over the CBS Television Network on Friday night, October 2, 1959. The program featured the brilliant literary poetry of its creator, as well as the writings of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Ray Bradbury. It’s science fiction/fantasy premise often camouflaged Serling’s own deeply sensitive social commentary, and profound pleas for understanding and tolerance.

The program broke new ground with its reverent, often haunting, sometimes heartbreaking allegories, and remains one of the most eloquent and influential network television series in the history of the medium. For its sixtieth anniversary, the city of Binghamton, New York, which cradled the author’s birth place, has scheduled a celebration of the acclaimed tv show this weekend, commemorating the anniversary of the premiere of this wondrous television anthology series.

The Twilight Zone: An Element of Time” is my published 2009 celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the classic Rod Serling television series. With original teleplays by Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, and the visionary pen of host Rod Serling, along with accompanying scores by Bernard Herrmann, Jerry Goldsmith, Franz Waxman and Fred Steiner, among others, this tender recollection of the iconic sci-fi/fantasy anthology series is dedicated to the memory of its beloved creator, Rod Serling, who left us far too soon on June 28th, 1975 at age 50.

 His legendary television series, and his revered memory, live on beyond “shadow and substance.” “That’s the signpost up ahead.” Be swept away into another dimension with this sweet remembrance, adrift upon rippling currents of time and space, only to be found in…The Twilight Zone.


See Steve’s extended writeup The Twilight Zone: An Element of Time” at American Music Preservation which begins

There is an obscure Air Force term relating to a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and a pilot cannot see the horizon. It’s called The…

One thought on “Sixty Years of The Twilight Zone

  1. For me, the original TZ has everything horror should be. Eerie, uncanny, surreal, & existentialist. The black & white images, the noir influence and the compact running time add to my enjoyment as well. I look at the new TZ on CBSAA as a new part of the TZ family; maybe not my cup of tea, but if it keeps TZ alive and grows a new generation of fans, all the better.

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