The Twilight Zone (1959) - Season 1, episodes 1-12

The Twilight Zone (marketed as Twilight Zone for its final two seasons) is an American fantasy science fiction horror anthology television series created and presented by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from October 2, 1959, to June 19, 1964. Each episode presents a standalone story in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering "the Twilight Zone", often with a surprise ending and a moral. Although often considered predominantly science-fiction, the show's paranormal and Kafkaesque events leaned the show much closer to fantasy and horror (indeed, there are about twice as many fantasy episodes as science fiction). The phrase "twilight zone", inspired by the series, is used to describe surreal experiences.

The series featured both established stars and younger actors who would become much better known later. Serling served as executive producer and head writer; he wrote or co-wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes. He was also the show's host and narrator, delivering monologues at the beginning and end of each episode, and typically appeared on-screen to address the audience directly during the opening scene. Serling's opening and closing narrations usually summarize the episode's events encapsulating how and why the main character(s) had entered the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone is widely regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time. In 1997, "To Serve Man" (directed by Richard L. Bare) and "It's a Good Life" (directed by James Sheldon) were ranked at 11 and 31 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. Serling himself named his favorite episodes as "The Invaders" (directed by Douglas Heyes) and "Time Enough at Last" (directed by John Brahm). In 2002, the series was ranked No. 26 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2004, it was ranked No. 8 on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever, moving to No. 9 three years later. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the third best-written TV series ever and TV Guide ranked it the fourth greatest drama, the second greatest sci-fi show and the fifth greatest show of all time. In 2016, it was ranked No. 7 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest shows of all time and was ranked No. 12 in 2022. In 2023, Variety ranked The Twilight Zone #14 on its list of the 100 greatest TV shows of all time.

By the late 1950s, Rod Serling was a prominent name in American television. His successful television plays included “Patterns” (for Kraft Television Theatre) and “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (for Playhouse 90), but he was frustrated by constant changes and edits made by the networks and sponsors. In “Requiem for a Heavyweight”, the line "Got a match?" had to be cut because the sponsor sold lighters; other programs had similar striking of words that might remind viewers of competitors to the sponsor, including one case in which the sponsor, Ford Motor Company, had the Chrysler Building removed from a picture of the New York City skyline.

According to comments in his 1957 anthology Patterns, Serling had been trying to delve into material more controversial than his works of the early 1950s. This led to Noon on Doomsday for the United States Steel Hour in 1956, a commentary by Serling on the defensiveness and total lack of repentance he saw in the Mississippi town where the murder of Emmett Till took place. His original script closely paralleled the Till case, then was moved out of the South and the victim changed to a Jewish pawnbroker, and eventually became just a foreigner in an unnamed town.

Serling thought that a science-fictional setting would give him more freedom and less interference in expressing controversial ideas than more realistic settings. "The Time Element" was Serling's 1957 pilot pitch for his show, a time travel adventure about a man who goes back to Honolulu in 1941 and unsuccessfully tries to warn everyone about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. The script, however, was rejected and shelved until Bert Granet discovered and produced it as an episode of Desilu Playhouse in 1958. The show was a great success and enabled Serling to finally begin production on The Twilight Zone. Per the BFI Film Classics library, "the cruel indifference and implacability of fate and the irony of poetic justice" were motifs for Serling.

The Twilight Zone premiered on October 2, 1959, to rave reviews. "Twilight Zone is about the only show on the air that I actually look forward to seeing. It's the one series that I will let interfere with other plans", said Terry Turner for the Chicago Daily News. Daily Variety ranked it with "the best that has ever been accomplished in half-hour filmed television" and the New York Herald Tribune found the show to be "certainly the best and most original anthology series of the year".

Even as the show proved popular with television critics, it struggled to find a receptive audience. CBS was banking on a rating of at least 21 or 22, but its initial numbers were much worse. The series' future was jeopardized when its third episode, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" earned a 16.3 rating. Still, the show attracted a large enough audience to survive a brief hiatus in November, after which it finally surpassed its competition on ABC and NBC and persuaded its sponsors (General Foods and Kimberly-Clark) to stay on until the end of the season.


Episode 1 - Where is everybody?

Description: Mike Ferris finds himself alone in the small Oakwood town and without recollection about his name, where he is or who he is. Mike wanders through the town trying to find a living soul. The tension increases and Mike has a breakdown.

Episode 2 - One for the Angels

Description: A street salesman cleverly eludes Death. But if he lives, a little girl must die in his place.


Episode 3 - Mr. Denton on Doomsday

Description: In the Old West, the drunkard Al Denton is bullied by the gunman Dan Hotaling to get some booze. The mysterious Henry J. Fate observes the humiliation and Al Denton finds a revolver on the street. When Dan sees Al Denton with a revolver in his hand, he challenges the drunk to a gunfight. Fate observes again and makes a movement...


Episode 4 - The sixteen-millimeter shrine

Description: Barbara Jean Trenton is a faded film star who lives in the past by constantly re-watching her old movies instead of moving on with her life, so her associates try to lure her out of her self-imposed isolation.


Episode 5 - Walking distance

Description: Martin Sloan, driving through the country, leaves his car and starts to walk toward his hometown, Homewood. He finds things exactly as they were when he was a child. He soon realizes he's gone back in time.


Episode 6 - Escape clause

Description: A hypochondriac man sells his soul to the devil, exchanging it for several thousand years of immortality.


Episode 7 - The lonely

Description: Corry, a man stranded on an asteroid after being convicted of a crime, receives a present of a robot who looks and sounds like a real woman.


Episode 8 - Time enough at last

Description: A henpecked book lover finds himself blissfully alone with his books after a nuclear blast.


Episode 9 - Perchance to dream

Description: A fatigued man fights to stay awake as he explains to a psychiatrist that if he falls asleep it will trigger a nightmare, which will cause his heart to fail.


Episode 10 - Judgment night

Description: In 1942, a German wonders why he's on the deck of a British steamship, with no memory of how he got there or who he is. He does however know the ship will soon be attacked by a U-boat.


Episode 11 - And when the sky was opened

Description: Three astronauts return to Earth after seemingly having made an encounter that dooms them and their craft to erasure from existence itself.


Episode 12 - What you need

Description: A two-bit thug thinks he's found the key to a better life in an old sidewalk salesman who has the uncanny ability to tell people what they need the most.

Video and audio information:

Video : 173-397 MB, 932-2142 Kbps, 23.976 fps, 720x576 (4:3), V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC x264 core 157
Audio : 24 MB, 128 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = AAC, CBR

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