How a War-Weary Vet Created ‘The Twilight Zone’ - DailyBeast

[WillyT]

How a War-Weary Vet Created ‘The Twilight Zone’
No television show exerted more influence on the state of American science fiction than The Twilight Zone, the little morality plays of a former Army private.
Rich Goldstein - DailyBeast
11.13.14



<snp>

A strange mix of dramatic styles, one part satiric morality play, one part science-fiction ghost story, The Twilight Zone challenged the sensibilities of both hardened skeptics and true believers. It was never a huge hit, but its stories resonated with an American public tenuously relearning moral ambiguity.

Creator Rod Serling was compelled by the need “not to just entertain but to enlighten.” He wrote 93 of the series’ 156 episodes over the course of its five-season run, which began on CBS in 1959. Most modern shows take an average of 7 seasons to produce as many episodes.

Serling, a veteran of World War II, used the show, and his writing, to deal with the untreated psychological trauma he suffered during his enlistment in the U.S. military. Rather than the glamorized affair the war was to become in subsequent retellings, Serling was intimately acquainted with the horrors of America’s attempt to reclaim its Pacific colonies. Almost half of the author’s comrades were killed fighting in the Philippines. Serling's best friend, a Pvt. Melvin Levy of Brooklyn, was decapitated in front of the future screenwriter by a "biscuit bomb," a food crate intended to nourish the life of the man it killed.
Serling closed out the war living in the horror of occupied Japan where the American treatment of women, children, and the elderly contributed to the nightmares that plagued the author for the rest of his life. The towns that were not obliterated by the atomic bombs, or burned by American’s firebombing raids, were deeply scarred by famine. The U.S. naval blockade around Japan in the waning days of World War 2 was actually called Operation Starvation.

Several Twilight Zone scripts would return to the subject of survivor’s guilt (“King Nine Will Not Return,” “The Thirty-Fathom Grave”) or long simmering military resentment (“The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms,” “The Encounter”).

But many of the classic Twilight Zone episodes focused on the post-war horrors of World War, specifically the twin threats of nuclear armament and the rise of the American secret police. The series two most famous episodes, “Time Enough At Last” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” explicitly treat on these issues. In the former, a bookish misanthrope survives and cheers a planet destroying nuclear attack, because it will give him time to read all the books his day to day responsibilities always prevented, but is thwarted when his glasses break. In the latter, suburban residents turn against their neighbors when strange events, like the lights going out at all the houses except one, make them doubt their safety from an embedded threat.

Both “Time Enough at Last” and “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” broadcast in the show’s first season in 1959...

<snip>

More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/13/how-a-war-weary-vet-created-the-twilight-zone.html

[Odin2005]

1. Serling was a genius!

[WillyT]

2. Yes He Was...

[BeanMusical]

5. He sure was brilliant.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. My first introduction to The Twilight Zone was through Mystery Comics Digest

I loved those old comic books.

[PSPS]

4. "Eye of the Beholder"

Fun trivia:

The image in the OP is from the episode "Eye of the Beholder" broadcast in the second season on November 11, 1960 and shows actors William Gordon and Jennifer Howard.

The woman who played the role of the hospitalized woman with the bandages on her head was Maxine Stuart, a prolific TV actress whose career spanned more than 55 years.

The woman who was revealed after the bandages were removed in this Serling-written episode was a 26-year-old actress named Donna Douglas who later played the role of Elly May Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies." (Coincidentally, the very first episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" was broadcast on her 29th birthday.)

[LuvNewcastle]

6. The Twilight Zone is one of the best tv series ever made.

My favorite was the one set in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. A wealthy old man assembles his heirs to spend the final hours of the holiday at his home before he dies. He passes out these grotesque masks for them to wear until midnight and explains how each mask fits the personality of each person. At midnight the old man dies, they remove the masks, and their faces are deformed into the same shape of the mask each one wore. It was a brilliant episode.

[Omaha Steve]

7. Even our granddaughter loves the Twilight Zone

Marta and I have been to two TZcons out in LA.

2002: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/tzcon2002.htm

2004: http://www.steveandmarta.com/tzcon2004.htm

We are on the credits for the 80's version DVD release: http://www.steveandmarta.com/ntz1.htm

OS

Exclusive Clip – The Twilight Zone: The 5th Dimension Limited Edition Box Set
Posted on November 10, 2014 by Steve Barton

http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/77898/exclusive-clip-twilight-zone-5th-dimension-limited-edition-box-set/

This time tomorrow you’ll be able to enter “The Twilight Zone” like never before with the release of The Twilight Zone: The 5th Dimension Limited Edition Box Set, and to celebrate its arrival, we have a brand spanking new and exclusive clip for you!

About The Twilight Zone: The 5th Dimension Limited Edition Box Set:
Image Entertainment is releasing the 41-DVD The Twilight Zone: The 5th Dimension Limited Edition Box Set on November 11, 2014, for an SRP of $349.98. For the first time ever, Rod Serling’s groundbreaking original series (1959-1964) and the classic 1980s series (1985-1989) are together in one limited edition box set. Only 7,500 sets were created.

Video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29h9wn_the-twilight-zone-the-5th-dimension-limited-edition-box-set-exclusive-clip_tv

In addition to the two beloved series (225 episodes combined) and more than 20 hours of bonus features listed below, The Twilight Zone: The 5th Dimension Limited Edition Box Set contains one of four possible collectible 1960s Twilight Zone comic books. Limited edition packaging features 3D black and white lenticulars and a serialized number on each of the box sets.

Over 20 hours of bonus features include:
· New featurettes with never-before-seen interviews
· The “American Masters” documentary Rod Serling: Submitted For Your Approval
· Dozens of audio commentaries previously available only on Blu-ray
· Rod Serling interviews, lectures, and appearances
· Interviews with cast and crew
· Original sponsor billboard
· Isolated music scores

[longship]

8. Marta's TZCon diaries are great.

Every time you post them here, I have to gobble them up.

I also remember Combat! as a great program. My family watched every single episode I think, although my memory of any single episode has sadly faded.

Thanks for the trip back.

As always.