50 Years of the Twilight Zone

pickens writes "Fifty years ago on October 2, American television viewers first heard the words: 'You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into... the Twilight Zone.' Like the time-space warps that anchored so many of the show's plots, Rod Serling's veiled commentary remains as soul-baring today as it did a half-century ago, and the show's popularity endures in multiple facets of American pop culture, appearing nearly uninterrupted through television, syndication and DVD releases and under license to air in 30 countries. 'The whole idea of "The Twilight Zone" jumped off the television screen and became a catchphrase, a buzzword for something much beyond the TV show itself,' says Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. 'When you say Twilight Zone, it's its own genre.' The original show ran just five seasons, 1959 to 1964, with 156 episodes filmed; Serling wrote 92 of them, and other contributors included Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury. Anniversary observances were held at Ithaca College in New York, where Serling taught from 1967 until his death in 1975, and which keeps Serling's archives; and also at Antioch College in Ohio, where Serling was a student."

Comments

Oblig. futurama reference

[FireofEvil]

You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, or some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples; it could also be something much better. Prepare to enter: The Scary Door.

Re:Oblig. futurama reference

[Adrian Lopez]

Scientist: "I have combined the DNA of the world's most evil animals to make the most evil creature of them all."

Evil Creature: "It turns out it's man!"

(The Scary Door)

Public Domain (where I live).

[gslj]

Fifty years, which means each season is now falling one year at a time into the public domain in Canada. Yay!

-Gareth

whew

[Dyinobal]

I first saw the word Twilight in the title and was instantly appalled about a Twilight story on /. thankfully initial impressions were wrong.

Re:GRRM

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, Google was down

OMG, somebody really does control the vertical !

Re:GRRM

[Foobar of Borg]

OMG, somebody really does control the vertical !

Sigh. That was The Outer Limits, not The Twilght Zone. You've just given me this image of Mayor Quimby telling Leonard Nimoy "May the force be with you!"