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"At the signpost, up ahead: Your next stop, The Twilight Zone"

Almost fifty years ago, Rod Serling introduced us to a show that would have us questioning everything for about thirty minutes. It was a show that had mystery, horror, suspense, the supernatural, and horror all mixed into one. It was The Twilight Zone.

Airing on CBS from 1959-1964 the show would get everyone's attention with creepy music and an opening sequence that left you wondering "What is this, anyway?". The show would have a quick opening that would either lead to Rod Serling doing a voice over of the episode or you would actually pan over to Serling himself who would either be holding a cup of coffee or smoking a cigarette. Always dressed in a dark suit with his hair plastered to his skull he was the perfect enigmatic host for this beautiful anthology show.

Some episodes featured hum-drum activities like flying on a plan going horribly wrong as a neurotic passenger (played by a young William Shatner) sees something on the wing' and discovers that a monster is trying to destroy the plane. Another episode is about a simple banker that likes to read A LOT who one day finds the city destroyed and he has all the time in the world to read as much as he wants and then he breaks his glasses.

Sometimes you are taken on disturbing flights of fancy as one episode features a boy that always gets what he wishes for. He's omnipotent and has the mentality of a young child. Talk about the world's most disturbing spoiled brat. Heaven help anyone that crosses him. Another odd episode features a group of people that look like they're from a fancy dress party trapped in a round room. They attempt to escape only to find that they're not people at all; they're dolls that are being given to charity.

Science fiction plays a major roll occasionally like an episode where a woman (Agnes Moorehead) is being harassed by small aliens and eventually she's able to destroy them and their space craft. As it turns out the space craft is from Earth and she's the alien. In a similar episode a group of astronauts land on a world with a thriving civilization of tiny people and one of the astronauts decides he's going to be a tyrannical ruler over them. After his companions leave he, himself is found by a group of giant astronauts that accidentally crush him.

Occasionally, he'll take a satirical look at the world like an episode where people a suburban street keep hearing of weird reports of lights going on and off on their own and as soon as it starts happening to them they start to get paranoid of each other and eventually break into violence against each other. As it turns out it was just a plot by aliens to get Earthlings to kill themselves. One other great episode shows a future society where anything that is obsolete is eliminated (starting with God and books). An old librarian is told that he's obsolete and he gets to pick his own method of self-elimination. He invites a member of the state to witness it and locks him in his apartment with him. When he reveals that the method is a bomb that will kill everyone in the apartment, the state member begs the librarian to set him free. When he finally begs "In the name of God," the librarian frees him. The state member is lynched shortly thereafter. You can see parallels of both of those episodes in today's society.

I could go on, but there were over 150 episodes of the original series, along with two revival series (that ran in the 80s and early 21st century), a movie, a magazine, and a radio show. Still in syndication, however, the original is still considered the best and the one show that all other anthology shows owe their existence to.

Learn more about this author, David Furritus.
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