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Your day starts with the usual routine, but little by little, peculiar and unexplainable things begin to happen that leave you questioning your sanity, and soon you do not believe your own perceptions. As you walk farther into the evening, you might think you're gone mad or are the victim of a bizarre prank, but you've just entered the dark side of the Twilight Zone.

Rod Serling the award winning writer and creator of the show, wrote more than half of the 151 episodes presented on the Twilight Zone. The series ran for 5 seasons beginning in 1959 and ending in 1964. The series explored the supernatural and mystery exploring concepts such as tissue regeneration, the occult, aliens and space exploration.

It was not until the middle of 1961 that Serling started to appear on camera. His first appearance was at the end of an episode titled, "A World of His Own," but he soon established his trademark by appearing at every start of every show, often appearing in the opening scene. His face became indelibly stamped on the Twilight Zone series.

The Twilight Zone attracted established movie stars as well as up and coming actors whose names would become TV household names in the coming years. Movie actors included greats such as Ed Wynn, Burgess Meredith, Agnes Moorehead, Ida Lupino and Martin Balsam, all of who appeared in films.

Up and coming stars included, Elizabeth Montgomery, (Bewitched) Billy Mummy, (Lost in Space) and William Shatner, (Star Trek) to name a few. One rising young movie star appeared in one of the early productions titled, "Nothing in the Dark," playing the grim reaper. Robert Redford and Gladys Cooper, an established film actor made the story work.

William Shatner played a disturbed former mental patient in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". In this episode, Shatner sees a creature on the wing of a plane as he is traveling home after recuperating from a nervous breakdown. No one else is able to see the little beast and that puts his character in a bad situation. At the end of the flight he is taken away in a strait jacket.

At the story ends, the camera pans back to the wing of the plane showing evidence that the wing had been torn at the seams as though some one tried to strip the sheet metal away.

Agnes Moorehead was an established actress when she appeared in "The Invaders" in the second season but most people recognize her as Endora on the Bewitched television series. In this episode she battles miniature robot like creatures from another planet. In the end, she subdues them and finally takes a hatchet to their spaceship. As she leaves, the camera pans to the insignia on the spaceship hull. It says USA.

Black and white TV was the prevailing choice in the early 1960s and Twilight Zone productions were all presented in black and white but the shows were always well presented and the visual effects such as the panning of the camera providing unspoken truths was used in many episodes. Mostly, Serling stretched the imagination with his own sense of integrity and style.

Serling was a prolific writer producing both television and film scripts. His fondest work is said to be the film, "Requiem for a Heavyweight" released in 1962.

The Twilight Zone was a new kind of television show for the early 1960s and it's popularity is still in effect today in reruns. Though not strictly of a sci-fi genre, www.Boston.com, Arts and Entertainment, lists it as number 7 of 100 in all time greats listed under science fiction.

Learn more about this author, Mona Gallagher.
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