THE TWILIGHT ZONE PREMIERE: WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

You are entering the Twilight Zone...

The Grandma is a great fan of sci-fi. Today is a great anniversary fos sci-fi fans. Rod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS in October 2 1959. The first episode was titled Where Is Everybody?.

The Grandma has decided to relax some days after last intensive days and she has prepared a great ball of popcorns and the complete DVD 's seasons of The Twilight Zone. Although there are some revivals of the series, she prefers the original ones (1959-1964).

Before watching her The Twilight Zone marathon, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her First Certificate Language Practice manual (Grammar 33).

More information: Pronouns I , II & III

The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and psychological thriller, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes. The original series, shot entirely in black and white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 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 ending with a surprise ending and a moral. Although predominantly science-fiction, the show's paranormal, futuristic and Kafkaesque events leaned the show towards fantasy, horror, and the supernatural. The phrase twilight zone, inspired by the series, is used to describe surreal experiences.

Rod Serling

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. 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 followed in the tradition of earlier television shows such as Tales of Tomorrow (1951–53, which also dramatized the short story What You Need) and Science Fiction Theatre (1955–57); radio programs such as The Weird Circle, Dimension X, and X Minus One; and the radio work of one of Serling's inspirations, Norman Corwin.

More information: BBC

The success of the series led to a feature film, a radio series, a comic book, a magazine, a theme park attraction, and various other spin-offs that spanned five decades, including two revival television series. The first revival ran on CBS and in syndication in the 1980s, while the second ran on UPN from 2002 to 2003. TV Guide ranked the original TV series #5 in their 2013 list of the 60 greatest dramas of all time.

In December 2017, CBS All Access officially ordered the third Twilight Zone revival to series, which will be helmed by Jordan Peele. It is slated for a 2019 premiere.

As a boy, Rod Serling was a fan of pulp fiction stories. As an adult, he sought topics with themes such as racism, government, war, society, and human nature in general. Serling decided to combine these two interests as a way to broach these subjects on television at a time when such issues were not commonly addressed.

More information: Screen Rant

Throughout the 1950s, Serling established himself as one of the most popular names in television. He was as famous for writing televised drama as he was for criticizing the medium's limitations. His most vocal complaints concerned censorship, which was frequently practiced by sponsors and networks.  

I was not permitted to have my senators discuss any current or pressing problem, he said of his 1957 production The Arena, intended to be an involving look into contemporary politics. To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to suggest control by the Democrats. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was absolutely prohibited.

The Grandma enters in the Twilight Zone

CBS purchased a teleplay in 1958 that writer Rod Serling hoped to produce as the pilot of a weekly anthology series. The Time Element marked Serling's first entry in the field of science fiction.

The series was produced by Cayuga Productions, Inc., a production company owned and named by Serling. It reflects his background in Central New York State and is named after Cayuga Lake, on which Ithaca College is located.

CBS gave the new Twilight Zone a greenlight in 1984 under the supervision of Carla Singer, then Vice President of Drama Development. While the show did not come close to matching the enduring popularity of the original, were critically acclaimed.

More information: Thrillist

In the early 1990s, Richard Matheson and Carol Serling produced an outline for a two-hour made-for-TV movie which would feature Matheson adaptations of three yet-unfilmed Rod Serling short stories.

A second revival was attempted by UPN in 2002, hosted by Forest Whitaker. Broadcast in a one-hour format with two half-hour stories, it was canceled after one season.

In December 2017, CBS All Access ordered the third The Twilight Zone revival to series. The series is set for a 2019 premiere.

More information: The Twilight Zone (2019)

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. 

It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. 

It is the middle ground between light and shadow, 

between science and superstition.

Rod Serling