"Between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge."

October 2, 2013 8:14 AM

On this day in 1959, The Twilight Zone premiered. Here is the orginal pilot with a long pitch from Rod Serling to sponsors explaining the show, and previewing the first season up front
posted by timsteil (32 comments total)

Fantastic, thanks for the reminder. There are so many brilliantly written TZ episodes that stand up to repeated viewing more than 50 years later. It's fantastic.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:16 AM on October 2, 2013

I made this and had it as my facebook profile pic for a couple months back in 2008. I feel it is appropriate today.
posted by phunniemee at 8:26 AM on October 2, 2013 [4 favorites]

Vince Gilligan said on "Talking Bad" that his hope was for his work to live after him, like that of Rod Serling. Amen.
posted by No Robots at 8:27 AM on October 2, 2013

I think I noticed the other day that the original series is available on both Netflix and Amazon Prime. I know what I'm doing tonight....
posted by Big_B at 8:27 AM on October 2, 2013

Rod Serling is such a great storyteller, I would watch hours of just his pitches without the actual show.
posted by Erasmouse at 8:28 AM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror is the spiritual descendant of this show and if you haven't watched it yet, you should get on that post haste.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:31 AM on October 2, 2013 [5 favorites]

One of my favorite shows of all time. The best of The Twilight Zone still stacks up as some of the best television ever.
posted by Gelatin at 8:33 AM on October 2, 2013 [3 favorites]

A buddy of mine in high school looked like Rod Serling and could do the voice and it was always hilarious when he did. "Submitted for your approval, a party at my place at 8pm on Friday night...."
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 8:36 AM on October 2, 2013 [3 favorites]

TZ still can deliver goosebumps even when you've seen the episodes several times. There's something about the mood that really delivers an emotional punch even if the FX are a little tacky now and then.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:39 AM on October 2, 2013

I'm glad they dumped the announcer, and more importantly the style of the announcer. Rod's sardonic style defined the series in a lot of ways. It has certainly aged better than stentorian pronouncements as intro/outros.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:56 AM on October 2, 2013

By the way, am I missing something with the larryhagman tag?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:58 AM on October 2, 2013

No, I was. I meant Earl Holliman. Fixed the tag.
posted by timsteil at 9:03 AM on October 2, 2013

The Pride of Binghamton. Even so, his childhood home has seen better days, if you decide to pop by.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:04 AM on October 2, 2013 [1 favorite]

Whenever my sister and I watch TV or a movie together and there's an odd ending, one of us says, "...and then Rod Serling pops out from behind that (tree, telephone pole, door frame, horse, drape, store mannequin, dollhouse, etc.,) in a cloud of cigarette smoke and tells us how this could happen in any small town..."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:20 AM on October 2, 2013

Submitted for our approval
posted by Renoroc at 9:31 AM on October 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am wondering now, whether one of the prospective sponsors who saw this said, "Hey, I liked that guy at the beginning. You should put him on the show for real."

I'm also wondering when did people stop saying "robut"
posted by RobotHero at 10:10 AM on October 2, 2013 [5 favorites]

@RobotHero - that pronunciation is used with great hilarity in the original Futurama series. I believe Nixon-in-a-jar says it that way.
posted by annathea at 10:44 AM on October 2, 2013

Oh, and I never miss a rerun of Twilight Zone late at night.
posted by annathea at 10:44 AM on October 2, 2013

My favorite piece of Twilight Zone trivia: who (after Rod Serling) appeared in the most episodes? Maybe Burgess Meredith, you say? No, it was Robert McCord, who made 67 appearances, appearing more than once in some episodes.
posted by The Tensor at 10:47 AM on October 2, 2013 [3 favorites]

I used to watch Twilight Zone every night and fall asleep in front of the tv. Whatever the storyline was, the audio would make its way into my dreams with disturbing effects. It really started to freak me out. So then I would go to sleep watching reruns on some other channel. But midway through the night, they would rerun Oprah, and then I'd have weird dreams where I'd be working or otherwise minding my own business and Oprah would be following me around telling me about the light I carried inside and I'd be like "Shut up, Oprah, I'm tryin' to work!" So then, I got the brilliant idea to put on some porn with the picture off as I was going to sleep, to see if it would give me sexy dreams. Instead I dreamt about women's tennis and people having a hard time moving heavy furniture up apartment stairs.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:49 AM on October 2, 2013 [4 favorites]

DirtyOldTown = son of Jack Handy?
posted by CrowGoat at 11:12 AM on October 2, 2013

This is basically my favorite television show. It's just so consistently intelligent and interesting. One of my favorite episodes: The Midnight Sun
posted by byanyothername at 11:31 AM on October 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

I am wondering now, whether one of the prospective sponsors who saw this said, "Hey, I liked that guy at the beginning. You should put him on the show for real."

I believe he first appeared onscreen at the end of Season 1, and his cameo was successful enough to get him more screen time in later seasons?
posted by pxe2000 at 12:45 PM on October 2, 2013

Best. Show. Ever.
posted by town of cats at 12:55 PM on October 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

Perhaps it says something about the life of a screenwriter in front of his typewriter that, given free rein to write a story about absolutely anything, he so often ends up writing something about being alone. It's extraordinary how often Twilight Zone episodes are about loneliness, isolation and solitude. Sometimes it's a thing to be desired -- ("Time Enough at Last", "The Mind and the Matter", no doubt more) but even then it's be careful what you wish for.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:13 PM on October 2, 2013 [2 favorites]

Far too often when on the train or bus I'll say "Willoughby, Willoughby, Next Stop Willoughby" with that weird East Coast affected accent. Others do not find it as funny and charming as I do, but once in a while it connects with somebody and I get that knowing smirk. Once a guy went into a spot on Rod Serling talking about the train ride and the people on the train. It was fantastic.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:16 PM on October 2, 2013 [4 favorites]

I love this show beyond words. My favorite episode (with stunning score by Bernard Herrmann): The Lonely.
posted by Put the kettle on at 2:24 PM on October 2, 2013

Big_B: "I think I noticed the other day that the original series is available on both Netflix and Amazon Prime. I know what I'm doing tonight...."

It's on NetFlix for sure. I started watching it (for the first time) a couple days ago thanks to my proxy.
posted by Mitheral at 7:22 PM on October 2, 2013

byanyothername: "This is basically my favorite television show. It's just so consistently intelligent and interesting. One of my favorite episodes: The Midnight Sun "
I don't recall seeing that episode. Thanks for the post! It was outstanding as usual for the TZ.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 10:51 PM on October 2, 2013

The Twilight Zone is one of the great American cultural achievements.

Interesting note: The Twilight Zone came in part from Rod Serling's laughably comic difficulties in trying to tell real life stories for television.

In 1955, he tried to get a TV movie made about the famous Emmett Till case. However, the network kept issuing more and more onerous (and bizarre) censorship demands. First, the names of the characters had to be changed, as the story was about contemporaneous legal events; then, there had to be a happy ending, so could Emmett Till please not die at the end; finally, they asked him if Emmett Till could be Jewish, instead of black, so as to stir up racial trouble.

Needless to say, after all that idiocy, Rod Serling figured that he could do much more with parables.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:13 AM on October 3, 2013 [1 favorite]

And without The Twilight Zone, there never would have been The Scary Door.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:52 AM on October 3, 2013

I finished watching the DVDs last year (and the '80s TZ this year), and the black & white episodes stand up so much better. It's amazing to think Rod wrote so many on his own. And, of course, I suspect the reason the '50s/'60s held up so much better is because they adapted so many stories from the pulps.
posted by Mezentian at 6:41 AM on October 8, 2013