The Twilight Zone

Submission 6,588

About

The Twilight Zone is an American television franchise. The series is an anthology genre series, featuring stories of suspense, horror, science fiction and mystery with social and political allegory. Since its premiere in 1959, the series has been revived several times and adapted into a motion picture.

History

Original Series

On October 2nd, 1959, The Twilight Zone premiered on the CBS television network. Presented by series creator and host Rod Serling, the show ran for more than 150 episodes, before concluding on June 19th, 1964 (clip below).^[1]

Twilight Zone: The Movie

On June 24th, 1983, a film adaptation of the television series premiered in the United States. The series featured classic Twilight Zone stores reimagined by some of the most popular and then-up-and-coming directors of the time, including John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller.^[2]

Revivals

Following the release of the movie, the series was revived as an anthology television series. In 1985, CBS aired the first of a three-season revival, which featured adaptations of stories by famed science fiction and horror writers as Harlan Ellison, Arthur C. Clark and Stephen King.^[3] The show ended in 1989 (shown below, left).

More than a decade later, a second revival premiered on UPN in 2002. However, the series only lasted for one season (shown below, right).

2019 Revival

In development since 2012, a revival of The Twilight Zone was announced by CBS with Us and Get Out as executive produce. In February 2019, a trailer for the series was released (shown below).

Reception

The original Twilight Zone television series is widely considered to be one of the best and most influential television shows of all time. It has been included on ranking for the best television shows of all time by TV Guide, Rolling Stone, the Writers Guild of America and more.^[4] Additionally, in its original run, the show won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Drama.

The first season of the series has 100% fresh rating on the review aggregator on Rotten Tomatoes. ^[5] In their critical consensus, the site wrote, "You're about to enter a show, a show not only of frights and fears but of mind. A journey into the limitless world of imagination. A show that pushes the boundaries of what a show can be. Next stop, The Twilight Zone."

2019 Revival

The 2019 revival recieved largely positive reviews prior to its April 1st, 2019 release. As of March 28th, the series had a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[6] In the critical concenus, the site wrote, "Jordan Peele's The Twilight Zone explores the strangeness of the modern world through Rod Serling's winning formula to create a thought-provoking, spine-tingling showcase for Peele's exceptional crop of collaborators."

Fandom

As of March 2019, the Twilight Zone official Facebook ^[7] page has more than 700,000 likes and followers. Additionally, since launching in April 2018, the show's official Twitter ^[8] account has more than 19,000 followers as of March 2019.

Impact

The series is largely considered to be one of the most influential television programs of all time, creating a host of similar anthology shows and genre-based television shows in its wake, including The Outer Limits, The X-Files, Tales from the Dark Side and more. It has also been parodied numerous times, particularly the show's infamous introduction and theme song (examples below, left and right).

Imagine If You Will

"Imagine If You Will" is a memorable phrase uttered by Twilight Zone-host and creator Rod Serling in a variety of episodes. The phrase is used to set up the show's premise, traditionally highlihgting what separates the episode's world from reality. In the memes, people use the phrase to explore an opinion that they find to be distasteful, ironic or illogical.