"That's weird. It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone."

You know, I almost don't even need to write this post.

'Cause really, what could I possibly say about this that hasn't been said already?

But I'll say it anyway, just because it makes me happy and it's my blog. The Twilight Zone rocks! (And I'm talking about the original 1959-1964 series, not the two revivals that I'd never even heard of until just tonight when I did some research.)

Even if you've never seen an episode, Rod Serling's pivotal sci fi masterpiece has been referenced and imitated ceaselessly ever since it first aired fifty years ago. You've very likely seen something from The Simpsons (as in many of their Treehouse of Horror stories), Family Guy, Saturday Night Live, etc. that's been lifted from Twilight. Shows like The Outer Limits are direct decedents of Mr. Serling's new-strange-tale-per-week formula. Books, film, radio, etc. have all entered the twilight zone. There's even an amusement park ride at Disney World, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (which I got to revisit last February, and it still left me a quivering mess after I got off it).

When this show is good, it is really good. Thanks to DVDs at my library I've been watching so many episodes I haven't seen yet, many of which have rattled me to the point that I don't watch the show after dark anymore. I recently read that Mr. Serling wanted to use more social commentary in his work with television, to have his own shows to express his political views, but the censors back then were not keen on the idea. So he ended up disguising those view points as sci fi tall tales; pretty sneaky, but boy did it work. Many episodes leave you feeling jarred and unsettled, not only initially but also if you really stop and think about them. While Mr. Serling and company's stories reflect the issues of the early 1960s like nuclear war, many of their themes can be relevant to today's concerns, like terrorism, paranoia and global disasters. And not only did the stories of The Twilight Zone usually mean something, but they also dealt with so many facets of the sci fi genre.

Episodes like "Time enough at last" and "Two" took a look at different scenarios when the worst has happened (in those cases nuclear apocalypse). "Third from the sun" and "The Invaders" used new twists on outer space alien stories. "The Fever" dealt with the subject of addiction. "The Shelter" and "The Monsters are due on Maple Street" illustrated that humankind can destroy itself far better than any outside force ever could. Other episodes covered death, time travel, space travel, the future, robots and a plethora of sci fi subjects. Episodes like "Eye of the Beholder" had awesome twist endings, while episodes like "Nightmare at 20 000 feet", "To Serve Man" and "It's a Good Life" just scared the crap out of you.

And let's not forget the guest stars, actors and actresses who ended up on Twilight before going on to greater fame. Cloris Leachman, William Shatner, Carol Burnett, Robert Redford, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds and many others all had early career performances on Twilight episodes. Other actors had late career performances on the show, like Mickey Rooney and Buster Keaton. That's a lot of star power.

Truly, this is TV at it's very best; entertaining and thought provoking. Emmy winning and critically acclaimed, Twilight Zone still packs a wallop after all these years, and the name has become synonymous with the idea of stepping into an alternate reality, or just having weird things happen to you. It's opening music and Serling's beginning and ending narration are instantly recognizable. It's earned it's place in pop culture time and again.

There, for what it's worth, I have sung it's praises yet again. Now go watch it and see what I mean. (Oh, and bonus points to whoever guesses where the quote that is the title of this post comes from.)