The original ''

The Twilight Zone ''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, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...

began on October 2, 1959, and ended on June 19, 1964, with five seasons and 156 episodes. It was created by Rod Serling and broadcast on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. Later popularity of the series brought about a 1983 feature film and three "revival" television series in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

, 2002, and

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, though none reached the same level of success as the original run.

Series overview

Episodes

Concept (1958)

Rod Serling wrote a teleplay intending for it to be the pilot episode of a new series called ''The Twilight Zone''. Although it ended up airing on a different show, ''

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse ''Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse'' is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on the Columbia Broadcasting System between 1958 and 1960. Three of its 48 episodes served as pilots for the 1950s televisio ...

'', it is considered the seed episode and has even been adapted as one of ''The Twilight Zone'' radio-show episodes.

Pilot (1959)

The pilot episode for the series was called "Where is Everybody?" The episode was reformatted when included in the series. It differs from the broadcast episode in only minor ways.

Season 1 (1959–60)

''Note'': Episode titles were not shown on screen, but were announced by Serling at the end of the preceding week's episode. "Where is Everybody?" is an exception, as it was the first episode. Serling's promotional announcements were stripped from syndicated versions of season one, but restored (often only in audio form) on the Image Entertainment DVD releases. They have since been fully restored on the Blu-ray releases.

Season 2 (1960–61)

Unlike season 1, episode titles were shown on screen during the end credits. Six consecutive episodes (production code #173-3662 through #173-3667) of this season were recorded on

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasse ...

(not on film as were all other episodes) at CBS Television City, as a cost-cutting measure mandated by CBS programming head James T. Aubrey. They are " The Lateness of the Hour", "

The Night of the Meek "The Night of the Meek" is episode 47 of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone''. It originally aired on December 23, 1960, on CBS. It was one of the six episodes of the second season which was shot on videotape in a short- ...

", " The Whole Truth", " Twenty Two", "

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", and "

Long Distance Call "Long Distance Call" is episode 58 of the American television anthology series ''The Twilight Zone''. It originally aired on March 31, 1961, on CBS. In the episode, a 5-year-old boy named Billy communicates with his dead grandmother using a toy t ...

". These have a visual appearance which is distinctly different from those of episodes shot on film. In addition, videotape was a relatively primitive medium in the early 1960s; the editing of tape was next to impossible. Each of the episodes was therefore "camera-cut" as in live TV—on a studio sound stage, using a total of four cameras. The requisite multi-camera setup of the videotape experiment made location shooting difficult, severely limiting the potential scope of the storylines, so the short-lived experiment was abandoned. "A Most Unusual Camera" was produced for season one.

Season 3 (1961–62)

Beginning with this season, episode titles were shown on screen after Serling's opening monologues. "The Grave" and "Nothing in the Dark" are the exceptions since they were produced for season two.

Season 4 (1963)

For season four, the series was lengthened to one hour and moved to Thursdays at 9:30 pm (Eastern Time), replacing '' Fair Exchange'' on the schedule.

Season 5 (1963–64)

In the fifth and final season, the series went back to a half-hour format, returned to a fall start, and aired Fridays at 9:30 pm (Eastern Time) on CBS.

Notes

External links

Syfy.com

Postcards from the Zone
(Extensive episode guides for the 1980s series, including photos)
The Twilight Zone Podcast
(Audio reviews of every episode) {{DEFAULTSORT:List of The Twilight Zone Episodes Twilight Zone Twilight Zone