Case in point: this is my number one favorite all time program. I grew up with this, loved it then, love it now. Biased, I am. But it’s more than nostalgia—lots of times, I look at the stuff I liked as a kid (such as the 1960s Batman TV series) and then gasp at my previous infantilism. But in this case, I look at “The Twilight Zone” and now see all the layers that I missed as a kid, all the insanely great writing in every episode (even the mediocre ones). And there are some episodes that go beyond amazing and reach the same heights as the greatest works of film. Producer and narrator Rod Serling was a genius of a writer, so much so that even the silly episodes shine with brilliant writing. He wrote a third of all the episodes, and for the rest, he employed some of the best sci-fi and fantasy writers ever (like Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont). To those who just landed on Planet Earth: “The Twilight Zone” is an anthology series that uses sci-fi and fantasy conventions to explore the often unpleasant realities of the world around us.

2021 Update: My opinion and high regard for this series have not changed, and probably never will. It’s surprising how the anthology series format has had a sort of comeback in recent years, but no series holds a torch to “The Twilight Zone.”

Extras:

• Best episode of all: “Walking Distance.” The story of a man who goes back in time and meets himself as a kid; I can watch this a million times (I think I almost have) and not get tired of it. Interesting that years later, the actor (Gig Young) who played the main character shot and killed both himself and his wife.
• Most TV series and movies take place in a spiritual vacuum. They presume that God either doesn’t exist or is irrelevant, and religion is just something that certain people do. “The Twilight Zone” definitely occurs in a universe where God exists and is extremely relevant, seeing true faith in God as a positive thing. Rod Serling wasn’t afraid of taboos, and seriously referencing God in a secular TV program was taboo even in the 1960s.
• Another classic: famous tough-guy actor Telly Savalas vs. a girl’s toy in the episode, “Living Doll.” “I’m Talky Tina, and I don’t like you.”
• I could go on forever about “The Twilight Zone.” There’s so much on so many levels—intellectual, emotional, spiritual. The great cinematography, the Bernard Herrmann scores. And on, and on.
• And yes, there are a few episodes so silly, they make you want to gag. But a bad Serling episode is better than most “good” episodes today.
• “The Twilight Zone” reboots fail and often miserably so, but there is one episode that reaches the heights of the original: “Nightcrawlers” (1985), directed by William Friedkin, Episode 4 of Season 1 from the 1980s reboot of Twllight Zone. A Vietnam-war veteran brings his nightmares to a diner.

Rod Serling in “The Twilight Zone” (1959-1964)