THE TWILIGHT ZONE 50th Anniversary

October 2nd, 2009 TV Tom Nix

By Tom Nix

Fifty years ago today, Rod Serling’s THE TWILIGHT ZONE aired its first episode “Where is Everybody?” across the country. This is far too short a piece to really pay tribute to what is possibly the greatest American television show of all time. So, until a time where its magnificence can be praised in far more detail, I want to share some of my gratitude

To Rod Serling, Thank You. Thank you for changing and legitimizing sci-fi forever. Thank you for using robots, aliens, dinosaurs, demons, ghosts, and magic all to tell us more about human beings. Thank you for providing every future writer of merit, or of mediocrity, a jumping off point. Thanks for giving countless authors and filmmakers a story to rip off. Thanks for perfecting the monologue voice over. Thank you for smoking. Thank you for proving everyone wrong. Thank you for everything you accomplished from 1959 to 1964. Nothing about American television was ever the same. You allowed the rest of us to be great. Or at least attempt to improve on perfection.

Thank you for figuring out our unstable, insecure, inimitable and incredible little species out. It’s almost a shame we’ve lived up to your diagnosis for 50 years now. If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, I think we all owe Mr. Rod Serling a sip of whiskey and a puff of a cigarette.

And for those of you who are unaware of the Twilight Zone or remember it in an unkind light – I simply ask that you give the link below a click and see for yourself how perfectly this series can decipher the human condition through the veil of the supernatural.

There will never be another Rod Serling. Bless you, sir.

CLICK below to watch “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street”

"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" - Season 01, Episode 22

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Tom Nix

Tom Nix is a media enthusiast currently living in Memphis, TN. He is the primary content provider and editor-at-large for The Red Circle dot Com. When not contributing to the site, he enjoys an unfortunately expensive DVD and Blu-Ray collection, arguing film and music as often as possible, and tearing through Rock Band drumsets like butter. One day he will amount to something. Wait for it.

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