Just in time for our meeting on the 13th, an article in the Gazette about Twilight Zone. –CPL
BACK IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Classic series that paved way for Star Trek and Black Mirror getting a Peele reboot
The Twilight Zone Debuts April 4, Citytv
Sixty years after The Twilight Zone was first broadcast, its influence on popular culture reaches far beyond the fifth dimension. Just imagine a parallel universe where the spooky anthology series and its creator Rod Serling never existed. There would be no Star Trek, no Twin Peaks, no Black Mirror, no twist endings, no breaking of the fourth wall and no one whistling the “do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do” theme tune whenever something strange happens.
Originally broadcast from 1959 to 1964, The Twilight Zone told one-off tales of mystery, monsters and men from space, usually with a rug-pull twist in the final seconds — “They were dead all along! It was all a dream! The humans are the real monsters!” — a trick borrowed from other anthologies such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Serling himself played its suit-wearing, chain-smoking host, who wandered into the stories to introduce the week’s mystery and warn viewers they were about to enter The Twilight Zone.
Now it is set to return for 10 new episodes debuting in Canada on Citytv Thursday, with Get Out and Us writer-director Jordan Peele stepping into Serling ’s role as the narrator, producer and co-writer.
What gave the original show its power was its sharp-minded political allegory and social conscience, tapping into the anxieties of the day through probing moral quandaries.