The Twilight Zone

I enjoy on Netflix you can watch old TV shows, sometimes every episode.  I really enjoy watching The Twilight Show (just called Twilight Show in seasons 4 & 5).  It ran on TV for five seasons, between 1959 to 1964.  Most people saw it later in reruns (syndication).

For some reason, I didn't enjoy it that much growing up - I tended to simply see it as a creepy show, so I didn't watch it much.  However, I enjoy it much more now, especially since I now understand how good the writing behind it stood up.  I also found out it's usually classified as a science-fiction show.

In 2013, the Writer's Guild of America ranked it as the 3rd best written TV show of all time.  TV Guide ranked it as the 5th greatest show of all time.

Rod Serling

Rod Serling created the series, served as executive producer, and carried most of the writing. He wrote, or co-wrote, 92 of the show's 156 episodes (more than half). This WWII veteran used the GI bill and disability payments to fund college where he focused on theater, then broadcasting, and finally majoring in Literature. He later wrote for radio and television shows, but felt frustrated the sponsors could censor his work.  He started The Twilight Zone since the sponsors had less say over a science fiction show.

The show earned rave reviews among critics, some who rated it as the best television show running.  However, the show mostly struggled to find a viewing audience, just barely staying alive during it's first 3 seasons.  The network finally cancelled it after the 3rd season.  They replaced it with Fair Exchange, an hour long program.  However, they cancelled that show after half a season, and asked Twilight Zone to return, but as an hour long program in Season 4.  Serling hated this format since he considered Twilight Zone the perfect half hour show.

In Season 5, Twilight Zone finally returned to a half hour format.  However, it had a new producer who made some bad decisions.  It lost some writers, so Serling had to write more, which wore him out.  The network decided to cancel and Serling sold out his interest (he thus lost out on syndication sales).

Unfortunately, Serling died in 1975, at age 50, of a heart attack while undergoing open heart surgery to address an recent earlier heart attack he suffered.

Though he had a large legacy, he will likely best be known for the intense work he put into creating and writing The Twilight Zone.