Category Archives: Twilight Zone

Titles of Interest: Irony in The Twilight Zone

Irony in The Twilight Zone: How the Series Critiqued Postwar American Culture by David Melbye (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) Rod Serling’s pioneering series The Twilight Zone (1959 to 1964) is remembered for its surprise twist endings and pervading sense of irony. While other American television series of the time also experimented with ironic surprises, none […]

Obituary: William Windom

Veteran character actor, William Windom, recently passed away at the age of 88. His body of work included roles in science fiction and fantasy/thriller, such as the part of Commodore Decker in the Star Trek original series episode “The Doomsday Machine,” an episode of Night Gallery, and episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the classic […]

The Twilight Zone Comes to Brooklyn

July 4th is not only known for fireworks and barbeques, but for the SyFy Channel’s bi-annual (the other is New Year’s Eve) Twilight Zone Marathon, a 21-hour nonstop lovefest of what Arlen Schumer (author/designer of the only coffeetable art book about the classic television series, Visions From the Twilight Zone ) calls “The Father of […]

George Clayton Johnson and the Legacy of The Twilight Zone

Today I was thumbing through the June 2012 #123 edition of Rue Morgue magazine and an item caught my eye. In honor of a new Twilight Zone collection coming to Blu-ray, the magazine interviewed George Clayton Johnson who discussed his contribution to that classic series. Johnson is the writer of several episodes of the series, […]

Recession and The Architects of Fear

There are stimulus plans, and then there are stimulus plans. In one of the strangest intersections between the fantastic in popular culture and politics, an economist is drawing upon the idea of alien invasion to get us out of the recession. As an opinion piece in The Week writes: There’s no shortage of ideas on […]

Leslie Dale Feldman: Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone and Politics

I am always on the lookout for good books that probe various aspects of the fantastic in popular culture in depth. Not long ago I came across such a book that looked at the political views of Rod Serling as expressed in his television show The Twilight Zone. The book is Spaceships and Politics: The […]

PBS Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction, Airs January 18

PBS is beginning the second season of Pioneers of Television with four episodes. The first will look at science fiction, including Lost in Space, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and those who helped create them and make them pioneering. It’s no wonder that Gene Rodenberry, creator of “Star Trek,” turned to science fiction when he […]

Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man

Not long ago I was given the opportunity by JaSunni Productions to watch a review/screener copy of the new documentary Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone‘s Magic Man. The film tells the story of Beaumont who was a part of an elite group of science fiction writers that helped put the genre on […]

On the 50th Anniversary of The Twilight Zone’s “The Eye of the Beholder”

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “The Eye of the Beholder,” the quintessential episode of the legendary TV series The Twilight Zone, created by Rod Serling, on Thursday, November 11th, 7-9 PM, screened with THE TWILIGHT ZONE FOREVER, a live multimedia presentation by Arlen Schumer, author of Chronicle Books’ VISIONS FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Written by […]

THE TWILIGHT ZONE FOREVER: On the release of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Seasons 1 & 2 on Blu-ray (Part 4)

We continue with the final entry in our series of posts by Arlen Schumer exploring The Twilight Zone. (Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here). In Part 4, Schumer continues his exploration of themes of the series, including “the time element,” and “obsolete man”: THE TIME ELEMENT The time […]

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