Beautiful, Jeff, and I am continually amazed at how prescient and increasingly applicable “The Twilight Zone” episodes are! Fresh on the heels of WWII totalitarianism, Rod Serling tried to warn us against falling for those tricks again, but sadly, too many people failed to pay attention.
Beautiful, Jeff, and I am continually amazed at how prescient and increasingly applicable “The Twilight Zone” episodes are! Fresh on the heels of WWII totalitarianism, Rod Serling tried to warn us against falling for those tricks again, but sadly, too many people failed to pay attention.
After the original black and white series (always of Friday nights) had concluded, the Twilight Zone returned in living color on Thursdays a couple of years later. The episodes were not all written by Serling but were still mind bending and often very profound. I still vividly remember one show where a very young man has begun to stir up crowds as he attends rallies deliver exciting speeches. Turns out he’s being influenced by an older man who’s face remains hidden until the last scene where we see it to be that of the aging Fuhrer himself.
I’ve mentioned this little story of my own youth on numerous occasions. When I was 16 I was staying in a hotel in New York with my mom and headed down to the lobby when I stepped into an elevator alone with Rod Serling. Just the two of us took a ride down 40 floors into the Twilight Zone. I was not going to pass up the opportunity so I asked him if these stories he created were for real. Taking a drag on his ever present cigarette, he smiled and said ”yeah kid they are.”
Beautiful, Jeff, and I am continually amazed at how prescient and increasingly applicable “The Twilight Zone” episodes are! Fresh on the heels of WWII totalitarianism, Rod Serling tried to warn us against falling for those tricks again, but sadly, too many people failed to pay attention.
After the original black and white series (always of Friday nights) had concluded, the Twilight Zone returned in living color on Thursdays a couple of years later. The episodes were not all written by Serling but were still mind bending and often very profound. I still vividly remember one show where a very young man has begun to stir up crowds as he attends rallies deliver exciting speeches. Turns out he’s being influenced by an older man who’s face remains hidden until the last scene where we see it to be that of the aging Fuhrer himself.
I’ve mentioned this little story of my own youth on numerous occasions. When I was 16 I was staying in a hotel in New York with my mom and headed down to the lobby when I stepped into an elevator alone with Rod Serling. Just the two of us took a ride down 40 floors into the Twilight Zone. I was not going to pass up the opportunity so I asked him if these stories he created were for real. Taking a drag on his ever present cigarette, he smiled and said ”yeah kid they are.”
Actually, that was an original TZ titled “He’s Alive” (https://twilightzone.fandom.com/wiki/He%27s_Alive) and starring a young Dennis Hopper!
WOW, what a fabulous anecdote about Rod Serling! Makes you wonder what he meant by “real.”