Weekly Reader: The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree; Thorough Guide To The Fifth Dimension

Weekly Reader: The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree; Thorough Guide To The Fifth Dimension




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers (for the series not so much for the book):“Submitted for your approval one Julie Sara Porter, Occupation: Bookworm. She has made a living reading and reviewing books but now her world is about to be changed by that box known as the television. For she will soon be reviewing a book on a TV program, a book that will take her right into the Twilight Zone.”

Oh come on like you didn't think I was going to start my review like this.

One of my all-time favorite series is the Twilight Zone and when I say The Twilight Zone, I refer to its various incarnations. From the original classic series created by Rod Serling that ran from 1959-1964, to the 1983 movie, to the two revivals from 1985-1989 and 2002-2003. It's a series that is filled with strange, unique, scary, and sometimes baffling stories that reflect social issues in a new way and isn't afraid to update itself for each generation.

I am also looking forward to the upcoming revival produced and hosted by Academy Award winning screenwriter (2018 Get Out), Jordan Peele for CBS All Access. In honor of this revival and of the original Zone's 60th anniversary, I am going to enter the world of television. I am reviewing The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree, an exhaustive comprehensive guide to the “other dimension of not only sight and sound but of mind.”


To begin reviewing The Twilight Zone, we have to begin with its Fearless Leader, Rod Serling. Zicree describes Serling's boyhood in Syracuse, NY where his life consisted of reading Wonder Tales, Amazing Stories, and other pulp magazines and being center stage. His brother recalled various family trips in which their father commanded that nobody was to say a word until Serling stopped talking which he chattered the entire way.

Many of Serling's experiences became templates for future episodes.

Serling enlisted in the U.S. Army Paratroopers and fought in WWII's Pacific Theater. While he didn't speak much about his experiences, many of his strongest anti-war episodes of the Twilight Zone such as “Quality of Mercy” (in which a temperamental American lieutenant sees life through the eyes of a Japanese soldier) and “The Purple Testament” (in which a soldier sees a light over the faces of people who are about to die) take place in the Pacific Theater.

Many of his Twilight Zone episodes that deal with anti-Semitism such as “Death's Head Revisited” (in which a former Nazi commandant revisits Dachau only to be haunted by the ghosts of people he tortured and killed) and “He's Alive” (in which a Neo-Nazi, played by a very young Dennis Hopper, receives advice from a ghostly benefactor) reflect not only Serling's Jewish upbringing but also his liberal humanitarian values.

Serling married Carol Kramer in 1948 and they had two daughters. (Carol would later cameo in Twilight Zone: The Movie as an Airline Passenger in the “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” segment.)

While Serling was described as a loving husband and father, he also was a workaholic and wrote into the early morning. Though undiagnosed, he appeared to have symptoms of depression which filtered into various episodes. Some of them like “Walking Distance” (in which a businessman returns to his childhood) and “A Stop at Willoughby” (in which a man sees an old fashioned small town on his train route) feature a nostalgic longing for the past that Serling couldn't break from.

Serling began writing for radio programs like Dr. Christian then moved on to television shows like Hallmark Hall of Fame, Suspense, Studio One, and Playhouse 90. By far his biggest pre-Twilight Zone success is Playhouse 90’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight”, a teleplay about an over the hill boxer (Jack Palance). Requiem won 5 Emmys including Best Teleplay, Best Single Show of the Year, and Best Actor for Palance. Serling would return to the boxing world in Zone episodes like “Big Tall Wish” (in which a boy wishes for his favorite boxer to win a match) and “Steel” (in which robots are created to box).


Unfortunately, Serling's success put him at the mercy of sponsors and censors. Many of his scripts were chopped to bits. One script based on the Emmett Till murder devolved into a paint by numbers whodunnit. Another script featured senators but Serling was told to cut segments about current issues. Serling was irate. “In retrospect, I probably would have had a much more adult play had I made it science fiction, put it in the year 2057, and peopled it with robots.”

One could almost see the proverbial lightbulb shining over Serling's head. Serling's bad experiences working in television would find its way in the Zone episode, “The Bard” in which William Shakespeare is summoned to modern day by a screenwriter and runs afoul of network censors, sponsors, and an egocentric Method actor (an obvious parody of Marlon Brando played by Burt Reynolds).

The series title is a matter of debate. While there is an Air Force term called the Twilight Zone where pilots cannot be seen on the horizon, Serling stated that he didn't know that and he made it up himself. Now the Twilight Zone has become a definition of being caught between fantasy and reality.

The Twilight Zone's first official episode was “Where is Everybody” in which a man finds himself alone in a small town. But the pilot episode “The Time Element” actually debuted on The Desilu Playhouse. While Serling's narration is such an important part of the series that it would be hard to imagine it without him, this was originally not the case. The pilot was hosted by Desi Arnaz which did not sit well with the viewers (“Go Home Desi,” said one critic.) Studio executives discussed whether to get a big name like Orson Welles. Finally, they settled on Serling.

The Twilight Zone Companion is a comprehensive book that covers not only Serling but various other people involved like co-writers, Richard Matheson, author of I Am Legend, Other Kingdoms and other fantasy/science fiction novels and Charles Beaumont, short story writer. Beaumont's story is particularly heartbreaking as he had a troubled abusive childhood and a four pessimistic nature that filtered through his episodes such as “Perchance to Dream” (in which a man whose dreams are haunted by a woman trying to kill him) and “The Howling Man” (in which an order of monks imprison a man who they believe is the Devil).

Beaumont was also very frail. He drank a lot of alcohol, worked too hard, and had frequent headaches. In 1964, he was diagnosed with Pick's Disease or Alzheimer's Disease at age 35. His health deteriorated until he died in 1967. His son Christopher described him as prematurely aged. “He was like a ninety-five year old man and looked ninety-five and was in fact ninety-five by every calendar except the one on your watch.” Science fiction author William F. Nolan compared Beaumont to the title character in Beaumont's Zone episode “Long Live Walter Jamison” about an immortally youthful man who fades away in front of his antagonists. “Like Walter Jamison (Beaumont) just turned to dust.”

Each Twilight Zone episode is recalled with cast and crew lists, photos, transcripts of the opening and closing narrations, summaries, interviews with cast or crew members, trivia, and Zicree's reviews of the quality of the episodes.

Twilight Zone fans will recall favorite moments. We recall when Burgess Meredith played a bookworm who breaks his glasses in “Time Enough at Last” (which Meredith said that he “got recognized for more than any other role.”) Meredith was one of Zone's most prolific guest stars appearing in five episodes and narrating the 1983 film.

No one will forget the moment when the bandages were taken off a woman to reveal a beautiful woman in a world of pig-like humanoids in “Eye of the Beholder.”. (Two women played the main role, Maxine Stuart under the wraps because of her harsh voice. Donna Douglas, Elly May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies played her when she was revealed. When the episode was remade in 2002 Molly Sims played the role all the way through.)

A Fifth season episode, “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You” could be considered an answer to “Eye of the Beholder” featuring a plain 19-year-old girl being forced to conform to the societal standards of beauty. To show the youthfulness of the characters, the woman cast as the girl's mother was only three years older than the actress playing the daughter.

Among the most popular episodes is “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” in which William Shatner plays a nervous man who sees a gremlin on an airplane wing. Similar to many of the other episodes, this came from a real fear. Matheson, writer of the episode, said that he got the idea while on a flight. He looked out the window and wondered what would happen if he saw a man on the wing. He wrote the original short story and teleplay to the episode. The episode was so popular that it was remade for the 1983 movie with John Lithgow in the lead and in the upcoming series starring Adam Scott. (Fun Fact: An episode of Third Rock from the Sun paid tribute to the Twilight Zone episodes when Shatner's character said that he saw something on the wing of an airplane. Lithgow responds: The same thing happened to me!)

Another popular episode that many remember is “It's a Good Life” in which Bill Mumy played a boy with omnipotent powers and no control over them so he wishes people that make him mad “to the cornfield.” Mumy also starred in a number of episodes, appeared in a cameo in the movie's remake to “It's a Good Life” starring Jeremy Licht as Anthony and a pre-Bart Simpson Nancy Cartwright as his sister. Mumy played Anthony again in a sequel episode for the 2002 version in which Anthony learns his daughter, Audrey (played by Mumy's real life daughter, Liliana) inherited his abilities as well as the ability to bring things back from the cornfield.

While that's a good episode, another great one starring Mumy was “In Praise of Pip” where Mumy plays the young version of a dying soldier who spends one final day with his single father.( Jack Klugman who also starred in four episodes of Twilight Zone). “In Praise of Pip” is one of the earliest mentions of the Vietnam War on television as Pip's father Max Phillips said, “My kid is dying in some place called South Vietnam. There isn't supposed to be a war there.” Oddly enough the episode was originally set in Laos, but Serling was told that there were no official troops in Laos.He was told that U.S. Forces were in “an advisory capacity” in South Vietnam.

Zicree's reviews of the episodes are revealing. However he seems to dislike more episodes than he likes. The fourth and fifth seasons in particular have more negative reviews than positive leaving the Reader to wonder if you dislike more episodes than you like can you really call yourself a fan of the show especially when it's an anthology? But of course Serling himself said that one-third were great, one-third were average, and one-third were terrible.

Zicree also goes into the post-career of Serling and the franchise. Serling hosted the show Night Gallery which he wasn't involved behind the scenes as much. He died in 1975 of complications after open heart surgery though his widow and others also saw his health diminish because of his workaholic nature and frequent smoking.

Zicree also writes about the 1983 movie and the deaths of actors Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Lee, and Renee Chen in a helicopter accident when it was filmed at night. Lee and Chen were also underage and worked after hours. A jury acquitted director, John Landis and other key members of the crew.

He also writes of the ‘80’s revival. Instead of insisting that remakes are bad and finding nothing to like, Zicree wrote that the quality of the ‘80’s episodes were equal to or better than those of the original series. He cites episodes like “Nightcrawlers” (in which a Vietnam vet's war ghosts), “Her Pilgrim Soul” (in which the spirit of a young girl appears in a holographic field and bonds with the scientist who finds her), and “Paladin of the Lost Hour” (in which an elderly man has possession of the last hour of eternity inside a small pocket watch.) as memorable.

One of the most provocative and memorable episodes of the ‘80’s is “Dead Man's Run” where a trucker (Steve Railsbeck) receives a job to ship souls into hell. He then finds that the Afterlife is run by the Moral Majority/Alt-Right and souls who are innocent are being taken. The episode won an award from GLAAD because one of the souls that the trucker helps get into heaven is that of a gay man (John De LaMay).

The Twilight Zone Companion ends before the 2002 version and naturally no mention of the upcoming one. People wonder why does the show keep getting remade. Well as long as there are social issues, fear of the unknown, and stupid and cruel people doing stupid and cruel things there will always be a need for the Twilight Zone.