Why Is The Twilight Zone So Difficult to Match? 

Twilight Zone absolutely refused to dumb down to its audience, which is something you rarely find on network TV. It was a show that fearless risked alienating huge chunks of its audience by presenting progressive ideas (for its time). What writers who try to copy TZ fail to realize is that it's not just "horror" or strange beings from other planets - it get's to the monster that is hidden in each one of us.

Great writing aside, I always believed that one of the original Twilight Zone's greatest assets was that it was shot in black-and-white. By definition, B&W is symbolic, not realistic. It connotes a "dream state" that is connected to reality, but is yet set apart from it. Shows like "The X-Files" understand this by desaturating their color and shooting a lot at night. I hope the directors of the new Twilight Zone take a similar approach.

The Twilight Zone, the original at least is one of the greatest shows to ever be produced for television. The story telling was exceptional and at a magnitude that was far before its time. It made you wonder and think beyond the conventional ways of thinking of storytelling. The show could never be duplicated

Rod Serling was right - the most frightening "monsters" come from...WITHIN OURSELVES.

Here in Canada, we get The Twilight Zone on the SPACE channel. I just watched "Little Girl Lost", about a little girl and her dog who get lost in a fourth dimension. It was from 1962. Before that I watched "On Thursday We Leave for Home", about a group of people and their cult-like leader who colonized another planet and are waiting for a ship from Earth to take them home. That was from 1963. So, they were dealing with topics like alternative dimensions and space colonization almost 60 years ago. The Twilight Zone episodes, almost all brilliant morality plays, are as relevant today as they were 60 years ago. There were over 150 original episodes made. Try to remake and replicate all you want. It has never worked. I'll take the originals over tweaked facsimiles any day.

2 words "ROD SERLING" That's why !

Twilight Zone is the greatest show to ever air.

One of the greatest TV shows ever.

Night Gallery, Outer Limits, and Twilight Zone

What made original Twilight Zone terrific is that it actually made the viewer engage his brain. Modern television hasn't done this in decades.

Rod Serling was a great, possibly a genus, screenwriter, and playwright. Watch American Misters Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval(2003).

The reason why Twilight Zone is so timeless, classic, and powerful is because Rod Serling put his personal touch on every episode. Every episode, every story, every character has something in common with the feelings Rod felt for much of his professional life: inadequacy, failure, nostalgia for better times, being rejected, fighting tooth and nail in an uphill battle but still losing. I know there is some social and political commentary in the original series but those episodes lack the same magic of the true classics. I still think the best Twilight Zone episode by Rod Serling isn't actually a TZ episode, but an episode of Night Gallery hosted by Rod titled They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar. This is quintessential Serling, no real political commentary, just the sad feeling of impending doom on a personal level and everything that comes with it

The classic Twilight Zone is a masterclass in story telling. I also think that the black and white of the original adds an atmosphere you can't quite get in colour.

In my opinion, the original Twilight Zone is timeless because in most of the stories there is an underlying moral lesson and the acknowledgement that there is a God without proselytizing. The successors were well written stories but without the moral compass that Serling gave the original show I don't think they will rise to the same level.

The original twilight zone will never be equaled or outdone!

IT'S A COOKBOOK!!

It wasn't just Serling's voice...his morality plays (a dirty word now) showed us that we are both the cause, and the solution, to most of our problems, but people don't want to hear that now...

The one about the astronauts has always been one of my favorites because to me, it taps into my anxieties of disappearing and being forgotten with no explanation. That or watching people around me disappear with no trace and people simply forgetting about them. I guess it’s a personal thing, because I’ve always had anxieties not about what happens to me but memories of me if things were to cause me disappearance from the people in my life

Some shows only work because of the era they were made in. Like The Breakfast Club only works as an 80s movie. Imagine a remake breakfast club? All the characters just sitting staring at their phones.

Happy to see this. I'm currently teaching English in China, and have been introducing Chinese students to classic TZ episodes in my classes.

"The Silence" omg, what a hook and then that switch, I think about that episode all the time. damn consequences of decisions made without proper information!!!!!!

The Twilight Zone was a series of teleplays made for a sophisticated and educated audience. People who understood the archetypal themes of Shakespeare and the Bible. It was as described the "theater of the mind." Modern audiences are easily bored, less educated, and less interested in the state of humanity.

Steve, Serling told us what he was doing from the beginning: “It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

"You're a bad man, you're a very bad man!"

Despite having the Definitive Box Set, I still watch marathons or singles on the Scifi channel. The Twilight Zone was simply ahead of its time. It used scifi or horror as a vehicle to talk about human nature. Aesop Fables are so popular because they did the same thing through animals. At first watch or read, people think superficially about the stories but if given though Aesop and Serling were talking about us. Today with all of the advancements with TV and movie production, audiences want to be entertained. The better movies that come out these days are the ones with the messages or parallels that are trying to be conveyed to the audience. In my opinion, most productions these days are entertainment over substance. Unfortunately, I think that's what the average audience member wants right now.

....cause FREAKING ROD SERLING wrote or supervised the production!!!!!

@Steve Shives: Thanks for the upload. It was well-conceived and thoughtful without any unnecessary flair. Did you know that miraculously, the Twilight Zone was actually born of comprise? The now legendary Rod Serling, having no previous background or even interest in sci-fi at the time, created the entire concept as an "end around" encroaching censorship...... And how grateful are we for his efforts.

The reason why this iconic series cannot be replicated was that Rod Serling was a very fine writer. He also had the magnificent talents of Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, who was equally as impressive. "When The Sky Was Opened", along with the episode where a fighter pilot from WW1 suddenly finds himself in Cold War America 1959 are still brilliant mini classics nearly sixty years later.

As you probably already know, Steve, I grew up with _The Twilight Zone,_ and watched many of them when they were first broadcast. Even at the tender age of nine, I somehow recognized the quality of those pieces, and the impression they left on me persists, nearly three score years later. Thinking about it, I'm a little surprised you didn't mention the episode, "The Obsolete Man" in your review, which to me is among the most powerful statements Serling ever made, as well as being as timely in the age of Trump as it was disturbing when it first aired in 1961. The biggest hill to climb any reinvention of _The Twilight Zone_ must face is the fact that it *has* gone on before and left the legacy that we all know. Because Serling and Matheson and Beaumont and others did what they did and because at least a portion of the audience knows that, the deck becomes that much more stacked against any attempt to add to that remarkable history. Certainly, there have been marked successes in those subsequent series. "I of Newton," "Wordplay," and "To See the Invisible" were sufficiently impressive to me that I remember them well, even now, but something that could so distinguish itself in the here and now that it would stand apart from the original ... THAT would take something. P.S.: Check out your friend and mine, Jonathan Harris at 12:38, BEFORE he became Dr. Zachary Smith!

I love The Twilight Zone. Ray Bradbury said, "What is the subconscious to every other man, in its creative aspect becomes for writers, the muse?" I agree that fears from the subconscious of a writer never go out of style. Being trapped. Disappearing. Making fatal mistakes. Anxiety of the unknown. Mediocre writers give the audience a safety blanket, but great writers would only provide one to take two away. They tap into the primal fears. I think that's the reason writers such as Rod Serling remain relevant in any age.

Rod Sterling in WW2 was in a squad called "The Death Squad" which was called this because of the high mortality rate. He saw a lot of friends die and I am sure he walked through Hell itself. I think most of his ideas came from this place where he probably felt like he was in The Twilight Zone.

The "Golden Age of Television" (of which Rod Serling and TZ were in the forefront of) will never be "recaptured" or "duplicated."

I disagree that the War movies The World War II end movies that they are somehow anachronistic. They are very timely especially that one clip they showed where that Lieutenant becomes a Japanese soldier. That is a universal and Timeless issue.

Great segment Steve. The orginal Twilight Zone is great TV.

The best TZ analysis I've seen or read. 'And When the Sky Was Opened' was the first episode I ever saw and still a favorite. I had no problem with the idea of 'an unknown source setting things right.'

I just watched the first episode of the new one and I am underwhelmed. Not going to pay CBS to see it.

Black Mirror is the closest we've gotten to this level of writing as far as anthology series go. But I'm hopeful for the new TZ under Peele's guidance.

The nervous man in the four dollar room is one of my favorite stories ever. The Twilight Zone was one of, if not the best TV shows ever made. The things that may be out of date today are like an amazing history lesson. Edit: and that episode you talk about with the disappearing astronauts, the fear in that episode for me comes from the fact that none of it can ever be explained. They are simply vanishing and being forgotten, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. No one who will remember the fear and pain they went through. If that isn't scary, I don't know what is.

As with Gene Roddenberry, Rod Serling created Twilight Zone because he wanted to be able to write stories that he could get past the network censors, and that’s why (just like the original Star Trek) they’re still appealing. To say that some Twilight Zone episodes are outdated are incorrect. The issue of traveling into the unknown still exists, whether it’s in outer space, another dimension, a new technology and its implications, or other aspect the Twilight Zone covered. Sure, it could be said that And When The Sky Was Opened is outdated because people have been in outer space, just as the Star Trek Episode The Ultimate Computer is outdated because the prototype computer during a war game between the Enterprise and other federation ships didn’t control nowhere near what a computer today could control automatically. However, those issues still exist, even though the technology or level of exploration has changed.

Rod Serling was a genius. You don't get to invent electricity twice.

I be live my favorite episode is the one with Anges Moorehead and the spaceship. She spoke not a word,yet the acting was sublime. And the ending what a hoot.

I agree that lacking a resolution wasn't a mistake. That's practically the definition of cosmic horror, in the Lovecraftian sense. Any explanation or even ending to the story would be a relief to the audience and reassuring. Instead they're given a mystery without a solution and a creeping sense of dread. It's why most horror movies, well before sequel-baiting became standard practice, end with a scene showing the monster's eggs or similar things that say "It's all over now... or is it?"

You have to be a writer who is in very deep touch with his thoughts and emotions, and is very observant of others fears and worries. Serling somehow understood the characters who dwell in society’s underbelly; street types, gamblers, poor folks, people live on whatever nickels and dimes they can scrape up. My friend, something of monumental importance in that time which is now forgotten is Sputnik. Fear of Sputnik and whatever would come after it shaped a great deal of our culture for the next 15 to 20 years! Twilight Zone tapped into that! Also, a general concern as to just how far was an automated society going to get.

The closest Twilight Zone revival we've had I think is Black Mirror. One of our biggest points of cultural existential dread lies with personal technology (smart phones, the internet, drones, social media, etc.) and BM frames those anxieties now just as well as TTZ did for its period anxieties. I think it's a mistake to use The Twilight Zone as a title because the original was so unique and so impactful that it works against a revival series. Black Mirror and The Outer Limits are better remembered (well BM is still going, but *will* be better renembered) because they attempted to be their own thing, sharing the spirit of TTZ, but not the expectations of the name.

coming off ww2 the Korean war and in the midst of the cold war, the Twilight Zone was in the perfect place and time. Rod Serling's specialty were episodes dealing w/ war and its aftermath.

Chuck Beaumont was a wonderful writer, and he died so young. A lot of the later episodes were written by others but credited to Beaumont. No one can replace Rod Serling or the great writers.

You can't re make a classic.

To me what made Twilight Zone stories work in addition to Serling, which can't be replicated, is that they tapped into more base fears and aspirations, the things that drive our actions when things get to the edges in a more relatable context. He found another way to tell many of the stories that have been around since the Greeks. The second big part was a very effective use of the twist, even when there was not a twist you were looking for one, the twist caused you to become an active participant in the show, same as a mystery only with a twist. I think it would be possible to do a new one but I think the chances are low, sadly the focus these days is on the special effects and raw gore. They need stories that are scary to our minds and not to our eyes so to speak and most of all they need stories we willingly participate in, we think about it as we are watching it. They also can't dumb it down too much, it will be no fun if we get it before the end every time.

Night of the Meek will always be my favorite episode. Watch it every year now around the holidays.

the thing that fascinates me about The Twilight Zone is that show has pretty much everything. These other anthology shows tend to have a narrow theme that it sticks with.

Nice homage to my all-time favorite show! Well done!

A lot of the Twilight Zone's ability to endure was the fact that there wasn't an extant tribe of trolls seeking to undermine it. Any new series which touches on anything political is going to get buried in and by social media. You can do a new "sort of" Twilight Zone, but political commentary would have to excised, or a decision made that we're going after this or that political faction. Response is too immediate and sponsors too cowardly.

As a 68yr old i have watched every episode dozens of time and still have my favorites , especially how prophetic so many of the episodes are. Rod Serling was definitely a ground breaker.

Rod Serling was an excellent writer & narrator; and the timing...black n white with so many great upcoming actors. Timeless/classic episodes, always wanted to own every season and episode. Its the best show ever produced if you ask me.

Great commentary, Steve. I have long considered Rod Serling to be one of the very best writers of the twentieth century, American or otherwise. Perhaps one day he will be given his rightful place on the mantel of "All Time Greats." Regardless, thanks for the thoughtful review of "Twilight Zone," a true American original which, thanks to outstanding writing, directing & acting, will always stand the test of time ! Shalom to All 🌟

I am a child of the 50s. I grew up in the middle of the Cold War and the beginning of the Space Program. The Twilight Zone was a mirror for those times and like a lot of other shows that were on TV then it had a moral. Every episode had a theme that drove it. I could watch it forever. Like the Outer Limits, it made us look at ourselves and our fears. Both programs had a pool of young actors who went on to make brilliant careers in movies and television.

Boy do I feel bad for this man with his expectations of Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone. You even managed to point out why he'd never work for the Twilight Zone: Jordan Peele is the most predictable person in Hollywood, a one trick pony that many grew tired of quickly. Peele is this ages Seth McFarland: an interesting person who ran with an idea for far too long

The Twilight Zone is my favorite show of all time! I think Black Mirror is a worldly successor, but as it focuses on technology, it'll be interesting to see Peele's likely more generalized speculative fiction anthology (though nothing will ever top the original series.)

I think I can explain it. There is a story beneath the story in the Twilight Zone. If you recall, Rod Serling had trouble writing hard-hitting dramas because network censors and sponsors didn't want to be controversial, especially in the Bible Belt South. To get those stories out, they were under the surface of the story put out front. Quite a few of the stories were about the anxieties and conflicts of the Man in the Grey Flannel Suit of Madison Avenue that may not have played well in middle-America but they were all dressed in universal stories all people could relate to. With many of the reboots of the modern Twilight Zone stories, it seems that the stories produced are simple direct stories without the under surface stories hiding beneath. The original Twilight Zone had some complexity to it that the modern reboots do not.

“No one can make a perfect series that makes us question, feel uncomfortable and make a well-done stories!” Rod Sterling: *_Puts down Cigarette_* “Hold my Dimensions.”

Wow, this is probably the best analysis of TZ I’ve seen. And I love your voice, Steve!

Left out the most powerful episode # 8 of the entire series which has never been matched. The one were Rod introduces his T. Z audience to the god of the old testament via "IT'S A GOOD LIFE!" 61...

Ahead of his time and a Binghamton boy never will be duplicated

Rod Serling - Great stories and writing - good actors - no cgi - black and white.

The sheer quality of the writing for one and being filmed in black and white as well...

The Talking Tina episode scared the shit out of me as a child!

Incident at owl creek. Best. Episode. Ever.

Serling's consistently fine writing and his choice of other excellent writers like Richard Matheson. His choices of theme: man against man, man against fate, man against himself, man against nature. Surprize endings. You just never knew how anything would play out. Thoughtful, funny, exciting, scary. Adult drama that interested all ages. Great actors. If we get that combination of consistent talent, we can launch a modern version.

I've always thought Black Mirror is almost like a successor to The Twighlight Zone

Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone are my favorite classic sci-fi show and he was a freaking genius. I've got ALL 5 seasons on DVD.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Could not agree with you more! Rod Serling was an absolute genius!!

Once I saw "And when the sky was opened" I was completely sucked in and had to watch every episode after..

The 1980s one wasn't bad at all, especially the first season. It included Harlan Ellison stories and did have "Her Pilgrim Soul" (I believe my mother still has my video recording of that one as I left a note not to tape that one over from back when. I did get the DVD set for the first season just for that episode and the Harlan Ellison stories and directing). But nothing compares to the original, I agree. The challenge is so much of TZ being TZ IS Rod Serling, even if he was narrating one of Charles Beaumont's classics. The movie was disappointing, the real life tragedy accident in filming not withstanding, and last decade's was disappointing including the "It's a Good Life" sequel (granted, I only watched a few of those episodes).

I get the feeling most "Twilight Zone" remakers have never seen the original series, or are too dumb to understand it. The main thing to understand about TZ is it character-driven, where it's about human beings in unlikely situations, and not so much about the unlikely situations. The basics of human nature and dramatic conflict are central to TZ, whether or not, say, the ghost of Jonathan Winters appears and challenges you to a game of pool. Watch that episode (called "A Game of Pool", helpfully enough), and you'll see it's all about Jack Klugman's hunger to be the best at something no matter what it costs, and Jonathan Winters is the wiser voice of wisdom and experience advising him to find more to life. There's little about the episode that requires it to be about pool, or a ghost for that matter. People think TZ is about twist endings, but it's really not for the most part. Most of the "twist endings" are just the story taken to its logical dramatic conclusion,. Like the twist at the end of "A Game of Pool" wasn't a twist so much as spelling things out for the 5% of the audience too dull to get what was happening. But like I say, most modern writers are too dim to understand old "Twilight Zone". Like "It's a Good Life", with the omnipotent little boy (Billy Mumy) bossing the town around. The original episode was about how you deal with such a situation, and will you summon the courage to stand up to him just to give other people a chance to stop him? But the remake in the movie was about a woman persuading the omnipotent little boy that indiscriminate killing is wrong. Jesus Christ. The 80s really was the bullshittiest decade.

The monsters are due on maple street is fitting still today...the Talking Tina one with telly savalas made me put all my dolls up! Thank goodness my parents let us watch this!

Twilight Zone, the 1960’s Star Trek … The Beatles albums and personalities … Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon … the book Lord of the Flys … the movie The World, The Flesh, and The Devil … are timeless. Each on of these art forms deals with human emotions common to all people of every decade.

Its about the writing...and the casting...essentials to great drama.Serling had access to a multitude of future a listers for his show

Time Enough At Last is my favorite episode of any series ever. The Twilight Zone is my favorite show, and in my opinion, one of the most lasting, impactful, and ever enjoyable shows ever.

Great video as always Steve, I've been enjoying your content for years. Please keep up the good work!

Used to watch the new years day marathon for years.

There is only ONE correct answer... ROD SERLING!

The original Twilight Zone always freaked me out. 😄

Thank you for a wonderful and thoughtful posting.

Great video, very entertaining and gets me excited for the new one!

If anybody needs to know why I admire Rod Serling so much, all they need to do is watch his Mike Wallace interview (available in various qualities here on YT). I hope the new series can finally do the original -- and Serling -- justice.

The original The Twilight Zone series shows and demonstrates the value of true storytelling on television as a media format - it doesn't seem like it was a 'branded' show alone, heavily consumerised. There were some misses but even they were made so well. We've lost this quality somehow with television over the last 30 years. It's back via streaming services - Black Mirror etc etc but The Twilight Zone did it first.

It's the writing. Good writing is classic and speaks to the universals in the human character.

Fun fact: The Silence is an episode with no science fiction or fantasy elements

It's real. That's why. Rod Sterling had PSTD and that is what the Twilight Zone is. Writing was how Rod Sterling coped.

ah oh my god this made my day... twilight zone is such a powerful show! And When The Sky Was Opened is such a powerful episode! the look of abject horror on the guy's face at the end is just priceless. one notable episode you didn't mention that really stands out to me is The Obsolete Man. it's about a dystopian future where humanity has done away with basic human rights, and people are executed the moment they no longer can contribute to the community. a society that renders its people obsolete is in and of itself obsolete... another episode, I forget what it's called, is about a man who dies and goes to hell, but is fooled into believeing he is in heaven. he spends the bulk of the episode doing everything he has ever wanted to do until he exhausts success and becomes bored with it. after a thousand jackpots in a row, they lose meaning. it reminds me of a lesson from a certain russian video game, that perfect happiness is flawed and undesirable.

The original Twilight Zone series stood upon two mighty pillars: an excellent corps of writing talent and the personality of Rod Serling. As to the latter, Serling became THE icon of the series, not only its host but also through his heavy involvement in multiple aspects of the production and of course his being the principal writer of the series, contributing more scripts than anyone else. Serling was also one of the most well-known television writers working in that time; a public figure through interviews, multiple appearances on other television shows, and frequent angry columns in newspapers and magazines over network and sponsor censorship issues and thus was very comfortable appearing before the public and speaking to them. He was a natural on both television and behind the lectern. In many ways, Serling was like the god who controlled everything in the world of the Twilight Zone and not just another writer or the programme host. The entire show has his stamp on it. As to the former, The Twilight Zone was staffed with writers who were established genre professionals and/or had seen and experienced a lot more of life than most people in today's world ever do, having grown up during the Depression and the Second World War. Serling himself turned to writing (and smoking like a chimney) to deal with his lingering emotional trauma from fighting on Luzon in the Philippines. The names of the four soldiers whose deaths were foreseen by the William Reynolds character in "The Purple Testament" were all buddies of Serling's who got zapped during the worst of the fighting on that island. And as for Serling's trademark TZ twist ending, that had its origins in a very singular incident when Serling and another buddy of his were both very close to being rotated back Stateside. They had survived through all the fighting, had seen so many of their comrades fall, were about to go home together, and it was during a routine unloading of cargo from a transport plane when Serling saw a very heavy crate break loose from its straps, roll right down and off the conveyor, and crush the other guy to death before anyone could do anything about it. Things like that and many other life experiences puts an edge on writing that otherwise only a lot of research and reading can teach, but which a lot of today's writers don't even try to learn about or understand while they're focussed upon learning mechanics to the exclusion of all else. How many of them actually put anything really personal into their stories? Do they reach for anything deep within themselves, or do they just follow set formulae to crank out cookbook plots and cookie-cutter characters? I believe the latter to be a primary reason why efforts to replicate The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and other classic franchises have failed and why a lot of the novels, television episodes and movies of today are so bland and soulless. Another reason is what seems to be the development of a very risk-averse entertainment and literary culture that won't take chances on anything original or clever, but that is an entirely different discussion.

I swear, every time I watch your videos, you talk about exactly what I was talking about that week with someone and say what I have said, just better.

Tell the people of Hawaii that the threat of an imminent nuclear missile attack isn't relevant or current...

I'm surprised you haven't spoken about 'black mirror'

People also fail to mention that the show being in black and white gave it a eerie character that the others (in color) did not.

Good video, thanks!

I really should watch The Twilight Zone. The story about astronauts seems incredibly interesting. PS: There are still people convinced the large hadron collider is opening black holes and creating shifts in reality - we will never lose that kind of conspiracy theorists.

I just realized. My computer isn't Y2K ready. Yikes. What hell hath I unleashed.

Thank you, Steve, and especially for your most educational words on And When The Sky Was Opened. Because it's one of my favorite episodes from the classic Twilight Zone and the performances of Rod Taylor, Jim Hutton and Charles Aidman remain timeless.

The episode "The Lonely" is getting more probable. With robots becoming more and more like people, there may be a time when people bond to them like family, or even a spouse.