The Twilight Zone is an American anthology series created by Rod Serling which aired from 1959 to 1964, spanning 5 seasons and 156 episodes on CBS.
The episodes are half-hour in lenght, except for season 4, which has hour long episodes.
The episodes are very diverse in genres taking elements from science fiction, fantasy, suspense, horror, and psychological thrillers.
As it was an anthology series each episode had its own seperate story which usually ended on a twist with some kind of morality. They were entirely shot in black and white.
At the start and and the end of each episode the show creator would usually narrate a small monologue related to the story.
Unlike many tv shows from the 60s, the Twilight Zone isn't revered
today for its kitsch or campy aspect. In fact, it is a show that is taken
quite seriously thanks to the quality of its stories and twists which have
become cult in today's pop culture. The show is now often parodied on mainstream tv shows and movies,
without the audience's knowledge as they don't know the Twilight Zone. Other shows like
Black Mirror took direct inspiration from the Twilight Zone and have copied its story structure.
Thus it is very interesting to watch Twilight Zone episodes to understand how it has and is influencing today's pop culture.
Parodies of the Twilight Zone
Due to the cult nature of the Twilight Zone it has often been parodied in other tv shows
such as the Simpsons, or Futurama etc... Here are some of the numerous parodies I could find.
Twilight Zone openings vary from season to season and they are all iconic in their own rights.
Here are all Twilight Zone openings including the 1985 and 2002 reboot of the show.
I regrouped what I consider to be the most influential and interesting episodes
of the Twilight Zone. All of those episodes are of great quality, it doesn't mean
that the episodes who aren't included are of bad quality though.
