How the Father’s Plea to Save His Son in Twilight Zone’s “Long Distance Call” Was Rewritten

If a phone rings in the fifth dimension, think twice about picking it up.

Perhaps, as Miss Elvira Keene discovered in Twilight Zone‘s “Night Call,” you’ll find your deceased fiancé on other end of the line. Or it may be your late mother reaching out to encourage your son Billy to, ahem, hasten his demise so he can join her in the hereafter.

That’s the startling premise behind TZ’s “Long Distance Call,” which culminates in a desperate plea from an anguished father to his departed mother to not to take Billy to the other side.

Obviously, if the episode was going to work, the way that call was written and performed was of paramount importance. Charles Beaumont and Bill Idelson had written a solid script, but their initial effort at the father’s speech fell flat. As we learn from Marc Scott Zicree’s write-up of the episode in “The Twilight Zone Companion,” Rod approached them as the episode was being filmed and said it wasn’t working.

Serling Wanted This “Terrifying Tale” for The Twilight Zone, But The Sponsor Rejected It

George Clayton Johnson didn’t notch as many Twilight Zone scripts as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont did, yet he certainly left his mark on the series.

“Nothing in the Dark” alone, with Gladys Cooper as the old woman determined to keep Mr. Death out of her home, would cement his legacy among TZ fans. But he also scripted “A Game of Pool,” “Kick the Can,” and “A Penny for Your Thoughts.” Plus he wrote the short stories that Rod Serling adapted as “Execution” and “The Four of Us Are Dying.” Superstar status: Confirmed.

But not everything Johnson wrote for the fifth dimension made it into the end Zone. Consider what he had to say in this 1994 interview quoted in Steven Jay Rubin’s “The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia”:

“Rod loved things that were tense and grim … where the harshest words were said in a whisper … If you could set up a dismal, or a grim, or a dangerous, or a mysterious, or a poetic mood … Rod really loved that.

“So when I started trying to write stories for the series, my intention was to get down and grim, because that’s what he did. And that’s ‘The Four of Us Are Dying,’ and that’s ‘Execution,’ the story of a hanging.

Anne Serling, Rob Zombie, and Me, Quoted in The New York Times About Twilight Zone? Yep, It Happened

Just over a decade ago, I got a surprising phone call: A New York Times reporter wanted to interview me about The Twilight Zone.

I knew there were more qualified experts out there, but I wasn’t about to say no, especially if it meant I might be quoted in such a prestigious newspaper.

The reason for the story: CBS had just released a new DVD set of the series. So reporter Erik Piepenberg and I chatted for a little while one day late in 2013, and a few days later, there I was, opining about TZ’s longevity to thousands of readers.

Even more remarkably, Piepenberg had interviewed some truly famous people about the Zone, including Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, musician/director Rob Zombie, and Rod’s younger daughter, Anne. They even got a quote from Lin-Manuel Miranda, shortly before he wrote his smash-hit musical “Hamilton.” What an interesting mix! The Zone‘s appeal is incredibly broad.

So for the benefit of those who don’t have a Times subscription, here’s the full article, “Crossing Over to an Area We’ll Call … ” (December 5, 2013):

When a strange little show called “The Twilight Zone” was first broadcast in 1959, the executives at CBS probably had no idea they had a game changer on their hands. The anthology of dark morality tales — with an occasional detour into brainy comedy — did well in the ratings but was canceled after five seasons. It wasn’t until the series started running in syndication at night and on weekends that its popularity soared. Shows like “The Walking Dead” and “American Horror Story” owe their popularity to its sharply written blend of horror, science fiction and thriller.

Syfy’s 2023-2024 New Year’s Twilight Zone Marathon Schedule

Every year, as the holiday season gets underway, I can count on getting one question from my fellow Serling fans on X (formerly known as Twitter): “Will there be a Twilight Zone marathon this year?”

And every year since I launched my all-things-Serling page in 2010, I’ve been happy to answer my fellow Zone-iacs far more directly than the evasive Mystic Seer ever would: Yes, there will be a marathon! In fact, we’ll get two: one on the Heroes & Icon channel, and one on Syfy.

We all know there are drawbacks to watching the Zone this way. The ads and the edits can drive any serious fan to hit the holiday eggnog a bit harder than usual. The show is best watched on disc. And yet there’s something comforting about the tradition of the NYE marathon. Sure, you can stream pristine episodes any time you like, but it’s nice to watch with so many fellow fans at the same time and interact over social media.

So what will be shown this year? Below you’ll find the line-up for Syfy — which, for all its demerits, is still more easily accessed by most fans than H&I’s. It’s an impressive roster: 140 episodes out of TZ’s 156.

I know some fans like to be surprised, but most fans appreciate a heads-up. So here’s the schedule for the 2023-2024 marathon. (Times shown are EST.)

In Night Gallery’s “Dr. Stringfellow’s Rejuvenator,” Serling Gives Us a Villainous Pitchman

Ah, the pitchman. Rod Serling clearly loved using these roving merchants as a story device, and it’s easy to see why.

They can be good or evil, or just flawed and damaged. And from a dramatic point of view, they’re golden: They roll into town, or into someone’s life — like a stone dropped into a pond, leaving ripples in its wake — and you can just let the story unfold from there.

Lew Bookman of the Season 1 Twilight Zone episode “One for the Angels” comes readily to mind, and a more sympathetic example of a sidewalk salesman you’ll never find. Lew is a sweetheart, and we love seeing him save a little girl and reap his heavenly reward at the end.

Then, in the Zone episode that aired right after that one, “Mr. Denton on Doomsday,” we meet a pitchman who’s … well, a bit hard to figure out. The aptly named Henry J. Fate gives Al Denton what he needs to survive his encounter with a young gunslinger, and we’re grateful for that, but Fate speaks to Al rather sharply, and he doesn’t exactly exude warmth, like good ol’ Lew does.

And then there’s “Mr. Garrity and the Graves” in Season 5. Here we get a pitchman who is neither good nor ambiguous. He’s here to fleece people, pure and simple, though the ending resurrection scene on Boot Hill shows us, as Serling says in his concluding narration, that Garrity’s a “sad misjudger of his own talents.”

The “Unofficial” Twilight Zone Pilot Debuted a Year Before The Series Began

If you’re ever asked to name the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone, there are two answers.

The official one is “Where is Everybody?” It launched the series on October 2, 1959. But there’s an unofficial answer as well: something known as “The Time Element.”

It first aired almost a year earlier – on November 24, 1958, to be precise – and for viewers lucky enough to tune in to the CBS’s Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse that evening, it marked their first trip, in all but name, to the fifth dimension.

The story certainly has some familiar plot elements for anyone who’s a fan of the series to come. Let’s do a brief recap – spoiler alert! – then go behind the scenes.

We’ll start with Desi Arnaz’s introduction. Yes, Lucille Ball’s husband himself hosted each episode. Just as Serling would do later on “the Twilight Zone,” he sets the scene for viewers:

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Tonight, we’re going to see a story written by Rod Serling and starring William Bendix. Our story begins in a doctor’s office. A patient is sitting there. He walked into this office nine minutes ago.”

The patient in question is a man named Pete Jenson, and he’s visiting a psychiatrist named Arnold Gillespie. Jenson tells Dr. Gillespie that he’s been disturbed recently by a recurring dream in which he finds himself in Hawaii, near Pearl Harbor, on December 6, 1941. It’s the day before the surprise Japanese attack, and he – unlike the people around him – knows what’s going to happen the next morning.

And here’s the real kicker. Jenson says this isn’t just a dream. No, he says, he’s really going back in time. How or why, he doesn’t know, but he insists that it’s true. This leads to the age-old question: How do you warn people what’s coming without sounding like a crazy person?

Why Didn’t Ray Bradbury Write More Twilight Zone Episodes? An Expert Explains

The Twilight Zone, of course, boasts many outstanding episodes, but also others that are mid-grade, at least by Rod Serling’s high standards: nothing flashy or amazing, but a solid half-hour (or hour) of entertainment.

For me — and, I think, many other fans — “I Sing the Body Electric” falls into this category. It’s not great, but it’s not bad.

But it does have one unique claim to fame: It was scripted by Ray Bradbury. In fact, it’s the only TZ the legendary author wrote, which often leads fans to ask a logical question: Why didn’t one of sci-fi’s most notable giants write more for the series?

Serling certainly intended for him to write more, which Bradbury was eager to do at the outset of the series. I really should say that “I Sing the Body Electric” was the only completed TZ he ever wrote, because he did write other scripts for TZ. They were just never produced.

Five Reasons Why It Still Makes Sense to Watch Syfy’s Twilight Zone Marathon

Ringing in the New Year with a Twilight Zone marathon is such a tradition for many fans that it probably sounds like heresy to ask a basic question: Why? Some people, even ones who love the show, have asked me if the very idea of a marathon even makes sense these days.

I get it. It’s not like we’re in the ’80s or ’90s, and reruns are our only option. The entire series can be enjoyed in HD clarity on DVD and Blu-ray. You can buy all 156 episodes on iTunes, find them on Pluto, or stream them on Paramount+. You can create your own uncut, ad-free marathon, 24/7/365.

So why put up with the obvious drawbacks of Syfy’s marathon? Why wait months for them to bestow a slate of episodes that may not even include your favorites?

Here are five reasons why:

The Loner: A TV Western with the Serling Touch

Rod Serling wielded a potent weapon in his fight for civil rights: his writing. And he didn’t just tackle the evils of racial prejudice on The Twilight Zone, but on his first post-TZ series: The Loner.

Sadly, many Serling fans have never heard of The Loner, let alone watched it. In a way, though, that’s not surprising. It ran for only one season on CBS from September 1965 to March 1966.

It wasn’t even seen in reruns until the late 1990s, when cable’s TV Land rescued it from obscurity, at least briefly. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and other vintage Westerns live on today on retro channels, but The Loner seems all but forgotten.

Which is really a shame. You don’t have to be a Zone fan to appreciate it. In fact, The Loner had no supernatural elements and was about as far removed from the fifth dimension as you can imagine. But it had one crucial thing in common with Serling’s signature series: his incisive writing and pointed social critiques.

And that may have helped spell its doom.

You Can “Zone” Out this Fourth of July with a Marathon on the “Heroes & Icons” Channel

Until a couple years ago, tuning in to a Twilight Zone marathon was easy: Every Fourth of July and New Year’s Eve, just flip to the Syfy Channel. The only questions were what time it started and how long it would last.

Things are a bit more complicated in 2023.

Syfy continues to air a New Year’s Zone-a-thon, but the last Fourth of July one was in 2017. Since then, they’ve celebrated Independence Day with Harry Potter, Sharknado, and other more modern fare — such as the 2019 Zone reboot, which is this year’s substitute for the original classic. Hmm, the year they ran a full day of The Greatest American Hero isn’t looking so bad now.

Into the breach stepped a plucky little channel called Decades. They not only started airing a Fourth of July marathon of the original Zone a few years ago, they scheduled a competing one on New Year’s — one that was often longer and less invasively sliced up with commercials (which, along with some truly ham-handed edits, has always been the bane of the marathon).

The only problem was visibility. Decades’ reach wasn’t all that great, at least compared to Syfy’s. And now it’s defunct, having changed its name and switched to an all-comedy format early this year. But never fear, Zone-a-thon fans. Another channel has picked up the “Rod, White & Blue” banner, so you will be able to binge your favorite jaunts into the fifth dimension.