“More Than A Man Has Died”: Serling on Kennedy’s Death

Those of us who weren’t alive when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 know what a horrendous and brutal crime it was. But it can be hard for us to grasp just how deeply this tragic event shocked the nation.

Leave it to Rod Serling to put it into perspective for us. As his daughter Anne once noted on her blog:

“After President Kennedy’s assassination, my father wrote something perhaps intended as a letter to a newspaper or magazine editor. It was written on his letterhead and clearly typed by him, not his secretary.” It read:

Twilight Zone Day: Right Idea, Wrong Date

I know a lot of Twilight Zone fans (big surprise, right?), and many of them are excited about the fact that May 11 is “Twilight Zone Day.”

I guess you can tell from that opening that I’m not really one of them, right?

Not that I mind it. How could I? This blog, after all, along with the Twitter page that preceded it, is dedicated to the fifth dimension. I’m always happy for an excuse to fan over what I consider the most entertaining and thought-provoking TV series of all time.

And yet … the May 11 thing kind of annoys me.

Is Black Mirror Truly a Modern Twilight Zone?

You’ve surely gotten the memo by now. As a fan of The Twilight Zone, you’re supposed to be head over heels for Black Mirror.

Loved BLACK MIRROR. Terrifying, funny, intelligent. It's like THE TWILIGHT ZONE, only rated R.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) December 7, 2014

Over the past few months, I’ve read hundreds of tweets like this. I have a column in TweetDeck for mentions of TZ, and for a while there, hardly a day went by without someone exulting over Black Mirror — which, fans assure us, is a modern-day version of Rod Serling’s classic series.

I imagine if The Twilight Zone had survived into the modern era, it would look something like #BlackMirror.

— Jared Hada Smith (@jaredhadasmith) February 16, 2015

I wish I could join the chorus. Some people enjoy being contrary, but not me. I’d rather be here telling you it’s genius and you should watch it N-O-W. But I’ve watched the first two seasons (twice, in fact, to make sure I wasn’t missing something), and I can’t.

“Nightmare as a Child”

I recently tweeted a quote from TZ’s “Nightmare as a Child” and got this reply from a follower: “Males didn’t like this one as it had women and children in it — that`s my slightly sweeping theory.”

An interesting thought, but I have to admit, I’m not aware of any gender discrepancies when it comes to the popularity of this episode. And plenty of male viewers are big fans of “The Hitch-Hiker” and “The After-Hours,” both of which have female leads.

Many TZs are greatly admired, of course. A few are actively disliked. But there are others that sort of float in the middle, neither loved nor hated. “Nightmare as a Child” is one of them.

I’ve seen a lot of viewer feedback in the four and a half years I’ve been doing my Twitter page, pro and con, and both men and women hardly say a word about it. It almost doesn’t register. Which is a shame, really. It’s a good episode. The story is fairly intriguing, and it ends on a happy note.