Why Has The Twilight Zone Lasted? The Writer of Some Classic Episodes Explains

“I think that sometimes in television, scripts reach the level of literature. Often, I think, it’s junk, and stuff is just spewed out with no thought other than to get a script done. But I think sometimes it reaches the level of television literature — something that says something, something that’s lasting, something that’s worthwhile.”

The speaker: Earl Hamner Jr. The subject: Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone, for which Hamner contributed eight scripts, including such fan favorites as “The Hunt” and “Stopover in a Quiet Town”.

This quote — an excerpt from the short video below — sums up well why the Zone has endured long after many other vintage shows have faded into obscurity. Many scripts are just “spewed out”, either because of time constraints or a lack of talent. Not so on The Twilight Zone.

Hamner touches on several other interesting points in this interview, including the idea that Serling may have had a premonition of his death. It’s only about five minutes long — and if you’re a fan of Hamner’s signature series, The Waltons, get ready to hear a very familiar voice:

Tuning in “The Twilight Zone Ahead of its Time” Radio Show

November 7 @ 8:00 pm EST:

THE TWILIGHT ZONE AHEAD OF ITS TIME Night-Light radio show with Pop Culture Man Arlen Schumer: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/night-light/2020/11/08/the-twilight-zone-ahead-of-its-time-with-arlen-schumer

“We can feed the stomach with concentrates. We can supply microfilm for reading, recreation, even movies of a sort. We can pump oxygen in, and waste material out. But there’s one thing we can’t simulate, that’s a very basic need: man’s hunger for companionship. The barrier of loneliness. That’s one thing we haven’t licked yet.”

If those words from the first TWILIGHT ZONE episode sound uncomfortably close to the pandemic quarantining we’re all experiencing now, it’s because creator ROD SERLING (1924-75) was a true visionary, a prescient prophet of the small screen, whose many ZONE episodes dealt with the universal, timeless themes of isolation, loneliness, and solitude.

In advance of his webinar next Tuesday night via New York Adventure Club—

THE TWILIGHT ZONE AHEAD OF ITS TIME webinar Tuesday, November 10 @ 8:00pm EST; tix: nyadventureclub.com

—join Pop Culture Man Arlen Schumer tonight as he discusses how the greatest television series of the 20th Century sheds a prescient light on the global pandemic of the 21st Century.

Arlen’s call-in guests on tonight’s show:

PAUL D. GALLAGHER, creator of the blog “Shadow & Substance: Exploring the Works of Rod Serling”: thenightgallery.wordpress.com

STEVEN JAY RUBIN, author of “The Twilight Zone Encyclopedia,” available at amazon.com

You can listen to a playback here: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/night-light/2020/11/08/the-twilight-zone-ahead-of-its-time-with-arlen-schumer