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?

Identity Crisis: Figuring Out the End of Twilight Zone’s “A World of Difference”

There are times when watching The Twilight Zone is something of a Twilight Zone experience itself.

Actually, it’s not the watching that does that. For me, it’s apt to happen when I’m discussing an episode with other fans, and I find that their explanation of an episode differs completely from mine.

Take Season 1’s “A World of Difference”, which stars Howard Duff. I recently took note on my Twitter page of its March 11 anniversary. As always, I gave a brief synopsis: “An actor whose real life is a mess decides that the idyllic role he’s playing is reality.”

I’m used to hearing people say they like or don’t like an episode. But this time, I also got reactions like this:

• “Wait, he’s the actor? I thought the real guy just fell into the Zone and had to get out.”
• “I still don’t know how to interpret the ending.”
• “It always made me unsure which was real and which wasn’t, but I suppose he was only playing the role he believed to be his real life.”
• “Wait…for real?! He was really the actor all along? I’m so confused!”

At this point, they weren’t the only ones! It honestly never occurred to me before that the episode could be viewed in any other way.

From Reel to Real: “The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine”

The Twilight Zone has a pretty straightforward moral code. The evil are punished. The proud are humbled. The good are rewarded. The forgotten are remembered.

True, there are some exceptions. “Time Enough at Last,” for example, appears to be a prime instance of Fate punishing an innocent. The earthlings in “To Serve Man” did nothing to merit becoming “an ingredient in someone’s soup.” But by and large, you deserve the ending you get.

And then there’s “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine”.

It’s the earliest example in TZ of someone yearning for the past. It aired just before “Walking Distance”, which explored this theme so beautifully that it inevitably overshone its predecessor.

But Shrine‘s problem isn’t merely standing in the shadow of “Walking Distance”. I think this episode fails to really resonate with fans because the main character, Barbara Jean Trenton (played by the amazing Ida Lupino, who would later direct TZ’s “The Masks”), is a hard figure to sympathize with.

In “The New Exhibit”, Who Was the Killer? A Poll Post

What would The Twilight Zone be without its twist endings? Still one of the most well-written, thoughtful series that ever aired, of course! But Rod Serling and company obviously made their points more effectively by using irony and surprise.

So I always try to give spoiler warnings when I write about the endings to certain episodes. I know — it’s a legendary series that debuted over 50 years ago, so who doesn’t know how they end?

Actually, a lot of people. Think about it — new fans are born all the time. I came along well after “Psycho” was a new movie, but I would have enjoyed seeing it without the ending spoiled. It must have been fun to see it when you didn’t know.

All of which is a slightly long-winded way of saying “spoiler alert”! Especially because I want to discuss, briefly, the ending to “The New Exhibit”, which aired during TZ’s lesser-known 4th season (the one with the hour-long episodes) — and ask you to vote on it.

Why CBS Finally Took a Gamble on Twilight Zone

Imagine you found yourself transported back in time to December 6, 1941. It’s the day before Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

There you are, near the attack site, surrounded by people who have no idea what the next day will bring. Can you warn them without sounding crazy?

That’s the dilemma Pete Jenson faces. He’s been dreaming every night that he’s back there … only it’s not a dream, he tells his psychiatrist. He’s really going back.

Sound like a plot stolen from a Twilight Zone episode? Not exactly. I’m describing “The Time Element”, an episode of CBS’s Desilu Playhouse. It aired on November 24, 1958, the year before TZ debuted. And it was written by Rod Serling.