I grew up watching The Twilight Zone, a TV show that was created by Rod Serling and began in 1959. The original series ran for five years. It always entertained me and often gave me the creeps with its eerie stories.
The Twilight Zone’s highly creative stories covered all kinds of themes but usually had a surprising twist ending that you didn’t see coming. Reruns of the original black and white series remain highly popular on television.
The Twilight Zone became a successful franchise that spawned a theatrical movie, as well as a TV movie and other entertainment ventures (e.g. books, a radio program, games, and a theme park attraction). The TV series was revived three more times, one of which is currently on the air showing original stories.
Here is the original TV pilot episode called, Where Is Everybody?:
NOTE: “The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, supernatural drama, black comedy, and psychological thriller, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes. The first series, shot entirely in black and white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964.
The Twilight Zone followed in the tradition of earlier television shows such as Tales of Tomorrow (1951–53) and Science Fiction Theatre (1955–57); radio programs such as The Weird Circle (1943–45), Dimension X (1950–51) and X Minus One (1955–58); and the radio work of one of Serling’s inspirations, Norman Corwin. The success of the series led to a feature film (1983), a TV film (1994), a radio series (2002–12), various literature, theme park attractions and various other spin-offs that spanned five decades, including three revival television series. The second series (1985–89) ran on CBS and in syndication in the 1980s, while the third series ran on UPN (2002–2003). In December 2017, CBS All Access officially ordered the fourth Twilight Zone series, helmed by Jordan Peele. The series premiered on April 1, 2019.
TV Guide ranked the original TV series #5 in their 2013 list of the 60 greatest shows of all time and #4 in their list of the 60 greatest dramas.”
— Wikipedia
