‘The Twilight Zone’ Turns 65! Celebrate With a Look Back at Original TV Guide Reviews & More
On October 2, 1959, The Twilight Zone aired its premiere episode, “Where Is Everybody?,” taking us on a 65 years journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination.
The show was the brainchild of already-acclaimed TV writer Rod Serling, who had previously penned scripts for shows like Playhouse 90 and Kraft Television Theater, but bristled at the censorship he encountered trying to tell socially conscious tales. He thought he might have better luck evading the censors on a science fiction show, and after selling a successful sci-fi script to The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, CBS gave him the green light for The Twilight Zone.
TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
The Twilight Zone was never a runaway hit in its original run — in fact, it suffered abysmal ratings in its first season, and was canceled and revived twice during its five seasons. But it soon connected with audiences, bringing some of the brightest voices of the 1950s sci-fi literature world to TV screens for the first time. It also connected with critics, including the writers at TV Guide.
These articles, published during the show’s original run, provide a fascinating look at the show before it was a classic — when it was just another critically successful show with inconsistent ratings that was always in danger of going off the air. Even in a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, some things never change.
TV Guide, February 27, 1960
In the February 27, 1960 issue of TV Guide, writers praised the first season as fresh and “bizarre,” and said that the “real star of the series” is Serling.
TV Guide, May 28, 1960
In May 1960, TV Guide passed on a surprising rumor: that in the second season of The Twilight Zone, hosting duties would be taken over by … Orson Welles?!? Welles was actually always the network’s first choice for narrator, but his fee was too high. Serling was only selected after a number of other options for narrator proved fruitless.
Serling’s negative assessment of his on-screen performance in this note — “I look like a scarred Sicilian prize fighter” — was luckily not one shared by the audience; he remained narrator throughout the show’s original run.
TV Guide, November 5, 1960
On November 5, 1960, TV Guide gave many readers what was probably their first-ever glimpse of a TV script … by reprinting the first several pages of the script for the show’s famous “Eye of the Beholder” episode, which first aired on November 11.
More “Eye of the Beholder”
TV Guide, June 30, 1962
However, just because Serling ran into less censorship and sponsor confusion with The Twilight Zone than he did with previous shows, doesn’t mean his time there was free of it. This June 30, 1962 TV Guide article about one of the show’s many brushes with cancellation discusses an angry sponsor, who used to call up every Monday morning and “demand to know what Friday’s script had been all about.” “Then, he’d demand an explanation of the explanation.”
TV Guide, June 30, 1962
The June 30, 1962 TV Guide article continued. The Twilight Zone suffered from a similar problem that many of today’s acclaimed shows do — it was considered “prestige TV” but was not considered tremendously financially successful.
June 30, 1962 TV Guide article continues.
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