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Originally aired
Season Episodes
First aired Last aired
Concept November 24, 1958
1 36 October 2, 1959 July 1, 1960
2 29 September 30, 1960 June 2, 1961
3 37 September 15, 1961 June 1, 1962
4 18 January 3, 1963 May 23, 1963
5 36 September 27, 1963 June 19, 1964
Episodes [edit]
Rod Serling wrote a teleplay intending for it to be the pilot episode of a new series called The Twilight
Zone. Although it ended up airing on a different show, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, it is considered
the seed episode and has even been adapted as one of The Twilight Zone radioshow episodes.
The pilot episode for the series was called "Where is Everybody?" The episode was reformatted when
included in the series. It differs from the broadcast episode in only minor ways.
Note: Episode titles were not shown on screen, but were announced by Serling at the end of the
preceding week's episode. "Where is Everybody?" is an exception, as it was the first episode. Serling's
promotional announcements were stripped from syndicated versions of season one, but restored (often
only in audio form) on the Image Entertainment DVD releases. They have since been fully restored on the
Bluray releases.
Unlike season 1, episode titles were shown on screen during the end credits.
Six consecutive episodes (production code #1733662 through #1733667) of this season were recorded
on videotape (not on film as were all other episodes) at CBS Television City, as a costcutting measure
mandated by CBS programming head James T. Aubrey. They are "The Lateness of the Hour", "The Night
of the Meek", "The Whole Truth", "Twenty Two", "Static", and "Long Distance Call". These have a visual
appearance which is distinctly different from those of episodes shot on film. In addition, videotape was a
relatively primitive medium in the early 1960s; the editing of tape was next to impossible. Each of the
episodes was therefore "cameracut" as in live TV—on a studio sound stage, using a total of four
cameras. The requisite multicamera setup of the videotape experiment made location shooting difficult,
severely limiting the potential scope of the storylines, so the shortlived experiment was abandoned.
"A Most Unusual Camera" was produced for season one, but it ended up in season two for unknown
reasons.
Beginning with this season, episode titles were shown on screen after Serling's opening monologues. "The
Grave" and "Nothing in the Dark" are the exceptions since they were produced for season two.
For season four, the series was lengthened to one hour and moved to Thursdays at 9:30 pm (Eastern
Time), replacing Fair Exchange on the schedule.
In the fifth and final season, the series went back to a halfhour format, returned to a fall start, and aired
Fridays at 9:30 pm (Eastern Time) on CBS.
Notes [edit]
Syfy.com
The Original Twilight Zone Episode List
Postcards from the Zone (Extensive episode guides for the 1980s series, including photos)
The Twilight Zone Podcast (Audio reviews of every episode)
Other Radio series ꞏ Pinball machine ꞏ Tower of Terror attraction (1997 film) ꞏ Stage play
Rod Serling ꞏ Burgess Meredith ꞏ Charles Aidman ꞏ Robin Ward ꞏ James Earl Jones ꞏ Forest Whitaker ꞏ
Narrators
Jordan Peele
Night Gallery (pilot film ꞏ episodes) ꞏ Golden Earring song ꞏ Rush song ꞏ Newton N. Minow
Related
(Vast Wasteland speech)
Category
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