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| by Beth E. Cochran with additional writing by Bridget Petrella | |
| CBS' ‘The Twilight Zone’— An Enduring Pop Culture Touchtone. | |
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Over the course of its five-year network run, The Twilight Zone explored themes never before examined on television. It inevitably exposed the uncultivated talents of an entire generation of talented character players, like Jack Klugman, William Shatner, and Robert Duvall, who would later go on to become household names for subsequent portrayals. It also cemented the legacy of its creator, at the time known principally as the author of socially concerned live dramas. Serling created The Twilight Zone to serve as a forum for his commentary about technology, conformity, discrimination, and a whole host of other issues. Frustrated by his inability to explore these topics in mainstream dramas in the face of censorship by network executives and skittish advertisers, he hoped that the show's science fiction anthology format might allow him to introduce a little liberal orthodoxy to viewers without alarming the suits. But if Serling was in it for the advocacy, the show's other creative collaborators consistently pulled it all back into the realm of traditional fantasy.
This 28 DVD set
will cost you between $225 to $299 (I know a few bargain hunters who
snagged it up at Amazon the first day for $209— ha!). It includes all
five seasons of the show, and each episode looks beautiful, with easy to
read menus and nice navigation and title animation for the menus. But
what sets this set apart from most TV on DVD sets are the extras. My
God, they're so much stuff here that I don't know where to begin (it's
really rare to find a set where every single episode has an extra
attached to it!). Commentaries: You'll hear commentary from people
behind the scenes (writers, producers, network execs) and people who
starred in the episodes (everyone from Earl Holliman and Don Rickles to
Robert Redford, Leonard Nimoy, Billy Mumy, and Jonathan Winters). This
isn't just a commentary thrown on to show that the set is complete.
These are really intriguing commentaries, as much the history of TV as a
celebrity's reminiscence. |
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Beth E. Cochran is a Producer for
the TV show “Soap Talk” and has recently crowned herself “Queen
of All Soaps.” She has also been an Associate Producer for the
daytime talk show, “Dr. Phil.” Before getting her big break and
realizing her dream of making television, Ms. Cochran was a also
writer and editor for magazines such as Soap Opera Magazine,
Soapdish, Soap Opera News, Soap Opera Digest, Soap Opera Update,
Entertainment Weekly and Woman’s World. |
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Picture
if you will, a man...a writer, —a weaver of words, purveyor of
monochromatic morality tales, and if you feel in the mood to travel,
journey with us now into the depths of that man’s mind. For it was
within the creative byways and moral highways of the mind of the
aforementioned writer that our story has its true beginnings... and
where ultimately, our story ends. But if there is one extraordinary star in 'The
Twilight Zone' perpetual firmament which outshines even such luminaries, then that
star is Rod Serling himself. For it was Serling’s memorable top and tail
appearances for each and every show with that imitated ironically
measured, memorably wry vocal commentary, which is perhaps the most
enduring image of 'The Twilight Zone’s' legacy... Created by the
visionary writer and master of ceremony, The Twilight Zone proved to be both a
landmark of televised science fiction and a truly powerful and enduring touchstone in
America's pop cultural consciousness. The black-and-white anthology
series, which ran on the CBS network from 1959 to 1964, generated lukewarm ratings
at the time but has grown in public estimation over time. The Twilight
Zone was also blessed with an overabundance of creative talent behind
the camera; the situation was also happily mirrored by the sheer top of
the range quality of performers who gave flesh to the overall brilliance
of the writing which shaped the show’s ongoing legend. 
In
1957, CBS purchased a teleplay that writer Rod Serling hoped to
produce as the pilot of a weekly anthology series. The Twilight Zone:
"The Time Element" marked Serling’s first entry in the field of science
fiction. The story is a time travel fantasy of sorts, involving a man
visiting a therapist with complaints of a recurring dream in which he
imagines waking up in Honolulu just prior to the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor. "I wake up in a hotel room in Honolulu, and it's 1941, but
I mean I really wake up and it's really 1941," he explains, concluding
that these are not mere dreams; he actually is traveling through time.
Taking advantage of the situation, he bets on all of the winning horses,
all of the right teams and, eventually, tries unsuccessfully to warn
others— the newspaper, the military, anyone— that the Japanese are
planning a surprise attack. With this script, Serling drafted the
fundamental core elements that would distinguish the series still to
come: a science-fiction/fantasy theme, opening and closing narration,
and use of a trick ending. But what would prove popular with audiences
and critics in 1959 did not meet with network standards in 1957. "The
Time Element" was purchased only to be shelved indefinitely, and talks
of making The Twilight Zone into a series eventually ended.
For
the first time ever, you can easily purchase all 156 complete
uninterrupted episodes of
Rod Serling's groundbreaking series in one boxed set, packed with
exciting extras! Travel to another dimension of sight and sound again
and again through these stellar re-mastered high-definition film
transfers. Extras include the fascinating Serling bio-documentary
Submitted for Your Approval, compelling interviews with the show's
writers, the series' unaired pilot, audio commentaries with Martin
Landau, Leonard Nimoy, Cliff Robertson and much, much more! There have
already been so many Twilight Zone sets released already that even
hardcore fans might be wondering if they should spend the money on yet
another set. Is it really presented in a different way, packaged
differently, and have enough extras to buy it? The answer is a definite
yes. This is one of the best TV DVD sets I've ever seen, and an absolute
must for diehard fans of Rod Serling's classic show. The set is called
The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection. You can buy each
season separately, but why on earth would you want to? 
The
features? They'll blow you away. I was afraid that this set might
leave out some of the features of earlier sets, but that PBS American
Masters episode "Submitted For Your Approval" is here in full. But even
beyond that, you get photos, original scripts (in PDF form, with
Serling's own notes!), old commercials for beer and cigarettes, the
original promos at the end of each episode previewing the next week's
episode, Serling's original video pitch to the network for the show, the
1959 interview Rod Serling did with Mike Wallace, home movies from
writer George Clayton Johnson, soundtrack-only tracks for many episodes,
episodes from later incarnations of the show, episodes of the radio show
(with stars like Jason Alexander and Adam West), an episode of The
Liar's Club game show Serling hosted, and— get this— audio and video of
Serling's college lectures from the mid 70s! He was a teacher just
before he died (in 1975 at age 50), and it's fascinating to hear him
answering student's questions about an episode while the episode is
playing. It's the closest we'll get to a Serling DVD commentary, and
it's incredible.
