“The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone”

I don’t know about you, but anytime I run across a Twilight Zone episode, I stop what I’m doing to enjoy it. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen it, it never fails to pull me in. And on those days when a “marathon” is running? I’m down for the count.

In October 2024, this classic series celebrated 65 years of freaking us out and making us think. Rod Serling admitted that many of the dystopian, spooky, and mind-blowing tales he crafted were drawn from his experiences during his time serving in the Philippines during WWII. Hey, war can upend a guy’s view of reality.

Of the 156 episodes that aired between its October 1959 debut and final broadcast in June 1964, Serling wrote 92 of them. And of course, he opened every one of them in his trademark style – clipped pronunciation, cigarette in hand, inviting us to hang on for a wild ride into the unknown.

The show won two Primetime Emmy awards and has remained a powerful influence on TV and movies ever since.

A new book by Arlen Schumer called The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone explores the main ideas that haunted Serling and his co-writers the most during that period. Those themes include science and superstition, time, obsolescence, identity, and suburban nightmares. Serling’s daughter Anne has penned the forward to the book.

If you think about any of your favorite episodes, you’ll likely be able to fit them into one of these five silos. For instance, mine include “Time Enough At Last,” where hapless bookworm Burgess Meredith survives a nuclear blast. All seems lost until he stumbles onto the ruins of the public library and delights in having all the time in the world now to indulge his passion for reading – only to break his glasses. To me, the fear, panic, frustration, and isolation of this episode aren’t too far off from what we experienced during the pandemic lockdown.

Or “Eye of the Beholder,” in which a woman undergoes numerous surgeries to look like everyone else. The twist is that “everyone else” looks hideous, while she’s gorgeous (as played by Donna Douglas, who’d go on to be “Ellie Mae” in The Beverly Hillbillies). Anyone who’s seen Madonna recently can see how wrong Botox, fillers, and plastic surgery can go when one is in search of perfection.

I also love “The Masks,” in which a dying man forces his greedy relatives to wear specially made masks during a Mardi Gras celebration. Once they’re removed, their real nature is permanently etched on their faces. In real life, the turmoil in our country has made us see a very different side of friends, family, and co-workers.

Ida Lupino in “The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine” showcases a woman obsessed with “screens” (as in her own old movies). “The Midnight Sun” is a meditation on climate change, while “It’s A Good Life” reveals how far some people will go to placate a brat with unlimited powers of destruction.

Enough said.

One of the coolest things about The Twilight Zone is spotting early TV appearances by future stars like Robert Redford, Elizabeth Montgomery, Dennis Hopper, and William Shatner.

Serling’s landmark series went far beyond science fiction; it was a probing commentary on the human condition that still holds up. The Five Themes of The Twilight Zone is an intriguing deep dive into the timeless worldview of a visionary.

-Cindy Grogan

Photo: Burgess Meredith in “Time Enough At Last” (public domain)