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If you’re a fan of TV, especially Sci-Fi, you must watch Twilight Zone – the original series which ran from 1960 to 1964. The series, created by Rod Serling is a TV masterpiece with its unique storylines and plots. You would have been exposed to the magic of the Twilight Zone even if you’ve never watched the series as it has influenced and been referenced countless times in many sci-fi and mainstream shows and movies. The name itself is synonymous with the idea of weird and odd things happening to you.

The Twilight Zone formula works like this: unlike a sitcom with a running theme which continues every week, the show tells a strange tale every week. If you haven’t been watching, go look it up in YouTube or CBS which host full episodes for you to watch Twilight Zone online. Or you can go to your local library and borrow the DVDs. The show also had a movie released back in the 1980’s, had two revivals and a copy cat show called The Outer Limits. The guest stars in the show include a very young William Shatner, Robert Redford, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Duvall, Dennis Hopper, Burt Reynolds and many others you may recognize if you’ve watched TV shows like Bewitched, I dream of Jeanie or Batman.

The Sci-Fi genre is an entertainment medium which conveys more meaning and depth than which is visually depicted on screen. Of course there are light hearted sci-fi series like Stargate which doesn’t really go those depths, but series like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica plunges deep into meaning. Twilight Zone was one of the original Sci-Fi TV series which had a hidden social commentary of the times. As you watch the show, you must remember the time it was made. They haven’t landed on the moon yet, but they were at the dawn of the “space age”. There was also the looming threat of communism. The thought of war was still in the social consciousness with World War II just 15 years prior to the Twilight Zone series beginning.

And that’s exactly what Twilight Zone creator, Rod Serling did. Aware of the censors of the time, he hid his political and social commentary within the plot of the TV show. It’s interesting to note that many of the TV series’ themes in the past still apply today such as natural disasters, terrorism, human frailties, the value of human life, time travel, fear of death, the future, robots and AI, aliens life and paranoia. You’ll find some stories simplistic and told as-is; while others have the M. Night Shyamalan style twists at the end. You’ve simply got to watch Twilight Zone.

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