The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series)

Episodes

First season (1985–86)

The Twilight Zone debuted the night of September 27, 1985^[6] to a warm reception: it won its Friday-night time slot in four of its first five weeks. Episodes featured adaptations of stories by Harlan Ellison (whose "Shatterday", adapted by Alan Brennert, launched the new series), Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert McCammon, and Stephen King. In contrast to Twilight Zone: The Movie, which relied primarily on remakes of classic Twilight Zone episodes in order to tap the nostalgia market, content for the new The Twilight Zone consisted almost entirely of new stories and adaptations of stories which had never before been brought to the television screen.

Animator Gary Gutierrez designed the visual images used in the title sequence, including the ghostly Rod Serling, which he created by projecting Serling's image onto nitrogen.^[7] After the images were completed, the footage was taken to a recording studio, where the Grateful Dead both composed and recorded the title music in a late night recording session.^[7]

"Paladin of the Lost Hour", an episode written by Harlan Ellison, won the 1987 Writers Guild of America Award for Anthology Episode/Single Program.

Executive producer Philip Deguere stated that CBS initially told him the show would air at 10 P.M., and therefore the earliest episodes were written with that time slot in mind.^[7] The late and unexpected rescheduling of the show to the 8 PM time slot (widely known as Family Viewing Hour, during which most viewers expect to be able to tune in with their whole family to shows which are appropriate for all ages) was considered by Deguere to be inappropriate given the content of the early episodes. He noted that the show dropped from a 30 share to a 22 share between episodes 4 and 5, and attributed this to episode 4 including the segment "Nightcrawlers", which he considered one of the most violent and disturbing works to have aired on television at the time.^[8]

Ellison, an extremely vocal critic of television, had already published two collections of essays on the subject, "concluding that to work in television is akin to putting in time in the Egyptian House of the Dead." These feelings surfaced once again when the script he submitted for Twilight Zone's Christmas special—an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's 1964 story "Nackles", in which an obnoxious and mean-spirited drunk frightens his children with stories of a malicious anti-Santa Claus—was rejected by CBS' West Coast Program Practices. The segment, which was to be Ellison's directorial debut, was halted in mid-production. This cost the program between $150,000 and $300,000 and Ellison's services as a creative consultant.^{[citation needed]} "[Their] suggestions were vile, infamous!" Ellison recalled of his aborted attempts to change the network's mind.^{[citation needed]}

The "Nackles" incident generated a flurry of press which ultimately proved inadequate to revive public interest in the series. "I can see why people who were expecting The Twilight Zone were disappointed with it," said staff writer Michael Cassutt of the show's low ratings. "...our show always seemed uneven to me. There were episodes perfectly in keeping with The Twilight Zone spirit, and then others that could have been from The Outer Limits or from anything."^{[citation needed]} Despite poor ratings, The Twilight Zone was renewed for a second season in early 1986.

Second season (1986–87)

The series debuted in an hour-long format, but was put on hiatus only a few weeks into the season. CBS had moved the series to Saturday nights, which led to falling ratings. When The Twilight Zone returned in December, the episodes were half-hour shows, and generally contained only one story. Some episodes, such as "The Road Less Traveled", were produced for the hour format and then cut down for the half-hour broadcast. According to writer Alan Brennert, CBS was looking for a way to save the series from its ratings slump and took inspiration from the fact that the one season of the original The Twilight Zone which used the hour format instead of the half-hour format had the worst ratings of the series.^[9]

The series was cancelled by February, with remaining episodes being burned off over the summer as hour-long multi-story episodes. Season 2 only ran for 11 episodes; several of the unproduced episodes would be filmed for season 3. In regard to writing for the episode "The Girl I Married", J. M. DeMatteis commented "I have a feeling that the show that appears will not bear much relation to what I wrote. What I've found out is that this season—unlike last, where the script was pretty much regarded as sacrosanct—the network is really interfering a lot. [...] Regardless, I know I did a good job and it was a real satisfying experience."^[10]

Third season (1988–89)

CBS replaced the original production team, and set out to do thirty 22-minute episodes for the third season; this way they could have enough episodes to sell the series into syndication.^{[citation needed]} Robin Ward replaced Aidman as the narrator of these Canadian-produced episodes, and he also re-recorded Aidman's narration when the CBS episodes were edited for inclusion in the syndication package. To lead the writing team, the producers brought in a new group led by executive producer Mark Shelmerdine (I, Claudius) and supported by story editors Paul Chitlik, Jeremy Bertrand Finch, and J. Michael Straczynski.^{[citation needed]} Straczynski authored more episodes that season than anyone else on staff.^{[citation needed]} The producers named Straczynski the sole story editor following the release of Chitlik and Finch. Harlan Ellison was coaxed back to The Twilight Zone in the third season, and wrote what would be the third-to-last episode of the series, titled "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich".^[11]