I've been thinking of the episode where Larry Blyden goes to hell but thinks he's in heaven because his every wish is granted. That seems like a fair assessment of our current hellscape.
Like Joe Dougherty, I was a kid when the Twilight Zone was originally broadcast. "Time Enough at Last" with Burgess Meredith was one of my favorites. Another great sci fi series at the time was "The Outer Limits" which I found a little frightening at times. Thanks for the piece SER and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
I don't know who to credit for this bit of fanfic, but it feels pretty spot-on. Imagine Rod Serling doing this intro:
"Enter Donald J. Trump, two-bit conman, television huckster, a denizen of gaudy casinos and smoke-filled back rooms, who conned himself into the biggest job of all. He is our guide to a new realm you won't find on any map; a world of his own creation, where words like "truth" and "lies" no longer have meaning, where man's darkest instincts are given license, and where things like human decency and tolerance are relics of a bygone day. Case in point: Mr Donald J. Trump, a man with one foot in his mouth and the other… in the Twilight Zone."
Thanks for this great conversation, Stephen! A little bummed out, I can't watch any of the actual episode YouTube videos in this lousy country...
BUT, I have to agree that Rod Serling and "The Twilight Zone" had a huge impact on me as a little kid. "I either had very neglectful or very indulgent parents, but I am of an age where I was able to be exposed to The Twilight Zone as a kid in its original broadcast" fits me to a "T" as well. I remember so many of the episodes, but there's one that stuck with me (and gave me nightmares) for a good chunk of my childhood...
When I was five years old, we lived outside a very small, central-MN town and it was about a five-mile drive between our house and town. We were in town, visiting my aunt and uncle, and a snowstorm blew in. Figuring the drive home would be a bit dangerous, my aunt and uncle offered to let me stay overnight. After Mom and Dad left, I watched "The Twilight Zone" with my aunt and uncle, and it was the one where a guy is in a dusty, deserted town that seems to be populated only wtih mannequins. A pick-up pulls into a parking spot and, relieved to think he's finally found an actual human, he opens the truck door and a mannequin falls out.
I don't remember the episode's name, how it started, or how it ended but the feeling of isolation, confusion, and frightening turn of events really stuck with me and that was almost 60 years ago!
It’s the first episode “Where Is Everybody” with one of my favorite closing narrations:
“Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting... in The Twilight Zone.”
Thanks, Stephen. Yeah, it was definitely a rerun, because the first episode was in 1959 and I saw it somewhere around 1966-67. Still scares me a little when I'm in the right mood.
🤲
I've been thinking of the episode where Larry Blyden goes to hell but thinks he's in heaven because his every wish is granted. That seems like a fair assessment of our current hellscape.
Merry Christmas to you!
And I used to see this show all the time.
Rod Serling was a genius. And I didn't even know till recently that he's from upstate New York and even died here.
Like Joe Dougherty, I was a kid when the Twilight Zone was originally broadcast. "Time Enough at Last" with Burgess Meredith was one of my favorites. Another great sci fi series at the time was "The Outer Limits" which I found a little frightening at times. Thanks for the piece SER and Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thank you! You as well
I don't know who to credit for this bit of fanfic, but it feels pretty spot-on. Imagine Rod Serling doing this intro:
"Enter Donald J. Trump, two-bit conman, television huckster, a denizen of gaudy casinos and smoke-filled back rooms, who conned himself into the biggest job of all. He is our guide to a new realm you won't find on any map; a world of his own creation, where words like "truth" and "lies" no longer have meaning, where man's darkest instincts are given license, and where things like human decency and tolerance are relics of a bygone day. Case in point: Mr Donald J. Trump, a man with one foot in his mouth and the other… in the Twilight Zone."
Thanks for this great conversation, Stephen! A little bummed out, I can't watch any of the actual episode YouTube videos in this lousy country...
BUT, I have to agree that Rod Serling and "The Twilight Zone" had a huge impact on me as a little kid. "I either had very neglectful or very indulgent parents, but I am of an age where I was able to be exposed to The Twilight Zone as a kid in its original broadcast" fits me to a "T" as well. I remember so many of the episodes, but there's one that stuck with me (and gave me nightmares) for a good chunk of my childhood...
When I was five years old, we lived outside a very small, central-MN town and it was about a five-mile drive between our house and town. We were in town, visiting my aunt and uncle, and a snowstorm blew in. Figuring the drive home would be a bit dangerous, my aunt and uncle offered to let me stay overnight. After Mom and Dad left, I watched "The Twilight Zone" with my aunt and uncle, and it was the one where a guy is in a dusty, deserted town that seems to be populated only wtih mannequins. A pick-up pulls into a parking spot and, relieved to think he's finally found an actual human, he opens the truck door and a mannequin falls out.
I don't remember the episode's name, how it started, or how it ended but the feeling of isolation, confusion, and frightening turn of events really stuck with me and that was almost 60 years ago!
It’s the first episode “Where Is Everybody” with one of my favorite closing narrations:
“Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting... in The Twilight Zone.”
Thanks, Stephen. Yeah, it was definitely a rerun, because the first episode was in 1959 and I saw it somewhere around 1966-67. Still scares me a little when I'm in the right mood.