The New Twilight Zone

Infobox Television
show_name = The Twilight Zone


caption = Opening for the 1985 version of "The Twilight Zone".
format = Science Fiction, Fantasy
runtime = 60 min. (Seasons 1-2) 30 min. (Season 3)
creator = Rod Serling, based on his previous 1959 TV series
country = USA
network = CBS
first_aired = September 27, 1985
last_aired = April 15, 1989
num_seasons = 3
num_episodes = 65
tv_com_id = 1702

"The New Twilight Zone" is the popular nickname for the 1985 revival of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1950/60s television series, "The Twilight Zone"; it was officially titled the same as the original. It ran for two seasons on CBS before producing a final season for syndication.

eries history

It was Serling's decision to sell his share of the series back to the network that eventually allowed for a "Twilight Zone" revival. As an in-house production, CBS stood to earn more money producing "The Twilight Zone" than it could by purchasing a new series produced by an outside company. Even so, the network was slow to consider a revival, shooting down offers from the original production team of Rod Serling and Buck Houghton and later from American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Their hesitation stemmed from concerns familiar to the original series: "Twilight Zone" had never been the breakaway hit CBS wanted, so they should not expect it to do better in a second run.

The answers to this question began to surface in the early 1980s, as a new generation of writers and directors emerged from the very teenagers who formed the core of "Twilight Zone's" original audience. First came "The Twilight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree, an in-depth look into the history of the series that won critical accolade, a 1983 nomination for the American Book Award and a place on bestseller lists across the nation. Also encouraging were the new numbers from Nielsen and the box office alike. "We were looking at the success of the original series in syndication and the enormous popularity of the Steven Spielberg films," said CBS program chief Harvey Shepard. "Many of them (such as "E.T." or "Poltergeist") deal with elements of the show. Perhaps the public is ready for it again."

Despite lukewarm response to "", Spielberg's theatrical homage to the original series, CBS gave "The New Twilight Zone" a greenlight in 1984 under the supervision of Carla Singer, then Vice President of Drama Development. "Twilight Zone" was a series I always liked as a kid," said Singer, "...and at that point it sounded like an interesting challenge for me personally." These sentiments were seconded by a number of young filmmakers eager to make their mark on a series which had proved influential to their life and work—people like writers Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, Rockne S. O'Bannon, Jeremy Bertrand Finch, Paul Chitlik and directors Wes Craven and William Friedkin. Casts featured such stars as Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Martin Landau, Jonathan Frakes, and Fred Savage. New theme music was composed by Jerry Garcia and performed by The Grateful Dead.

Filling in for Serling as narrator and host was Charles Aidman, himself the star of two classic "Twilight Zone" episodes. "The New Twilight Zone" ran for two seasons (in an hour format) on CBS. An additional season of half-hour programs was produced in 1988 to "pad" the series' syndication package. Robin Ward replaced Aidman as the narrator of these Canadian-produced episodes.

First season (1985-1986)

"The Twilight Zone" debuted the night of September 27, 1985 to a generally warm reception: it would win its Friday-night time slot four of its first five weeks. Episodes featured adaptations of stories by Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Robert McCammon and Stephen King. A new batch of scripts was supplemented with remakes of classic "Twilight Zone" episodes like "Dead Man’s Shoes", "Shadow Play" and "Night of the Meek". Though the production crew was convinced that they were making all of the right decisions, ratings began to slide as the novelty of the show wore off. "You have not known humiliation until you have been beaten by "Webster" and "Mr. Belvedere"," said executive story consultant Alan Brennert. Then came the "Nackles" incident.

That the show's producers had even managed to hire Harlan Ellison was considered by many to be nothing short of miraculous; Ellison was an extremely vocal critic of television who 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 a bigot frightens minority 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 to $300,000 and Ellison’s services as a creative consultant. “ [Their] suggestions were vile, infamous!” Ellison recalled of his aborted attempts to change the network’s mind.

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." Among the episodes frequently cited as the series' best were "Her Pilgrim Soul", "Nightcrawlers", "Profile in Silver" and "Dead Run", all produced in the first season. Thanks to such successes and despite poor ratings, "The New Twilight Zone" was renewed for a second season in early 1986.

econd season (1986-1987)

Unlike episodes from the first season, several episodes contained only one long segment, as opposed to 2 or 3 smaller segments. Season 2 only ran for 11 episodes because CBS canceled it in the middle of the season. Several of the unaired/unfinished episodes would be finished for season 3.

Third season (1988-1989)

CBS got rid of the original production team, and brought in a new group led by executive producer Mark Shelmerdine (I, Claudius) and ably supported by story editors Paul Chitlik & Jeremy Bertrand Finch, and struggling animation writer J. Michael Straczynski to do thirty half-hour episodes for the third season; this way they could have enough episodes to sell the series into syndication. Robin Ward replaced Aidman as the narrator of these Canadian-produced episodes.

DVD release

Image Entertainment released "The New Twilight Zone" on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Season 1 was released on December 28, 2004 and Seasons 2 and 3 were released together in a 6-Disc DVD on June 28, 2005. In Region 2 the series was released on DVD by Cinema Club UK. Season 1 was released on September 19, 2005 on 6 DVDs, season 2 on December 23, 2005 on 4 DVDs and season 3 on May 12, 2006 on 4 DVDs.

Alan Brennert, one of the writer-producers who contributed to the series, wrote that the picture quality of the DVD set was "NOT a 'bad transfer'" but rather that the episodes were "shot on film, but edited on video. In other words, the raw footage was 35 mm film, which was then transferred to videotape. Editing, dubbing, special effects--everything was done on video. (We were in fact the first drama series on television to do this.) So unlike the original Rod Serling TZ, there ARE no original film negatives from which Image could strike new prints for transfer. All that exist are the old one-inch master tapes, and the unfortunate reality is, videotape does deteriorate some over time. Image has, in my opinion, done a superb job packaging our series, and it is to them that I award the five stars in this review! If not for their interest in bringing this show to DVD, those one-inch masters might eventually have eroded into so much static (as my 3/4-inch tapes of the show already have)." He concluded by saying "If you enjoyed this series, just be grateful it's been preserved!" [ [http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/AKDOFGO6YWB1C Brennert Amazon review of The New Twilight Zone] ]

ee also

* List of The Twilight Zone episodes
* The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
* [http://postcardsfromthezone.blogspot.com/ Postcards from the Zone] (Extensive episode guides, including photos)

References

*Ellison, Harlan: "The Deadly "Nackles" Affair". "The Twilight Zone Magazine", February 1987
*Graham, Jefferson: "The Twilight Zone Returns". "The Twilight Zone Magazine", April 1985.
*Zicree, Marc Scott: "The Twilight Zone Companion". Sillman-James Press, 1982 (second edition)