TWILIGHT ZONE - Card #13 - AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED

Description: Rod Serling's TWILIGHT ZONE - Individual Base Card from the series issued by Rittenhouse in 1999 Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including The Time Machine (1960), The Birds (1963), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), 36 Hours (1965), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), Hotel (1967), Chuka (1967), and The Hell with Heroes (1968). Early life Taylor was born on 11 January 1930 in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and Mona Taylor (née Thompson), a writer of more than a hundred short stories and children's books. His middle name comes from his great-great grand uncle, Captain Charles Sturt, a British explorer of the Australian Outback in the 19th century. Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. For a time he worked as a commercial artist, but decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of Richard III. Career Australia Taylor acquired extensive radio and stage experience in Australia, where his radio work included a period on Blue Hills and a role as Tarzan. Earlier in his career he had to support himself by working at Sydney's Mark Foy's department store, designing and painting window and other displays during the day. In 1951, he took part in a re-enactment of Charles Sturt's voyage down the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, playing Sturt's offsider, George Macleay. A short documentary, Inland with Sturt (1951), was based on it. Taylor also appeared in a number of theatre productions for Australia's Mercury Theatre. Taylor made his feature film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film King of the Coral Sea (1954), playing an American. He later played Israel Hands in a Hollywood-financed film shot in Sydney, Long John Silver (1954), an unofficial sequel to Treasure Island. Following these two films, Taylor was awarded the 1954 Rola Show Australian Radio Actor of the Year Award, which included a ticket to London via Los Angeles, but Taylor did not continue on to London. Hollywood Taylor soon landed roles in television shows such as Studio 57 and the films Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) and Giant (1956). In 1955, he guest-starred as Clancy in the third episode ("The Argonauts") of the first hour-long Western television series, Cheyenne, an ABC program starring Clint Walker. Taylor and Edward Andrews played gold seekers Clancy and Duncan, respectively, who are best friends until they strike it rich, only to see Native Americans release their gold dust to the wind. The episode was a remake of the film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). Taylor was considered for one of the leads in Warner Bros. Television's Maverick. Toward the end of 1955, Taylor unsuccessfully screen tested to play boxer Rocky Graziano in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Somebody Up There Likes Me after James Dean's death, but his use of a Brooklyn accent and physical prowess in the test impressed the studio enough to give him a long-term contract. At MGM, he played a series of support roles in The Catered Affair (1956), Raintree County (1957), and Ask Any Girl (1959). He had a significant role in Separate Tables (1958), which won Oscars for two of its stars, David Niven and Wendy Hiller. He also made a strong impression guest-starring in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "And When the Sky Was Opened" (1959). Stardom Taylor's first leading role in a feature film was in The Time Machine (1960), George Pal's adaptation of the science-fiction classic by H. G. Wells, with Taylor as the time traveller who, thousands of years in the future, falls for a woman played by Yvette Mimieux. Taylor played a character not unlike that of his Twilight Zone episode of a year earlier and the film World Without End in 1956. In or around 1960, he was approached regarding the role of James Bond in the first feature-length Bond film. Taylor reportedly declined to become involved because he considered the character of Bond "beneath him". Taylor later commented: "Every time a new Bond picture became a smash hit ... I tore out my hair." In the 1960–1961 television season, Taylor starred as foreign correspondent Glenn Evans in the ABC dramatic series Hong Kong. His principal co-star was Lloyd Bochner; Jack Kruschen played the bartender, Tully. The program faced stiff competition on Wednesday evenings from NBC's Wagon Train, hence lasted for only one season. He voiced Pongo (a Dalmatian dog) in Disney's animated feature One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and also guest-starred on Marilyn Maxwell's short-lived ABC series Bus Stop around the same time. In 1962, he starred in an episode of NBC's The DuPont Show of the Week ("The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon"), an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel Shannon's Way. Taylor starred in Alfred Hitchcock's horror/thriller The Birds (1963), along with Tippi Hedren, Suzanne Pleshette, a teenaged Veronica Cartwright, and Jessica Tandy, playing a man whose town and home come under attack by menacing birds. Taylor then starred with Jane Fonda in the romantic comedy Sunday in New York (also 1963). During the mid-1960s, Taylor worked mostly for MGM. His credits including The V.I.P.s (1963), his first feature film role as an Australian, with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Maggie Smith; Fate Is the Hunter (for 20th Century Fox, 1964) with Glenn Ford and Suzanne Pleshette; 36 Hours (1964) with James Garner; Young Cassidy (1965) with Julie Christie and Maggie Smith; The Liquidator (1965) with Jill St. John; Do Not Disturb (1965); and The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), both co-starring Doris Day. He began to change his image toward the end of the decade to more tough-guy roles, such as Chuka (1967), which he also produced, and he starred in Dark of the Sun (or The Mercenaries, 1968), again with Yvette Mimieux; Nobody Runs Forever (1968) where he played New South Wales Police Sergeant Scobie Malone, this being Taylor's first starring feature film role as an Australian; and Darker than Amber (1970) as Travis McGee. He was also reportedly up for the role of martial artist Roper in the Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon (1973). The film was directed by Robert Clouse, who had also directed Taylor in the film Darker than Amber (1970). Taylor was supposedly deemed too tall for the part, and the role instead went to John Saxon. Later career In 1973, Taylor was cast in The Train Robbers with John Wayne and Ann-Margret. The film was a box office success. Taylor also had some television roles: he starred in Bearcats! (1971) on CBS and in The Oregon Trail (1976) on NBC. He had a regular role in the short-lived spy drama series Masquerade (1983) and played one of the leads in the equally short-lived series, Outlaws (1986). From 1988 to 1990, Taylor appeared in the CBS drama series Falcon Crest as Frank Agretti, playing opposite Jane Wyman. In the mid 1990s, he appeared in several episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Walker, Texas Ranger. In 1993, he hosted the documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back. The special ended with a mini-sequel written by David Duncan, the screenwriter of the George Pal film. Taylor recreated his role as George, reuniting him with Filby (Alan Young). Taylor returned to Australia several times over the years to make films, playing a 1920s traveling showman in The Picture Show Man (1977) and a paid killer in On the Run (1983). In the black comedy Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), he played the foul-mouthed redneck Daddy-O. By the late 1990s, Taylor had moved into semi-retirement. In 2007, he appeared in the horror telemovie Kaw, which revisits the idea of marauding birds turning on their human tormentors. In this film, however, the cause of the disturbance was discovered by Taylor who plays the town doctor. He appeared in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in 2009, portraying Winston Churchill in a cameo. In 2017, a documentary on Taylor's life, "Pulling No Punches", was released and entered into the Beverly Hills Film Festival. Personal life His first wife was model Peggy Williams (1951–1954). He was the father of now-retired CNN financial reporter Felicia Taylor (born 1964) from his second marriage to model Mary Hilem (1963–1969). Taylor bought a home in Palm Springs, California in 1967. He married his third wife, Carol Kikumura, in 1980. Death Taylor died of a heart attack on January 7, 2015, in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 84, four days short of his 85th birthday. Kikumura-Taylor survives him. Filmography Feature films King of the Coral Sea (1954) as Jack Janiero (film debut) Long John Silver (1954) as Israel Hands The Virgin Queen (1955) as Cpl. Gwilym (uncredited) Hell on Frisco Bay (1955) as John Brodie Evans Top Gun (1955) as Lem Sutter World Without End (1956) as Herbert Ellis The Catered Affair (1956) as Ralph Halloran Giant (1956) as Sir David Karfrey The Rack (1956) as Al (uncredited) Raintree County (1957) as Garwood B. Jones Step Down to Terror (1958) as Mike Randall Separate Tables (1958) as Charles Ask Any Girl (1959) as Ross Tayford The Time Machine (1960) as H. George Wells Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960) as Pirro One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) as Narrator Pongo (voice) Seven Seas to Calais (1962) as Sir Francis Drake The Birds (1963) as Mitch Brenner The V.I.P.s (1963) as Les Mangrum A Gathering of Eagles (1963) as Col. Hollis Farr Sunday in New York (1963) as Mike MItchell Fate Is the Hunter (1964) as Capt. Jack Savage 36 Hours (1965) as Maj. Walter Gerber Young Cassidy (1965) as John Cassidy The Liquidator (1965) as Boysie Oakes Do Not Disturb (1965) as Mike Harper The Glass Bottom Boat (1966) as Bruce Templeton Hotel (1967) as Peter McDermott Chuka (1967) as Chuka Dark of the Sun (1968) as Capt. Bruce Curry Nobody Runs Forever (1968) (a.k.a. The High Commissioner) as Scobie Malone The Hell with Heroes (1968) as Brynie MacKay Zabriskie Point (1970) as Lee Allen Darker than Amber (1970) as Travis McGee The Man Who Had Power Over Women (1970) as Peter Reaney Powderkeg (1971, TV Movie) as Hank Brackett Family Flight (1972, TV Movie) as Jason Carlyle The Train Robbers (1973) as Grady Gli eroi (1973) (a.k.a. The Heroes) as Lieutenant Bob Robson Trader Horn (1973) as Trader Horn The Deadly Trackers (1973) as Frank Brand Hell River (1974) (a.k.a. Partizani) as Marko A Matter of Wife... and Death (1975, TV Movie) as Shamus McCoy Blondie (1976) as Christopher Tauling The Oregon Trail (1976, Series) as Evan Thorpe Gulliver's Travels (1977) as Reldresal / King of Blefuscu (voice, uncredited) The Picture Show Man (1977) as Palmer The Treasure Seekers (1979) as Marian Casey Cry of the Innocent (1980, TV Movie) as Steve Donegin Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1981, TV Movie) as 'Black Jack' Bouvier A Time to Die (1982) as Jack Bailey On the Run (1983) as Mr. Payatta Terror in the Aisles (1984) as Himself Marbella, un golpe de cinco estrellas (1985) as Commander Mask of Murder (1985) as Supt. Bob McLaine Half Nelson (1985, TV Series) Danielle Steel's 'Palomino' (1991, TV Movie) as Bill King Grass Roots (1992, TV Movie) as Gen. Willoughby Open Season (1995) – Billy Patrick Point of Betrayal (1995) as Ted Kitteridge Welcome to Woop Woop (1998) as Daddy-O Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998, TV Movie) as General Sorenson Kaw (2007, TV Movie) as Doc Inglourious Basterds (2009) as Winston Churchill (final film role) Documentaries Inland with Sturt (1951) as George Mcleady The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) Time Machine: The Journey Back (1993) All About the Birds (2000) Not Quite Hollywood (2008) Television As a regular Taylor had several lead roles in television, from the early 1960s to the early first decade of the 21st century. Among his television shows as a regular are: Hong Kong with co-star Lloyd Bochner (1960, ABC) Bearcats! (1971, CBS) The Oregon Trail as Evan Thorpe, a widower taking his three children from their Illinois farm to the Pacific Northwest by way of the Oregon Trail (1977, NBC) Masquerade (1983) Outlaws (1986) Guest appearances Studio 57 (1955) – "The Last Day on Earth", "The Black Sheep's Daughter" Lux Video Theatre (1955) – "Dark Tribute", "The Browning Version" Cheyenne (1955) – "The Argonauts" Suspicion (1957) – "The Story of Marjorie Reardon" Schlitz Playhouse of Stars (1958) – "A Thing to Fight For" Studio One (1958) – "Image of Fear" Lux Playhouse (1958) – "The Best House in the Valley" Playhouse 90 (1958–59) – "Verdict of Three", "The Great Gatsby", "The Long March", "The Raider", "Misalliance" The Twilight Zone (1959) – "And When the Sky Was Opened" Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (1960) – "Picture of Sal" Goodyear Theatre (1960) – "Capital Gains" General Electric Theater (1960) – "Early to Die", "The Young Years" Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1960) – "Thunder in the Night" Bus Stop (1961) – "Portrait of a Hero" The DuPont Show of the Week (1962) – "The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon" Tales of the Unexpected (TV series) (1980) – "The Hitch-Hiker" Walker, Texas Ranger (1996) – "Redemption" Murder, She Wrote (1995) Falcon Crest (1988–1990) as Frank Agretti Theatre credits Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (Independent, 1950) Home of the Brave by Arthur Laurents (Independent, 1950) Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw (John Alden Company, 1951) Twins by Plautus (Mercury, 1952) The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare (Mercury, 1952) The Witch by John Masefield (Mercury, 1952) They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard (Mercury, 1952) The Happy Time by Samuel A. Taylor (Mercury, 1953) "And When the Sky Was Opened" is episode eleven of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on December 11, 1959. It is an adaptation of the Richard Matheson short story "Disappearing Act". Opening narration “ Her name: X-20. Her type: an experimental interceptor. Recent history: a crash landing in the Mojave Desert after a thirty-one hour flight nine hundred miles into space. Incidental data: the ship, with the men who flew her, disappeared from the radar screen for twenty-four hours...But the shrouds that cover mysteries are not always made out of a tarpaulin, as this man will soon find out on the other side of a hospital door. ” Plot United States Air Force Colonel Clegg Forbes arrives at a military hospital to visit his friend and co-pilot Major William Gart. The two had recently piloted an experimental spaceplane, the X-20 DynaSoar, on a mission that took them 900 miles beyond the confines of the Earth's atmosphere, the first time man had been that far out in space. During their voyage the men blacked out for four hours and the craft itself disappeared from radar screens for a full day before reappearing and crash landing in the desert, leaving Gart with a broken leg. Gart inquires as to the status of the plane, but Forbes is clearly agitated and asks Gart if he remembers how many people were on the mission, producing a newspaper with a front page showing the likenesses of the two men and a headline stating that two astronauts were rescued from the desert crash. Gart confirms that only he and Forbes piloted the plane, but Forbes insists that a third man – Colonel Ed Harrington, his best friend for 15 years – accompanied them. In the flashback, the previous morning, Harrington and Forbes are shown joking with Gart as they are discharged from the hospital after passing their physical exams, leaving the Major to recuperate alone. The same newspaper that Forbes would later show Gart is present but, accompanied by a photo depicting a crew of three, the headline instead asserts three astronauts were recovered from the crash of the X-20. Harrington and Forbes visit a bar downtown. While there, Harrington is suddenly overcome by a feeling that he no longer "belongs" in the world. Disturbed, he phones his parents who tell him they have no son named Ed Harrington and believe the person calling them to be a prankster. Harrington then mysteriously vanishes from the phone booth and no one in the bar but Forbes remembers his existence. Increasingly desperate, Forbes searches for any trace of his friend but can find nothing in the bar. His girlfriend, Amy, does not remember Harrington, and neither does his commanding officer. Returning to the closed bar, he breaks in looking for Harrington, calling his name repeatedly. Back in the hospital in the present, Forbes finishes recounting the story to Gart and is dismayed by his friend's claim that he doesn't know anyone named Harrington. Forbes then glances at a mirror and discovers he casts no reflection, causing him to flee the room in terror. Gart tries to hobble after him only to find that Forbes has disappeared. Calling the duty nurse to ask if she saw where Forbes went, Gart is stunned by the nurse's claim that nobody named Forbes has been in the building and that Gart was the only man who was in the hospital room. After getting back into bed, he notices the newspaper headline has changed. It now says that Gart was the sole pilot of the X-20 – all mention of Forbes, including his photo, is gone. Horrified, Gart also disappears. An officer enters the building and asks the duty nurse if there are any unused rooms available to accommodate new patients. The nurse takes him to the now completely-empty room which hosted the three astronauts, telling him that it has been unoccupied. The officer affirms that it will be appropriate for malaria patients and orders that new beds be installed. The hangar which previously housed the X-20 is then shown, with the sheet that covered the craft lying on the ground. There is no trace of the plane. Closing narration “ Once upon a time, there was a man named Harrington, a man named Forbes, a man named Gart. They used to exist, but don't any longer. Someone – or something – took them somewhere. At least they are no longer a part of the memory of man. And as to the X-20 supposed to be housed here in this hangar, this, too, does not exist. And if any of you have any questions concerning an aircraft and three men who flew her, speak softly of them – and only in – The Twilight Zone. ” Cast Rod Taylor as Lieutenant Colonel Clegg Forbes Charles Aidman as Colonel Ed Harrington Jim Hutton as Major William Gart Maxine Cooper as Amy Sue Randall as Nurse Paul Bryar as Bartender Joe Bassett as Medical officer Gloria Pall as Girl in bar Elizabeth Fielding as Blond Nurse Episode notes This episode is loosely based on the short story "Disappearing Act" by Richard Matheson. The story was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March 1953). Rod Taylor and director Douglas Heyes later worked together on the TV series Bearcats! See also "Remember Me", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which ship's doctor Beverly Crusher undergoes a comparable experience. "Revisions", a Stargate SG-1 episode with a similar plot. "Games People Play", a Eureka episode with a similar plot. The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, suspense, horror, and psychological thriller, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, and usually with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes. The original series, shot entirely in black and white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964. The Twilight Zone followed in the tradition of earlier television shows such as Tales of Tomorrow (1951–53) and Science Fiction Theatre (1955–57); radio programs such as The Weird Circle (1943–45), Dimension X (1950–51) and X Minus One (1955–58); and the radio work of one of Serling's inspirations, Norman Corwin. The success of the series led to a feature film (1983), a TV film (1994), a radio series (2002–12), literature including a comic book, novels and a magazine and a theme park attraction and various other spin-offs that spanned five decades, including three revival television series. The first revival (1985–89) ran on CBS and in syndication in the 1980s, while the second revival ran on UPN (2002–2003). In December 2017, CBS All Access officially ordered the third Twilight Zone revival to series, helmed by Jordan Peele. The series premiered on April 1, 2019. TV Guide ranked the original TV series #5 in their 2013 list of the 60 greatest shows of all time and #4 in their list of the 60 greatest dramas. As a boy, Rod Serling was a fan of pulp fiction stories. As an adult, he sought topics with themes such as racism, government, war, society, and human nature in general. Serling decided to combine these two interests as a way to broach these subjects on television at a time when such issues were not commonly addressed. Throughout the 1950s, Serling established himself as one of the most popular names in television. He was as famous for writing televised drama as he was for criticizing the medium's limitations. His most vocal complaints concerned censorship, which was frequently practiced by sponsors and networks. "I was not permitted to have my senators discuss any current or pressing problem," he said of his 1957 Studio One production "The Arena", intended to be an involving look into contemporary politics. "To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans; to talk of labor was to suggest control by the Democrats. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was absolutely prohibited." "The Time Element" (1958) CBS purchased a teleplay in 1958 that writer Rod Serling hoped to produce as the pilot of a weekly anthology series. "The Time Element" marked Serling's first entry in the field of science fiction. Plot Several years after the end of World War II, a man named Peter Jenson (William Bendix) visits a psychoanalyst, Dr. Gillespie (Martin Balsam). Jenson tells him about a recurring dream in which he tries to warn people about the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor before it happens, but the warnings are disregarded. Jenson believes the events of the dream are real, and each night he travels back to 1941. Dr. Gillespie insists that time travel is impossible given the nature of temporal paradoxes. While on the couch, Jenson falls asleep once again but this time dreams that the Japanese planes shoot and kill him. In Dr. Gillespie's office, the couch Jenson was lying on is now empty. Dr. Gillespie goes to a bar where he finds Jenson's picture on the wall. The bartender tells him that Jenson had tended bar there, but he was killed during the Pearl Harbor attack. Production With the "Time Element" script, Serling drafted the fundamental elements that defined the subsequent series: a science-fiction/fantasy theme, opening and closing narration, and an ending with a twist. "The Time Element" was purchased immediately, but shelved indefinitely. This is where things stood when Bert Granet, the new producer for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, discovered "The Time Element" in CBS' vaults while searching for an original Serling script to add prestige to his show. "The Time Element" (introduced by Desi Arnaz) debuted on November 24, 1958, to an overwhelmingly delighted audience of television viewers and critics alike. "The humor and sincerity of Mr. Serling's dialogue made 'The Time Element' consistently entertaining," offered Jack Gould of The New York Times. Over 6,000 letters of praise flooded Granet's offices. Convinced that a series based on such stories could succeed, CBS again began talks with Serling about the possibilities of producing The Twilight Zone. "Where Is Everybody?" was accepted as the pilot episode and the project was officially announced to the public in early 1959. Other than reruns at the time "The Time Element" was not aired on television again until it was shown as part of a 1996 all-night sneak preview of the new cable channel TVLand. It is available in an Italian DVD boxed set titled Ai confini della realtà – I tesori perduti. The Twilight Zone Season 1 Blu-ray boxed set released on September 14, 2010, offers a remastered high-definition version of the original Desilu Playhouse production as a special feature. Original series (1959–1964) The series was produced by Cayuga Productions, Inc., a production company owned and named by Serling. It reflects his background in Central New York State and is named after Cayuga Lake, on which he owned a home, and where Cornell University and Ithaca College are located. Aside from Serling, who wrote or adapted nearly two-thirds of the series' total episodes, writers for The Twilight Zone included leading authors such as Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Reginald Rose, and Jerry Sohl. Many episodes also featured new adaptations of classic stories by such writers as Ambrose Bierce, Jerome Bixby, Damon Knight, John Collier, and Lewis Padgett. Twilight Zone's writers frequently used science fiction as a vehicle for social comment, as networks and sponsors who censored controversial material from live dramas were less concerned with seemingly innocuous fantasy and sci-fi stories. Frequent themes on The Twilight Zone included nuclear war, McCarthyism, and mass hysteria, subjects that were avoided on less serious primetime television. Episodes such as "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "I Am the Night—Color Me Black" offered specific commentary on current events and social issues. Other stories, such as "The Masks", "I Dream of Genie", or "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" were allegories, parables, or fables that reflected the moral and philosophical choices of the characters. Despite his esteem in the writing community, Serling found the series difficult to sell. Few critics felt that science fiction could transcend empty escapism and enter the realm of adult drama. In a September 22, 1959, interview with Serling, Mike Wallace asked a question illustrative of the times: "...[Y]ou're going to be, obviously, working so hard on The Twilight Zone that, in essence, for the time being and for the foreseeable future, you've given up on writing anything important for television, right?" While Serling's appearances on the show became one of its most distinctive features, with his clipped delivery still widely imitated today, he was reportedly nervous about it and had to be persuaded to appear on camera. Serling often steps into the middle of the action while the characters remain oblivious to him, but on one notable occasion, they are aware of his presence: In the episode "A World of His Own", a writer (Keenan Wynn) with the power to alter his reality objects to Serling's narration and promptly erases Serling from the show. In season two, due to budgetary constraints, the network decided – against Serling's wishes – to cut costs by shooting some episodes on videotape rather than film. The requisite multicamera setup of the videotape format precluded location shooting, severely limiting the potential scope of the storylines, and the experiment was abandoned after just six episodes ("Twenty Two", "Static", "The Whole Truth", "The Lateness of the Hour", "The Night of the Meek", and "Long Distance Call"). The original series contains 156 episodes. The episodes in seasons one through three are 30 minutes long with commercials (24 or 25 minutes without commercials). Season four (1962–63) consists of one-hour episodes with commercials (51 minutes without commercials). Season five returned to the half-hour format. First revival (1985–1989) 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, turning down offers from the original production team of Rod Serling and Buck Houghton and later from American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. CBS gave the new Twilight Zone a greenlight in 1984 under the supervision of Carla Singer, then Vice President of Drama Development. While the show did not come close to matching the enduring popularity of the original, some episodes – particularly Alan Brennert's love story "Her Pilgrim Soul" and J. Neil Schulman's "Profile in Silver" – were critically acclaimed. In a tribute to the original series, the opening credits include a brief image of Rod Serling. Four episodes are remakes of those from the original series: "Night of the Meek", "Shadow Play", "The After Hours" and "A Game of Pool", while "Dead Woman's Shoes" is an adaptation of "Dead Man's Shoes". Unlike the original series and the second revival, this series does not include the opening monologue during the title sequence. As well, the narration is all strictly voice-over and the narrator never appears on-screen. Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994) In the early 1990s, Richard Matheson and Carol Serling produced an outline for a two-hour made-for-TV movie which would feature Matheson adaptations of three yet-unfilmed Rod Serling short stories. Outlines for such a production were rejected by CBS until early 1994, when Serling's widow discovered a complete shooting script ("Where the Dead Are") authored by her late husband, while rummaging through their garage. She showed the forgotten script to producers Michael O'Hara and Laurence Horowitz, who were significantly impressed by it. "I had a pile of scripts, which I usually procrastinate about reading. But I read this one right away and, after 30 pages, called my partner and said, "I love it," recalled O'Hara. "This is pure imagination, a period piece, literate – some might say wordy. If Rod Serling's name weren't on it, it wouldn't have a chance at getting made." Eager to capitalize on Serling's celebrity status as a writer, CBS packaged "Where the Dead Are" with Matheson's adaptation of "The Theatre", debuting as a two-hour feature on the night of May 19, 1994, under the name Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics. The title represents a misnomer, as both stories were conceived long after Twilight Zone's cancellation. Written just months before Serling's death, "Where the Dead Are" starred Patrick Bergin as a 19th-century doctor who stumbles upon a mad scientist's medical experiments with immortality. "The Theatre" starred Amy Irving and Gary Cole as a couple who visits a cineplex where they discover the feature presentation depicts their own lives. James Earl Jones provided opening and closing narrations. Critical response was mixed. Gannett News Service described it as "taut and stylish, a reminder of what can happen when fine actors are given great words." USA Today was less impressed, even suggesting that Carol Serling "should have left these two unproduced mediocrities in the garage where she found them." Ultimately, ratings proved insufficient to justify a proposed sequel featuring three scripts adapted by Matheson. Second revival (2002–2003) A second revival was developed by UPN in 2002, it was hosted by Forest Whitaker. It was broadcast in a one-hour format composed of two half-hour stories, it was canceled after one season. "It's Still a Good Life" is a sequel to "It's a Good Life", "The Monsters Are on Maple Street" is an adaptation of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and "Eye of the Beholder" is a remake of an episode from the original series, with Serling still credited as writer. Third revival (2019–present) In December 2012, it was reported that Bryan Singer was developing and executive producing a third revival television series for CBS Television Studios. A writer for the series was not chosen and the program was not pitched to any networks. CBS, which broadcast the original series and first revival, was reportedly interested. In February 2013, Singer told TG Daily that the project was still in development and that he hoped to direct the pilot and have A-list actors appear on the revival. The following month, he told IGN that a writer with whom he had previously worked was in negotiations to join the revival and that he felt "passionate" towards the original series and the planned revival. In February 2016, it was reported that Ken Levine would write and direct the pilot episode of the revival series. It was also reported that the series would be interactive. In November 2017, it was reported that Jordan Peele was developing a reboot of the series for streaming service CBS All Access with Marco Ramirez serving as potential showrunner. In December 2017, CBS All Access ordered the third The Twilight Zone revival to series. It was announced that the series would be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Monkeypaw Productions and Genre Films. Jordan Peele, Marco Ramirez, and Simon Kinberg will serve as executive producers for the series and collaborate on the premiere episode. Win Rosenfeld and Audrey Chon will also serve as executive producers. Peele was revealed to be the new host and narrator in September 2018, and the new opening sequence was released. The series premiered on April 1, 2019. The second episode of the series, "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet", is based on "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".

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