The place is here, the time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we're about to watch could be our journey"--Rod Serling's introduction to the first episode of The Twilight Zone, October 2, 1959.

When CBS beamed The Twilight Zone into American living rooms for the first time 50 years ago this month, nothing like it had ever been broadcast over commercial airwaves before. 

Alfred Hitchcock Presents uncovered the dark side via murder and larceny; The Untouchables depicted the "excessive and senseless violence" of gangland culture--but nothing evoked the unsettling sense of dread like TZ. The experience could be terrifying, exhilarating, even liberating.

The Twilight Zone 13 (in chronological order)
1. "Perchance to Dream" (November 27, 1959)
Man with heart condition afraid to go to sleep complains to a psychiatrist about a recurring dream involving Maya (Suzanne Lloyd), a leopard-skin bodystocking-clad Siren he encounters at a carnival funhouse. Film-radio-television composer Van Cleeve provides a vintage Theremin score. Watching the fast-talking, Jersey-accented Conte, lit cigarette bobbing up and down between his lips, is worth the price of admission. Irresistible film-noir camp, yet still disturbing.

2. "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" (January 15, 1960)
Three astronauts are launched into space, fall off the radar screen, crash land on an asteroid. Good news/bad news: the atmophere is safe to breath, but it's hot as Death Valley outside, and there’s only five gallons of water and the patina of civilized behavior to keep them alive.

3. "The Hitch-Hiker" (January 22, 1960)
An oddly menacing hitchhiker somehow stays ahead of Nan Adams (Inger Stevens) throughout her cross-country drive.

4. "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" (March 4, 1960)
UFO's buzz suburban town, setting off a series of events confirming Freud's expression about the “narcissism of petty differences.”

5. "A Stop at Willoughby" (May 6, 1960)
At work, Gart Williams' (James Daly) boss screams at him, "It's push push push, all the way, all the time! It's push push push, all the way, all the time, right on down the line!" At home, wife Janie (Patricia Donahue) says, "You're the kind of man who could be satisfied with a summer afternoon and an ice wagon pulled by a horse. My mistake, pal. My error. My miserable, tragic error--to get married to a man whose big dream in life is to be Huckleberry Finn!" Williams wants to disembark at Willoughby.

6. "The After Hours" (June 10, 1960)
Marsha White (Anne Francis) suffers an identity crisis after boarding a quirky department store elevator.

7. "The Howling Man" (November 4, 1960)
American hiking through Europe encounters a monastery run by Brother Jerome (John Carradine), who claims to have Satan locked up on the premises.

8. "The Eye of the Beholder" (November 11, 1960)
The title says it all.

 9. "Shadow Play" (May 5, 1961)
Condemned man (Dennis Weaver) plagued by recurring nightmare, insists life is but a dream.

 10. "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" (December 22, 1961)
A clown, hobo, bagpiper, ballerina, and military officer wake up with no memories, imprisoned in a cylindrically-shaped, white metal open-air structure.  Are they in existential play? A  CIA mind-control experiment? Or as Rod Serling says in the epilogue, "a dark depository where are kept the counterfeit, make-believe…"

11. "The Trade-Ins" (April 20, 1962)
An elderly couple decide to undergo a medical procedure that will make them young again--but the have only enough money to cover the cost for one person. Unexpectedly touching.

12. "Spur of the Moment" (February 21, 1964)
Anne Henderson (Diana Hyland) chased by a black-clad death figure on horseback. The man she had been previously engaged to--whom her parents despise--bursts into the house as she's recalling the encounter. "Spur of the Moment" is a great cautionary tale despite Elliot Silverstein's direction, which writer Richard Matheson felt spoiled the dramatic structure of the piece.

13. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (February 28, 1964)
Set during the Civil War, a Confederate spy escapes hanging when the noose breaks. "Occurrence" was made in France and won first prize for short films at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. Wonderful depiction of time expansion/contraction. TZ was in its final season and running over budget, so the producers obtained rights to air "Occurrence" for much less than the cost of producing an original program. It aired only one other time (September 11, 1964) and is not in syndication. 

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Rod Serling (upper right)--AP/Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.

New York State historical marker (lower left) honoring Rod Serling's attendance at Binghamton Central School in front of what is now Binghamton High School in Binghamton, N.Y. (lower left)--AP/Heather Ainsworth.