10 interpersonal communication lessons from 'The Twilight Zone'

July 30, 3:34 PMInterpersonal Relationships ExaminerKenya McCullum

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Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection

For as long as I can remember, “The Twilight Zone” has been one of my favorite shows on television. I have always been amazed by Rod Serling’s talent—his ability to turn a phrase, as well as being able to magnify the worst in human behavior. There are many lessons about life that Serling taught us through the show, including some that can help us get along in our interpersonal relationships.

1. There are no shortcuts to true love. No love potion or spell is a substitute for the time and effort it takes to nurture a relationship. Just ask Jess-Belle, who unwittingly sold her soul to a witch in a misguided attempt to win back her lost lover, Billy-Ben Turner. Although she had a brief reconciliation with him, he went on to marry another woman and Jess-Belle faced an eternity of misery for a very short time of bliss. (Episode: “Jess-Belle”)

2. If you want a perfect child, build one. Dr. William Loren and his wife like to live their lives in an orderly fashion—so much so that they have built a staff of robots that tend to their every need without the complications of having personalities. Given their success with the robotic household help, it only made sense that they would extend their talents to literally building their family. However their mechanical daughter, Jana, becomes suspicious when she can find no pictures of herself as a child. The Lorens realize that things cannot stay the same with Jana after the jig was up, but because they could not bear the idea of dismantling her completely, they reprogram her and add her to their staff. (Episode: “The Lateness of the Hour”)

3. Your friends really are dummies. Marsha White is having a really odd day. During a trip to the local department store, she tries to buy a thimble for her mother and this simple trip leads to a day of misadventure—interacting with a strange saleswoman on a floor that no one thinks exists, getting locked in the store when it closes, and being beckoned by mannequins that just won’t leave her alone. These dummies terrify her at first, but Marsha soon realizes that they are her friends—and she is one of them. Apparently, after spending a blissful month in the outside world, she forgot who she really was and started to believe she was human. (Episode: “The After Hours”)

4. Your relatives will do just about anything for an inheritance. Jason Foster is dying, so his miserable relatives make a trip to send him off to the afterlife—and take everything they can get their greedy, grubby hands on. Knowing that his family members don’t care about his well-being anyway, Jason decides to have a little bit of fun with them by making them wear macabre Mardi Gras masks—and if they don’t wear them, they will go home empty handed. When Jason dies at midnight, his family is happy to see him go, but they are left with much more than the money he left them. (Episode: “The Masks”)

5. Always tell your coworkers about your vacation plans. When the Kanamit aliens come to earth to cure us of our ills, this opens the door for intergalactic travel and very exotic vacations. Mr. Chambers, who works as a decoding expert for the United Nations, lands a coveted seat on the Kanamit spaceship and makes sure to tell his assistant about his plans for fun in the alien sun. Unfortunately, the altruistic aliens are not what they seem and although his coworker tries to save him with the infamous statement “To Serve Man—it’s a cookbook,” Chambers cannot escape becoming “an ingredient in someone’s soup.” (Episode: “To Serve Man”)

Part Two: 10 interpersonal communication lessons from 'The Twilight Zone' (continued)

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