Television is the 70s. TV was living large with popular shows like Happy Days, All in the Family, and M*A*S*H. Saturday nights were the best nights because they had the best line up of shows. It was a great night to sit inside with a TV dinner trey, a cold one, and the family for some quality bonding. Huddling around the TV for good entertainment and some good memories. During this time, TV had such a large influence on the American people that the government decided they were going to step in and tell these companies what they can and can’t say. At the time this was a very big deal because our government decided to infringe upon the first amendment right of these companies. Obviously the American people aren’t going to stand for that one, and that could be why we have the shows and movies that we have today.

The man, the myth, the legend, formally known as…Rod Seriling. What a guy he was. Died at the age of 50 from a heart attack, but in my opinion his shows live on. I have for sure kicked back to a couple episodes of the Twilight Zone. Serling was a very talented screenwriter and very critical of his own writing. When it came to TV shows, well lets just say not many could compete. At the time this was all live TV, so everything had to be acted out in one go, perfectly. Serling liked the fame he was getting and wanted to get himself on the big screen as well, and so he did. When Serling became more popular he wanted to send a message with the material he was putting out in which people reacted to negatively. So, Serling being the bro we all know and love, he had to work is way around that. The Twilight Zone was actually the first fantasy style show to air because fantasy at the time wasn’t really accepted on TV. Within each episode there was a different story, with a different message that he was trying to portray to his audience. He’d also get away with calling out things like the government as long as the words were leaving the mouth of the antagonist within the episode, like an alien or a Nazi. What led to Serlings downfall wasn’t because his shows were bad or his screenwriting was bad, he was still very talented. It was when he was a star in advertisements for beer and for socks. Why? you ask, well let me handle that question for you. People saw this and at the time, thought that Serling was selling out because he did it for the paycheck. Nowadays companies need ads to make some money, but it was different times when Rod Serling was alive. This led Serling to work for a company that really didn’t give him any artistic freedom. So, these episodes could be bad with Rod Serling’s name on it and there was nothing really he could do about it. That’s pretty sad given how talented the man was, it’s not like his talent went anywhere either. He just slowly fell off. He may be gone but he wont be forgotten, i’ll have to watch a few more episodes of the Twilight Zone.

Brandon Parker

This is a goofy little youtube video that talks alittle about what the twilight zone is!