Trivia for
"The Twilight Zone" (1959) More at IMDbPro »

• CBS wanted Orson Welles as the narrator/host, but the producers felt that he asked for too much money.
  
  
• Rod Serling invited any viewers to submit a script. He was flooded with over 14,000 scripts, and he actually got around to reading 500 of them. But only two were any good, and he couldn't use them because they didn't fit the format of the show.
  
  
• All episodes in Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 5 were thirty minutes in length. Episodes in Season 4 (airing from January to May 1963) were one hour in length due to CBS' switching the show's available time-slot where only an hour could be taken.
  
  
• Of the three "Twilight Zone" TV series over the years, this is the only one which does not include Rod Serling's image during the opening credits. Of course, this is the only one of the series to have the opening voice-over performed by Serling.
  
  
• A comic book version of this series, "hosted" by the artistic image of Rod Serling, ran until 1982 - long after the real Serling had died.
  
  
• Ranked #8 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (30 May 2004 issue).
  
  
• Rod Serling was ranked #1 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
  
  
• Due to budgetary constraints in its second season, the network decided to cut costs by shooting some episodes on videotape rather than film. Because videotape was a relatively primitive medium in the early 1960s, the editing of tape was next to impossible. Thus, each of the 6 episodes was "camera-cut" as in live TV, on a studio sound stage, using a total of four cameras. The requisite multicamera setup of the videotape experiment, pretty much precluded location shooting, severely limiting the potential scope of the story-lines, and so, the short-lived experiment was ultimately abandoned. The 6 videotaped episodes were titled: "The Twilight Zone: The Lateness of the Hour (#2.8)" (1960); "The Twilight Zone: Static (#2.20)" (1961); "The Twilight Zone: The Whole Truth (#2.14)" (1961); "The Twilight Zone: The Night of the Meek (#2.11)" (1960); "The Twilight Zone: Twenty Two (#2.17)" (1961); "The Twilight Zone: Long Distance Call (#2.22)" (1961).
  
  
• Rod Serling thought he had come up with the term "Twilight Zone" on his own (he liked the sound of it), but after the show aired he found out that it is an actual term used by Air Force pilots when crossing the day / night sides above the world.
  
  
• Series creator Rod Serling made up the phrase "Sixth Dimension" to use in season one's opening narration. William Self of CBS-TV asked him what was the fifth dimension (given that dimensions one through three are exemplified by a line, a plane, and a cube, respectively, and the fourth is time). Serling answered, "I don't know. Aren't there five?" He then changed the narration to "There is a fifth dimension..."
  
  
• Rod Serling started the series after a teleplay of his became the critically acclaimed "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: The Time Element (#1.6)" (1958).
  
  
• Although the phrase "Submitted for your approval" from Rod Serling's opening narration has come to be closely identified with the show (and is often used by Serling impressionists), it is actually heard in only three episodes: "Cavender is Coming" (from Season Three), "In Praise of Pip," and "A Kind of a Stopwatch" (both from Season Five).
  
  
• On 11 August 2009 the US Postal Service issued a pane of twenty 44¢ commemorative postage stamps honoring early USA television programs. A booklet with 20 picture postal cards was also issued. On the stamp honoring "The Twilight Zone" is a picture of its creator, host/narrator Rod Serling. Other shows honored in the Early TV Memories issue were: "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" (1952), "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (1955), "The Dinah Shore Show" (1951), "Dragnet" (1951), "The Ed Sullivan Show" (originally titled "Toast of the Town" (1948)), "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" (1950), "Hopalong Cassidy" (1952), "The Honeymooners" (1955), "The Howdy Doody Show" (original title: "Puppet Playhouse" (1947)), "I Love Lucy" (1951), "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" (1947), "Lassie" (1954), "The Lone Ranger" (1949), "Perry Mason" (1957), "The Phil Silvers Show" (1955), "The Red Skelton Show" (1951), "Texaco Star Theater" (titled "The Milton Berle Show" (1948), 1954-1956), The Tonight Show (which began as "Tonight!" (1953)), and "You Bet Your Life" (1950).
  
  

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