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Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone
Can you live your life by what "The Twilight Zone" has to teach you? Yes, and maybe you should. The proof is in this lighthearted collection of life lessons, ground rules, inspirational thoughts, and stirring reminders found in Rod Serling’s timeless fantasy series. Written by veteran TV critic Mark Dawidziak, this unauthorized tribute is a celebration of the classic anthology show, but also, on another level, a kind of fifth-dimension self-help book, with each lesson supported by the morality tales told by Serling and his writers.
The notion that “it’s never too late to reinvent yourself” soars through “The Last Flight,’’ in which a World War I flier who goes forward in time and gets the chance to trade cowardice for heroism. A visit from an angel blares out the wisdom of “follow your passion” in “A Passage for Trumpet.” The meaning of “divided we fall” is driven home with dramatic results when neighbors suspect neighbors of being invading aliens in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” The old maxim about never judging a book by its cover is given a tasty twist when an alien tome is translated in “To Serve Man.”
No matter what kind of inspiration you're looking to get from one of the best television shows ever made, it can be found in these pages. Who wouldn't want great advice... from "The Twilight Zone"?
The notion that “it’s never too late to reinvent yourself” soars through “The Last Flight,’’ in which a World War I flier who goes forward in time and gets the chance to trade cowardice for heroism. A visit from an angel blares out the wisdom of “follow your passion” in “A Passage for Trumpet.” The meaning of “divided we fall” is driven home with dramatic results when neighbors suspect neighbors of being invading aliens in “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.” The old maxim about never judging a book by its cover is given a tasty twist when an alien tome is translated in “To Serve Man.”
No matter what kind of inspiration you're looking to get from one of the best television shows ever made, it can be found in these pages. Who wouldn't want great advice... from "The Twilight Zone"?
320 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2017
75 people are currently reading
941 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
May 18, 2024
Huge fan of the show-
I didn’t need to read this guy's IMDb review with an overview of each episode and a simplified, dumbed-down take on the lessons Serlings is illustrating to the audience.
That’s all it was, except for a few great add-ins of actors/authors/directors' opinions/theories on particular episodes.
Also, the man is not a fan of Time Enough At Last.
Once he said that one of the reasons he has trouble with the episode is that it doesn’t fit into his carefully curated categories of lessons, I was out.
I was hoping for more of a personable approach to how the show impacted the author or others, and this felt like a coffee table book to flip through to refresh yourself on the episodes. Still, if you’ve seen them all, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
I didn’t need to read this guy's IMDb review with an overview of each episode and a simplified, dumbed-down take on the lessons Serlings is illustrating to the audience.
That’s all it was, except for a few great add-ins of actors/authors/directors' opinions/theories on particular episodes.
Also, the man is not a fan of Time Enough At Last.
Once he said that one of the reasons he has trouble with the episode is that it doesn’t fit into his carefully curated categories of lessons, I was out.
I was hoping for more of a personable approach to how the show impacted the author or others, and this felt like a coffee table book to flip through to refresh yourself on the episodes. Still, if you’ve seen them all, it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know.
April 23, 2017
It has forever been thus: so long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms--all of them--may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, and article of faith, an act of courage. Rod Serling, January 15, 1968 speech
When I read a review of Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone: A Fifth Dimension Guide to Life in the local paper I couldn't believe I had missed this book. Here was a book that spoke to what I had long believed: that Rod Serling had taught me my basic values.
I was seven years old in 1959 when Twilight Zone first aired. It became my 'must see' tv show. Over the years I enjoyed the reruns but it was while my son and I watched hours of marathon reruns that I realized that perhaps more than any book or Sunday school class it was Rod Serling who had instructed me in how to live.
Rod Serling
As a kid, I liked the ironic endings, the comeuppances, and just desserts. I thrilled to the eerie and chilled to the scary. The episode that most scared me was The Invaders, told without dialog, about a witchlike old woman whose primitive cabin is invaded by tiny spacemen. They were more frightening because of their diminutive size, for they could creep up unseen. Then came the reveal--the spaceship was from the United States, the menacing spacemen were human and the woman was the alien.
The Invaders
After reading the preview available online I ordered Mark Dawidziak's book and began reading it upon arrival.
Born in a Reform Jewish family in Binghamton, NY, Serling had an ideal childhood but encountered prejudice as he grew up. In 1943 he enlisted and served in the Pacific front as a paratrooper, the roots of his horror of war and hope for humanity. He entered Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann who wrote, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." After graduation, Serling lived in Cincinnati where he wrote for the radio station, then for television. As he matured, his writing incorporated social commentary, convicted it was "the writer's role to menace the public's conscience."
The Twilight Zone stories are teaching parables. As Anne Serling writes in her forward, her father "truly and deeply cared about all of us." If we have ears to hear, Dawidziak shows us, there are fifty lessons to be gleaned from these stories.
Some of my favorite examples from the book, whose lessons need to be heard again, include:
Divided We Fall, highlighting Serling's script The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It warns us about mob mentality, fear of people who are 'different', and shows how evil arises from suspicion and division. Many chapters end with a guest lesson; for this chapterMarc Scott Zicree writes, "we can live in a universe of love and compassion, or chaos and destruction. The choice is ours, made every day, every moment, by the actions we conscious or unconsciously take...and you can file that under L for Life Lessons."
Share With Others, gleaned from I Shot An Arrow into the Air, written by Serling. A spaceship crashes into a desert, leaving the astronauts with limited supplies. One man decides he will not share, he will survive at any cost. As the last man alive he learns they had landed on Earth, with civilization just over the hill. Adversity brings out the monster and the best of humanity. Dawidziak connects this lesson to the Flint water crisis and the challenge of providing clean water to everyone in need across the world.
Imagine a Better World, arising from Richard Matheson's script A World Of His Own, a comedic story of a man who can manipulate reality through a dictation machine. Dawidziak notes that the power of imagination is basic to the series, and this episode is a nod to storytellers and dreamers who unlock doors to possibilities.
Fill Your Life With Something Other Than Hate is a reoccurring theme in Twilight Zone, including one of my personal favorites, Two, written by Montgomery Pittman. In a post-war, empty world, one lone female and one lone man survive; they are from opposing armies, distrustful and full of hate. The episode is without dialog, for the two do not share a common language. They have a choice: to carry on the war or to assume their common humanity and lay down arms. He also lists Two under Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime.
Payback is a...Or, What Goes Around Comes Around, is another theme shared by many episodes. This was a favorite saying of a neighbor many years ago, meant as consolation while rejected by a petty community. Serling hated fascism; in his script Deaths-head Revisited, a Nazi visiting Dachau enjoys memories of his time there--until he is put on trial by the ghosts of the dead.
Serling ends the show saying, "All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzs, all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers."
My heart ached reading this, for I fear we are forgetting.
Don't Be A Bully also is a message found in over a half dozen episodes, wish fulfillment stories where bullies get their just desserts. The Guest Lesson is from Scott Skelton who wrote, "As I got older...the series' strong ethical undercurrents surfaced in my consciousness: its indignant stance on social injustice, its rage at the too often petty nature of our species--prejudice, mob rule, the ever-present threat of fascism, the shadow of superstition and ignorance that has, throughout history, halted the progress of our species. From these bite-sized morality plays I drew an unshakable belief in the basic dignity of man--that despite our individual mistakes, our foibles, our follies, and our general bad behavior, we all have a right to respect, to a collective esteem based on the actions and sacrifices of a few of our more noble representatives."
The Civilization That Does Not Value the Printed Word and the Individual is Not Civilized. The Obsolete Man by Serling has a librarian as the hero, a man who clings to his outlawed, obsolete, books, standing up to totalitarian authorities by announcing, "I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages." Serling's closing narrative states, "Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete."
These don't even include some of my favorite episodes, including Time Enough at Last (Nobody Said Life Was Fair/Be Careful What You Wish For); those with Jack Klugman, including A Passage for Trumpet, the lesson being Follow Your Passion); Kick the Can (You're Only Truly Old When You Decide You're Old); and Nothing in the Dark (Death, Where is Thy Sting). Nothing in the Dark has Robert Redford as a gentle and kind Mr. Death, an image that stuck with me.
I could go on, but instead, I will advise you to just read the book.
Thank you, Mr. Serling. And Thank you, Mr. Dawidziak, for confirming that I learned my values in The Twilight Zone.
When I read a review of Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone: A Fifth Dimension Guide to Life in the local paper I couldn't believe I had missed this book. Here was a book that spoke to what I had long believed: that Rod Serling had taught me my basic values.
I was seven years old in 1959 when Twilight Zone first aired. It became my 'must see' tv show. Over the years I enjoyed the reruns but it was while my son and I watched hours of marathon reruns that I realized that perhaps more than any book or Sunday school class it was Rod Serling who had instructed me in how to live.
Rod Serling
As a kid, I liked the ironic endings, the comeuppances, and just desserts. I thrilled to the eerie and chilled to the scary. The episode that most scared me was The Invaders, told without dialog, about a witchlike old woman whose primitive cabin is invaded by tiny spacemen. They were more frightening because of their diminutive size, for they could creep up unseen. Then came the reveal--the spaceship was from the United States, the menacing spacemen were human and the woman was the alien.
The Invaders
After reading the preview available online I ordered Mark Dawidziak's book and began reading it upon arrival.
Born in a Reform Jewish family in Binghamton, NY, Serling had an ideal childhood but encountered prejudice as he grew up. In 1943 he enlisted and served in the Pacific front as a paratrooper, the roots of his horror of war and hope for humanity. He entered Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann who wrote, "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." After graduation, Serling lived in Cincinnati where he wrote for the radio station, then for television. As he matured, his writing incorporated social commentary, convicted it was "the writer's role to menace the public's conscience."
The Twilight Zone stories are teaching parables. As Anne Serling writes in her forward, her father "truly and deeply cared about all of us." If we have ears to hear, Dawidziak shows us, there are fifty lessons to be gleaned from these stories.
Some of my favorite examples from the book, whose lessons need to be heard again, include:
Divided We Fall, highlighting Serling's script The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. It warns us about mob mentality, fear of people who are 'different', and shows how evil arises from suspicion and division. Many chapters end with a guest lesson; for this chapterMarc Scott Zicree writes, "we can live in a universe of love and compassion, or chaos and destruction. The choice is ours, made every day, every moment, by the actions we conscious or unconsciously take...and you can file that under L for Life Lessons."
Share With Others, gleaned from I Shot An Arrow into the Air, written by Serling. A spaceship crashes into a desert, leaving the astronauts with limited supplies. One man decides he will not share, he will survive at any cost. As the last man alive he learns they had landed on Earth, with civilization just over the hill. Adversity brings out the monster and the best of humanity. Dawidziak connects this lesson to the Flint water crisis and the challenge of providing clean water to everyone in need across the world.
Imagine a Better World, arising from Richard Matheson's script A World Of His Own, a comedic story of a man who can manipulate reality through a dictation machine. Dawidziak notes that the power of imagination is basic to the series, and this episode is a nod to storytellers and dreamers who unlock doors to possibilities.
Fill Your Life With Something Other Than Hate is a reoccurring theme in Twilight Zone, including one of my personal favorites, Two, written by Montgomery Pittman. In a post-war, empty world, one lone female and one lone man survive; they are from opposing armies, distrustful and full of hate. The episode is without dialog, for the two do not share a common language. They have a choice: to carry on the war or to assume their common humanity and lay down arms. He also lists Two under Everybody Needs Somebody Sometime.
Payback is a...Or, What Goes Around Comes Around, is another theme shared by many episodes. This was a favorite saying of a neighbor many years ago, meant as consolation while rejected by a petty community. Serling hated fascism; in his script Deaths-head Revisited, a Nazi visiting Dachau enjoys memories of his time there--until he is put on trial by the ghosts of the dead.
Serling ends the show saying, "All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzs, all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers."
My heart ached reading this, for I fear we are forgetting.
Don't Be A Bully also is a message found in over a half dozen episodes, wish fulfillment stories where bullies get their just desserts. The Guest Lesson is from Scott Skelton who wrote, "As I got older...the series' strong ethical undercurrents surfaced in my consciousness: its indignant stance on social injustice, its rage at the too often petty nature of our species--prejudice, mob rule, the ever-present threat of fascism, the shadow of superstition and ignorance that has, throughout history, halted the progress of our species. From these bite-sized morality plays I drew an unshakable belief in the basic dignity of man--that despite our individual mistakes, our foibles, our follies, and our general bad behavior, we all have a right to respect, to a collective esteem based on the actions and sacrifices of a few of our more noble representatives."
The Civilization That Does Not Value the Printed Word and the Individual is Not Civilized. The Obsolete Man by Serling has a librarian as the hero, a man who clings to his outlawed, obsolete, books, standing up to totalitarian authorities by announcing, "I am nothing more than a reminder to you that you cannot destroy truth by burning pages." Serling's closing narrative states, "Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete."
These don't even include some of my favorite episodes, including Time Enough at Last (Nobody Said Life Was Fair/Be Careful What You Wish For); those with Jack Klugman, including A Passage for Trumpet, the lesson being Follow Your Passion); Kick the Can (You're Only Truly Old When You Decide You're Old); and Nothing in the Dark (Death, Where is Thy Sting). Nothing in the Dark has Robert Redford as a gentle and kind Mr. Death, an image that stuck with me.
I could go on, but instead, I will advise you to just read the book.
Thank you, Mr. Serling. And Thank you, Mr. Dawidziak, for confirming that I learned my values in The Twilight Zone.
December 15, 2024
When I was a child during the fifties, my mother sometimes sought to get me to take half an aspirin in order to reduce a fever. I resisted the bitter taste of the aspirin so my mother would chop up half an aspirin and mix it in with a spoonful of applesauce. Although I could still taste the bitter aspirin, I did not want to forfeit the sweet taste of the applesauce and so swallowed the whole thing. Now I find that Rod Serling was doing the same thing by inserting boring morality lessons inside the exciting stories of the occult, time travel and visitors from outer space on the Twilight Zone.
Mark Dawidziak, whose dust jacket photo suggests that his earlier books on Mark Twain were more than a passing fancy, is a television critic who has discerned at least fifty morality lessons from the 156 episodes of the Twilight Zone which, if you are new to this planet, was a television show that aired on CBS during the late fifties and early sixties. It was a program popular with persons in my age bracket who were escorted through adolescence by the tales (all G rated in those days) distinguished by their offbeat subject matter and surprise endings. Mr. Dawidziak's effort can be viewed on several levels. First, for myself, reading this book was terribly nostalgic. He described a number of episodes that I had forgotten and noted cast members who went on to bigger and better things. A number of times in reading this book I found myself exclaiming things like "That was Cloris Leachman?"
Second, this book had me reflecting on what lessons I might have internalized from the Twilight Zone. Have I shunned the "Build The Wall" crowd because they remind me too much of Claude Akins, Jack Weston, and their neighbors on Maple Street being driven crazy by their fear of aliens? Maybe. Have I avoided willful, controlling people, lest I end up in Billy Mumy's cornfield? Possibly. Have I secreted extra pairs of reading glasses throughout my house and car in an attempt to minimize the chance that I might share the fate of Burgess Meredith in a post-apocalyptic world? Almost certainly.
Third, the author uses this book to comment on Rod Serling's personal views and how he infused them into his stories. If you are going to point out the flaws in your current society, it is easier for the audience to take if the messengers are angels, visitors from other planets, or other denizens . . . . of the Twilight Zone.
Mark Dawidziak, whose dust jacket photo suggests that his earlier books on Mark Twain were more than a passing fancy, is a television critic who has discerned at least fifty morality lessons from the 156 episodes of the Twilight Zone which, if you are new to this planet, was a television show that aired on CBS during the late fifties and early sixties. It was a program popular with persons in my age bracket who were escorted through adolescence by the tales (all G rated in those days) distinguished by their offbeat subject matter and surprise endings. Mr. Dawidziak's effort can be viewed on several levels. First, for myself, reading this book was terribly nostalgic. He described a number of episodes that I had forgotten and noted cast members who went on to bigger and better things. A number of times in reading this book I found myself exclaiming things like "That was Cloris Leachman?"
Second, this book had me reflecting on what lessons I might have internalized from the Twilight Zone. Have I shunned the "Build The Wall" crowd because they remind me too much of Claude Akins, Jack Weston, and their neighbors on Maple Street being driven crazy by their fear of aliens? Maybe. Have I avoided willful, controlling people, lest I end up in Billy Mumy's cornfield? Possibly. Have I secreted extra pairs of reading glasses throughout my house and car in an attempt to minimize the chance that I might share the fate of Burgess Meredith in a post-apocalyptic world? Almost certainly.
Third, the author uses this book to comment on Rod Serling's personal views and how he infused them into his stories. If you are going to point out the flaws in your current society, it is easier for the audience to take if the messengers are angels, visitors from other planets, or other denizens . . . . of the Twilight Zone.
March 22, 2017
Mark Dawidziak is my people. Written by a true fan of the iconic show. I love it!!!
May 11, 2017
Angels and devils, monsters and aliens, ghosts and, sometimes, just plain old humans doing things the rest of them wouldn't. All so that we can learn a pithy lesson.
Along with biographical information about Serling, author Mark Dawidziak groups original series episodes by the "lessons" taught, on per chapter. Fifty-one, by his count. Throw in a famous person's personal reminiscence, at the end of each chapter, and the author's own experiences interviewing various people who participated in the series, and you have a lot of interesting insights into the series and Serling, himself.
Interesting and enjoyable, to read. Almost certainly sure to tell you things you didn't know about the man and the series, and to cause you to see some episodes a little differently, next time you view them. And almost certain to make that next viewing come a little bit sooner.
I definitely recommend this to any fans of the original Twilight Zone.
Along with biographical information about Serling, author Mark Dawidziak groups original series episodes by the "lessons" taught, on per chapter. Fifty-one, by his count. Throw in a famous person's personal reminiscence, at the end of each chapter, and the author's own experiences interviewing various people who participated in the series, and you have a lot of interesting insights into the series and Serling, himself.
Interesting and enjoyable, to read. Almost certainly sure to tell you things you didn't know about the man and the series, and to cause you to see some episodes a little differently, next time you view them. And almost certain to make that next viewing come a little bit sooner.
I definitely recommend this to any fans of the original Twilight Zone.
June 8, 2017
I admittingly have not watched twilight zone but know about it and was interested in the book. It was great. The lessons here are things that more people should remember. I will watch the twilight zone at some point now! Had some great quotes.
"light candles if the darkness warrants it, but remember that your salvation is your capacity for human warmth - in that remarkable propensity for love"
"light candles if the darkness warrants it, but remember that your salvation is your capacity for human warmth - in that remarkable propensity for love"
March 15, 2017
This is a fun book to read. It would help a lot if you are a fan of the television show "The Twilight Zone" Mark Dawidziak uses episodes of the famous tv show to give life lessons he has learned by watching The Twilight Zone. In this book are 50 lessons he learned by watching the show.
For example,"Keep your inner child alive" or "Nobody said life was fair" or Follow your passion. or Respect your elders. and so many more. We have the whole tv series on dvd of The Twilight Zone. I have seen every episode at least once. This book is a wonderful way to re-visit these well done episodes and remember There really are lessons to be learned. A fun book to read.
For example,"Keep your inner child alive" or "Nobody said life was fair" or Follow your passion. or Respect your elders. and so many more. We have the whole tv series on dvd of The Twilight Zone. I have seen every episode at least once. This book is a wonderful way to re-visit these well done episodes and remember There really are lessons to be learned. A fun book to read.
April 27, 2017
A "Chicken Soup for the Twilight Zone Fan" if you will. Nothing spectacular but a good read for fans of the show. Some epsiodes were over analyzed while some were briefly touched. More editing might have helped. Enjoyed the lessons from "guest authors" but the biographies could have been trimmed down.
Had to stop reading a few times to go back and re-watch old episodes.
Had to stop reading a few times to go back and re-watch old episodes.
December 14, 2017
I really respect this author for putting his "Zone life" into a book. It's a fun read, but I read non-fiction (usually) to learn new things. MD is a good writer and this is a fun book for fans of the show, but I'm not personally getting much out of it. Gonna move on.
August 7, 2021
This is brilliant.
The structure and concept of the book works really well. Dawidziak says early on that he has a lot of respect and admiration for the Zicree book "The Twilight Zone Companion" (which is an amazing book) and says he's not trying to replace it but trying to create a companion to it, which he does really well.
The difference from the 'Companion' is the way the chapters are centred around different lessons that can be learned from different episodes or different groups of episodes. In that, he's come up with a great way of analysing the show, with great insights into the episodes' creation, and the themes that these episodes explore. There are many anecdotes about the show throughout, as well as lots of interesting anecdotes about related people like Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison.
My favourite parts of the book are the moments at the end of many of the chapters where there are boxes that contain a personal comment from a celebrity from the world of writing or film or TV about the show and what they got from it.
The show is extremely important to me (I named my band after it and every album title we've done is an episode title) - and this book absolutely adds to what I knew and love about the show.
Totally recommend it to any other fans of The Twilight Zone.
The structure and concept of the book works really well. Dawidziak says early on that he has a lot of respect and admiration for the Zicree book "The Twilight Zone Companion" (which is an amazing book) and says he's not trying to replace it but trying to create a companion to it, which he does really well.
The difference from the 'Companion' is the way the chapters are centred around different lessons that can be learned from different episodes or different groups of episodes. In that, he's come up with a great way of analysing the show, with great insights into the episodes' creation, and the themes that these episodes explore. There are many anecdotes about the show throughout, as well as lots of interesting anecdotes about related people like Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison.
My favourite parts of the book are the moments at the end of many of the chapters where there are boxes that contain a personal comment from a celebrity from the world of writing or film or TV about the show and what they got from it.
The show is extremely important to me (I named my band after it and every album title we've done is an episode title) - and this book absolutely adds to what I knew and love about the show.
Totally recommend it to any other fans of The Twilight Zone.
February 23, 2023
As a big fan of The Twilight Zone I was glad to pick up this book. It's a delightfully great read if you're a fan too as it not only provides nostalgia but makes you think and view episodes just a bit differently. I enjoyed the lessons in the book and how they connected to real life things we all go through even today. That's mainly the reason The Twilight Zone is still so popular due to so many episodes resonating today. I also enjoyed learning about Rod Serling, many things I didn't know which made me not only appreciate his work with The Twilight Zone buy his work in general and his views as a person.
There were a few things about this book that I didn't like. In the beginning the author comes off as a cheesy dad and the way he says and references things. He has an insane man crush on Mark Twain and quotes him way too much. He also mentions Charles Dickens too much as well. I also found that the referencing of several episodes over and over to be redundant and unnecessary.
Overall, despite my dislikes I truly enjoyed this book and loved reading about some of my favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone. I strongly recommend this book to any TZ or Rod Serling fan. If you've ever wanted to know some behind the scenes info or to really understand the lesson behind many of the episodes then definitely make sure you cuss check out this book.
There were a few things about this book that I didn't like. In the beginning the author comes off as a cheesy dad and the way he says and references things. He has an insane man crush on Mark Twain and quotes him way too much. He also mentions Charles Dickens too much as well. I also found that the referencing of several episodes over and over to be redundant and unnecessary.
Overall, despite my dislikes I truly enjoyed this book and loved reading about some of my favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone. I strongly recommend this book to any TZ or Rod Serling fan. If you've ever wanted to know some behind the scenes info or to really understand the lesson behind many of the episodes then definitely make sure you cuss check out this book.
Read
August 8, 2018great
May 22, 2017
Submitted for your approval, the next stop, the Twilight Zone. Anyone growing up in America in the 1960s knows those words by heart. Pitch black hair, head tilted slightly, and there was Rod Serling, cigarette in hand with just a little bit of smoke visible to the watchful viewer. I was one of them along with my two older brothers, and we were hooked forever on Serling’s morality plays. We all have our favorites, and mine is “It’s A Good Life,” with a very young Billy Mumy, later of Lost in Space,” another of my childhood addictions. This book is basically an episode guide with commentaries by writers, actors and other industry people. Serling was there at the birth of television in the 1950s as a writer. His style remained consistent, the struggles of everyman, just trying to make it in a world filled with prejudice and unfairness. Words of wisdom persist and it is easy to start with the 20th century’s greatest essayist and novelist, Mark Twain, “do not part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.” This perfectly sums up Serling’s belief in magic, or, his faith in humanity. Certain episodes have always stayed with me, “Eye of the Beholder” was one of the best and the title pretty much explains it all, as Donna Douglas (Ellie May of the Beverly Hillbillies) is told that she needs plastic surgery in order to conform to society’s standard of beauty. The final shot is a classic and Douglas describes Serling as both a genius and a nice man. I don’t know if wisdom comes with age, but perspective certainly does. I am now fifty-nine and can still recall “Kick the Can,” as the protagonist Charles points out , all kids play those games, and the minute they stop, they begin to grow old; enough said and I am not ashamed to admit that this chapter made me cry, as my youth is gone and forever lost. Great art, whether in the form of books, movies, or, in this case, television, reaches deep into one’s soul, and The Twilight Zone did just that. The show’s common theme is basically be careful what you wish for, and the older I get, the more I understand it. Maybe there is a good reason for my dream date with Halle Berry never coming to fruition. In the TZ world, Halle would turn out to be Satan in disguise. Dawidziak uses great reference points, with quotes by Dickens, Mark Twain, Graham Greene and St. Augustine. Even a Catholic-Atheist (a Graham Greene term) like myself can appreciate the beautiful language of the bible; written by mortal men after all. In the end, Serling believes in the power of redemption. Personally, I have my doubts, as most people seem to live by rule of the eleventh commandment, “don’t get caught.” The only thing I have ever redeemed is the five cents for the soda bottles at my local supermarket. Even so, I can highly recommend this informative book.
P.S, My five best: It’s a Good Life. Time Enough to Last. Eye of the Beholder. Kick the Can. Monsters are due on Maple Street.
P.S, My five best: It’s a Good Life. Time Enough to Last. Eye of the Beholder. Kick the Can. Monsters are due on Maple Street.
August 23, 2023
I am a huge Twilight Zone fan, so I couldn't resist "Everything I need to know I learned in the Twilight Zone" by Mark Dawidziak. The series is famous for its great stories, often with a twist ending. The author points out that the Zone also "teaches" moral codes as well. Each chapter is a lesson learned, with a description of the episodes that taught that lesson. The chapter "Don't live in the past" discusses episodes "Walking Distance", "The Trouble with Templeton", "No Time like the Past" and "The World of Horace Ford". Other chapters might have only one episode as the example, such as "Follow your Passion" with the episode "Passage for a Trumpet". Each episode is described in some detail, with the lesson learned pointed out. It is not a complete review of each episode, while some of the cast may be mentioned, usually the director is not. Not every episode is discussed, though most are. There are fifty chapters in all, you can see the Twilight Zone taught a lot of lessons. The book is clever and fun to read. It will make you think as well. If you want a complete history of the series, this is not the book for you. However, if you want an interesting read that gives a different way to view the series, I recommend this book.
May 29, 2017
I'm over these old white dudes telling me how superior they feel to everyone, so I should have known at the beginning of this book it wasn't for me. Especially when he starts out talking about how kids these days just don't have the black and white show background to appreciate TV and they also need to get off his lawn.
The parts that really pissed me off and made this impossible to finish were where he would use a crap ton of synonyms to hammer his point home. WE GET IT GUY, YOU OWN A THESAURUS.
I rolled my eyes so hard while reading this, I'm surprised they didn't fall out of my face.
The parts that really pissed me off and made this impossible to finish were where he would use a crap ton of synonyms to hammer his point home. WE GET IT GUY, YOU OWN A THESAURUS.
I rolled my eyes so hard while reading this, I'm surprised they didn't fall out of my face.
June 14, 2021
An well-researched and thougthfully written observation of the classic TV series,
Mark Dawidziak brings the reader to another level (or dimension, if you will). In lieu of summarizing the best episodes (which would have been fine), Dawidziak relates the moral lessons portrayed in most of the teleplays. His findings never resort to preaching. We learn that while the series has recurring themes, none of the scripts are recycled. Similarly, many episodes present the viewers with multiple teachings but do not contradict themselves. A recommended find for all Twilight Zone fans, their are spoilers, so please enjoy this book only if you have viewed the entire run.
Mark Dawidziak brings the reader to another level (or dimension, if you will). In lieu of summarizing the best episodes (which would have been fine), Dawidziak relates the moral lessons portrayed in most of the teleplays. His findings never resort to preaching. We learn that while the series has recurring themes, none of the scripts are recycled. Similarly, many episodes present the viewers with multiple teachings but do not contradict themselves. A recommended find for all Twilight Zone fans, their are spoilers, so please enjoy this book only if you have viewed the entire run.
December 5, 2021
As of late I've been in a kind-of self-help/yourself reading mode and I stared at the title of this book for the longest time before picking it up. I'm glad I did. Half life-lesson/half-reminiscence this book shuffles lessons we should all know, or at least have been taught, that can be found within the original run of the classic TV series, "The Twilight Zone" (1959-1964). It gives you things to consider, remember, ponder, and palaver. I enjoyed it for the points it made as well as the episodes that direct to these points. Even if you're not in love with the series check it out - there's something in here for everyone.
June 29, 2017
Whether you were an original follower of the Twilight Zone or a latecomer to its magic, this is an excellent source for honoring Rod Serling's genius and the messages he delivered. Messages and life lessons that still ring relevant. Broken into short chapters that feature a different segment of the series, it is both a delight in nostalgia and a reminder of the show's enduring impact on many spin offs that never reached Serling's high standards. A real treasure for the generation weaned on late 50s and early 60s TV.
April 18, 2017
Dawidziak did a fantastic job of breaking down the philosophy behind various episodes. An excellent compendium book for one of the great TV shows of all time.....The Twilight Zone. "....use the key unlock the door. See what your fate might have in store. Come explore your dreams creation. Enter this world of imagination...." Peart
September 21, 2022
Now entering... the Twilight Zone!
A very interesting self-help book crossed with a history of Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone. I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the book, especially the points about writing. Mark does a great job of expanding on the societal morals and deep messages conveyed through each Twilight Zone episode. Now I have to rewatch the entirety of the Twilight Zone because I defo wasn't looking for deep social meanings in middle school.
A very interesting self-help book crossed with a history of Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone. I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the book, especially the points about writing. Mark does a great job of expanding on the societal morals and deep messages conveyed through each Twilight Zone episode. Now I have to rewatch the entirety of the Twilight Zone because I defo wasn't looking for deep social meanings in middle school.
May 15, 2018
If I was to put together a list of my favorite TV shows of all time, I am not completely decided about the rankings but I know that The Twilight Zone would make it into the top 5. (And probably the top 3.) I don't remember my first encounter with the Twilight Zone. Luckily for me, it always seemed to be out there somewhere in re-runs when I was a kid (and throughout my entire life.) Kids in the 1970s lived in a bifurcated television landscape. There were the 'modern shows' (generally breezy, cheezy and the foundation of our fads, tie-in toys, and celebrity crushes) and the 'old fashioned shows' (black and white, slower paced but somehow more intriguing -- shows like the Little Rascals, The Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, Lost in Space, and The Addams Family became our 'cult' shows.) My generation was probably the last one to enjoy both 'classic' (black and white) television and 'modern' (in 'living color'!) television equally.
In my mind there was no better 'old fashioned' program than The Twilight Zone. I LOVE this show! Every episode intrigued me, made me think and gave me the perfect balance of chills and insights. This series developed in me a life long fondness for supernatural anthology programming. Because of my early Twilight Zone addiction, I went on to watch and appreciate the Outer Limits, Tales of the Unexpected, Tales from the Dark Side, Tales from the Crypt, Thriller, and Hammer House of Horror as well as lesser known/more forgotten offerings such as Circle of Fear, The Sixth Sense, Journey to the Unknown and Supernatural. I still search for 'new to me' anthology shows online and, when I discover one, it is like a Time Tunnel (to reference yet another old favorite) to the happiest moments of childhood.
I DO remember my introduction to Rod Serling's other production: Night Gallery. I was only a preschooler when the show started. But, by the time I was graduating from kindergarten, I was a committed fan. My dad and I used to watch it every week. Serling fascinated me. Here was this unassuming guy who 'looked like a dad' but who introduced us to these weird and unusual and spine tingling stories each week in his creepy 'gallery' of disturbing paintings. Perhaps it helped that my dad was an art teacher by trade and we spent many hours in art museums and galleries talking about paintings. But no paintings I ever saw in real life could touch Mr Serling's collection in my elementary school mind!!
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone is a nice book for TZ fans. It was written by a TV critic who works out of Cleveland, so this title was featured in a display of books with regional/local interest at my neighborhood library. The author, Mark Dawidziak, has obviously been as affected and influenced by Serling's work as I have been. And he recognizes Serling as a playwright who should be held up in the 20th century American canon as one of the greats. I agree. If I were a high school literature teacher, my class would be reading Serling along with Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Eugene O'Neill, Edna Ferber and Neil Simon.
Dawidziak relates Twilight Zone episodes to a code of ethics through which we can live better and more ethical lives. Although, as I enter my fifties, I fight hard against the aging person's compulsion to 'moralize', to sugarcoat the past, and to wring hands about the degradation of society, today's climate gives me pause. I see around me so many of the warnings that Rod Serling was trying to give us fall on the deaf ears of fear, incipient nationalism, scapegoating, revenge and greed. Our body politic is festering from the head down. Our government lashes out against individual citizens and broad groups alike in childish and profanity laden tweets filled with blatant lies. We have found the enemy and it is us. And the generations who grew up on the Twilight Zone and it's backstory, which was the ashes of civilized life lying in the ruins of World War II, should KNOW BETTER than to embrace the flickers of authoritarianism, propaganda, in-your-face racism, misogyny, dog-eat-dog economics and beating down those who have the least hope. Rod Serling is tossing in his grave, my friends...or sadly looking at dark paintings in the Great Gallery Beyond and seeing that they are tableaux of scenes from 21st Century Planet Earth.
And, I must add that Dawidziak never gets political in this book. Not once is an orange spray tanned game show host from hell mentioned. Any reader can choose to explore the ethics of the Twilight Zone straight, no chaser. But let us be clear. A reader is practicing self delusion if they convince themselves that Rod Serling would be ok with what we are reading in the headlines today.
Thus I have come to the conclusion that we need modern voices like Serling. We desperately need great talents who can fascinate and entertain and also do so with strong moral underpinnings. We need writers who can show us life lessons and give us compassionate guidelines for treating those around us with more love and respect. Until these people emerge (or, more importantly, are given a voice in today's over-saturated and sprawling media environment) we need to get back to some of the values Serling espoused in such a delightfully eerie way.
Here are some of my favorite lessons from the book and some words from author, Mark Dawidziak, from actors who have worked with Serling and from Serling, himself, that impacted my thinking:
"Looking for themes that will recur in The Twilight Zone and will frame its lessons, you'll be able to identify many of what he might have called preoccupations: the fundamentally decent person tossed into the middle of a morally ambiguous situation; the worn-out professional coping with dissatisfaction, obsolescence, or just being forgotten; the aging warrior striving to keep on his feet as the ground is being cut out from under him; the worth of the individual; the yearning for simpler times; the enduring spirit battling to survive under the merciless assault of forces beyond one beleaguered person's control." {Dawidziak on Serling}
"Now just what is morality? I'm not able to begin to give you a definition of it...I do know, however, that if a churchgoing Calvinist reads three books of the Old Testament each morning and lives a life of perpetual abstinence, all he has to do is say the word 'nigger' once, and, in my book, he is not a moral man. On the other hand, if a college student swings, tosses around four-letter Anglo-Saxon profanities and does not know a catechism from a cartoon, if he holds out his hand to a ghetto child or takes a train ride down to Alabama to help register black voters or rises to his feet to publicly speak out for what might well be an unpopular cause, then I say this morality is a pure and remarkable thing." {Serling, speaking to a graduating class in Akron, Ohio in 1971}
"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is an American tragedy that Serling delivers with a word of caution: 'The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices--to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspi"cion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own--for the children, and the children not yet born. And the pity is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone" {Dawidziak and Serling in the category of 'Divided We Fall' and highlighting one of the most famous TZ episodes.}
"When you worked with writers like Rod Serling, you learned that you didn't need fancy sets, big special effects, and lavish budgets. It was the writing. We had words! We had words! We had substance. You start with the words or you ain't got nothin!" {Actor Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) on Serling's impact as a writer}
"I learned that there are certain playwrights, like Rod Serling, who just suit me. It was a joy to play his characters and to roll his words around in my mouth. What characters he gave you to play! What words he gave you to say! Lovely words. They just seemed to resonate with me. There have been three writers that seemed to most suit me: Rod Serling, Clifford Odets, and Neil Simon. With Neil Simon, it was the humor and the rhythms. With Odets, it was the staccato style and muckraking attitude. But with Rod Serling it was the anger, the defiance, and the fire. He brought such fire to everything he wrote." {Actor Jack Klugman on his admiration for Serling's writing. Klugman played in four separate TZ episodes.}
"All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes, all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and remember, not only in the Twilight Zone, but wherever men walk God's Earth." {Serling's final words of caution on the Deaths-head Revisited episode. Serling, a Jew, was transformed by his WWII experience and it informed his work and life in myriad ways.}
"And it's all due to his imagination. As you pull back from that final scene, it grows in perspective. Gregory represents the writers on The Twilight Zone, using their imaginations to shape a better world, but he also represents all fantasy writers. Pull back a little more and you see that Gregory represents all writers, who realize that storytelling is, in itself, an act of hope and optimism. Pull back a little more and you see that Gregory represents all the dreamers, from poets and inventors to scientists and songwriters. Pull back a bit more and you see that Gregory represents us, using our imaginations as starting points to reach for something perhaps wondrous and wonderful. Many of us feel that the door to something better is locked, but The Twilight Zone is always there to remind us that you unlock this door with the key of imagination." {Dawidziak on Serling, highlighting the theme of "Imagine a Better World" and one of my favorite TZ episodes: A World of His Own}
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone might not literally be a guidebook to all the skills and values and grit that is needed to negotiate our real world Twilight Zone. However, it is a refreshingly positive walk down memory lane for Twilight Zone/Rod Serling fans. This book illuminates Serling's writing and influence on 21st century pop culture and entertainment. Younger readers may be interested to learn that just about every writer working on sci fi and fantasy television and film today was deeply influenced by Rod Serling's work. The book also contains submissions from contemporary writers such as Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz and David Chase on their admiration for and indebtedness to Rod Serling.
May 11th is National Twilight Zone Day and it is fast approaching! Why not celebrate with some TZ binge watching...or a glance through this book?
In my mind there was no better 'old fashioned' program than The Twilight Zone. I LOVE this show! Every episode intrigued me, made me think and gave me the perfect balance of chills and insights. This series developed in me a life long fondness for supernatural anthology programming. Because of my early Twilight Zone addiction, I went on to watch and appreciate the Outer Limits, Tales of the Unexpected, Tales from the Dark Side, Tales from the Crypt, Thriller, and Hammer House of Horror as well as lesser known/more forgotten offerings such as Circle of Fear, The Sixth Sense, Journey to the Unknown and Supernatural. I still search for 'new to me' anthology shows online and, when I discover one, it is like a Time Tunnel (to reference yet another old favorite) to the happiest moments of childhood.
I DO remember my introduction to Rod Serling's other production: Night Gallery. I was only a preschooler when the show started. But, by the time I was graduating from kindergarten, I was a committed fan. My dad and I used to watch it every week. Serling fascinated me. Here was this unassuming guy who 'looked like a dad' but who introduced us to these weird and unusual and spine tingling stories each week in his creepy 'gallery' of disturbing paintings. Perhaps it helped that my dad was an art teacher by trade and we spent many hours in art museums and galleries talking about paintings. But no paintings I ever saw in real life could touch Mr Serling's collection in my elementary school mind!!
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone is a nice book for TZ fans. It was written by a TV critic who works out of Cleveland, so this title was featured in a display of books with regional/local interest at my neighborhood library. The author, Mark Dawidziak, has obviously been as affected and influenced by Serling's work as I have been. And he recognizes Serling as a playwright who should be held up in the 20th century American canon as one of the greats. I agree. If I were a high school literature teacher, my class would be reading Serling along with Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Eugene O'Neill, Edna Ferber and Neil Simon.
Dawidziak relates Twilight Zone episodes to a code of ethics through which we can live better and more ethical lives. Although, as I enter my fifties, I fight hard against the aging person's compulsion to 'moralize', to sugarcoat the past, and to wring hands about the degradation of society, today's climate gives me pause. I see around me so many of the warnings that Rod Serling was trying to give us fall on the deaf ears of fear, incipient nationalism, scapegoating, revenge and greed. Our body politic is festering from the head down. Our government lashes out against individual citizens and broad groups alike in childish and profanity laden tweets filled with blatant lies. We have found the enemy and it is us. And the generations who grew up on the Twilight Zone and it's backstory, which was the ashes of civilized life lying in the ruins of World War II, should KNOW BETTER than to embrace the flickers of authoritarianism, propaganda, in-your-face racism, misogyny, dog-eat-dog economics and beating down those who have the least hope. Rod Serling is tossing in his grave, my friends...or sadly looking at dark paintings in the Great Gallery Beyond and seeing that they are tableaux of scenes from 21st Century Planet Earth.
And, I must add that Dawidziak never gets political in this book. Not once is an orange spray tanned game show host from hell mentioned. Any reader can choose to explore the ethics of the Twilight Zone straight, no chaser. But let us be clear. A reader is practicing self delusion if they convince themselves that Rod Serling would be ok with what we are reading in the headlines today.
Thus I have come to the conclusion that we need modern voices like Serling. We desperately need great talents who can fascinate and entertain and also do so with strong moral underpinnings. We need writers who can show us life lessons and give us compassionate guidelines for treating those around us with more love and respect. Until these people emerge (or, more importantly, are given a voice in today's over-saturated and sprawling media environment) we need to get back to some of the values Serling espoused in such a delightfully eerie way.
Here are some of my favorite lessons from the book and some words from author, Mark Dawidziak, from actors who have worked with Serling and from Serling, himself, that impacted my thinking:
"Looking for themes that will recur in The Twilight Zone and will frame its lessons, you'll be able to identify many of what he might have called preoccupations: the fundamentally decent person tossed into the middle of a morally ambiguous situation; the worn-out professional coping with dissatisfaction, obsolescence, or just being forgotten; the aging warrior striving to keep on his feet as the ground is being cut out from under him; the worth of the individual; the yearning for simpler times; the enduring spirit battling to survive under the merciless assault of forces beyond one beleaguered person's control." {Dawidziak on Serling}
"Now just what is morality? I'm not able to begin to give you a definition of it...I do know, however, that if a churchgoing Calvinist reads three books of the Old Testament each morning and lives a life of perpetual abstinence, all he has to do is say the word 'nigger' once, and, in my book, he is not a moral man. On the other hand, if a college student swings, tosses around four-letter Anglo-Saxon profanities and does not know a catechism from a cartoon, if he holds out his hand to a ghetto child or takes a train ride down to Alabama to help register black voters or rises to his feet to publicly speak out for what might well be an unpopular cause, then I say this morality is a pure and remarkable thing." {Serling, speaking to a graduating class in Akron, Ohio in 1971}
"The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is an American tragedy that Serling delivers with a word of caution: 'The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices--to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspi"cion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own--for the children, and the children not yet born. And the pity is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone" {Dawidziak and Serling in the category of 'Divided We Fall' and highlighting one of the most famous TZ episodes.}
"When you worked with writers like Rod Serling, you learned that you didn't need fancy sets, big special effects, and lavish budgets. It was the writing. We had words! We had words! We had substance. You start with the words or you ain't got nothin!" {Actor Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) on Serling's impact as a writer}
"I learned that there are certain playwrights, like Rod Serling, who just suit me. It was a joy to play his characters and to roll his words around in my mouth. What characters he gave you to play! What words he gave you to say! Lovely words. They just seemed to resonate with me. There have been three writers that seemed to most suit me: Rod Serling, Clifford Odets, and Neil Simon. With Neil Simon, it was the humor and the rhythms. With Odets, it was the staccato style and muckraking attitude. But with Rod Serling it was the anger, the defiance, and the fire. He brought such fire to everything he wrote." {Actor Jack Klugman on his admiration for Serling's writing. Klugman played in four separate TZ episodes.}
"All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes, all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and remember, not only in the Twilight Zone, but wherever men walk God's Earth." {Serling's final words of caution on the Deaths-head Revisited episode. Serling, a Jew, was transformed by his WWII experience and it informed his work and life in myriad ways.}
"And it's all due to his imagination. As you pull back from that final scene, it grows in perspective. Gregory represents the writers on The Twilight Zone, using their imaginations to shape a better world, but he also represents all fantasy writers. Pull back a little more and you see that Gregory represents all writers, who realize that storytelling is, in itself, an act of hope and optimism. Pull back a little more and you see that Gregory represents all the dreamers, from poets and inventors to scientists and songwriters. Pull back a bit more and you see that Gregory represents us, using our imaginations as starting points to reach for something perhaps wondrous and wonderful. Many of us feel that the door to something better is locked, but The Twilight Zone is always there to remind us that you unlock this door with the key of imagination." {Dawidziak on Serling, highlighting the theme of "Imagine a Better World" and one of my favorite TZ episodes: A World of His Own}
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone might not literally be a guidebook to all the skills and values and grit that is needed to negotiate our real world Twilight Zone. However, it is a refreshingly positive walk down memory lane for Twilight Zone/Rod Serling fans. This book illuminates Serling's writing and influence on 21st century pop culture and entertainment. Younger readers may be interested to learn that just about every writer working on sci fi and fantasy television and film today was deeply influenced by Rod Serling's work. The book also contains submissions from contemporary writers such as Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz and David Chase on their admiration for and indebtedness to Rod Serling.
May 11th is National Twilight Zone Day and it is fast approaching! Why not celebrate with some TZ binge watching...or a glance through this book?
March 15, 2018
"Eye of the Beholder." That's the defining Twilight Zone episode for me. The high-quality cinematography, the dramatic performances, the clear and applicable moral, and the twist ending. Oh, the shocking and ironic twist ending. I was way too young when I first saw it, and the image is so burned into my brain that I cringed when I got to the "Eye of the Beholder" chapter in this book because I was so scared that I'd see that creepy, stomach-churning, heart-in-your-throat thing all over again. In fact, despite how "Eye of the Beholder" encapsulates everything I love and respect about The Twilight Zone, I simply cannot watch that episode again. It scared me too much. Even now, twenty-plus years after I saw it for the first time, it's so powerful I can call it to memory without any assistance.
What a great show.
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone is fan-service at its best. The introduction and the biography of Rod Serling applaud without fawning and perfectly sum up the show's well-deserved place in America's cultural memory. But the full text of the book is thinly developed. Some of the lessons are profound ("Nobody said life was fair"), some are already cliches ("Don't judge a book by its cover"), and some are just fluff ("Dogs really can be your best friend"). I appreciated the author's enthusiasm for the show, but as an episode guide it's not very useful; we don't get thorough plot summaries, and if you haven't already seen the episode being discussed you won't get much information to understand the analysis.
3 stars out of 5. The first two chapters are stellar, but the actual episode discussions are brief and underdeveloped. Dawidziak's tone is sometimes corny or casual which works in some places but not others, and he has a tendency to return over and over to a small number of episodes for illustration. Die hard fans of the show will appreciate this as validation of the feelings they already have. Newcomers need to go watch the full series (and then read The Twilight Zone Companion for more traditional TV criticism of the show) before opening this one up.
What a great show.
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone is fan-service at its best. The introduction and the biography of Rod Serling applaud without fawning and perfectly sum up the show's well-deserved place in America's cultural memory. But the full text of the book is thinly developed. Some of the lessons are profound ("Nobody said life was fair"), some are already cliches ("Don't judge a book by its cover"), and some are just fluff ("Dogs really can be your best friend"). I appreciated the author's enthusiasm for the show, but as an episode guide it's not very useful; we don't get thorough plot summaries, and if you haven't already seen the episode being discussed you won't get much information to understand the analysis.
3 stars out of 5. The first two chapters are stellar, but the actual episode discussions are brief and underdeveloped. Dawidziak's tone is sometimes corny or casual which works in some places but not others, and he has a tendency to return over and over to a small number of episodes for illustration. Die hard fans of the show will appreciate this as validation of the feelings they already have. Newcomers need to go watch the full series (and then read The Twilight Zone Companion for more traditional TV criticism of the show) before opening this one up.
May 3, 2017
I consider The Twilight Zone to be one of the most influential shows in television history…as well as one of my favorites! The fact that a show which started airing in 1959 could still speak to topics that resound to this day is quite astonishing. It is clear that author Mark Dawidziak thinks similarly, as this book is an ode to some of the best the show has to offer.
The way that Dawidziak organizes the book is to break it up into 50 lessons that one can learn from watching various TZ episodes. Multiple episodes can (and often are) featured in each lesson. Four to six pages are usually devoted to each topic, addressing how the episodes play into the theme as well as referencing other outside quotes/perspectives/figures as well.
For TZ fans, the draw here will be in the organization, not so much content (it isn’t groundbreaking in terms of new information). It was quite fun, however, to read about how some of my favorite episodes can be interpreted in such different ways. Another thing I appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t go too deep into the “philosophy stuff” in terms of concepts and evaluation. I’ve read “philosophy of pop culture” books before that advertise themselves as “light” but are actually so dense as to be college or higher level texts. This book is not like that at all, instead opting for the simple approach of Dawidziak just explaining his lessons. He indeed quotes others to bolster his lessons, but nothing overly complicated.
Overall, Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Twilight Zone is a fun read for TZ fans or TV/scifi fans in general. Nothing earth-shattering or no new revelations, but just a fun re-interpretation of the old TZ lessons/parables.
The way that Dawidziak organizes the book is to break it up into 50 lessons that one can learn from watching various TZ episodes. Multiple episodes can (and often are) featured in each lesson. Four to six pages are usually devoted to each topic, addressing how the episodes play into the theme as well as referencing other outside quotes/perspectives/figures as well.
For TZ fans, the draw here will be in the organization, not so much content (it isn’t groundbreaking in terms of new information). It was quite fun, however, to read about how some of my favorite episodes can be interpreted in such different ways. Another thing I appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t go too deep into the “philosophy stuff” in terms of concepts and evaluation. I’ve read “philosophy of pop culture” books before that advertise themselves as “light” but are actually so dense as to be college or higher level texts. This book is not like that at all, instead opting for the simple approach of Dawidziak just explaining his lessons. He indeed quotes others to bolster his lessons, but nothing overly complicated.
Overall, Everything I Need To Know I Learned In The Twilight Zone is a fun read for TZ fans or TV/scifi fans in general. Nothing earth-shattering or no new revelations, but just a fun re-interpretation of the old TZ lessons/parables.
July 25, 2017
I'm struggling with what rating to give this book. I need to separate my love of The Twilight Zone from what this book really is. I loved some of the lessons, and the extra little blurbs from writers, actors, and others on what their take-aways have been were great. However, a lot of the book was redundant, and the author failed at many turns to go deeper into the subtext of the episodes to reveal what makes the TZ timeless. Maybe I took the concert more seriously than intended, but I think there was a missed opportunity here. By the end of the book, I felt like the author was just reaching for more lessons to put in, and I wanted to just watch The Twilight Zone instead of continuing to read. (I did finish the book, though!)
June 19, 2017
Possibly a book that should not be read straight through as the lessons become repetitive and the listing of some episodes for multiple lessons just emphasizes the that, as with many shows, amongst the masterpieces are episodes that were in fact forgettable. The Twilight Zone Companion is a better read and more entertaining review of the full run while this is perhaps best a book to keep on hand and dip into on occassion.
January 29, 2018
A must read for any Twilight Zone fan! It is a great nostalgic journey through the Twilight Zone and also has great info on the great Rod Serling. The life lessons themselves are very basic and shame on you if you haven't learned them yet. I am so overcome and overjoyed with Twilight Zone nostalgia that I am endeavoring to rewatch as many episodes as I can.
August 30, 2017
As a big fan of The Twilight Zone, I learned nothing new about the series, but instead found a common thread with Dawidziak. It's comforting knowing others are interested in Rod Serling and respect his work.
If you want to read this: go into it knowing that you won't learn much.
If you want to read this: go into it knowing that you won't learn much.
January 5, 2018
Great life lessons for fifth dimension living. Repetitive towards the end. Recommended for anyone that appreciates the Twilight Zone.
February 10, 2020
A great read for fans of the original Twilight Zone-made me want to go back and watch every episode!
May 23, 2018
Having read two of the previous volumes of the author written about Mark Twain, I was curious to see what else my local library system had by the author and this was the only other book they had. I must admit that I cannot remember having seen any episodes of the Twilight Zone myself, but without a doubt that as a writer of speculative fiction [1] from time to time the Twilight Zone has had an indirect influence on me at the very least. "To Serve Man," for example, has long been a source of pop culture references among the episodes of the seminal series. Therefore, although I am perhaps not the ideal or intended audience for this book, which is really written for fans, I am certainly an appreciative reader of a series that I think I would like to know a lot better. Although I am no big television watcher I would happily watch some episodes of the series, and I would definitely read the teleplays of the series, without a doubt. I suppose I can be considered someone who appreciates the debt of honor that writers of speculative fiction with elements of horror and low fantasy and science fiction owe to the Twilight Zone.
This particular volume of about 300 pages consists of some opening essays that seek to present this book as a legitimate addition to the collection of works on the Twilight Zone (including a foreword by Anne Serling, daughter of the creator and main writer of the series), where the author also paints Serling as a moralist in disguise and compares him to Mark Twain. The majority of the book consists of fifty lessons, some of them overlapping, where one sees the need to be careful bout contracts, keep alive one's inner child while respecting honorable elders, not living in the past and being open to magic and keeping a balance between principled idealism and kindness to others and a certain degree of wary and cautious cynicism. The lessons the author wishes to instruct are illustrated by one or more episodes from the series (about 100 episodes are represented, some more than one time) and discussion is made about the personal life of Rod Serling and the other writers and actors of the series. In addition, there are guest lessons appended to the series from other people involved in the series (even as fans) who have thoughts to share about the series and its instructional value.
It should be fairly obvious that this is a Nathanish book that not everyone will appreciate. There are some people (hopefully few) who have no appreciation for the joy of odd or unsettling speculative fiction that contains a great deal of divine providence and quite unsettling elements and the way that speculative fiction can often allow a writer the chance to deal with elements that cannot be handled straightforwardly because they are so contentious within society. Serling died too young--at fifty--but he managed to pack a great deal of insightful writing into the short life he lived, writings that remain influential to this day as part of the golden age of early television in the 1950's and 1960's. For those who are fans of the Twilight Zone or want to realize the moral importance of good television and the lessons taught by the series through the guise of compelling and sometimes creepy stories, this book is definitely one that you will not want to miss and that you will find very profitable and worthwhile reading.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/tag/...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
This particular volume of about 300 pages consists of some opening essays that seek to present this book as a legitimate addition to the collection of works on the Twilight Zone (including a foreword by Anne Serling, daughter of the creator and main writer of the series), where the author also paints Serling as a moralist in disguise and compares him to Mark Twain. The majority of the book consists of fifty lessons, some of them overlapping, where one sees the need to be careful bout contracts, keep alive one's inner child while respecting honorable elders, not living in the past and being open to magic and keeping a balance between principled idealism and kindness to others and a certain degree of wary and cautious cynicism. The lessons the author wishes to instruct are illustrated by one or more episodes from the series (about 100 episodes are represented, some more than one time) and discussion is made about the personal life of Rod Serling and the other writers and actors of the series. In addition, there are guest lessons appended to the series from other people involved in the series (even as fans) who have thoughts to share about the series and its instructional value.
It should be fairly obvious that this is a Nathanish book that not everyone will appreciate. There are some people (hopefully few) who have no appreciation for the joy of odd or unsettling speculative fiction that contains a great deal of divine providence and quite unsettling elements and the way that speculative fiction can often allow a writer the chance to deal with elements that cannot be handled straightforwardly because they are so contentious within society. Serling died too young--at fifty--but he managed to pack a great deal of insightful writing into the short life he lived, writings that remain influential to this day as part of the golden age of early television in the 1950's and 1960's. For those who are fans of the Twilight Zone or want to realize the moral importance of good television and the lessons taught by the series through the guise of compelling and sometimes creepy stories, this book is definitely one that you will not want to miss and that you will find very profitable and worthwhile reading.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/tag/...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2011...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...
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