In the Zone: The Twilight World of Rod Serling

by Peter Wolfe

The classic television show The Twilight Zone explored the possibilities inhering in the ordinary. A Twilight Zone episode moved us by being poignant and intimate, rambunctious or thought provoking. But whether it takes place on an asteroid, in a city pool room, or in the backwoods, it will usually convey both a folklorist’s eye for detail and the born raconteur’s sense of pace. Rod Serling, the show’s originator, main scriptwriter, and artistic director, knew how much burden he could place on his rhetorical and dramatic gifts. Deservedly celebrated as a pioneer fiction writer for television, Serling always grounded his work in the human he wrote movingly about history and loyalty, the grip of everyday reality, and the dangers of both forgetting about one’s ghosts and giving them the upper hand.

Genres: Nonfiction

228 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1997

Reviews

[Kevin]

An exercise in pedantry, this book is an exhaustive examination of Rod Serling’s use of the Twilight Zone as a vehicle of social criticism and existential philosophy. Each and every paragraph mentions some peeve or pickable bone of Serling’s then proceeds to describe an episode or two in detail while mentioning several others to provide evidential support for the original supposition. Each and every paragraph.

Was this the author’s dissertation or the underwriting for a legal treatment of Twilight Zone? I stopped reading just a few pages in after combing the rest of the book to make sure i should do so.

[John Peel]

Peter Wolfe is, apparently, a Professor of English. In this volume, he takes a look at "The Twilight Zone". It's very confused, and he clearly misses the point of many of the shows he writes about.

For example, of "Eye Of The Beholder", one of the show's most iconic stories, he writes: "The pig-snouted citizens of the state know they're ugly despite what their leader tells them." (Page 154) If you've seen this story, you know that's the exact OPPOSITE of what this story is saying.

A book most devoutly to be ignored.

[Pedro]

One of the most comprehensive books about this show. Honest and thoroughly researched. Highly recommended for people that love - as I do - this television show.