67 years ago today, October 2, 1959, The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS with "Where Is Everybody?," starring Earl Holliman as a man who finds himself alone in a deserted town. Created by Rod Serling, the anthology featured unrelated stories of paranormal, futuristic or otherwise unsettling events, each typically built around a moral and a surprise ending.
Serling served as executive producer and head writer, writing or co-writing 92 of the show's 156 episodes, and as host and narrator, delivering opening and closing monologues that explained how each character had entered the Twilight Zone. The series featured established stars such as Buster Keaton, Burgess Meredith, Ed Wynn and Joan Blondell, along with younger actors who later became famous, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper.
The original series ran five seasons, ending June 19, 1964. In 1997, TV Guide ranked "To Serve Man" and "It's a Good Life" among the 100 greatest episodes of all time, while Serling named "The Invaders" and "Time Enough at Last" as his own favorites. The Writers Guild of America ranked it the third best written TV series ever in 2013, the same year TV Guide named it the fifth greatest show of all time.
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