Entertainment
67 Years Later, This Free-To-Watch Sci-Fi Series Is So Good You Can Start With Any Episode
For those science fiction aficionados out there who don’t wish to shell out the extra cash to pay for Paramount+ each month, we have good news for you. The Twilight Zone — as in, the original 1959 series created by Rod Serling — is available free-to-stream on Tubi. That means that there’s absolutely no better time to get back into this mind-bending anthology series that’s perfect for those looking to binge through a series of random tales from any point in the program. It genuinely doesn’t matter where you start here, as Serling and company will take you on such a captivating ride into another dimension that you’ll become completely engrossed in The Twilight Zone. Cue the music!
‘The Twilight Zone’ Is One of the Greatest Sci-Fi Triumphs to Air on Television
The beauty of a show like the original incarnation of The Twilight Zone is that each episode is so profoundly enjoyable (yes, even some of the “duds”) that you can pick this anthology series up at any point and find yourself enthralled by whatever strange new world you find yourself in. A mixture of science-fiction, horror, fantasy, drama, and even a Western on select occasions, The Twilight Zone ran for five seasons on CBS between 1959 and 1964 — and yet it still feels remarkably fresh today. Full of episodes that challenge the viewer’s perceptions of reality, preconceived notions about what it means to encounter “the other,” and modern sensibilities of how stories should be told, Rod Serling and his clever team of writers were always able to thrill, surprise, and frighten audiences.
Whether the series was crafting completely original concepts, adapting works by famed science fiction writers like Richard Matheson and Ray Bradbury, or pulling in Oscar-winning short films to air on television, The Twilight Zone always knew how to thrill an audience. Episodes like the famous “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starring William Shatner, the beloved alien invasion triumph “To Serve Man,” and the iconic “Living Doll” (which is about exactly what you think) have become so influential that they have inspired countless imitators in the nearly 70 years since the series first aired. Even lesser-remembered installments like the time-warping Western “A Hundred Yards Over the Rim,” the hauntingly brilliant “The Hitch-Hiker,” and the seriously underrated “Steel,” which actually inspired the Hugh Jackman movie Real Steel, still prove to be so dramatic and novel that we can’t help but revisit them.
The beauty of The Twilight Zone, of course, is that none of the episodes necessitate viewing any others. As an anthology series, that’s part of the main draw. Because of the standalone nature of each episode, The Twilight Zone is the perfect binge for those hoping for some mind-bending, intelligent entertainment that can be stopped at any time. You won’t be on the edge of your seat wondering what happens to the characters in the next episode because — unless you count some of the sequels made later in different Twilight Zone revivals — none of the plots continue in the original five-season series.
No Revival Has Managed To Recapture the Novelty of the Original ‘Twilight Zone’
While the original Twilight Zone would become a staple in science fiction, horror, and fantasy entertainment, and arguably the “gold standard” for such anthology takes on said genres, it didn’t end there. The show was first revived by CBS for three seasons in 1985, then by UPN for a single season in 2002, and again for a third time by CBS All Access (a precursor to Paramount+) in 2019. On top of that, Twilight Zone: The Movie hit theaters in 1983, right before that first reboot. But despite the clear interest in new wild and wacky tales such as these, it’s the original series that still holds up as the very best of the batch. None of these revival attempts were able to fully recapture the magic and excitement of the original (the lack of Rod Serling was likely a factor), and as such, though the franchise continues, it does so largely by riding off the success of the original.
Even remakes of some of the show’s best episodes or self-appointed sequels fail to return to what made those first 156 episodes so riveting. Yet, we still have that massive collection of Twilight Zone material to pull from, and with the entire original series streaming for free, there’s no excuse not to embark on a Serling-themed marathon. When you’re done, you might even enjoy taking a gander at some of these forgotten anthology shows that deserve another look.
The Twilight Zone is available for streaming on Paramount+ and Tubi.
- Release Date
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1959 – 1964
- Directors
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John Brahm, Buzz Kulik, Douglas Heyes, Lamont Johnson, Richard L. Bare, James Sheldon, Richard Donner, Don Medford, Montgomery Pittman, Abner Biberman, Alan Crosland, Jr., Alvin Ganzer, Elliot Silverstein, Jack Smight, Joseph M. Newman, Ted Post, William Claxton, Jus Addiss, Mitchell Leisen, Perry Lafferty, Robert Florey, Robert Parrish, Ron Winston, Stuart Rosenberg
- Writers
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Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Earl Hamner, Jr., George Clayton Johnson, Jerry Sohl, Henry Slesar, Martin Goldsmith, Anthony Wilson, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Bill Idelson, E. Jack Neuman, Jerome Bixby, Jerry McNeely, John Collier, John Furia, Jr., John Tomerlin, Lucille Fletcher, Ray Bradbury, Reginald Rose, Sam Rolfe, Adele T. Strassfield
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