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Rating:  -
If you're a Twilight Zone fan, or know someone who is, this is the book you've been waiting for. It's over 800 pages and jam packed with history, and trivia right down to the smallest details that you could ever imagine, like letters between Rod Serling from writers who submitted scripts for new episodes, or a letter from Robert B. Hoag, replying to Rod Serling about why The Twilight Zone was not broadcast in Serling's home town of Binghamton, New York. I was 10 years old when the show started and I was a big fan. It was the one TV show during that period that wasn't just spooky, but one that made you think. After the first couple shows I was hooked.
The first part of the book is about the history of the Twilight Zone and Rod Serling. It starts out talking about one of his earliest jobs as an unsalaried volunteer writer and actor with WNYC, a New York City radio station and continues with him winning an award for his submission to the Dr. Christian radio show and going on with a lot of other endeavors before beginning to produce The Twilight Zone. The first section is only 160 pages, but you won't believe how much information is packed into these pages of small print with a few photos. Grams must have had access to every bit of correspondence that passed over Rod Serling's desk because there are copies of letters to him from TV stations, writers, show sponsors, friends and fans. There are even copies of letters drafted by Serling to different people, but never mailed. This gives the reader an real "inside view" of what it took to produce the show and all the little details that were involved. There are answers here to questions that you would never even think to ask!
The second section is The Episode Guide and it's arranged by seasons, one through five. It includes all the episodes of each season starting with the title, initial telecast date, dates of filming, producer and secretary, cost, agents, commissions, production fees and more. It's amazing how little some of them cost to produce back then. It gives the names of the cast, stock music cues, the plot and a section titled Trivia, etc. This was one of my favorite parts. When I first got the book I immediately looked up my favorite shows. "Eye of the Beholder" was one of my favorites and I was happy to see that there was about six pages of trivia about that show. If you're a big TZ fan, I think you'll enjoy the trivia. While reading I was amazed that Grams was able to find all of these details. This book is extremely well researched.
The appendixes are: Production Credits, The Twilight Zone Books, The Twilight Zone Comic Books, and List of Stations carrying the Twilight Zone the first season. There is an index at the end and also an episode index that you'll surely use a lot when going through this book.
I've spent hours reading this book and looking up all the episodes, starting with my favorites. I realize that there are some that I don't remember watching on TV and will probably buy a compilation on DVD to catch the ones I missed. Having read this book, I will enjoy them all the more. In fact, a great gift for any Twilight Zone fan on your list would be this book and Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection It doesn't get any better than this!
Rating: -
My wife bought me this book after I purchased the DVD collection and we began watching a few episodes. I was surprised that she did given that she gave me such trouble about buying the DVD pack. I think she has secretly become a fan and does not want to admit it. The book is simply spectacular as each episode springs to a new life with the amount of background information that is provided in the book. One could easily just watch an episode and feel spellbound by Rod's story telling craft, but this book makes the episode you are watching that much more enjoyable as you become aware of the history, trivia tidbits and production pieces in an episode that you overlooked or never have thought about. The Twilight Zone is testament to a time when television was allowed to be thoughtful entertainment, and Gram's book adds an additional realm of thought to this television classic. Thank you
Rating:  -
Right off the bat in Grams' book, he takes pains to establish that he's written this book to correct the many errors contained in other TZ books, including Marc Scott Zicree's Twilight Zone Companion. In the first page of his introduction he offers an example: "The TZ Companion had producer William Froug recall purchasing . . . An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge for $10,000. The fact is . . . the film was purchased for $20,000 plus an additional expense of $5,000 for editing and sound fees."
If you find this the type of error that could not possibly stand going uncorrected, this is the book for you!
Echoing many others here: This is easily the most exhaustive and "definitive" compilation of Twilight Zone lore ever published - but that isn't necessarily a good thing. Reading this, one gets the impression that Grams did not leave a single WORD on the cutting room floor (so to speak). This book isn't for die hard fans, it's for DIE HARD fans . . . and maybe not even for them. (The usual testimonial: I am a HUGE fan of Serling and TZ and I've read Zicree's TZ Companion so many times that my copy looks like something Burgess Meredith found in the rubble.) In his quest to include literally every piece of information he's uncovered, Grams has almost completely sacrificed readability. Add to this that Grams is nowhere near the writer that Zicree is, and this can sometimes be a very long slog. Paragraphs are sometimes complete non-sequitors from what has come before, the chronological sequence in which certain info is presented is often haphazard, and the general organization of the book itself (photos show up with absolutely no relation to the surrounding text) is a mess.
Having said all that, I am amazed with how much "new" information Grams presents us with. For one thing, it seems Grams must have had access to every piece of correspondence Rod Serling ever wrote or received in his entire life! The full text of a letter written by Theodore Sturgeon to Serling before the start of the series is included. A constant stream of correspondence from actors and agents suggesting stories for inclusion is offered and it's fascinating stuff (it provides a constant "what if" exercise about what TZ could have been had different stories been chosen and produced). But probably the biggest revelation surrounds letters sent to and/or from Serling, Charles Beaumont and Ray Bradbury.
It's old news that charges of plagiarism dogged Serling throughout the course of the Zone. Here, for the first time, I realize the full extent of those accusations, the full toll they took on Serling. When Charles Beaumont (one of Serling's fellow TZ writers) writes to Serling to say that he's become exhausted in defending Serling from these accusations, and pointedly tells Serling that it is "clear" that he's lifted ideas from other writers, my eyes almost fell out of my head! For this sequence alone (Serling's response, and the following exchange with Bradbury), this book is necessary reading for any Serling and TZ fan.
Again, I would still recommend Zicree's TZ Companion to 9 out of 10 people. If you're a Zone fanatic like I am, and you've already read Zicree's book, then I do recommend reading this as well.
Rating: -
'The Twilight Zone' provided plenty of unpretentious fun for the baby-boomer. If not, you wouldn't be reading this review. The book is fantastic. It categorizes everything from cast memories, behind-the-scenes stories, bloopers, television production, script writers and their concerns and story origins, and so much more. Not just a critical examination but a deep study with details that are evident just by flipping through the pages. At 798 pages plus an index you can be assured this is the ultimate book covering The Twilight Zone.
The how-to special effects are revealed. Stock footage origins. Angry letters from viewers who felt certain episodes like 'The Hunt' were blasting the good Lord. Posters and billboards on the screen acknowledging the producers and directors. Until I read the book I did not know 'From Agnes With Love' was a pilot for a proposed television series. Ralph Nelson proposed doing 'The Invaders' with trick photography for the little people using rear projection or building big sets and having real people do them like 'Dr. Cyclops.'
Best part of the book? actor James Best talking about his fear of being locked in the coffin for 'The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.'
I read all the reviews. The people standing up and cheering for the book have it dead-on accurate. The book has everything you can imagine. One month of reading and I still have not digested everything in this book. Ignore the very very few negatives. A satisfied customer.
Rating: -
To be a Twilight Zone buff is to love not only the films themselves, but to revel in the behind-the-scenes stories. The juicy romances or rivalries between stars, the hazards of location filming, the absurdity of budgets that spiral out of control, the technical wizardry that makes the impossible seem real. If this is what you craze than I am pleased to announce this is THE book for you.
There is commentary between the lines but you have to digest them. For example the episode "Walking Distance." Martin Sloan travels back in time to his childhood and when something bad happens, he gains the wisdom to return home from of all people... his father and since he went back to his childhood, I find that fitting irony which was overlooked in past viewings.
This massive-sized book is loaded with entertaining memoirs and so much detail that this book is true scholarship. While some people may not value such details as the cost breakdown or dates of filming/production, and focus their disappointment on this alone, the fact that such detail inside reveals how this book was researched to the extreme.
Fun facts I learned while reading this book. MEN INTO SPACE had a budget of $50,000 per episode during the 1959-60 television season while THE TWILIGHT ZONE had $75,000. And of all the programs that season only THE LINEUP had a larger budget. Hugh Hefner wrote a plot summary for a proposed TWILIGHT ZONE but they had already finished filming an episode weeks before with a similar plot. Hefner's plot summary is reprinted in the book. In 1963 a UCLA student was hired to tour the country as "Princess Twilight" to promote the fifth and final season of the program. The author apparently tracked her down as she comments with fascinating memories and stories how they introduced her to Black Russians and Brandy Alexanders on tour and she was underage!
Some of the actors like Jay Overholts played doctors and cab drivers on the progam and were friends of Rod Serling and it was he who arranged for them to move out from Cincinnati to California to play supporting roles. A casting call sheet is reprinted in the book so we get an idea of the paperwork used to produce the television dramas. Bloopers are revealed including Serling misquoting the wrong Shakespeare play in his closing narration of "The Purple Testament," the shadow of a boom mike that can be seen in "Black Leather Jackets" and fans who caught bloopers and wrote letters and some are reprinted in the book. "Mr. Bevis" was a pilot for a proposed comedy series. Four plot proposals for the series (should the program be picked up by the network) are reprinted. Two unused plots were later blended together to form the episode "The Whole Truth." Amazing.
Do not be discouraged by the very few who expected something else. I made that mistake until my wife surprised me on my birthday with this book giftwrapped in the Sunday funnies. I should have bought the book months ago.
If pop culture television is archaeology, then there must be film archaeologists and author Martin Grams Junior has a membership card. THE TWILIGHT ZONE: UNLOCKING THE DOOR TO A TELEVISION CLASSIC is the cinema-history equivalent of the skeletal goodies unearthed by Dr. Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. We have all seen THE TWILIGHT ZONE - at least, I thought I did until I read this book and discovered so much more. This book is truly definitive.
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