The Twilight Zone (1985 TV series)
| The Twilight Zone | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | |
| Created by | Rod Serling, based on his previous 1959 TV series |
| Narrated by |
Charles Aidman (1985–87) Robin Ward (1988–89) |
| Theme music composer |
Jerry Garcia Bob Weir Brent Mydland Phil Lesh Mickey Hart Bill Kreutzmann Merl Saunders Marius Constant (original theme) |
| Opening theme | Performed by The Grateful Dead |
| Country of origin | United States Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 110 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 45-48 min. (Season 1) 22 min. (Seasons 2-3) |
| Production company(s) |
CBS Productions (1985–87) Persistence of Vision (1985–87) London Films (1985–89) CBS Broadcast International (1988–89) Atlantis Films (1988–89) |
| Distributor |
MGM/UA Telecommunications (1988–89) CBS Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network |
CBS (1985-87) First-run syndication (1988-89) |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Stereo, Mono |
| Original release | September 27, 1985 – April 15, 1989 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Twilight Zone (1959 series) |
| Followed by | The Twilight Zone (2002 series) |
The Twilight Zone (1985) is the first of two revivals of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1959-64 television series of the same name. It ran for two seasons on CBS before producing a final season for syndication.
It was Serling's decision to sell his share of the series back to the network that eventually allowed for a Twilight Zone revival. As an in-house production, CBS stood to earn more money producing The Twilight Zone than it could by purchasing a new series produced by an outside company. Even so, the network was slow to consider a revival, shooting down offers from the original production team of Rod Serling and Buck Houghton and later from American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Their hesitation stemmed from concerns familiar to the original series: The Twilight Zone had never been the breakaway hit CBS wanted, so they should not expect it to do better in a second run. "We were looking at the success of the original series in syndication and the enormous popularity of the Steven Spielberg films," said CBS program chief Harvey Shepard. "Many of them (such as E.T. or Poltergeist) deal with elements of the show. Perhaps the public is ready for it again."
Despite the lukewarm response to Twilight Zone: The Movie, Spielberg's theatrical homage to the original series, CBS gave the new Twilight Zone a greenlight in 1984 under the supervision of Carla Singer, then Vice President of Drama Development. "The Twilight Zone was a series I always liked as a kid," said Singer, "...and at that point it sounded like an interesting challenge for me personally." These sentiments were seconded by a number of young filmmakers eager to make their mark on a series which had proved influential to their life and work—people like writers Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, Rockne S. O'Bannon, Jeremy Bertrand Finch, Paul Chitlik and directors Wes Craven and William Friedkin. Casts featured stars including Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Season Hubley, Morgan Freeman, Martin Landau, Jonathan Frakes, and Fred Savage.
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