Entering the Fifth Dimension: A Twilight Zone Podcast

Throughout the 1950's and 60's Rod Serling wrote several stories aimed at shedding light on racial issues with blacks in America. His stories were often watered down or changed to other racial groups by network executives or sponsors, leaving Rod in a state of frustration. When JFK was gunned down in Dallas on the afternoon of November 22, 1963, Rod was inspired to write "I am the Night - Color Me Black," an episode which not only addresses racism and bigotry head on, but it also addressed hate all over the world.

"I am the Night" released in March of 1964, and it can be challenging for today's audience to appreciate its impact or tone. To help us better understand life in the 1960's for black Americans, and give us a perspective on how things are today, we're joined this month by Rodney Barnes. Rodney is a thirty year veteran of Hollywood, working on projects like "Everybody Hates Chris," "Major Payne," "The Green Mile, and "Wu-Tang: An American Saga." Most recently, Rodney is the executive producer and co-writer of the HBO Max Docu—Dramedy called “Winning Time.” He is also a critically acclaimed Graphic Novelist with his killidelphia Series.

We had a very enlightening and enjoyable conversation with Rodney, and it's our honor to bring you this discussion for this month's episode of Entering the Fifth Dimension.

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Beloved as Catwoman from the 1960's Batman series, Julie Newmar first appeared as Miss Devlin on the season 4 Twilight Zone episode, "Of Late I think of Cliffordville." Pat Hingle, who played the role of Commissioner Gordon in the 1980's and 90's Batman films, made his Twilight Zone appearance in the season 4 episode, "The Incredible World of Horace Ford."

Besides featuring actors who would later appear in the Batman universe, these two episodes features plots involving men who can't let go of their past. While "Cliffordville" tells the tale of a business tycoon who finds his life empty after reaching the top of the mountain, "Horace Ford" features a story of a man who evidently hasn't matured into adulthood. One of these episodes, while far from perfect, still does a fairly good job of landing its intended message. However, the other episode fails to land coherently for either Darrell or Robert and even caused them to wonder if it might be the worst Twilight Zone episode of them all.

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If there's one thing The Twilight Zone loves, it's exploring humanity through the lens of space travel. This month we take a look at two episodes where the lead characters find themselves stranded in space, albeit for entirely different reasons. In season 1 episode 7 entitled, "The Lonely," we encounter the story of a man named Corry who has been sentenced to solitary confinement on an asteroid millions of miles from earth. He's given a human-looking robot to ease his loneliness, but what happens if he's eventually forced to choose between the robot and returning to earth?

Next we take a look at season 3 episode 28, "The Little People." Here we encounter two astronauts who land on an unknown planet so they can make repairs to their spaceship. While there, they discover a colony of ant-sized intelligent beings. One of the men, Craig, decides to prop himself up as their god and maniacally torments them to receive their praise. His superior, Fletcher, leaves him behind on the planet against his better judgement, but Craigs reign as god will not be long-lived.

These two episodes give us a chance to explore what it means to be human, the importance of kindness, compassion, and empathy, and lessons we've learned in our lives when we let our egos get the best of us.

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While the weather may be a bit unseasonably warm for us right now, we find ourselves in a much cooler situation than those in the season 3 Twilight Zone episode, "The Midnight Sun." For much of the episode we are lead to believe they are on a collision course with the sun...or are they? This is a podcast episode with a snow theme after all. Then we take a look at season three's final episode, "The Changing of the Guard." The content of this episode draws us back to our own childhood and the teachers that impacted us indelibly. This episode is both a reminder to thank those who have positively impacted our lives and that we are quite blind to the impact our lives have on others.

2022 SyFy Twilight Zone Marathon Schedule

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Burgess Meredith's impact on the Twilight Zone is arguably deeper than any other thespian to enter the fifth dimension. While most know him immediately for his work on the beloved episode, "Time Enough at Last," many have never seen his appearance in the season four episode, "Printer's Devil."

This month we not only take a look at "Printer's Devil," but we also take a look at his season 2 appearance as the meek pushover "Mr. Dingle, the Strong." Dingle is much more commonly recognizable due to the zany two-headed Martians and antenna-clad Venusians who look like children but sound like grown men.

These two episodes offer a contrast in the characters portrayed by Meredith that show off his versatile acting chops, while giving us a glimmer of what was to come in his iconic role as The Penguin in the 1960's TV series, Batman.

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Is dealing with the devil ever a good idea? Would you even recognize the devil if you met him face to face? Would there be peace on earth if you could somehow capture Satan himself and confine him to a prison cell? October is the month of ghosts, goblins, witches, and devils, so it seems like the perfect time to look back at two episodes of The Twilight Zone that feature the devil as a main piece of the story.

In season 1 Rod Serling gave us "Escape Clause" where hypochondriac Walter Bedeker makes a deal with the devil which grants him immortality. However, he soon finds out there can be unexpected consequences of living forever, and may need to take advantage of the escape clause in his contract with the devil.

Season 2 gave us "The Howling Man." David Ellington stumbles across a remote monastery where Brother Jerome and his followers claim they have captured Satan and have him locked in a prison cell. The prisoner seems harmless to Ellington, and he's faced with the dilemma to leave the situation alone, or act on behalf of the prisoner and rescue him from captivity. His decision has consequences that may impact all of humanity.

Support the Rod Serling Monument Kickstarter campaign!

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Mirrors give us glimpses into a parallel world and allow us to see the hearts of men. Well, at least they do in The Twilight Zone. This month we look at "Mirror Image" and wonder if the ticket agent and washroom attendant are all part of the plan to make Millicent believe she's crazy. We also review "The Mirror" and share our theories on whether or not the mirror actually had special powers, or if it was merely the power of suggestion amplified by paranoia that brought about the demise of these revolutionaries.

• Westmoore High School Marching Band performance of "You Unlock This Door.."
• Pride of Piedmont Marching Band performance of "Door 13"
• Edmond North Husky Marching Band performance of "Wheels of Joy"

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I’ll go out on a limb here and state unequivocally that James Best is in the best two scary Twilight Zone episodes of the entire show. Darrell may or may not agree with me, but we discuss the noire feel of "The Grave" and the playful, yet thought-provoking take on "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank" too. Both episodes were written and directed by the great Montgomery Pittman. Both episodes feature incredible cast members with fun names of the characters to boot. It was great seeing Best play a character to type but also one with vulnerability. Join in and let us know your thoughts. Was Connie killed by dumb luck or by Pinto’s ghost? Only the Zone knows!

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When you look at the beginning and the ending efforts of arguably the best genre tv show in history, you need to expect there might be low’s and high’s to discuss. Furthermore, you‘d expect the first episode to have more lows than the last, simply because it is still finding its footing. But that isn’t the way we saw it. Episode one‘s story misdirection, although not suggestive of entering the Zone “Canon” enough to be formulated in the very next episode, did establish a great twist ending which is a hallmark of Serling’s best material. The last episode, judge for yourself, shows a great show fell apart on its last effort. Listen in and as always give us a shout because we would love to hear from you. Even if your accent isn’t truly Southern.

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We have a double dose of Twist Endings Part Two for you this time as we look at "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" and "The Invaders." Two episodes, somewhat vastly different except we see they both involve space travel, misunderstandings, and violent deaths. Actually, both stories capitalize on the hubris of mankind to reach out into the stars with a blind eye to the consequences of interacting with a new environment and interacting with its inhabitants and even ourselves. Although both use space as their settings, what is truly magical about the Twilight Zone is once again the stories that Serling crests from there are so far away yet are able to look at mankind’s faults so closely.

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