The Twilight Zone is terrifying in the same way that your parents giving you the silent treatment when you were a kid was frightening. It messed with your mind, and was therefore more psychologically damaging than, to continue with the analogy, the Paranormal Activity movies or mom and dad yelling at you. That kind of "scary" is cheap, instantaneous, and easy (yeah, yeah, "like your mom," I know), but I'm not sure if I've ever fully recovered from the first time I saw "Time Enough at Last," and that was 14 years ago. Mind grapes, blown.
With Halloween right around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to dedicate a post to some of the life lessons Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone gave us over 156 episodes between 1959-1964. We shan't speak of the 2002 UPN revival, though it might be the most horrifying show of them all. Beware of floating doors.
Never get on a plane with William Shatner.
If you meet someone named Miss Devlin, you should run away very quickly, even if she looks like Julie Newmar.
Should you require assistance with a dilemma, it's best to ask for help in the most dramatic way possible.
(Via)
Never ask like questions, "How much worse could it get?" or "Does anything exciting ever happen around here?"
(Via)
The best laid plans of mice and men...don't matter because life will find a way to f*ck with you.
(Via)
Running out the window like a frightened bunny is the right way of handling any and all predicaments.
(Via)
Don't make fun of the ridge-faced, pig-nosed kid on the playground. His kind may someday take over the planet.
(Via)
And lastly, out of context Rod Serling is the best Rod Serling.
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![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2011/10/twilight-zone-3-150x150.jpg)
Nobody could understand my fear of eye tests in primary school. Nonsensical.
What. If. I. Need. Glasses!?! Best laid plans indeed.
Lesson #21: Don’t be a dick to your step-daughter, TELLY SAVALAS.
My god, some kind of SCARY DOOR
I’ve learned that if a piece of technology promises to make your life better, it’ll just make it worse.
Wait, I learned that from Verizon, actually.
What about the seminal life lesson echoed throughout generations of my family “They were ghosts the whole time!”
It saddens me that someday people will think that this show was about fake vampires and how important it is to have a emo boyfriend.
Best. Show. Ever.
IT TURNS OUT IT’S MAN
Why should I believe you, you’re Hitler!
#20 Morena Baccarin is eternal!
Banner Pic alt text: “Hello. I’ll be raping you this evening.”
I looked up “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” on wiki as a lark the other day and got sucked into a vortex of Twilight Zone episodes and clips for hours. Never realized how many times Burgess Meredith popped up on that show.
Off the top of my head, three?
Also, a lot of Jack Klugman.
Lesson #22: DUMMIES.
Glad to see you included Shatner with the question machine in Nick Of Time. That was always a better episode than Nightmare At 20,000 Feet.
I was thinking “if this doesn’t have something along the lines of ‘kids are assholes’ than you didn’t learn a thing” thanks for not disappointing me,
My favorite show ever.
I’m so terrified right now…
My favorite show ever! I’ve always loved Rod Serling. What a total 60′s babe.
I’ve never seen an episode simply because someone once DESCRIBED the “there was finally time!!” episode… As a young, non-social book worm that was the most mind-blowingly devestating thing I’d ever heard…
out of context Rod Serling sounds like a tumblr that needs to happen.
#10 is my reaction to pretty much everything these days.