The ‘Zone’ Revisited

CBS’ mid-1980s revival of “The Twilight Zone” lasted only two seasons, but the series has had a wonderful afterlife.

One of its episodes has been remade into a stage musical. It has also spawned books and is one of those rare series that had more episodes made after its network cancellation.

As its classic precursor created by Rod Serling, which ran from 1959-1964 on CBS, this second “Zone” has proven to be more successful in syndication than during its original run.

“Viewers love it,” said Connie Borge, assistant director of programming for KABC-TV Channel 7. “It’s just one of those shows that won’t go away.”

The show appeals to stations because it attracts men between 18 and 34, a group coveted by advertisers, but hard to reach because of its lower than average amount of viewing time, according to Sid Cohen, president of Domestic Television Distribution for Metro Goldwyn Meyer, Inc., which distributes “The New Twilight Zone.”

Alan Brennert, who was the executive story consultant, said his series had “more freedom” when it came to language and was able to use more sophisticated special effects compared to the original.

“Paradoxically enough, Serling had an advantage over us because he used ‘The Twilight Zone’ to tell social parables,” said Brennert, who spent the last two seasons as a producer on “L.A. Law.” “He cloaked them using science fiction or fantasy devices. It sort of slipped by the network and sponsors. We weren’t able to slip too many by them. They knew exactly what we were doing.”

The series featured many familiar faces, including Shelley Duvall, Elliot Gould, Richard Mulligan, Fred Savage, George Wendt and Bruce Willis.

Danny Kaye gave his final dramatic performance on the series before his death in 1986 as a man charged with protecting the world from Armageddon.

The second version of “The Twilight Zone”--sometimes called “The New Twilight Zone”--premiered on Sept. 25, 1985, on CBS, with two or three stories shown during the show’s hour. After marginal ratings on Friday night at 8 against ABC’s “Webster” and “Mr. Belvedere” and NBC’s “Knight Rider,” it was shifted to Saturday night at 10 p.m., and a mandate was given to tell more “provocative stories.”

When ratings failed to meet CBS’ hopes, “Zone” was cut to a half-hour and moved to Thursday at 8 p.m., where it competed with “The Cosby Show,” then TV’s top-rated series. But after two episodes in that time slot, the series was canceled.

But that was not the last stop. In 1988, production began in Canada for another cycle of episodes, which were syndicated. Combined with the episodes made for CBS, it gave “Twilight Zone” 92 episodes, enough for a profitable five-night-a-week rerun package.

This also required editing--some of the CBS episodes had to be cut to 22 minutes, others to 11.

Two episodes were spared from massive editing, and became two-part episodes. “Her Pilgrim Soul,” earned Brennert a nomination from the Writers Guild of America for its annual television writing awards. He later adapted the story of a computer scientist (Kristoffer Tabori) who falls for a reincarnated woman (Anne Twomey) into the title selection of a collection of his short stories, and a musical which is currently playing at the Off Broadway WPA Theater in New York.

The other was “A Message From Charity,” the tale of a Massachusetts farm girl in 1700 (Kerry Noonan) who can communicate with a modern-day boy (Robert Duncan McNeill, one of the stars of ABC’s new “Going to Extremes” (premiering this fall) from the same town .

“The New Twilight Zone” airs Tuesday-Friday at midnight and 12:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 1 and 1:30 a.m. on KABC.