MAJOR TV SERIES

Sci-Fi TV Shows

There has been no greater escape offered to the viewing public than Sci-fi TV shows. These shows have always been great entertainment offering chance to look at our world by learning about other worlds that might exist. The wonderful draw of these fantasy genre shows is the opportunity to ask What if. We are relieved of the burdens of our world like time, gravity, dimension, and physics. We are allowed to explore worlds totally different from our own in order to seek a universal truth. A truth that is also unbound by those very attributes of our planet that we get to leave behind.

Sci-Fi TV shows, like most other TV shows, got their start in radio and then transferred to the new medium of television. The new theater of TV gave the science fiction writer new dimensions to work with and added another level to the stories they were able to tell. The stories were able to have a grander scale and be able to weave more intricate plots since the audience could be shown signposts for new locations, times, or characters. Sound effects were no longer the only narrative cues available. Characters could be better and more elaborately drawn allowing for expanded casts and more intricate plots and subplots.

The Twilight Zone is the classic example of the early Sci-FI TV shows. It remained episodic in format like its radio predecessors giving the audience a couple vignettes each time. Occasionally, the episodes were on a common theme and allowed the narrator to educate the public on the meaning of the stories. We were led to certain conclusions and assumptions by mankind that may not apply to the rest of the universe. Further, it was implied that those assumptions or actions shouldnt be applied here. The genre allowed the show to preach a bit about humanity without directly attacking anyone here.

Star Trek is another classic example of what Sci-Fi TV shows could do culturally. The crew of the Enterprise has become culturally iconic for entire generations. At the time, the show was cutting edge in terms of special effects and launched careers for several actors. The worlds explored on the show were more elaborate than those that came before, but the moral was always the same: this could be us; do we want it to be? The point was always to question what it means to be human and decide if that is the best we can be or is there something more.

Star Trek-The Next Generation was a spinoff of sorts during a time when TV was going very retro. The show came years after the original ended and brought with it even better special effects and far better acting. Like all improvements in this genre, it allowed for more intricate plots and more dazzling worlds to explore. This show was different, however. The difference came in the fact that many of the scripts had an internal focus on the characters interactions aboard the ship and not always so much on their interaction with the outside worlds. It became more pure drama.

About the Author

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1959 TV Show Intros Part 1 of 3

Twilight Zone $21.24 A volume of new tales in the style of the original television series, written to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary, includes contributions by such leading genre authors as Whitley Streiber, Timothy Zahn, and Peter S. Beagle. Simultaneous. TV tie-in.

Richard Matheson’s the Twilight Zone Scripts $14.91 This is a collection of Matheson’s original teleplays for the influential “Twilight Zone” TV show.

The Twilight Zone $8.25 The Twilight Zone

Zone of Twilight $45.6 Zone of Twilight

Twilight Zone – Submitted for Your Approval $16.98 Rod Serling was already one of the most acclaimed writers in American television when he created the legendary fantasy series The Twilight Zone, which presented speculative fiction with an intelligence unheard of in TV at the time, while addressing many of the hottest issues of the day in metaphors that were clear and telling, but safe from political censorship. The remarkable rise and sad decline of Serling’s career is the subject of Submitted for Your Approval, which features exclusive interviews with many people who worked with him, including John Frankenheimer, Buck Houghton, Jack Klugman, and Kim Hunter. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Philosophy in the Twilight Zone $26.05 Utilizing a series of essays examining the broad philosophical concepts embedded in Rod Serling’s series, The Twilight Zone, Philosophy in The Twilight Zone provides a platform for further philosophical discussion. Features essays by eminent contempo

Into the Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide $23.48 "Into The Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide" includes complete episode guides with cast, credits and story summaries of the original "Twilight Zone" series, as well as its many film and television revivals, and "Rod Serling’s Night Gallery," The book features an overview and filmography of Serling’s life and career, and interviews with many of his colleagues, including Buck Houghton, Richard Matheson, Frank Marshall, Joe Dante, Phil DeGuere, Wes Craven, Alan Brennert, Paul Chitlik and Jeremy Bertrand Finch. It also includes indices of actors and creative personnel. "The best TV programme guide I have seen." –Ty Power, "Dreamwatch" "The perfect complement to "The Twilight Zone Companion,"" –David McDonnell, "Starlog"

The Twilight Zone, Vol. 20 $6.43 This collection of episodes from the classic sci-fi fantasy series The Twilight Zone gets a quality presentation in this DVD release. All three episodes on The Twilight Zone, Vol. 20 have been transferred to disc in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 a