JOHN FORD: Your next stop — the Twilight Zone

 You’re traveling through another dimension — a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. There’s a signpost up ahead! Your next stop — the Twilight Zone.

I’ve gotten hooked on watching DVDs of old Twilight Zone episodes. (Get me: “old” Twilight Zone episodes. Like they’re making “new” ones.)

Anyway, I’d heard a lot about the show when I was a kid from my older brothers and sisters who recalled it from their own early childhoods. I’d even seen an episode or three on late night TV over the years.

But I’d forgotten what a smart, well-written and thought-provoking show it was. And unlike the tired formulatic writing of today’s sitcoms (Line, line, joke; line, line, joke; line, line, joke, etc.) the writing was superb.

Phyllis and I have seen episodes from all five seasons now, and we haven’t seen storylines repeated, although there are recurring themes such as war, dictators, the evils of greed.
Watching “Twilight Zone” is good for recalling recent American history as well, from what Americans were most worried about in the early 1960s (the hydrogen bomb and bomb shelters figure in many episodes as do brewing tensions in a little out of the way corner of the world called Vietnam). Each episode is essentially a morality play: greed and vanity are punished, honesty and fairness are rewarded.

I’ve heard narrator Rod Serling wrote more than half of the 157 episodes, some in as little as a day. And while, in my opinion, most are good, there are some that rank up there with television’s greatest moments.

One Phyllis and I remembered from childhood was titled “To Serve Man,” about beings from outer space who came to earth, shared their knowledge, and made the planet a utopia. War, poverty, hunger were all abolished by the knowledge they shared, and the devices they provided. Force fields around countries made bombs and missiles obsolete, as the fields could not be penetrated. A nitrate additive transformed even the poorest of desert soils into a garden of Eden.

But the aliens left behind a book titled “To Serve Man.” “How nice,” the people thought. “The aliens have our best interests at heart.” Earthlings then began migrating to the aliens’ planet. Only until a young cryptologist cracked the code was the true nature of the book revealed: “It’s a cookbook!”

And I remembered “It’s a Good Life,” the episode where a young, really young, Billy Mumy had special powers, ranging the ability to create three-headed gophers (relatively harmless) to the ability to “think” his neighbors dead and buried in a cornfield (obviously not so good). His mother, played by Cloris Leachman, especially didn’t like that last bit, but told him he was good, so she wouldn’t end up in the cornfield. I recalled reading the short story the episode was based upon in high school.

Then there are the departures from format. “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” a French film that faithfully reproduced the Ambrose Bierce story. It didn’t seem to fit the Twilight Zone format until you consider that Bierce disappeared without a trace sometime around 1913.

And then there was the one where Buster Keaton time-travels from his current day, 1890, to 1960 in an effort to seek peace and quiet, only to be confronted with large finned automobiles, horns, jackhammers, and the din from record shops. That episode started as a grainy silent film, then transformed to the “modern” age to which Keaton time-traveled.

It’s fun playing “isn’t that?” when watching the episodes. Twilight Zone mixed established stars such as Cliff Robertson with then-newcomers such as Robert Redford, William Shatner, Elizabeth Montgomery and Charles Bronson. Veteran actors such as Agnes Moorehead (who later co-starred with Elizabeth Montgomery on “Bewitched”) have also been spotted. I even saw Anderson native Dabbs Greer in one episode, while Joplin native Dennis Weaver was in another.

Yes, the old Twilight Episodes have provided many hours of entertainment in my household. And I especially enjoy the public service announcements giving out advice we now take for granted, such as using seat belts, not criticizing the mentally ill, or worshipping at the church or synagogue of my choice.

John Ford is managing editor of the Daily News.