The Twilight Zone
haunted TV screens long before the concept of auteur TV, and though Rod Serling
was the anthology’s most recognizable face, he did not write every episode. Yet
Barry Keith Grant still makes a fairly solid argument for Serling’s role as auteur
in the new book TV Milestones: The
Twilight Zone. Grant notes how Serling promoted a groundbreaking blend of
traditional genres (sci-fi, horror, noir, fantasy, western) and how his
center-left politics and Hobbesian “world at war” philosophy (art vs. commerce,
individuality vs. conformity, etc.) and willingness to address current events distinguished
The Twilight Zone as much as its
gremlins, Kanamits, and asymmetrical doctors.
I’m no great proponent of the auteur theory, and such a
variety of writing, directing, cinematographic, and acting talent was involved in
The Twilight Zone that it would not be my pick for a prime example of auteur
TV. Yet Grant makes his case sufficiently convincing by emphasizing how much of
its creator went into The Twilight Zone and how unique it was for its time as a result. That kind of focus rather than a more
sweeping analysis is also smart considering how slim these TV milestones books
are. Barry Keith Grant makes good use of his 100 pages.
