Running for 424 packed pages, Rubin’s book discusses every
episode, every writer, every director, every major theme (aliens, children,
time travel, etc.), every significant location or item (Sunnyvale Rest home from
“Kick the Can”, Talky Tina from “Living Doll”, etc.), and nearly every actor
and actress who appeared in the series’
original run (understandably, people like Phil Arnold, who played “Man” in “Mr.
Dingle, the Strong” and Jimmy Baird, who played “Boy” in “The Changing of the
Guard” are a bit too much for our valiant author). And the original run is Rubin’s main concern, which he makes very
clear in his book’s introduction, although he still manages to slip in a good
deal of information about, for example, Twilight
Zone: The Movie in his entry on “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”.
Rubin doesn’t make room for potential entries about such original
series-related items as all the merchandise The Twilight Zone spawned or The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episodes that so wonderfully
parody so many classic Zones, but we
do get a lot that saves the book from being redundant in light of The Twilight Zone Companion, Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a
Television Classic, IMDB, and Wikipedia. There are quotes from new
interviews with a slew of people involved with the original series, odd bits of
trivia (example: Russ Meyer was a still photographer for the series! Nina
Roman-Rhodes, who played the maid in “Miniature”, was one of the few people who
reported seeing a second gunman at the site of JFK’s assassination!), and quite
a few unusual photos (my favorite: Gary Crosby of “Come Wander with Me”
monkeying with an electric bass). Ten pages of Rod Serling’s final interview is
a cool addition too even though the creator barely mentions The Twilight Zone at all.
