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How a Classic Twilight Zone Episode Nearly Gave the Cast and Crew Heatstroke
To create the illusion that the Earth was hurtling toward the Sun, "The Midnight Sun" cranked up the heat on set.
In rewatching classic episodes of The Twilight Zone (which regularly air on SYFY), one of the things that stands out the most is the sheer believability of the acting — the palpable sweat, desperation, and helplessness given off by characters grappling with extraordinary circumstances far beyond their control.
The limited sets and old school special effects — byproducts of budgetary and technological limitations — add to the overall atmosphere, with many installments of the classic anthology series feeling more like mini-stage performances rather than full-on television productions. If there's one thing creator Rod Serling excelled at, it was capturing the quivering jelly of primal panic lying just beneath the veneer of human civilization. For all our hubris and knowledge, we're still just frightened bipeds groping around in the dark of a vast and uncaring universe.
No episode exemplifies that sentiment better than Season 3's "The Midnight Sun," in which the Earth has mysteriously changed its orbit and begins hurtling toward the Sun, raising the temperature of our planet more and more each day. There's nothing we can do as the brilliant ball of burning gas that once kept us warm permanently hangs in the sky, now a blinding beacon of inevitable doom.
Rather than tell a broader story about the end of all things, Serling's original teleplay brilliantly keeps the narrative contained to a single New York City apartment, which slowly turns into a literal hotbox for painter Norma (Lois Nettleton) and her landlady across the hall, Mrs. Bronson (Betty Garde). The dripping gloom upon their faces, the perspiration soaking deeper into the fabric of their clothing is all the viewer needs to believe the illusion of a world no longer blessed with the cooling respite of darkness.
In credibly feigning such intense heat, however, director Anton "Tony" Leader nearly gave his cast and crew heatstroke.
This Classic Twilight Zone Episode Nearly Gave the Cast and Crew Heatstroke
Speaking with Marc Scott Zicree for the author's seminal Twilight Zone Companion, Leader — who passed away in 1988 — revealed that the episode was made on a $52,000 budget over the course of three days amid a Los Angeles summer without any air conditioning. "With a very limited budget and facilities, we had to do a lot of improvising," Leader said. "We had to use every means available to us to project the fear of this developing heat and this cataclysmic ending to the world. I think we did a pretty good job."
Leader continued: "I remember that there were a couple of scenes in which I asked the electrical grip to add heat, not so much heat that it would show on the film, but heat that we would feel on the set. It made us distinctly uncomfortable, but I think it helped us develop the feeling that we had of heat. I didn't do that throughout, because its effect would have been lost eventually. We would have just been plain simply miserable and angry with each other for being involved in this thing."
Classic episodes of The Twilight Zone air regularly on SYFY. Click here for complete scheduling info!
