Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
Why Did Rod Serling Wait 36 Episodes to Actually Appear in The Twilight Zone?
The Twilight Zone's creator narrates the intro to every episode, but you don't actually see him until the very end of the Season 1 finale.
The image of Rod Serling, wearing a suit and directly addressing viewers to welcome them into the Twilight Zone, is pretty much THE iconic image of the famed anthology series (which appears on SYFY regularly). Even though there are tons of other memorable images — a man taking off his paper hat to reveal a third eye, the warped, pig-like faces of doctors who were previously only seen in shadow, a bookworm breaking his glasses in the ruins of the apocalypse — it’s the look of The Twilight Zone’s creator, Serling, that’s most associated with the series.
It might be a surprise, then, to learn that Serling didn’t actually show up on-screen for essentially the entire first season of The Twilight Zone’s five-season run. Until the very last moments of the first season’s very last episode, Serling was merely heard as a disembodied voice rather than an on-screen presence.
Why Rod Serling doesn't show up on screen in The Twilight Zone till the end of Season 1
Serling’s physical absence from the first season might be partially explained by the fact that he was not the original choice to serve as The Twilight Zone’s narrator. Westbrook Van Voorhis, an established narrator, lent his pipes to the opening of the pilot episode, "Where Is Everybody?", which aired on October 2, 1959. However, CBS executives decided his voice was “a little too pompous-sounding,” according to Marc Scott Zicree's book, The Twilight Zone Companion. Orson Welles was floated as a replacement, but he was too costly. So Serling, despite being a writer by trade, stepped in to narrate his own show.
In the first season, we hear Serling’s now-iconic voice as he sets the stage for the episode to follow. You don’t see him for the first 35 episodes of the show, as at the beginning it wasn’t written with the narrator in mind as a “character” the way he ultimately would become. (Technically, during the original TV broadcasts, Serling would appear on camera to tease next week’s episode, but that’s not the same thing as him actually appearing in the episode proper, and those promos are not included when watching the show on SYFY, streaming it, or watching it on physical media.) It’s not until the end of the 36th episode, “A World of His Own,” the Season 1 finale, that Serling appears — though it’s not a typical appearance.
The episode follows a man who realizes he can change reality by narrating into his dictation machine, and if he wants to destroy anything he’s created he simply needs to toss that section of tape into the fire. At the end of the episode, Serling appears on the set and addresses the audience in the flesh.
“We hope you enjoyed tonight's romantic story on The Twilight Zone,” he says. “At the same time, we want you to realize that it was, of course, purely fictional. In real life, such ridiculous nonsense could never—"
Just then, a man interrupts to say “Rod, you shouldn’t!” and chastises him before pulling out an envelope full of tape that says “Rod Serling” and chucking it into the fire.
"Well, that's the way it goes," Serling says before he fades out of existence.
It’s a cute, meta moment that breaks the fourth wall, but it also broke new ground for the series. From then on, Serling would appear on camera at the beginning of every episode. (He appeared at the end of an episode, as he did in “A World of His Own,” just two additional times, in “The Obsolete Man" and "The Fugitive.")
So, if you’re watching an episode of The Twilight Zone and good ol’ Rod hasn’t personally appeared to let you know you’ve entered the Twilight Zone, it just means you’re watching an episode from Season 1.
Classic episodes of The Twilight Zone air regularly on SYFY. Click here for complete scheduling info!
