Unfortunately, good things can’t last forever.
In fact, we’re lucky we gotThe Twilight Zoneat all.
It brings us no joy to say thatThe Twilight Zoneactually got cancelled more than once.
Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.
Play with Rod once, shame on you.
Play with him twice that’s just criminal!
A successful one at that, but one thatwasn’t exactly met with much reverence by studio executives.
Image via CBS
Why would it have been, though?
Folks in the late 1950s and ’60s didn’t exactly know what they had yet.
After tackling the sci-fi genre, Rod Serling decided to head West.
The first few years were a healthy time for Rod Serling’s series.
As a matter of fact, during this period, he had written 92 episodes ofThe Twilight Zone!
I’ve written so much, I’m woozy."
He was feeling worn out creatively, but at least he was making the studio happy …
While they were reaching out everywhere,the series was pulled from CBS’s fall schedule.
By who, you might ask?
CBS executive James Aubrey one of the chief villains inThe Twilight Zone’s history.
The thing is,Season 4 ofThe Twilight Zonedoesn’t feel right.
That’s because episodes were stretched out to an hour-long time slot, well beyond its original half-hour runtime.
Unfortunately, James Aubrey stepped back into the ring and slashed the series' production budget big time.
Rumor has it that this was to intentionally compromise the quality of the series.
A story of racial disharmony became one of the show’s most controversial episodes.
He quickly moved on fromThe Twilight Zoneto work on other TV shows and films.
James Aubrey, on the other hand, remains remembered as a successful yet problematic executive.
The Twilight Zoneis available to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S.
WATCH ON PARAMOUNT+
