The Twilight Zone Companion
by Marc Scott Zicree
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Publisher: Silman-James Press
Salesrank: 13649List Price: $15.95
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Media: Book
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Is what a TV series “companion book” should be . . . (2008-04-17)
What a great surprise! TV series companion books are a mixed bag and most are disappointing. This one, however, is worthy to bear the name of the wonderful classic series it chronicles . . . The Twilight Zone.
The book opens with a biography of Rod Serling, followed by an equally engaging chapter on the conception, creation and birth of the series. Much background information and insights. Very, very well researched and written. Extremely interesting.
Each of the show’s five seasons is grouped, and a chapter devoted to each episode - documenting the date, writer, producer, directors, music, and cast. Serling’s opening comments for the respective episode are reproduced and then a synopsis with EXTREMELY interesting behind the scenes information. Some of the more famous episodes (”The Invaders” with Ages Moorhead) are given more space and detail.
What makes this companion book so special, I think, is that due to our familiarity with the Twilight Zone, and having re-watched the various episodes multiple times - the average baby boomer can just about open this book at random and within a few sentences is recalling the episode and the details being discussed.
The book closes with an After the Twilght Zone chapter, and then an epilogue. I cannot iterate enough, how well written this book is. Some books of this nature are clinical and boring, others gush with praise but offer no real depth of information. Marc Scott Zicree hit the mark perfectly with this piece of work. Fascinating information that WE are interested in, well written in a conversational matter, well organized. Hundreds of great nostalgic still photos are a bonus.
Highly recommended for even a casual Twilight Zone fan. I bet you won’t be able to stay out of it.Everything you wanted to know….. (2008-04-01)
about the Twilight Zone episodes. Man this book is great. As well as providing great information on the episodes themselves, the book goes deeper as it goes into detail of its conception, life and death of what some may claim to be the best TV series ever. Every TZ fan should have this book already.Twilight Zone Book - A Rare Find! (2008-02-09)
A real gem for any Twilight Zone Buff! Lists all the actors as well as story line for each episode. If you see this out of print book better grab it! Hopefully now that there is a new DVD compilation out this book will be republished.Very excellent book (2007-10-20)
I love this book!!! It has everything for a twilight zone fan. It first has an introduction to Rod Serling Then goes on to tell about the show. Then it explains about each season and has every episode in order by air date. Every episode has a picture information about the episode including Rods introduction and outro,Who it was written by, the producer, Director and a few other things plus the sum of the episode then goes into a sort of interveiw with special people behind the twilight zone. so basically your learnign something special about every episode. It has all the information you would need about the twilight zone. It was a spectacular book. I suggest it as a BUY!!!Mixed Bag (2007-09-03)
Zicree’s Twilight Zone Companion is alright as a reference guide for information on original airing dates, credits, and backstage tidbits. The organization of the book could have been more user-friendly but nothing to quibble about. Interviews with those associated with the program were also interesting and worth the price of admission.
Zicree is docked two stars for presenting his critiques as anything other than completely subjective. He is welcome to his opinions as we all have favorite episodes and ones that we find less enjoyable. That’s the nature of art in any form. For me, the problem is with the fact that Zicree doesn’t at least admit up front that his opinions have less to do with the quality of a given story and more to do with a leftist world view. His apologetics for all things Socialist (see his comments on Khruschev and Castro) coupled with a hatred for traditional American culture (see his comments about an episode concerning Custer, for example) are grating to say the least. While one may argue these geopolitical points in a different setting, a guide to a TV series, in my opinion, appears to be an ill chosen forum.
Just a closing comment here: Zicree could not bring himself to find any good thing to say about contributer Earl Hamner’s episodes. It seems to me that it may have more to do with Hamner’s later work in the Walton’s, a series with a very traditional viewpoint that is the antithesis of Zicree’s left-wing dogma, than with the quality of Hamner’s TZ scripts.
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