Movies - TV
The Twilight Zone’s Pilot Episode Wasn’t A Twilight Zone Episode At All
By WILLIAM BIBBIANI
The first episode of Rod Sterling's "The Twilight Zone," titled "Where Is Everybody?" is a striking TV series debut. Technically, however, it isn't the pilot episode at all.
In the 1950s, Sterling actually sold the show based on the success of another weird tale he had written that was produced for a completely different series.
Moving away from conventional dramas, Sterling sold an old half-hour science-fiction script he had written in the early 1950s called "The Time Element."
The teleplay first aired on a series called "The Storm" on Cincinnati station WKRC-TV. Sterling expanded it into an hour-long teleplay and sold it to CBS, who didn't produce it.
That is, not until Bert Granet came along, a producer at "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse" who wanted to improve the anthology series' image by enlisting attention-grabbing talent.
When Granet learned that one of Sterling's scripts was just sitting around, he purchased it for $10,000. However, it ended on an ambiguous note, which sponsors did not like.
Sponsors hated the idea of an open-ended story and thought audiences would, as well. However, in an ironic twist, critics and audiences alike loved it.