Movies - TV
The Twilight Zone’s Ugliest Episodes Got The Show Sued – Twice
By BILL BRIA
The six episodes of Rod Serling's original "The Twilight Zone" that were videotaped, as opposed to shot on film, are generally regarded as some of the series' biggest failures.
This change was not an internal decision made by Serling. Rather, CBS tried to cut the show's production costs, causing technical issues that ruined otherwise good scripts.
These episodes inspired not one, but two separate lawsuits wherein unknown writers claimed to have come up with their stories first, adding insult to injury.
The episodes in question were "Static," about a radio that tunes into the past, and "Long Distance Call," about a boy who communicates with his late grandmother on a toy phone.
Both episodes were alleged to be the intellectual property of other writers. While the cases resulted in settlements, the issue was parallel thinking as opposed to outright theft.