How Doctors And Teenagers Joined Forces To Save The Twilight Zone
When "The Twilight Zone" first began broadcasting in October 1959, there was a lot of skepticism in the air. Rod Serling's now-celebrated sci-fi anthology series was by no means a guaranteed success (few things are), and Serling was careful to talk about his show at every available opportunity. In Marc Scott Zicree's book "The Twilight Zone Companion," Serling confessed, "I make no bones about taking every opportunity to blatantly plug my show." The series featured excellent writing, memorably twisted stories, and a stable of upcoming talent that is still remarked on to this day, but none of that meant that Serling wasn't constantly hustling. Evidently, he conducted interviews with every publication that would have him.
At the time, the main criticism of "The Twilight Zone" was that it was too cerebral. Every episode was a "thinker," and, as always, television executives didn't expect their audiences to think. It was only a matter of time before the ratings on the first episodes started to come in that Serling would be able to breathe a sigh of relief. When it came to ratings, Serling said that he didn't believe in them or that they were even any kind of accurate bellwether of a TV show's actual success, "But, boy, am I on the phone waiting to hear them ..."
It wasn't until two months into the series' initial broadcast — after about 10 episodes — that ratings began to crystallize. The response, Serling could finally see with a sigh of relief, was quite positive. In those first two months, "The Twilight Zone" attracted about 20 million viewers a week. The main audience? Teenagers and doctors.
I Was a Teenage Zoner
Serling remembered opening fan letters in those early months and finding they were from high school students and medical professionals. He didn't note why those two demographics were drawn to "The Twilight Zone," but he was grateful for them:
"We got almost six thousand pieces of mail in eighteen days. A lot of teenagers wrote, which surprised us, and a lot of doctors and professional people, people who ordinarily would never write a letter to a show."
It seems teens and doctors didn't have entertainment options that appealed to their left-brain impulses, and Serling's series was hitting a sweet spot. Some youngsters had already begun down the path of pop culture worship, directed at Serling. He recalled one letter that began "Dear Mr. Serling; I think of you like most people think of God, but this is not intended as a fan letter." High praise indeed. Serling tapped into the valuable and untapped science nerd market. Audiences, it seemed, were more intellectual than TV execs wanted to acknowledge. Serling even recalled on exec, merely nicknamed The Old Man, who was particularly baffled by his show, saying:
"[The Old Man] used to call up the agency on Monday morning and demand to know what Friday's script had been all about. Then he'd demand an explanation of the explanation. I guess he figured if he couldn't understand it, neither could the people who bought his products."
It wouldn't be until February 1960 — 18 episodes in — that word would come from CBS that "The Twilight Zone" would return for a second season. By then, it seemed that more people than teenagers and doctors were tuning in. The series ended up running for five seasons and 156 episodes.