How Much The Twilight Zone's Legendary First Season Cost To Make

It's not a stretch to say that "The Twilight Zone" is one of the most groundbreaking and influential shows in the history of television, both in its challenging material and sophisticated filmcraft. What's perhaps more impressive is that it did so while also being pretty economical to produce. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that TV production was somewhat simpler in an era when much material was shot on sets, special effects were more rudimentary, and film equipment wasn't nearly as advanced. Even so, the price tag for the first season of "The Twilight Zone" looks like a bargain when adjusted for inflation.

According to data gathered in Martin Gram's "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Doors to a Television Classic," Rod Serling's seminal science fiction series cost less than $2 million in total for its inaugural 36-episode season, coming in at $1,955,399.41. That includes everything from per-episode production costs to salaries for staff and crew, supplies, licensing rights, and of course, payroll for the "Twilight Zone" actors and directors. Adjusted for inflation from the show's 1959 premiere year to today, that comes in at $21,675,602.46.

It's hard to compare the half-hour, black and white, 1950s production style of "The Twilight Zone" to the modern blockbuster approach taken with much television, but that still sounds pretty good for what you're getting, right? Let's take a closer look at how the budget compares to other shows.

In the modern day, there's very little that can be compared directly to "The Twilight Zone." Dramatic shows now mainly fill an hour-long timeslot on traditional television, or a similar length of time on streaming. For the record, that was also the norm back when "The Twilight Zone" was coming out, though there have always been exceptions. The anthology nature of the series, with totally new sets and casts for each episode, makes it even more of an anomaly, and therefore more difficult to compare.

Modern industry reports put even more modest, half-hour scripted programming at around $2-3 million per episode. For comparison's sake, adjusted for inflation and divided in the most basic method, each of the first 36 "Twilight Zone" episodes cost around $55,000 to make.

It's no secret that TV budgets for hour-long dramas, especially those that engage in more effects-heavy genres like science fiction, have ballooned over the last decade. The recent "Walking Dead" spin-off from 2024, entitled "The Ones Who Live," cost around $13.6 million per episode. The acclaimed Star Wars series "Andor" cost a whopping $650 million for two 12-episode seasons, or roughly $27 million per episode. Even something far more modest like "Law & Order: SVU" costs a reported $5-6 million per hour-long episode.

When looking back at contemporaries of "The Twilight Zone," its budget looks more standard. Reports put the per-episode cost of hour-long westerns like "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," or "Wagon Train" roughly in the range of $50,000 to $100,000, the higher end of which maps roughly to the cost of a half-hour "Twilight Zone" episode. The slight premium on Rod Serling's show can be explained in part by its constant need for new sets, props, and actors, as opposed to a format like most other TV dramas of the time where production materials could be more frequently reused.

For its ambitious storytelling and unique format, "The Twilight Zone" earned a lot of praise in its day, winning multiple Primetime Emmy awards and garnering a dedicated viewership. It ran for five seasons in its original incarnation, proving the sustainability of an anthology model for genre TV. While it feels impossible these days to put the genie of massive television budgets back in the bottle, rewatching "The Twilight Zone" flashes us back to an era when premium series didn't come with such premium price tags.