Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

11-15-90 When I was a kid, Glenn and I used to watch weekly episodes of The Twilight Zone, a half-hour show that bordered on the macabre but had, paradoxically, an undertone of humor. I have dim memories of certain episodes, such as the one [“The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms”, 1963] in which modern-day soldiers in tanks were attacked by Indians while on maneuvers in the Far West. I also remember one [“Time Enough at Last”, 1959] in which a timid, bookish man was the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Just as he found a library and a stock of food amidst the rubble, his glasses fell off and broke, precluding him from reading. Glenn and I got a kick out the twists of fate presented by Rod Serling [1924-1975] every week. Now, some twenty to twenty-five years later, I’m watching the episodes again. A few weeks ago I noticed that The Twilight Zone is being aired regularly on WGN, the Chicago station that I receive on basic cable. I taped an episode to see if [sic; should be “whether”] it brought back memories, and it did! Then I taped another, and another, until today I have nine episodes on the same videotape. I set the recorder before going to bed and watch the show first thing in the morning as my coffee perks. The nice thing about taping is that I can zip through the commercials without watching them. One thing I enjoy about the episodes, most of which were produced in the late 1950s and early 1960s (shortly after I was born) is that they portray a different America. The cars are old-fashioned; the clothes people wear are different; the men and women smoke much more; and the stores and gas stations are small and quaint. It brings back memories of my childhood. I think I’ll keep taping the episodes. I can get twelve of them on a five-dollar videotape. [I now own all 156 episodes on DVD.]