"You are traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land of imagination. Next stop, the Twilight Zone!"

The narrator was writer Rod Serling, dressed in a suit and distinctive thin, 1950's-era tie. His distinctive voice ominous. The theme music forboding. So began an episode of the iconic television series, The Twilight Zone.

Serling wrote two-thirds of the original 156 Twilight Zone episodes, which aired from 1959-1964. Superbly written, each story involved an ordinary person who found themselves trapped in an unusual and often supernatural situation, culminating in an unexpected, and often unpleasant, resolution. Serling used science fiction as mechanism for telling parables about the dark side of modern life, and he ended each episode as it began, with a short narration on a lesson learned from The Twilight Zone! For more on Rod Serling the man, you'll want to check out Joel Engel's superb biography titled Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone was memorable in another respect. Many respected stage and screen actors appeared on the program; some well-known at the time, and some up-and-coming who became household names after their Twilight Zone appearance. Stars included Claude Akins, Martin Balsam, Anne Francis, Jack Klugman, Martin Landau, Lee Marvin, Burgess Meredith, Bill Mumy, Cliff Robertson, William Shatner, Inger Stevens, Jack Warden, Dick York and many others.

Submitted for your approval is Serling's opening narration from Season 2, Episode 65, The Obsolete Man, starring Burgess Meredith and Fritz Weaver:

"You walk into this room at your own risk, because it leads to the future; not a future that will be, but one that might be. This is not a new world: It is simply an extension of what began in the old one. It has patterned itself after every dictator who has ever planted the ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history since the beginning of time. It has refinements, technological advancements, and a more sophisticated approach to the destruction of human freedom. But like every one of the super states that preceded it, it has one iron rule: Logic is an enemy, and truth is a menace. This is Mr. Romney Wordsworth, in his last forty-eight hours on Earth. He's a citizen of the State, but will soon have to be eliminated, because he's built out of flesh and because he has a mind. Mr. Romney Wordsworth, who will draw his last breaths in the Twilight Zone."

The Nashua Public Library now has all 156 episodes on DVD. You'll want to borrow The Obsolete Man to see how it ends!