I thoroughly enjoy the television series The Twilight Zone, and have ever since I was a kid, eagerly waiting for that 12pm hour on those long summer vacation days, soaking up the two half-hour episodes that brought the mysterious and unknown right into my parent's living room. The stories are just as intriguing, just as entertaining and just as good as they were when first aired between 1959 and 1964.
Given the volume of episodes, I wondered if I had seen the
very first one. A quick Internet search revealed the title of the pilot
episode. One would assume it was Where Is Everybody? aired on October 2nd,
1959, but I discovered the true series pilot aired on another television show, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse on
November 24th 1958, almost a year earlier.
The Time Element
is a supernatural story of prophetic dreams mixed in with reality. It centers on a man dreaming he is back in
1941 in a city called Honolulu, and the date is December 6th. He knows what is going to happen the next
day...and in this dream...a dream he creates every night...he attempts to warn
everyone around him. No one listens...
Introduced by Desi Arnez, The Time Element proved to
be extremely popular, green-lighting Rod Serling and allowing him to go
forward with his concept, a concept that became a television landmark.