The Season 3 ended with the changing of the guard.

And change is the operative word when we begin our journey into season four of the Twilight Zone.

Or as the opening credits now say, Twilight Zone.

But the word there disappearing into another dimension wasn't the only change.

I mentioned at the end of season three that the great Buck Houghton was vacating his producer's chair.

Although the show moving from its Friday 10pm time slot to a weekday primetime TV spot

should have been seen as a positive thing, the show's sponsor didn't agree,

and when they pulled out, the show was essentially in limbo.

Now also Rod Sailing wasn't too happy about the scheduling either, and he said the

Thursday 9 o'clock slot will eliminate a sizeable young audience that we had in the Friday night berth,

but I'm sure one can't expect everything. Now of course after three seasons it wasn't a done deal

that the twilight turn would stay dead, but after steering the ship for three seasons,

Buck Houghton accepted a job offer and moved on. But surely Rod Sailing was still there? Well yes and no. He had accepted a job teaching at Antioch College

and was also writing his adaptation of seven days in May.

He was still writing scripts for the Twilight Zone,

but then mailing them in for the new producer, Herbert Hirschman,

to put into production.

Now, Hirschman knew his way around the producer's role, having worked extensively on Dr. Kildare

and Perry Mason, two very successful shows, and he had also directed a number of episodes

of television throughout the 1950s.

And this would be to Twilight Zone's advantage down the line,

because when they needed pickups on episodes,

...