You unlock this door with the key of imagination.

Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind.

You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas. You've just

crossed over into the Twilight Zone.

The... As a rule, TV can't do comedy well.

It's one thing to take a comedian with built-in humor, people are waiting to laugh at them.

It's another matter to take a one-hour comedy script, particularly broad comedy.

There's a total lack of spontaneity or the part of the audience.

Comedy is something you've got to share with the people. Believe it or not, these aren't the audience. Comedy is something you've got to share with the people.

Believe it or not, these aren't the words of someone critiquing tonight's episode of the Twilight Zone,

but they are actually the words of Rod Serling, in a pre-Twilight Zone interview from 1956,

to reporter J.P. Shanley, which was then documented by Martin

Graham's Jr. in unlocking the door to a television classic. We have to remember that television

was still a relatively young medium at this point, and while Rod Sailing could be so prophetic about so many

things this is something he would be proven wrong about time after time as television produced

more and more classic comedy over the years but I think we can forgive him this oversight.

But the big question is,

if this is what he believes about television comedy,

why was it something that he went back to,

time after time, on the Twilight Zone?

Perhaps the best way to explore that is to step into a world that Rod Sailing knew

very well. Say, how about if it was the science fiction piece? This rocket man makes a promise to his

...