These Abandoned ‘Twilight Zone’ Episodes Should Have Stayed Forgotten

Up until the mid 90s, it would have been safe to assume that Rod Serling had told every story he meant to on television, if not on The Twilight Zone, then in its follow-up, Night Gallery. But in 1994, Carol Serling, Rod’s widowed wife, came across two scripts penned by Serling that had never been produced. Two of the master’s stories that were almost lost to time, salvaged by chance and, finally, told on television… a tale that sounds like it could have come from The Twilight Zone itself.

‘Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics’ Are Found by Chance

Rod Serling passed away on June 28, 1975, leaving behind his wife, Carol, and their two daughters, Jodi and Anne. Carol stayed in their family home for nearly twenty more years before moving. Then, in 1994, as Carol tells itto Longview Daily News, she discovered the hidden scripts in her garage to avoid damage in case of a fire, and that’s how Serling’s forgotten stories came to light again.

What she found in a trunk in the family’s garage was Serling’s outline for one story, and a complete script for another. As producer Lawrence Horowitz notes, the finds are incredibly rare, so when he was approached by Serling’s representative, who asked if he would be interested in seeing the script, Horowitz couldn’t believe his good fortune (per Longview Daily News). What he noted was, after reading it, the “extraordinary” difference between the scripts that were crossing his desk at the time and the work of “one of the great masters.”

Horowitz enlisted the help of the legendary Richard Matheson, who had worked with Serling on The Twilight Zone, penning one of its most famous episodes “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Matheson was entrusted with fleshing out Serling’s outline into a full script, titled “The Theatre.” With Serling’s script already complete for the second story, “Where the Dead Are,” Horowitz moved forward with filming both, presenting them together as a TV special on May 19, 1994, calling it Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics.

‘Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics’ Should Have Stayed Lost

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics kicks off with the booming voice of James Earl Jones — a masterful casting choice to carry on Serling’s traditional narrations — revealing to the audience that what they’re about to watch are two original dramas created by “television’s greatest storyteller”. First up is “The Theatre,” starring Gary Cole and Amy Irving. In it, Irving plays Melissa Sanders, who checks out the classic film His Girl Friday at the local theatre. Peculiarly, instead of the delightful rom-com starring Cary Grant, Melissa sees scenes from her own past with her fiancé, James (Cole). No one else can see these scenes, but she’s convinced it’s all part of a practical joke being played on her by James. It isn’t, and when she returns to the theatre the scenes being played are of her future, including her death on March 20 after being hit by a bus. James assures Melissa it won’t happen, but… it’s the Twilight Zone.

“Where the Dead Are,” set three years after the Civil War, sees Dr. Benjamin Ramsey (Patrick Bergin) perform an appendectomy on a patient, but, sadly, is unable to keep him from dying moments later. Only Ramsey notices a severe skull fracture, one that no one could possibly have survived, let alone for a full twelve years after having received it. It’s a mystery, and he thinks Dr. Jeremy Wheaton (Jack Palance), known for having experimented with tissue regeneration, might have an idea. Ramsey travels to the island Wheaton calls home, and discovers that not only does Wheaton have an idea of what happened, he’s behind it, with Wheaton having found a method to revive the dead, pointing to the inhabitants on the island who he’s revived from the dead over the years. But the physician can’t heal himself, and passes away in the night. The formerly dead denizens of the island attack Ramsey, blaming him for Wheaton being unable to overcome his own death. You just can’t reason with the reanimated dead, and Ramsey is forced to fight to save his own life. But is there an escape from the Twilight Zone?

Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics is interesting, but, as website Bloody Disgusting says, it’s decidedly moreso for those who “consider themselves part of the hardcore fan base,” recommending that those who aren’t stick to the original series or its 1985 reboot, a sentiment shared by Screen Rant. Looks like Serling was using his head when he left these two in the trunk.Variety, meanwhile, gives a backhanded compliment of sorts, asserting that Serling was “using his head when he left these two in the trunk.” It’s especially true of “Where the Dead Are,” which suffers from weak dialogue, trope characters, and Palance’s penchant for overacting (although Serling can’t be blamed for that). “The Theatre” fares a little better thanks to Matheson’s touch, and it’s hard not to think that had he taken a crack at the former, it, too, might have been more solid. It’s not the sendoff Serling deserved, to be sure, so if you want to remember Serling as the amazing talent he was, give Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’sLost Classics a pass. But if you can accept it for the novelty it is, there’s worse ways to spend two hours, like being in an airplane at 20,000 feet.