‘TWILIGHT ZONE’ JUMPS TO NEW DIMENSION WITH HOST JORDAN PEELE
LOS ANGELES—
Beginning on Monday, it’s a new time and space for mind-bending 1960s TV show, “The Twilight Zone.”
Sixty years after its debut, the classic anthology series will be reborn on the CBS All Access subscription streaming service.
Jordan Peele, the comedian and filmmaker behind horror hits “Get Out” and “Us,” steps into the narrator role once filled by Rod Serling, the show’s creator.
The foreboding theme music is back, as is the mix of science fiction, suspense and thought-provoking social commentary that hooked generations of fans to the show, which ran from 1959 to 1964 and is still widely aired in reruns.
Peele, who is also an executive producer of the show, said he was initially reluctant to take on a show considered by many critics to be among the best in TV history.
He said he set aside his reservations once he discovered an “underlying positivity” put forth by Serling, who died in 1975.
“One of the things that opened this up for me is realizing he’s a humorist,” Peele said recently at The Paley Center for Media’s PaleyFest in Los Angeles. “We think of him as a horror, science fiction master, but he has a perfect-pitch tone of comedy.”
The revival promises to tackle some of humankind’s deepest and most universal issues, which was a hallmark of the original series.
“You name the big themes in life and art, and you can find it in ‘ The Twilight Zone,’” said Arlen Schumer, a pop culture historian and author of the book, “Visions from The Twilight Zone.”
The kickoff to the new series is called “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” a homage to a 1963 episode about an airplane passenger who starts to question his sanity.
“Parks and Recreation” actor Adam Scott plays the terrified traveler, originally portrayed by William Shatner, later of “Star Trek” fame.
Other installments tell completely new stories. The second episode features “Silicon Valley” star Kumail Nanjiani as a comedian whomust decide how far to go for a laugh.
Seth Rogen, John Cho and Ginnifer Goodwin will appear in later episodes.
While two earlier TV reboots were poorly received, critics have embraced the latest version. 82 percent of reviews collected by the Rotten Tomatoes website were positive ahead of Monday’s debut.