Promoting “The Twilight Zone” was not a straightforward process for Rod Serling. The idea of anthologies had kind of been launched to TV through long-running radio applications like “Suspense” and “X Minus One.” There additionally already existed “one-and-done” stay exhibits like “Kraft Playhouse Theatre,” “Playhouse 90,” and so forth. But “Twilight Zone” presupposed to be a style anthology present that was to emulate rising traits in science-fiction and horror seen in literary circles (primarily the works of writers like Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, and Richard Matheson, all of whom labored on the collection) at a time when filmed style leisure skewed extra towards the hokier realm of Atomic Age aliens and large monsters.
Serling knew that convincing the higher-ups at CBS was solely half the battle; he’d must win over audiences, too, and that battle can be compounded by the scourge of tone-killing industrial breaks. As Serling ruminated whereas talking at UCLA on Could seventeenth of 1971:
“… [H]owever transferring and nevertheless probing and incisive the drama, [a show] can not retain any constant thread of legitimacy when, after 12 or 13 minutes, out comes 12 dancing rabbits with bathroom paper. It places the creator, notably the author, in a troublesome emotional bind, although, as a result of clearly Sanka espresso, right here, as tasteless and offensive as these commercials have been, nonetheless paid the freight. How do you predatorily chunk that hand that feeds you persistently?”