MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SCREENING SERIES, THE:
ROD SERLING: THE TWILIGHT ZONE AND BEYOND: PACKAGE
9: A TOWN HAS TURNED TO DUST AND THE MONSTERS ARE
DUE ON MAPLE STREET
Summary
Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone," which debuted in
1959, took viewers through a delirious dimension of
imagination and brought them back to earth again with a
humbling sense of themselves in a strange, alienating
universe. In creating the provocative parables that
elevated this fantastical series above mere escapist
fiction, Serling drew upon a decade of experience
writing for such live anthology programs as "Kraft
Television Theatre," "Playhouse 90," and "Climax!"
Beginning in 1955 he was awarded three consecutive
Emmy Awards for best teleplay writing ("Patterns," "The
Comedian," and "Requiem for a Heavyweight") and was the
first playwright recognized with a Peabody Award.
After "The Twilight Zone" ended in 1964, Serling
returned to the airwaves with "The Loner," "Night
Gallery," and the controversial television movie "The
Doomsday Flight." Astonishingly prolific and
indisputably influential, he was always on guard against
the threats of censorship and mediocrity. He is
remembered as both a vital force and a familiar face in
the affirmation of television as a showcase for artful,
relevant drama.
"Playhouse 90: A Town Has Turned to Dust"
With William Shatner (1958; 90 minutes)
"The Twilight Zone: The Monsters Are Due on Maple
Street" (1960; 25 minutes)
"By the time the censors had gotten to it, my script had
turned to dust," Serling recalled of "A Town Has Turned
to Dust," his second attempt to bring the lynching of
African-American teenager Emmett Till to the screen.
As with his first scenario, "Noon on Doomsday" (1956),
wary sponsors "chopped it up like a roomful of butchers
at work on a steer," and Till became Diego, a boy of
indeterminate Latino heritage accused of attacking a
shopkeeper's wife in the Old West. A year later, the
fantastical landscape of "The Twilight Zone" afforded
Serling the opportunity to address the incendiary
subject of prejudice through parable; in "The Monsters
Are Due on Maple Street," unusual lights in the sky
spark thoughts of an alien invasion, and that quickly
leads to vigilantism, turning yet another town to dust.
Details
- NETWORK: N/A
- DATE: 2002
- RUNNING TIME: 1:54:00
- COLOR/B&W: B&W
- CATALOG ID: T:69366
- GENRE: Drama; Drama, fantasy/science fiction
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, fantasy/science fiction; Lynching - Drama; Race relations - Drama
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- For "Playhouse 90: A Town Has Turned to Dust":
- Martin Manulis … Producer
- Peter Kortner … Associate Producer
- John Frankenheimer … Director
- Rod Serling … Writer
- Dick Joy … Announcer
- Robert Ryan … Host
- Rod Steiger … Cast, Harvey Denton
- William Shatner … Cast, Jerry Paul
- Fay Spain … Cast, Annamay Paul
- James Gregory … Cast, Hannify
- Mario Alcade … Cast, Ramon Rivera
- Martin Garralaga … Cast, the Priest
- Eugene Iglesias … Cast, Pancho Rivera
- Malcolm Atterbury … Cast, Jenkins
- Paul Lambert … Cast, Danny
- Sandy Kenyon … Cast, Billy
- Clegg Hoyt … Cast, Flagg
- Eddie Ryder … Cast, Pete Ankers
- Helen Kleeb … Cast, Mrs. Flagg
- Miriam Colon … Cast, Dolores
- Emmett Till
- For "The Twilight Zone: The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street":
- Rod Serling … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer, Host
- Buck Houghton … Producer
- Ronald Winston … Director
- Rene Garriguenc … Composer
- Lud Gluskin … Conductor
- Claude Akins … Cast, Steve Brand
- Barry Atwater … Cast, Mr. Goodman
- Jack Weston … Cast, Charlie
- Jan Handzlik … Cast, Tommy
- Burt Metcalfe … Cast, Don
- Mary Gregory … Cast, Tommy's Mother
- Jason Johnson … Cast, the Man
- Anne Barton … Cast, Mrs. Brand
- Lea Waggner … Cast, Mrs. Goodman
- Amzie Strickland … Cast, Woman #1
- Joan Sudlow … Cast, the Woman Next Door
- Ben Erway … Cast, Pete Van Horn
- Lyn Guild … Cast, Charlie's Wife
- Sheldon Allman … Cast, the First Alien
- William Walsh … Cast, the Second Alien