20 Behind-The-Scenes Stories From The Twilight Zone That Are Stranger Than The Show's Storylines

Black Mirror. American Horror Story. Love, Death and Robots. These shows are all hugely indebted to Rod Serling’s strange masterpiece The Twilight Zone – a spooky anthology series that spoke to the social and political climate of its day. Interestingly, though, some of stories from behind the scenes were even stranger than the on-screen plots. So, from life imitating art to actors cheating death, here are some of the weirdest ones.

20. Rod Serling wasn’t originally intended to be the show’s narrator

Rod Serling’s narration in The Twilight Zone is indelibly etched into the minds of fans. Amazingly, though, he wasn’t the first choice for the gig. According to IMDb, CBS actually hired a voiceover artist named Westbrook Van Voorhis, and he recorded the pilot episode’s narration. But then his schedule got too busy, and Van Voorhis was unable to return.

A perfect fit

Serling temporarily stepped into the breach while CBS searched for a replacement. But after the studio discovered Orson Welles’ wage demands were far too high for its liking, the director suggested he do the job on a more permanent basis. Though CBS was skeptical as he was known to be a writer and not a voiceover actor. But it turned out that Serling knew the show best, so his style suited it to a tee.

19. One episode was actually an Oscar-winning foreign language short film

Have you ever heard the one about how The Twilight Zone presented an Oscar-winning short French film as an episode of the show? No? Well, allow us to explain. During the show’s final season, producer William Froug was reportedly keen on keeping costs as low as possible. He saw director Robert Enrico’s version of the Ambrose Bierce short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and the staffer had a bright idea.

A big success

CBS bought the rights to air the film twice in America as part of the show, which was cheaper than creating an entirely new episode from scratch. All it required was some editing to make it fit the format. Rod Serling addressed the film’s origins in his opening narration – noting that it was the winner of the 1962 Cannes Film Festival. It then subsequently also picked up an Academy Award two years later.