![]() “Maple Street” opens on this oft-advertised idyllic suburbia: large, modern homes with vehicles(some new, some old) in driveways or at their assigned curbs, an ice cream salesman ready to sell his wares to the children chasing each other on what looks like a warm, summer day. I felt like with the exception of a costume change here or there and, perhaps, the inclusion of a smartphone, none of the episode would have to change at all to remain relevant and powerful. ![]() So, oddly, rewatching “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” now, trapped in this current hellscape we call America, paradoxically became both nostalgic and contemporary. Rod Serling, the creator, writer, and narrator of The Twilight Zone, knew of history and he could sense the future, and while The Twilight Zone as a whole served as a sometimes uncomfortable then-contemporary look at its ’50s/’60s audience, the concepts presented transcend time, becoming not only timeless but immortal. As the US, on its advertised surface, punctuated by Mad Men and idealist politicians, began to desire “Camelot” and began the gestation of the concept of “The Great Society”, social changes, involving segregation, integration, political movements, technological revolutions, and personal expression, would challenge this squeaky clean image and cause tension within the white populace. an economically strong, pervasively white suburbia. ![]() The US of 1960, less than a decade removed from witch hunts, mythical fifth columns, anddevastating wars abroad-not to mention a “separate but equal” social structure between whites and blacks (or any other ethnicity, to be honest)-was moving into societal changes that would disrupt the status quo of “normalcy”, i.e. Hardly a week goes by in the US without devastatingly hurtful attacks on itself, the air barely clear from gunsmoke before the ear-deafening clap-clap-clap of semi-automatic thunder begins again. I write this as a constituent of the United States of America, a country which, at the time of this writing (and hopefully not when you are reading this two, six, or seventy years later), is bathed in harmful rhetoric, pervasive paranoia, and the inevitable persistence of violence. This season one classic, premiering in March of 1960, has not only inspired scores of imitators in the fictional world but has begun to push on artistic boundaries and imitate life, almost six decades later. Twisted serendipity was at play when, months ago, I chose “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” for my second look into the original Twilight Zone series. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment-before the monsters came.” “This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. This week, Will Johnson examines another episode of The Twilight Zone. ![]() Join us as we explore horror and sci-fi anthologies old and new, along with some other standout episodes of shows you love. The kind of long narrative of serialized TV can be wonderfully immersive, but here at 25YL we also recognize the value of a great standalone episode.
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