Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, Connally's wife Nellie when he was fatally shot by former U. S. Marine Lee Harvey Oswald firing in ambush from a nearby building. Governor Connally was wounded in the attack; the motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy was pronounced dead about thirty minutes after the shooting. Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department 70 minutes after the initial shooting. Oswald was charged under Texas state law with the murder of Kennedy as well as that of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit, fatally shot a short time after the assassination. At 11:21 a.m. November 24, 1963, as live television cameras were covering his transfer from the city jail to the county jail, Oswald was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby.
Oswald was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was overturned on appeal, Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial. After a ten-month investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald assassinated Kennedy, that Oswald had acted alone, that Ruby had acted alone in killing Oswald. Kennedy was the eighth US President to die in the fourth to be assassinated. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson automatically assumed the Presidency upon Kennedy's death. A investigation, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations agreed with the Warren Commission that the injuries that Kennedy and Connally sustained were caused by Oswald's three rifle shots, but they concluded that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" as analysis of a dictabelt audio recording pointed to the existence of an additional gunshot and therefore "... a high probability that two gunmen fired at President." The Committee was not able to identify any individuals or groups involved with the possible conspiracy.
In addition, the HSCA found that the original federal investigations were "seriously flawed" with respect to information-sharing and the possibility of conspiracy. As recommended by the HSCA, the acoustic evidence indicating conspiracy was subsequently re-examined and rejected. In light of the investigative reports determining that "reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman," the U. S. Justice Department concluded active investigations and stated "that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy in... the assassination of President Kennedy." However, Kennedy's assassination is still the subject of widespread debate and has spawned numerous conspiracy theories and alternative scenarios. Polls conducted from 1966 to 2004 found that up to 80 percent of Americans suspected that there was a plot or cover-up. President John F. Kennedy chose to travel to Texas to smooth over frictions in the Democratic Party between liberals Ralph Yarborough and Don Yarborough and conservative John Connally.
A presidential visit to Texas was first agreed upon by Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Texas Governor John Connally while all three men were together in a meeting in El Paso on June 5, 1963. President Kennedy decided to embark on the trip with three basic goals in mind: 1.) to help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions. Begin his quest for reelection in November 1964. President Kennedy's trip to Dallas was first announced to the public in September 1963; the exact motorcade route was finalized on November 18 and publicly announced a few days before November 22. Kennedy's motorcade route through Dallas with Johnson and Connally was planned to give the president maximum exposure to local crowds before his arrival for a luncheon at the Trade Mart, where he would meet with civic and business leaders; the White House staff informed the Secret Service that the President would arrive at Dallas Love Field via a short flight from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth.
The Dallas Trade Mart was preliminarily selected as the place for the luncheon, Kenneth O'Donnell, President Kennedy's friend and appointments secretary, had selected it as the final destination on the motorcade route. Leaving from Dallas Love Field, the motorcade had been allotted 45 minutes to reach the Trade Mart at a planned arrival time of 12:15 p.m. The itinerary was designed to serve as a meandering 10-mile route between the two places, the motorcade vehicles could be driven within the allotted time. Special Agent Winston G. Lawson, a member of the White House detail who acted as the advance Secret Service Agent, Secret Service Agent Forrest V. Sorrels, Special Agent in charge of the Dallas office, were the most active in planning the actual motorcade route. On November 14, both men attended a meeting at Love Field and drove over the route that Sorrels believed was best suited for the motorcade. From Love Field, the route passed through a suburban section of Dallas, through Downtown along Main Street, to the Trade Mart via a short segment of the Stemmons Freeway.
The President had planned to return to Love Field to depart for a fundraising dinner in Austin that day. For the return
Mirror Image (The Twilight Zone)
"Mirror Image" is episode 21 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It aired on February 26, 1960 on CBS. Millicent Barnes waits in a bus depot in Marathon, New York, for a bus to Cortland, en route to a new job. Looking at a wall clock she notices, she asks the ticket agent when the bus will arrive, he gruffly complains that this is her third time asking. Millicent denies this. While speaking with the ticket agent, she notices a bag just like hers in the luggage pile behind her, she mentions this to the ticket agent. She does not believe this, she washes her hands in the restroom and the cleaning lady there insists this is her second time there. Again, Millicent denies this. Upon leaving the restroom, she glances in the mirror and sees, in addition to her reflection, an exact copy of herself sitting on the bench outside, she meets a young man from Binghamton named Paul Grinstead, waiting for the same bus. Millicent tells Paul about encountering her double. Paul, attempting to calm Millicent, says it is either a joke or a misunderstanding caused by a look-alike.
When the bus arrives and the two of them prepare to board, Millicent looks in the window and sees the copy of herself seated on the bus. In shock, she faints. Millicent lies unconscious on a bench inside the depot while Paul and the cleaning lady attend to her. Paul agrees to wait for the 7:00 bus. While they wait, now coming to, insists the strange events are caused by an evil double from a parallel world - a nearby, yet distant alternative plane of existence that comes into convergence with this world by powerful forces, or unnatural, unknown events; when this happens, the impostors enter this realm. Millicent's doppelgänger can survive in this world only by replacing her. Paul says the explanation is "a little metaphysical" for him, believes that Millicent's sanity is beginning to unravel. Paul tells Millicent he will call a friend in Tully who has a car and may be able to drive them to Syracuse. Instead, he calls the police. After Millicent is taken away by two policemen, Paul begins to settle himself.
After drinking from a water fountain, Paul notices. Looking up towards the doors, Paul notices another man running out the door of the bus depot. Pursuing this individual down the street, Paul discovers that he is chasing his own copy, whose face shows excited delight, his copy disappears as Paul calls out "Where are you?" while looking around in confusion and shock. Vera Miles as Millicent Barnes Martin Milner as Paul Grinstead Joe Hamilton as Ticket agent Naomi Stevens as Washroom Attendant In a short film pitching the Twilight Zone series to a Dutch television station, creator Rod Serling claimed to have gotten the idea for "Mirror Image" following an encounter at an airport. Serling noticed a man at the other side of the terminal who wore the same clothes and carried the same suitcase as himself. However, the man turned out to be younger and "more attractive"; this is one of several episodes from season one with its opening title sequence plastered over with the opening for season two. This was done during the Summer of 1961 as to help the season one shows fit in with the new look the show had taken during the following season.
This episode inspired Jordan Peele's 2019 film Us. DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 "Mirror Image" on IMDb
Mr. Bevis
"Mr. Bevis" is episode thirty-three of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone, it aired on June 3, 1960 on CBS. This episode is notable for being one of only four episodes to feature the "blinking eye" opening sequence, the first to feature the opening narration which would be used for every episode throughout season 2 and 3. A kindly fellow's life is turned topsy-turvy. Mr. Bevis loses his job, gets tickets on his car and gets evicted from his apartment, all in one day. Bevis meets and gets assistance from his guardian angel, one J. Hardy Hempstead. Bevis gets to start the day over again, except now he is a success at work, his rent is paid and his personal transportation is now a sportscar instead of Bevis's previous jalopy, a soot-spewing 1924 Rickenbacker, but there is a catch: In order to continue in his new life, Bevis must make some changes: no strange clothes, no loud zither music, no longer can he be the well-liked neighborhood goofball. Realizing all these things are what makes him happy, Bevis asks that things be returned to the way they were.
Hempstead obliges warning him that he will still have no job, car, or apartment—but moved by his kindness and the warmth people have for him, arranges for Bevis to get his old jalopy back. In the final scene of the episode, Mr. Bevis is shown finishing his fifth shot of whiskey, he pays his total tab of $5.00 with one bill. He leaves the bar, where his Rickenbacker was parked in front of a fire hydrant; when Bevis is about to be ticketed for this infraction, the hydrant disappears and reappears next to the officer's motorcycle.'J. Hardy Hempstead' is still watching over him after all. Orson Bean as James B. W. Bevis Henry Jones as J. Hardy Hempstead Charles Lane as Mr. Peckinpaugh Florence MacMichael as Margaret William Schallert as Policeman Vito Scotti as Tony, the Fruit Peddler Horace McMahon as Bartender DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing.
ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 "Mr. Bevis" on IMDb "Mr. Bevis" at TV.com
Where Is Everybody?
"Where Is Everybody?" is the first episode of the American anthology television series The Twilight Zone. It was broadcast on October 2, 1959 on CBS. A man finds himself alone on a dirt road dressed in a U. S. Air Force flight suit, having no memory of how he got there, he finds a diner and walks in to find a jukebox playing loudly and a hot pot of coffee on the stove, but there are no other people besides himself. He accidentally breaks a clock, upon which the jukebox stops playing; the man walks toward a nearby town. Like the diner, the rest of the town seems deserted, but the man seems to find evidence of someone being there recently; the man grows unsettled as he wanders through the empty town, needing someone to talk to but at the same time feeling that he is being watched. In a soda shop, the man notices an entire spinning rack of paperback books titled The Last Man on Earth, Feb. 1959. As night falls, the lights in the park turn on, leading the man to a movie theater, the marquee of, illuminated.
He remembers he is an Air Force soldier from Battle Hymn. When the film begins onscreen, he runs to the projection booth and finds nobody there becomes more paranoid that he is being watched. Running through the streets in a panic, the man hits a pedestrian call button; the call button is revealed to be a panic button: the man, whose name is given as Sgt. Mike Ferris, is in an isolation booth being observed by a group of uniformed servicemen, he has been undergoing tests to determine his fitness as an astronaut and whether he can handle a prolonged trip to the Moon alone, though the town was a hallucination caused by sensory deprivation. The officiating general warns Ferris that while his basic needs will be provided for in space travel, he will not have companionship: "next time be alone". Ferris is carried from the hangar on a stretcher as he tells the Moon in the sky not to "go away up there", reminding himself of the loneliness he faces. Earl Holliman as Mike Ferris James Gregory as General Garry Walberg as Colonel Serling's original pilot for The Twilight Zone was "The Happy Place", which revolved around a society in which people were executed upon reaching the age of 60, being considered no longer useful.
CBS executive William Self rejected the story, feeling it was too dark. Unlike other episodes, which were filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, "Where is Everybody?" was filmed at Universal. The episode featured Westbrook Van Voorhis as narrator; when Voorhis was unavailable for episodes, Serling re-recorded the narration himself for consistency. Serling notably changed the opening narration to place the Twilight Zone within the fifth dimension, among other alterations. Serling adapted "Where is Everybody?" for a novelization titled Stories From the Twilight Zone. Serling grew dissatisfied with the lack of science fiction content and changed the story to include Ferris discovering a movie ticket in his pocket while on the stretcher. A variation on this plotline was used in the episode "King Nine Will Not Return"; the New York Times praised the episode, saying that Serling proved "that science cannot foretell what may be the effect of total isolation on a human being", though " resolution... seemed trite and anticlimactic.
In the desultory field of filmed half-hour drama, however, Mr. Serling should not have much trouble in making his mark. At least his series promises to be different. Charles Beaumont praised the episode in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science-Fiction, writing that he "read Serling's first script... Old stuff? Of course. I thought so at the time... but there was one element in the story which kept me from my customary bitterness. The element was quality. Quality shone on every page, it shone in the scene set-ups. And because of this, the story seemed new and powerful. There was one compromise, but it was made for the purpose of selling the series." DeVoe, Bill.. Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0 Grams, Martin.. The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0 Full video of the episode at CBS.com "Where Is Everybody?" on IMDb "Where Is Everybody?" at TV.com
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, suspense and psychological thriller concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist, with a moral. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to common science fiction and fantasy tropes; the original series, shot in black and white, ran on CBS for five seasons from 1959 to 1964. The Twilight Zone followed in the tradition of earlier television shows such as Tales of Tomorrow and Science Fiction Theatre; the success of the series led to a feature film, a TV film, a radio series, literature including a comic book, novels and a magazine and a theme park attraction and various other spin-offs that spanned five decades, including two revival television series. The first revival ran on CBS and in syndication in the 1980s, while the second revival ran on UPN. TV Guide ranked the original TV series #5 in their 2013 list of the 60 greatest shows of all time and #4 in their list of the 60 greatest dramas.
In December 2017, CBS All Access ordered the third Twilight Zone revival to series, helmed by Jordan Peele. The series premiered on April 1, 2019; as a boy, Rod Serling was a fan of pulp fiction stories. As an adult, he sought topics with themes such as racism, war and human nature in general. Serling decided to combine these two interests as a way to broach these subjects on television at a time when such issues were not addressed. Throughout the 1950s, Serling established himself as one of the most popular names in television, he was as famous for writing televised drama. His most vocal complaints concerned censorship, practiced by sponsors and networks. "I was not permitted to have my senators discuss any current or pressing problem," he said of his 1957 Studio One production "The Arena", intended to be an involving look into contemporary politics. "To talk of tariff was to align oneself with the Republicans. To say a single thing germane to the current political scene was prohibited." CBS purchased a teleplay in 1958 that writer Rod Serling hoped to produce as the pilot of a weekly anthology series.
"The Time Element" marked Serling's first entry in the field of science fiction. Several years after the end of World War II, a man named Peter Jenson visits a psychoanalyst, Dr. Gillespie. Jenson tells him about a recurring dream in which he tries to warn people about the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor before it happens, but the warnings are disregarded. Jenson believes the events of the dream are real, each night he travels back to 1941. Dr. Gillespie insists. While on the couch, Jenson falls asleep once again but this time dreams that the Japanese planes shoot and kill him. In Dr. Gillespie's office, the couch Jenson was lying on is now empty. Dr. Gillespie goes to a bar; the bartender tells him that Jenson had tended bar there, but he was killed during the Pearl Harbor attack. With the "Time Element" script, Serling drafted the fundamental elements that would distinguish the series still to come: a science-fiction/fantasy theme and closing narration, an ending with a twist. "The Time Element" was purchased but shelved indefinitely.
This is where things stood when Bert Granet, the new producer for Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, discovered "The Time Element" in CBS' vaults while searching for an original Serling script to add prestige to his show. "The Time Element" debuted on November 24, 1958, to an overwhelmingly delighted audience of television viewers and critics alike. "The humor and sincerity of Mr. Serling's dialogue made'The Time Element' entertaining," offered Jack Gould of The New York Times. Over 6000 letters of praise flooded Granet's offices. Convinced that a series based on such stories could succeed, CBS again began talks with Serling about the possibilities of producing The Twilight Zone. "Where Is Everybody?" was accepted as the pilot episode and the project was announced to the public in early 1959. Other than reruns at the time "The Time Element" was not aired on television again until it was shown as part of a 1996 all-night sneak preview of the new cable channel TVLand, it is available in an Italian DVD boxed set titled Ai confini della realtà – I tesori perduti.
The Twilight Zone Season 1 Blu-ray boxed set released on September 14, 2010, offers a remastered high-definition version of the original Desilu Playhouse production as a special feature. The series was produced by Inc. a production company owned and named by Serling. It reflects his background in Central New York State and is named after Cayuga Lake, on which Ithaca College is located. Aside from Serling, who wrote or adapted nearly two-thirds of the series' total episodes, writers for The Twilight Zone included leading authors such as Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, Earl Hamner, Jr. George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Reginald Rose, Jerry Sohl. Many episodes featured new adaptations of classic stories by such writers as Ambrose Bierce, Jerome Bixby, Damon Knight, John Collier, Lewis Padgett. Twilight Zone's writers used science fiction as a vehicle for social comment, as networks and sponso
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created and presented by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. Each episode presents a stand-alone story in which characters find themselves dealing with disturbing or unusual events, an experience described as entering "the Twilight Zone," ending with a surprise ending and a moral. Although predominantly science-fiction, the show's paranormal and Kafkaesque events leaned the show towards fantasy and horror; the phrase “twilight zone,” inspired by the series, is used to describe surreal experiences. The series featured both established stars and younger actors who would become much better known later. Serling served as executive head writer, he was the show's host and narrator, delivering monologues at the beginning and end of each episode. Serling's opening and closing narrations summarize the episode's events encapsulating how and why the main character had entered the Twilight Zone. In 1997, the episodes "To Serve Man" and "It's a Good Life" were ranked at 11 and 31 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.
Serling himself stated that his favorite episodes of the series were "The Invaders" and "Time Enough at Last". In 2016, the series was ranked No. 7 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest shows of all time. In 2002, The Twilight Zone was ranked No. 26 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it as the third best-written TV series and TV Guide ranked it as the fourth greatest drama and the fifth greatest show of all time. By the late 1950s, Rod Serling was a prominent name in American television, his successful television plays included Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight, but constant changes and edits made by the networks and sponsors frustrated Serling. In Requiem for a Heavyweight, the line "Got a match?" had to be struck because the sponsor sold lighters. But according to comments in his 1957 anthology Patterns, Serling had been trying to delve into material more controversial than his works of the early 1950s; this led to Noon on Doomsday for the United States Steel Hour in 1956, a commentary by Serling on the defensiveness and total lack of repentance he saw in the Mississippi town where the murder of Emmett Till took place.
His original script paralleled the Till case was moved out of the South and the victim changed to a Jewish pawnbroker, watered down to just a foreigner in an unnamed town. Despite bad reviews, activists sent numerous wires protesting the production. Serling thought that a science-fictional setting, with robots and other supernatural occurrences, would give him more freedom and less interference in expressing controversial ideas than more realistic settings. "The Time Element" was Serling's 1957 pilot pitch for his show, a time travel adventure about a man who travels back to Honolulu in 1941 and unsuccessfully tries to warn everyone about the impending attack on Pearl Harbor. The script, was rejected and shelved for a year until Bert Granet discovered and produced it as an episode of Desilu Playhouse in 1958; the show was a great success and enabled Serling to begin production on his anthology series, The Twilight Zone. Serling's editorial sense of ironic fate in the writing done for the series was identified as significant to its success by the BFI Film Classics library which stated that for Serling "the cruel indifference and implacability of fate and the irony of poetic justice" were recurrent themes in his plots.
There is a fifth dimension, beyond that, known to man. It is a dimension as timeless as infinity, it is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination, it is an area. The Twilight Zone premiered the night of October 1959, to rave reviews. "Twilight Zone is about the only show on the air that I look forward to seeing. It's the one series that I will let interfere with other plans", said Terry Turner for the Chicago Daily News. Others agreed. Daily Variety ranked it with "the best, accomplished in half-hour filmed television" and the New York Herald Tribune found the show to be "certainly the best and most original anthology series of the year"; as the show proved popular to television's critics, it struggled to find a receptive audience of television viewers. CBS was banking on a rating of at least 21 or 22; the series' future was jeopardized when its third episode, "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" earned a 16.3 rating.
Still, the show attracted a large enough audience to survive a brief hiatus in November, after which it surpassed its competition on ABC and NBC and convinced its sponsors to stay on until the end of the season. With one exception, the first season featured scripts written only by Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont or Richard Matheson; these three were responsible for 127 of the 156 episodes in the series. Additionally, with one exception, Serling never appeared on camera during any first-season episode (as he woul
Richard Matheson
Richard Burton Matheson was an American author and screenwriter in the fantasy and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction horror vampire novel, adapted for the screen four times, as well as the film Somewhere In Time for which he wrote the screenplay based on his novel Bid Time Return. Matheson wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel", he adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay directed by Steven Spielberg for the television film Duel that year. Seven of his novels and short stories have been adapted as motion pictures: The Shrinking Man, Hell House, What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, A Stir of Echoes and Button, Button; the movie Cold Sweat was based on his novel Riding the Nightmare, Les seins de glace was based on his novel Someone is Bleeding. Matheson was born in New Jersey to Norwegian immigrants Bertolf and Fanny Matheson, they divorced when he was 8, he was raised in Brooklyn, New York by his mother.
His early writing influences were the film Dracula, novels by Kenneth Roberts, a poem which he read in the newspaper Brooklyn Eagle, where he published his first short story at age 8. He entered Brooklyn Technical High School in 1939, graduated in 1943, served with the Army in Europe during World War II, he attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, earning his BA in 1949 moved to California. His first-written novel and Thirst, was ignored by publishers for several decades before being published in 2010, but his short story "Born of Man and Woman" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Summer 1950, the new quarterly's third issue and attracted attention, it is the tale of a monstrous child chained by its parents in the cellar, cast as the creature's diary in poignantly non-idiomatic English. That year he placed stories in the first and third numbers of Galaxy Science Fiction, a new monthly, his first anthology of work was published in 1954.
Between 1950 and 1971, he produced dozens of stories blending elements of the science fiction and fantasy genres. He was a member of the Southern California Sorcerers in the 1950s and 1960s, which included Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan, Jerry Sohl, others. Several of his stories, including "Third from the Sun", "Deadline", "Button, Button" are simple sketches with twist endings; some tales, such as "The Doll that Does Everything" and "The Funeral" incorporate satirical humour at the expense of genre clichés, are written in an overblown prose different from Matheson's usual pared-down style. Others, like "The Test" and "Steel", portray the moral and physical struggles of ordinary people, rather than the nearly ubiquitous scientists and superheroes, in situations which are at once futuristic and everyday. Still others, such as "Mad House", "The Curious Child", most of all, "Duel", are tales of paranoia, in which the everyday environment of the present day becomes inexplicably alien or threatening.
"Duel" was adapted into the 1971 TV movie of the same name. Matheson's first novel to be published, Someone Is Bleeding, appeared from Lion Books in 1953. In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a non-fantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II, it was filmed in 1967 as The Young Warriors. During the 1950s he published a handful of Western stories, his other early novels include The Shrinking Man and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend. Matheson wrote screenplays for several television programs including the Westerns Cheyenne, Have Gun – Will Travel, Lawman, he is most associated with the American TV series The Twilight Zone, for which he wrote more than a dozen episodes, including "Steel", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "Little Girl Lost", "Death Ship". For all of his Twilight Zone scripts, Matheson wrote the introductory and closing statements spoken by creator Rod Serling, he adapted five works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman's Poe series, including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven.
He wrote the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within". For Hammer Film Productions he wrote the screenplay for Fanatic based on the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker, one of two TV movies written by Matheson and directed by Dan Curtis. Matheson worked extensively with Curtis.
