![]() ![]() Television was still a fairly young medium at the time, and most of the programming was very clean-cut, innocent fare – family sitcoms, game shows, and talk shows. Viewers were first introduced to the surreal, creepy, fantastical world that is The Twilight Zone in October of 1959. ![]() The series has become that ingrained into the public consciousness and pop culture over the past sixty plus years, to the point where it feels like it’s been around forever.īut of course, that’s obviously not the case. You’ve probably even felt that you’d entered the Twilight Zone anytime you found yourself in some bizarre situation. ![]() Or you’ve seen some show that has referenced or parodied some of the series’ more memorable episodes. Perhaps you’ve hummed the eerie opening theme. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”Ĭhances are, even if you’ve never seen The Twilight Zone, you’re still familiar with the show and its concept to some degree. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. “There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. Now, I can hear you saying, “Thanks for the history lesson, but what does this have to do with The Twilight Zone?” Quite a bit, actually, as it was this very era that proved to be a strong source of inspiration for this particular episode, which was written by the show’s creator, Rod Serling. His name, and that era, now hold only negative connotations, having become synonymous with any situation where someone, or a group of people, goes on a “witch hunt” to weed out those whom they perceive as a threat for whatever reason, and will use any and all means necessary to target and punish those they deem suspicious. ![]() “Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?”Įventually, between the growing public disapproval and an intervention from the Warren Supreme Court, McCarthyism withered away. News anchors openly called him out on air, and during one of the hearings, In what is often cited as the turning point in people’s view of McCarthy and his efforts, Joseph Welch, an attorney for the Army, finally got so fed up that he ripped into the senator with this infamous response: As his efforts became increasingly extreme, he began facing a lot of criticism and backlash. Problem was, however, that McCarthy’s criteria for who might have been a communist or sympathizer was.extremely thin, to say the least. The “Lavender Scare” was an outgrowth of this investigation as well, and put many LGBTQ people at even more of a heightened risk than usual. It’s quite the fascinating, unsettling read. Seriously, go look up the list of people that were blacklisted. There were televised hearings, smear tactics galore, even an unofficial Hollywood blacklist that cost many actors, writers, directors, and musicians their jobs in the process. He wanted to weed out anyone in the States that he suspected either was a communist or sympathetic to communist causes, fearing they were infiltrating all aspects of U.S. Inspired by such efforts, Senator McCarthy decided to up the ante even further. President Truman signed an executive order to screen federal agents for potential associations with any totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive groups. To summarize: During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Cold War tensions were steadily increasing, and anti-communist fervor was growing here in the States. I’m referring, of course, to the era of McCarthyism. history, a name that still reverberates even to this day because of the fallout associated with the man in question. It’s a name that became associated with one of the darkest and most troubling periods In U.S. history, or even has a fleeting understanding of it, knows that name very well. Throwback Thursday is a weekly article in which we look back at our favorite TV episodes from the past.Īnyone who’s studied their U.S. ![]()
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