The Twilight Zone: The Original Series – Season Two will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Shock Entertainment and FremantleMedia Enterprises on 20th June 2011.
Twilight Zone is more than a groundbreaking piece of Television history, it’s a pop culture phenomena with an iconography so unique and distinctive that it’s been used to help sell a huge variety of related merchandise. Here’s but a small selection…
Promotional poster for The Twilight Zone pinball machine
THE PINBALL TABLE
According to Wikipedia, Pinball fanatics regard The Twilight Zone machine as “the most complex pinball game ever designed”. Released in 1993 by industry stalwarts Midway, the machine is decorated with images from the opening titles, such as the ticking clock and artists mannequin, as well as important references to specific shows. For instance, listen out for creepy radio sounds from “Static” – an episode that features in the upcoming UK DVD and Blu-Ray releases – when a multi-ball bonus is activated. Meanwhile, Rod Serlings disembodied voice features throughout the game play, encouraging you to “…unlock this door with the key of imagination”, which is presumably pinball code for keeping several steel balls is play at once. Don’t forget to pick up mysterious Hitchhikers for those all important two million point bonuses…
TABLE CREATOR PAT LAWLOR DISCUSSES TWILIGHT ZONE
Links courtesy of INTERNET PINBALL DATABASE
The Twilight Zone LP cover
THE ALBUM
In 1961 Columbia Records released a Twilight Zone cash-in album, designed to ride on the coattails of the series’ success and also cash-in on the explosion of Sci-Fi Exotica (Exotica being a posthumously applied genre term designed to cover music made for bachelor pad stereos that in the 90s became retrospectively trippy and psychedelic and appreciated by a hipster audience) that became popular as the space race began in earnest.
This excellent review of the album comes from a wider reaching post that offers a great introduction to the world of space age easy listening by Ken Saari @ELE-MENTAL.ORG
“”The Twilight Zone” by Marty Manning on Columbia is another great album. Although it took its title, theme song and concept from the television series, it is not a soundtrack album. It effectively features unusual electronic instruments, such as the martinot and ondioline, and sound effects incorporated into a diverse group of cleverly scored pieces. A few of the pieces include a mysterious instrument called the “serpent.” An ethereal wordless female voice is utilized on top of these sounds, and the effect is much like that achieved on Frank Hunter’slegendary ”White Goddess” album on Kapp, from 1959. On parts of the album, a fluttering flute sound is heard that is reminiscent of that on “So Rare” on Esquivel’s album, ”Infinity in Sound,” which was recorded months earlier. Regardless, this album has its own unique merits and it is an unqualified success. The highlight of the album is an adaptation of “Night on Bald Mountain,” which is a musical torrent of wild and crazy sounds, including thunder, shrieks, and assorted electronic sounds.” READ ON…
Early print ad for Twilight Zone video cassettes
BONUS EPHEMERA
Even before shiny discs took over from magnetic tape, lovers of all things Cult TV could still get their fix of mystery and imagination via the miraculous modern miracle of the home VCR. Check out this great advert from the dawn of domestic video libraries as, for just $4.95 a tape, Rod Sterling invites himself into your house and you into… THE TWILIGHT ZONE!
While I’m nostalgic for old TV Sci-Fi, I’m less enamoured of visual static, chewed tape and degraded sound, so I’ll leave the VHS collection and go with the new Blu-Ray thanks. Pre-order yours @AMAZON
