As we had reported earlier last week, Panasonic is releasing a number of Twilight Zone DVD’s in the coming months. Today more strategic and content information became available in form of an official press release.
Rare episodes of the legendary Sci-Fi series will be remastered and released exclusively on the Panasonic DVD Publishing label. Beginning September 1998 Panasonic DVD Publishing has acquired Rod Serling’s entire 156-episode sci-fi series, The Twilight Zone, for worldwide DVD release. Collections of rare and classic episodes of the groundbreaking supernatural series, which ran on CBS from 1959-1964, will be available beginning September 21, 1998.
Offering non-syndicated episodes not seen in years and incredibly rare footage provided by Serling himself, The Twilight Zone DVD collection is a must for sci-fi aficionados and nostalgia buffs alike. Other special highlights include a 1959 Rod Serling/Mike Wallace interview, rare TV appearances by actors such as Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds and Dennis Hopper, as well as voice-over commentary from noted series authority Marc Scott Zircree, author of “TheTwilight Zone Companion” (Silman-James Press), who provides season-by-season and episodic reviews.
The first releases will be Treasures Of The Twilight Zone and More Treasures Of The Twilight Zone, available for a suggested retail price of $24.95 each.With its instantly recognizable opening, theme song and charismatic host Serling, The Twilight Zone series ran for five years and achieveda permanent place in American pop culture. Seen widely in syndication on bothbroadcast and cable for almost 40 years, the paranormal series has spawned a major motion picture, Twilight Zone TV marathons and arabid fan base responsible for a myriad of Twilight Zoneclubs, web sites and publications.
“Our acquisition of The Twilight Zone library helps position us as a premier supplier of special-interest DVD programming and content in the marketplace,” says Lou Viveros, general manager of Panasonic Interactive Media. “Millions of fans worldwide have been following Twilight Zone’s supernatural tales for years. As a staple in the evolution of popular television, we expect the Twilight Zone titles to quickly become bestsellers.
Treasures Of The Twilight Zone, an important compendium of episodes, includes the series premiere not seen in almost 40 years, ”Where is Everybody?“ — a bizarre study in loneliness (Earl Holliman, James Gregory); and two sought-after non-syndicated shows: ”An Occurrence at Owl Creek,“ (1964) — an Academy Award(R)-winning shortfilm, set against the civil war, and based on a classic tale by Ambrose Bierce; and ”The Encounter,“ (1964) — in which a WWII veteran showing off his captured samurai sword has a ”run-in“ with eastern mysticism to deadly consequences.
More Treasures Of The Twilight Zone contains three more amazing episodes from the twisted mind of Rod Serling and his crack writers, including the classics: ”The Eye of the Beholder“ (1960) –about a woman, who, despite 11 state-sponsored surgeries, is forced to live with her ”horrible“ disfigurement in a society where the definition of beauty is quite different from our own (William B. Gordon, Donna Douglas, Jennifer Howard); the devilish episode ”The Howling Man“(1960) — featuring John Carradine and a haunting, atmospheric score by renowned composer Bernard Hermann (H.M. Wynant, Robin Hughes, Estelle, Poule); and ”The Masks” (1964) — a macabre tale surrounding a dying man’s inheritance, his greedy relatives and their final comeuppance (Robert Keith, Milton Selzer, Virginia Gregg, Brooke Hayward).
More amazing Twilight Zone collections are scheduled for release in 1998, including TWILIGHT ZONE, VOLUME 1 and TWILIGHT ZONE, VOLUME 2 which will be available in October, followed byTWILIGHT ZONE, VOLUME 3; TWILIGHT ZONE, VOLUME 4 and TWILIGHT ZONE, VOLUME 5, which will be available in November. Panasonic Interactive DVD will continue to release classic episodes through March 1999 (57 episodes/15 titles) and beyond.