Review of Treasures of the Twilight Zone

Introduction

Nearly forty years after its debut, The Twilight Zone remains the single greatest anthology series to ever appear on television. Rod Serling was the man behind The Twilight Zone. Serling, who emerged from television’s golden age, was a true visionary. Not only was Serling the series creator and primary writer, he also served as it’s on screen narrator, executive producer and overall driving force for five seasons. Sure, not every episode was an out and out classic, but the hits far outweighed the misses.

Video

The technical quality this release of Treasures of The Twilight Zone really can’t be faulted. All three black and white episodes look better than they do on television. Detail is high and the contrast level was quite pleasing. Sure, episodic television never achieved the visual quality of feature films, but I’m sure that fans of The Twilight Zone will be tickled by this presentation. Digital compression artifacts were well masked by solid DVD authoring.

Audio

The digital monaural soundtrack had no discernable problems and always remained clean and intelligible.

Features

The interactive menus had an appropriate interface with animation, music and sound. Implementation of the interface wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but it was never truly bothersome. Through the interactive menus one can select episodes, plus the DVD’s supplemental features. Chief supplement is a Mike Wallace interview with Rod Serling. The interview is great despite the low quality of this early television recording. There is also a "pitch" film that Serling made to sell The Twilight Zone, this film isn’t in pristine condition either, but it is fun and worth having for it’s historical value. There is also a Rod Serling biography, plus episode reviews and historical information on The Twilight Zone. The information scrolls by a little too fast for casual readers and perhaps viewing it a page at a time would have been a better idea. Teasers for "next week’s episode" of The Twilight Zone have also been included.

Conclusion

I for one am a huge fan of The Twilight Zone and intend to start collecting the whole series. Recommended.