This week join Jonathan and Steve in conversation with fellow academic, David Brokaw to discuss his new book, Monsters on Maple Street: The Twilight Zone and the Postwar American Dream. We discuss the false dichotomy between “good writing” and “bad television” during the 1950s, the psychology of advertising within 1950s culture, the effect Rod Serling’s service during World War II had on his later writing, and where Twilight Zone-style social commentary can and can’t be found today.














Not everyone was as enamored with Rod Serling’s Noon on Doomsday teleplay from 1956 as we were. Courtesy of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation (https://rodserling.com/)



One of the most memorable of The Twilight Zone episodes, Time Enough at Last from Season 1, Episode 08, starred Burgess Meredith and aired November 20, 1959.



The Monsters are Due on Maple Street is one of the most famous of The Twilight Zone episodes and the inspiration for Brokaw’s book’s title. Starring Claude Akins, it was the twenty-second episode from season one and aired on March 4, 1960.



A Quality of Mercy was the fifteenth episode from season 03 of The Twilight Zone, starring Dean Stockwell. A U.S. soldier gets a different perspective on the war thanks to Rod Sterling. Aired December 29, 1961.



The Thirty-Fathom Grave was the second episode of the fourth season of The Twilight Zone chronicles a WWII survivor of a lost submarine. Aired January 10, 1963.