The Twilight Zone
The Parallel
TV Flash files “The Parallel” as hour 113 of 156 in the TV Flash guide — The Twilight Zone (1959–1964) on CBS, season 4, episode 11, aired 1963-03-14, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E11: listed hour 113 of 156 in the The Twilight Zone guide, hour 11 of 18 in season 4. It aired 1963-03-14 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “No Time Like the Past” (S04E10). Next is “I Dream of Genie” (S04E12).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
An astronaut (Steve Forrest) returns from a space flight to find things much changed during his absence.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Parallel sit in the The Twilight Zone guide?
S04E11 is listed hour 113 of 156 — hour 11 of 18 in season 4, season 4 episode 11.
When did The Twilight Zone S04E11 air?
The Parallel aired 1963-03-14 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the empty-town opener, then the broken-glasses hour. Isolation first, stolen moral second; those two teach the anthology’s real instrument better than any twist ranking.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Serling used fantasy as a smuggled sermon when sponsors would not let a straight drama talk. Watch for isolation as craft, the twist as a bill coming due, and half-hours built to sit in the blood overnight — not to snack in a dump.
October 1959, CBS: a man walks into an empty town and the country learns a new address. The Twilight Zone did not invent the anthology. It invented the anthology as a national flinch — half-hour moral weather, a host in a dark suit, and a closing turn that was supposed to sting after the sponsor smile. Rod Serling had already fought live-drama censors and lost enough rounds to change weapons. Fantasy was the loophole. Aliens, bargains, small towns that eat themselves: the vocabulary of a writer who wanted to talk…
Filed against
- Rod Serling as Host / Narrator
Rod Serling created and hosted The Twilight Zone — moral fables in a black suit, twist endings that taught America to fear its own reflection. Sponsor and censor battles are as legendary as the episodes. On TV Flash he is prestige…