Your Next Stop... The Twilight Zone

It is not well known that today, in addition to being Christmas, is the anniversary of the birth of Rod Serling, an award-winning screenwriter who created two enormously popular TV shows, The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. He would have been 84 today. The Twilight Zone (the early episodes are now online) has had an outrageous impact on mass-media presentations of science fiction and modern fantasy. It also had an effect on Daria.

In the 1997 Beavis and Butt-head book, The Butt-Files (later collected in Reading Sucks), we discover that Beavis and Butt-head once traveled into the Twilight Zone and met Rod Serling. They also met the Twilight Zone versions of Daria, Stewart, and teachers at Highland High. (Think of the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror." You've got it.) This two-page adventure is reproduced for your edification (it's a word, look it up) here and here. Start with the first "here," then move on to the second. For more atmosphere as you read, click here before going to the story.

Enjoy your nightmare.


Incidental Notes: "The Twilight Zone" is referenced many times in Daria fanfiction. Daria and Jane are both widely believed to be quite familiar with the show, despite it never being discussed in the Daria series. Some stories mention it in an offhand but relevant way (e.g., "Art Frieze" and "Fixing Dad"), but some weave the two shows together in a more intimate way, adding large doses of drama, horror, or startling change to the normal Daria presentation. Some of the most notable fanfics with clear Twilight Zone influence are named below.

• "The Butterfly Storm"
• "Heart's Desire"
• "Next Time, This Time" (which produced the stunning "Twilight's Own")
• "The Way Things Ought to Be"
  

The tale "Mirror, Mirror," a crossover with the Star Trek episode of the same name, appropriately offers homage to Rod Serling's landmark show at the end.

If you have some favorite Twilight Zone-style Daria tales, share them in the Comments section.

P.S. In an unrelated news story, Tom Sloane is still dead.