William,
No need to apologize. You called me out on something that needed to be corrected. I would have done the same thing. In fact, this discussion has caused a rediscovery of Serling's work for me. I've always been interested in irony and irony is a common element in Serling's work. I remember an interview where he seemed to stress about ideas because he said they were a precious commodity and production had to go on with or without a script.
That brings me to Gene Roddenberry. I was reading a book about the original Star Trek series and I can't imagine the stress that he went through. His wife said that crunch time came around the end of the seasons and Gene would start a script for an episode and would have no idea where it would end. Yeah, like you said, basically just making stuff up as they went. His wife, who played a recurring role as a nurse in the show, would literally run down to the studio and deliver pages of script hot off of Gene's typewriter. Those pages were filmed that same day. That's insane! But they had to get the show on the air.
Errikos,
As a youngster I would sneak up past my bed time and watch many of those shows you and William mentioned late at night. You're right, the episodes were hit and miss along with the music but when they were good they were really good.
I remember a show from the late 80's early 90's called Friday the 13th. No, it had nothing to do with the hockey masked lunatic slaughtering horny teenagers. Basically, it was about a souvenir store owner who made a pact with the Devil to curse all of his souvenirs into instruments of evil which would find their way into the hands of unwitting customers. Of course, the premise became tiresome after about season 3 or 4 but it was a fun watch. It was produced by the same people who produced the movie franchise, hence the name.
And I agree, the TZ theme was a little overrated but it's pretty much an icon now.