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"The Twilight Zone" is famous for its twist endings, but not everyone could wrap their heads around the fifth dimension. One of the early sponsors for the classic sci-fi anthology series eventually stopped supporting the show because he didn't understand it.
In a 1962 interview with TV Guide, "Twilight Zone" creator Rod Serling recalled how the show had a sponsor in an early season that the crew called "the Old Man." Serling didn't specify what the Old Man's business was, just that he apparently had money to advertise with "The Twilight Zone" and he'd been drawn to the show because of Serling's acclaim. However, the Old Man was a fan of more straightforward programs like the Steve McQueen-led Western "Wanted: Dead or Alive." The strange scenarios and twists on "The Twilight Zone" made no sense to him.
"He used to call up the agency on Monday morning and demand to know what Friday's script had been all about," Serling said. "Then he'd demand an explanation of the explanation. I guess he figured if he couldn't understand it, neither could the people who bought his products. The funny part was that although every renewal was right at the wire — one day I got eight phone calls, four telling me we were off the air and four more telling me we were back on — the Old Man stuck for a whole season before he decided he couldn't stand it any longer."
Other sponsors caused even more trouble
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Rod Serling seemed bemused by the Old Man's confusion, and at the end of the day the Old Man did sponsor an entire season of television. However, Serling had other battles with sponsors that directly impacted what audiences saw (or didn't see) on "The Twilight Zone."
The CBS series' second season was originally going to have an episode written by George Clayton Johnson about a man whose hand is cut off only for him to regrow it. The horrible twist? The severed hand has also regrown a man, and there's only room for one of them. Serling bought the script only to return it; a food company sponsoring "The Twilight Zone" thought the story was too gruesome and would upset their customers' appetites.
In another instance, an instant coffee company sponsoring the show wanted a script altered so as not to mention tea, which the sponsor viewed as a competing hot beverage. (The result was to have the characters simply ask for "a tray" of unspecified beverages.)
Serling was outspoken about his dislike of sponsors censoring work. According to the Rod erling Memorial Foundation, in a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace, Serling explained that if a writer has "the temerity to try to dramatize a theme that involves any particular social controversy currently extant, then you're in deep trouble." Despite the best efforts of sponsors, Serling managed to impart messages about important social events in many of the best episodes of "The Twilight Zone."
