Twilight Zone turns 20

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The ill-fated UPN version that is..

DECEMBER 30, 2022, 11:53 AM ET

'THE TWILIGHT ZONE' PRODUCER ON SHORT-LIVED REVIVAL 20 YEARS LATER: 'THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WANTED'
Like Rocky Valentine in "A Nice Place to Visit," producer Ira Behr was cast into his own personal Hell.

By Josh Weiss

During the production of UPN's short-lived 2002 revival of The Twilight Zone, Ira Behr found himself in a position similar to that of Rocky Valentine at the end of "A Nice Place to Visit." That is to say the writer and executive producer went from heavenly excitement to his own personal Hell.

Not too long before this, the enticing opportunity to revive The Twilight Zone — the iconic anthology series created by Rod Serling — came to Behr after the cancelation of ABC's Bob Patterson.

"We were doing sitcom hours, so I would get home at 6 o'clock in the morning and have to be back at the office at 11. It was tough, which turned out to be a good thing, because it prepared me for The Twilight Zone, which had many challenges of its own," he tells SYFY WIRE over Zoom, looking back at the short-lived revival 20 years after its debut. "When they offered it to me, I just thought, ‘It's The Twilight Zone!’ I like the Twilight Zone!' I'm always looking for something new to do, so an anthology sounded good. And it went downhill from there."

RELATED: Everything you need to know about SYFY's 2022 Twilight Zone New Year's Eve marathon

Originally slated to air on CBS, home of the original anthology and its 1985 revival, this 21st-century iteration was ultimately moved over to UPN (a forerunner to The CW) in an effort to appeal to a younger demographic of viewers.

"All they wanted us to do was cast rappers and other people whose acting experience was… let’s just say limited," Behr recalls. "Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not work. And they got into this crazy-ass kick on making the show seem relevant. But since they [referring to the executives] were neither young nor relevant, it was like a talking a**hole." ...

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/twilight-zone-2002-upn-revival-producer-ira-behr-interview

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-twilight-zone-remembering-2002-upn-tv-revival

https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/twilight-zone-syfy-marathon-new-years-eve-holds-up

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1. 1985

Last edited Fri Mar 6, 2026, 07:37 PM - Edit history (1)

A little over 40 years since the 1985 version of Twilight Zone --

There was an episode from the 1980s revival of the Twilight Zone called "Wordplay" that I keep coming back to. Robert Klein plays a salesman who slowly realizes to his horror that words are taking on new meanings for everyone else but him.

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T19:55:45.532Z

i work with words for a living, so I am biased, but I really think we've got to bring back words. really useful if you imbue them with meaning and arrange them properly!

— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T19:50:43.460Z

The Trump regime's assault on the English language keeps making me think of this old Twilight Zone episode.

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T21:57:57.950Z

We're due for another TZ revival