Submitted for your approval: a national holiday, occurring May 11 of each year, commemorating the television series ranked fourth in TV Guide’s “The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time.”

For five seasons, 1959-1964, television viewers were greeted weekly with an opening narration by the show’s creator, Rod Serling:

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.”

Serling wrote 94 of the show’s 156 episodes — but first he solicited scripts to give new writers a chance to break into the business. He received 14,000 manuscripts, read 500 of them, and deemed only two worthy of consideration. Neither of them aired.

The Emmy-winning series was groundbreaking in several ways. It was the first TV series to dramatize the effects of a nuclear blast and the first to mention fighting in Vietnam.It was among the first to feature black actors.

Unlike other series, each episode had a different cast, was filmed in a different location and portrayed different eras.

The Twilight Zone helped propel many fledgling actors’ careers, including Robert Redford, Charles Bronson, William Shatner, Robert Duvall, Burt Reynolds, James Coburn and Buddy Ebsen.

Serling was actually the third choice for the show’s narrator. Orson Welles wanted too much money and Richard Egan was under contract elsewhere. Camera shy, Serling did not actually appear on camera until the second season.

Test your knowledge of the iconic TV series by taking this quiz:

[mlw_quizmaster quiz=1]