Did You Know The Twilight Zone Had a Different Narrator Before Series Creator Rod Serling?

With The Twilight Zone so deeply ingrained in our cultural psyche, it's a little hard to imagine anyone serving as host and narrator for the groundbreaking anthology (airing regularly on SYFY) other than its celebrated creator,a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/rod-serling" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/rod-serling" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/rod-serling" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Rod Serling/a. While Burgess Meredith, Forrest Whittaker, and a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Jordan Peele/a tried to fill the void across a film adaptation and two small screen revivals, none of them came close to matching the enigmatic aura of the chain-smoking man who originally introduced that otherworldly dimension of sight, sound, and mind./p p"Although small in stature, Serling gave the television viewer a vision of a much larger man, with a ruddy complexion, dark, wavy hair, sparkling eyes and a deep — almost monotone — voice," a data-entity-href="https://rodserling.com/rod-serlings-binghamton-obituary/" data-entity-title="https://rodserling.com/rod-serlings-binghamton-obituary/" href="https://rodserling.com/rod-serlings-binghamton-obituary/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"read the obituary/ain theiPress Sun-Bulletin /i(the local newspaper of Serling's hometown in Binghamton, New York) after the writer passed away in 1975 at the age of 50./p pThis a data-entity-href="https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Rod-Serlings-voice-so-deep-on-The-Twilight-Zone#:~:text=Rod%20Serling%2C%20the%20creator%20and,suspenseful%20tone%20of%20the%20show." data-entity-title="https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Rod-Serlings-voice-so-deep-on-The-Twilight-Zone#:~:text=Rod%20Serling%2C%20the%20creator%20and,suspenseful%20tone%20of%20the%20show." href="https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Rod-Serlings-voice-so-deep-on-The-Twilight-Zone#:~:text=Rod%20Serling%2C%20the%20creator%20and,suspenseful%20tone%20of%20the%20show." target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emQuora/em response/a from user Joy Banerjee sums it up best: "[His] use of a deep, measured delivery when narrating emThe Twilight Zone /emwas a conscious choice to help establish the eerie and suspenseful tone of the show. Serling's distinctive voice became an integral part of the series and helped to make it an iconic part of television history."/p pstrongFor More on emThe Twilight Zone/em:/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/the-twilight-zone" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/the-twilight-zone" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/the-twilight-zone" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"The Season 1 Fan Feedback That Changed Rod Serling’s Approach to The Twilight Zone/a/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/the-classic-twilight-zone-episode-that-inspired-jordan-peeles-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"The Classic Twilight Zone Episode That Inspired Jordan Peele's Us/a/strongbrstronga data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/why-robby-the-robot-had-3-cameos-on-the-twilight-zone" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/why-robby-the-robot-had-3-cameos-on-the-twilight-zone" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/why-robby-the-robot-had-3-cameos-on-the-twilight-zone" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Why This Famous Sci-Fi Robot Showed Up on The Twilight Zone 3 Different Times/a/strong/p h2Why Rod Serling Decided to Narrate emThe Twilight Zone/emHimself/h2 div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-embed-display-settings="[]" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="b12a3bb6-b548-4933-b593-6363554c5647" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"div class="media__image" style="max-width:862px" div class="media__image-wrapper" div div img loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="low" src="https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_862/public/2022/12/gettyimages-90440071.jpg" width="862" height="575" alt="American writer and actor Rod Serling In 'The Twilight Zone'" typeof="foaf:Image" /div /div /div div class="media__metadata" div class="media__metadata-wrapper" span class="media__caption" American writer and actor Rod Serling In 'The Twilight Zone' /span span class="media__credit"Photo: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images /span /div /div /div /div pBut like most writers, Serling harbored no ambition of appearing in front of the camera. Content to remain behind-the-scenes, he initially left the job ofnarration to an established professional by the name ofWestbrook Van Voorhis (full name:Cornelius Westbrook Van Voorhis), who had gained notoriety for his work on emThe/ememMarch of Time/em radio program that spanned the Great Depression and World War II. Those who tuned in for emThe Twilight Zone/em's pilot episode("Where is Everybody?") on October 2, 1959 would have heard Voorhis speaking over the opening titles rather than Serling. You can listen to it for yourself a data-entity-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=relidV9GWL8" data-entity-title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=relidV9GWL8" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=relidV9GWL8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"right here/a./p p"[He] had that kind of big voice," former CBS executive William "Bill" Self states inMarc Scott Zicree'sa data-entity-href="https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Zone-Companion-Scott-Zicree/dp/1879505096" data-entity-title="https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Zone-Companion-Scott-Zicree/dp/1879505096" href="https://www.amazon.com/Twilight-Zone-Companion-Scott-Zicree/dp/1879505096" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"emTwilight Zone Companion/embook/a. "But when we listened to it, we decided it was a little too pompous-sounding."/p pFollowing several screenings of the pilot in New York, the idea of Orson Welles taking over as narrator was floated by the late talent agent, a data-entity-href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-17-me-3638-story.html" data-entity-title="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-17-me-3638-story.html" href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-17-me-3638-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Ira Steiner/a. Serling purportedly wasn't very keen on the idea, which never came to fruition, considering Welles wanted more money than the network sponsors were willing to pay. "Finally, Rod himself made the suggestion that maybe he should do it," Self recalled. "It was received with skepticism. None of us knew Rod except as a writer. But he did a terrific job."/p pOne of the most notable aspects of the Voorhis version is that it opens with "There is a sixth dimension beyond that which is known to man," which was later tweaked to, "There is a fifth dimension..." for subsequent airings at the behest of Self. "I said, 'Rod, what is theemfifth/emone? And he said, 'I don't know. Aren't there five?' I said, 'I can only think of four." So we rewrote it and recorded it."/p pemstrongClassic episodes of The Twilight Zone air regularly on SYFY. a data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" href="https://www.syfy.com/schedule" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Click here/a for complete scheduling info!/strong/em/p