Rod Serling created The Twilight Zone anthology television series and hosted 156 episodes from 1959 to 1964. Many years later, Watkins and the Rapiers wrote pop songs about individual episodes of the show. The result is the Singing Serling collection, recorded live in its debut at the Rochester, N.Y. Music Hall of Fame on Sept. 22, 2021, as part of the Rochester Fringe Festival. 

Below are plot synopses and song lyrics for each of the episodes represented in the collection, which is available on most streaming services as of Sept. 13, 2024.

To Serve Man

The Kanamits visit the earth from another galaxy professing a mission to bring peace and prosperity to mankind. They set about improving life on earth and offering people 10-year exchange group visits to their planet. However, one suspicious earthling learns their language and, just as the first flight to their planet is taking off, announced that their book, To Serve Man, is actually a cookbook. 

• This was the 24th episode of season three, and it originally aired on March 2, 1962.
• Parodies of “To Serve Man” have appeared in “The Naked Gun 1 ½: The Smell of Fear,” “The Simpsons,” “Married…With Children,” “Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead” and the first “Madagascar” movie.

By Steve Piper

Howdy do!  We’re the Kanamits
I know it sounds like after dinner mints
But I wouldn’t give much thought to it
‘Cause you see, we’re only here to serve you

Come fly away with us
We’ll take you where the air is rarified
And you can stay with us
And join us for some pie up in the sky 

You’re invited to a smorgasbord
At the table of the overlords
An invitation that can’t be ignored
Can’t you see we’re only here to serve you.

We would love to do a fricassee
With some members of your family tree
And confidentially ‘tween you and me
I’d like to say we’re only here to serve you

Come fly away with us
We’ll take you where the air is rarified
And you can stay with us
And join us for some pie up in the sky 

Let me have another look at you
Why, you’d be perfect at our barbeque
Don’t you work yourself into a stew
Can’t you see we’re only here to serve you
Here to serve you
Here to serve you
Now

The After Hours 

Marsha White buys a thimble on the ninth floor of an eight-story department store. She gets upset at the sales lady, finds the thimble damaged and seeks redress from the sales manager, but is refused when she has no evidence of the purchase. She rests, then awakens in a roomful of mannequins and slowly realizes she too, is a mannequin, and her turn to live for a month among humans is over. 

• This was episode 34 in the first season, and it originally aired June 10, 1960.
• The episode was adapted as a graphic novel by Mark Kneece and Rebekah Isaacs in 2008.

By Tom Whitmore

Marsha White goes to a department store 
She takes the elevator up to the 9^th floor
To buy a golden thimble for her dear old mother
There’s but one in the showcase she sees no other
She asks the creepy sales lady what might be the price?
When she notices there isn’t any other merchandise
Can you believe it? Man-o-man I can

The thimble is scratched so she attempts an exchange
But the boss-man thinks this lady is acting very strange.
He balks at a refund and she goes berserk
She passes out right there in front of the clerk
They direct her to lie down but when she comes to
Everybody has gone home what is she supposed to do?
Can you believe it? Man oh man, oh man oh man I can

Wood you like to go on a vacation? 
Modeling clothes all day can make you very tired.
Just a month of good rest and relaxation 
Be sure to return home before time’s expired

She takes the elevator up past the top floor
When the door opens she’s overwhelmed by the roar
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha
Do you remember, Marsha? Do you remember?
Early to the next morning we see Marsha again
But now she’s in the body of a wooden manikin
Can you believe it? Man o man, o man o man, oh man o man I can

Where Is Everybody? 

A man finds himself alone in what appears to be a deserted town. Despite finding evidence that people were or had just been there—a ringing telephone, a lit cigar—his terror grows and he panics. The closing reveals he is an astronaut in training, and the town was a hallucination caused in a test of the lengthy sensory deprivation he’ll experience in space. 

• Serling’s first “Twilight Zone” pilot was rejected. It was his second, “Where is Everybody?,” that earned his show its place on the air. It was the very first episode, and it aired on Oct. 2, 1959.

By Rick McRae

A man walks into a diner,  looks around, 
Sees that no one’s there, so he pours him-self a cup of 
Coffee, Calls out loud, “Is someone anywhere round
Here?” No answer, then he leaves, runs downtown but

Finds out that the streets are empty, but there’s a 
Funny feeling that he is being watched, but in the
Meantime, off he goes, runs to the police station
But again he’s all alone.  Where is every-

Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (In the) Where is every-
Body (Twilight Zone)           

Cigar smold’ring in an ashtray. telephone
Ringing in a booth, and a drugstore book is titled 
The Last Man On Earth, causing anxiety at- 
Tack. It’s night time, He goes in, movie theatre

And sees, that a film is playing, Battle Hymn
Now remembers he is an Air Force man, he breaks a
Mirror, panicking, runs back outside and he’s a wreck 
He’s hugging traffic light, ”Where is every-

Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (In the) Where is every-
Body (Twilight Zone)           

But look– he’s been in an isolation box, 
Under observation for several weeks, He’s in the 
Air Force, pretty soon he’ll be flying to the moon and 
We’ll hear him crying out, Where is every-

Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (don’t know who I am), Where is every-
Body (In the) Where is every-
Body (Twilight Zone)       

Static 

An embittered elderly bachelor tunes his radio to live performances by then-dead big band leaders transmitted on a station that’s been out of business for years. When he tries to play it for his boarding house neighbors he just gets static. They think he’s crazy, but in the end, listening to it turns him and his old girlfriend young again, giving him a second chance to marry. 

• This show originally aired March 10, 1960 as the 20th episode of the second season.
• Bob Crane, who later played Colonel Robert Hogan on “Hogan’s Heroes,” played an uncredited role as the voice of the radio disc jockey. 

By Kerry Regan with musical theme by Rick McRae

Each evening people gather cordially
They sit together watching the TV
Seein’ shows that don’t entertain
Commercials that wreck your brain
And they treat me like I am the fanatic
But when I watch their shows I just see static …. static

With my radio tuned to WPDA
I hear a Tommy Dorsey Orchestra soiree
They play live from Princeton U
“Getting Sentimental Over You”
Yeah, reception is a little bit erratic
And when the gang comes up to hear we just get static… static

The magic of that horn
You know I wasn’t born
To lose the pleasant glow 
Of my radio

The magic of that night
Vinnie looked just right
But that station don’t you know
It was closed 12 years ago

Well this one night Dorsey’s comin’ in real clear
Vinnie, I say, come quick you gotta hear
It feels like we got stung
And suddenly we both are young
And our dancing steps are downright acrobatic
And I don’t care if others just hear static…
Static. Static. Static.

Mr. Denton On Doomsday

Al Denton was the fastest gun in town but guilt over the victims of previous gun duels left him as the town drunk. A salesman named “Fate” helps him regain his shooting touch and reputation, but that attracts a duel-seeking gunslinger. They shoot each other in the trigger hands destroying their ability to shoot. Denton feels blessed that he will never shoot in anger again.

• This was the third episode in the first season. It aired originally on Oct. 16, 1959.
• Al Denton’s speech about being a top gunfighter until he turned to drink was parodied in Mel Brooks’ comedy “Blazing Saddles” by the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder).  

By Scott Regan

I left a boy just sixteen face down in the dirt
His life just slipped away with the blood that soaked his shirt
Tried to prove he’s fast by chasing after fame
Then dying in the street and no one knows his name 

The first time I shot a man I had a drink or two
To chase away the demons that move inside of you
To take away the life of a boy still in his teens 
A young man with a gun just can’t know what that means

Hey now, hey now. Hey dee di dee die
The devil’s on the street – he’s spitting in your eye
Hey now, hey now. Hey dee die dee day
Whiskey in your veins—time just slips away

I wanted to look proper on the day I die
So I got myself a shave and looked death in the eye
This young guy with a holster stepped inside the door
Quick to the trigger like I had been before

Doesn’t often happen that you get a second chance
When it’s time to face the music, time to do the dance
That kid didn’t know his luck when he stepped back in the street 
And they asked “did you get him?” No more than he got me

Hey now, hey now. Hey dee di dee dee
There’s a wagon leaving town, no one even sees
Hey now, hey now. Hey dee die dee day
No one had to die, Fate got in the way

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet 

On an airplane flight, Robert Wilson sees a gremlin on the wing tinkering with an engine. He alerts the flight crew, but the gremlin hides when anyone else looks, and the crew think Wilson is having a nervous breakdown. He then steals an officer’s revolver and tries to shoot it through the emergency exit. When they land, he exits strapped to a gurney, while the crew discovers a damaged engine. 

• This was the third episode in season five, and it originally aired on Oct. 11, 1963.
• William Shatner also appeared in Twilight Zone episode 43, “Nick of Time.”

By Steve Piper

In a metal box, 20,000 feet
Is it real, or just a dream?
On the other side, in a window seat
No one can hear me scream
There’s a gremlin on the wing

With a stolen gun, and a fighting chance
I might just save us all
But round and round we go, in this fearful dance, 
And one of us must fall
There’s a gremlin on the wing

Is he real?
Is he there? 
Is my mind only taunting me?
Is he real?
Is he there?
Or a dream only I can see

In my monkey suit, do i frighten you?
Can you feel the ancient fear?
Can you tell me now, I beg of you, is this
A window or a mirror?
There’s a gremlin on the wing

Is he real?
Is he there? 
Is my mind only taunting me?
Is he real?
Is he there?
Or a dream only I can see

In a mental box, in a stormy sky
Where is Jekyll, Mr. Hyde?
There is no escape, you may try and try
But there is no place to hide
When the gremlin’s on the wing
Gremlin on the wing
Gremlin on the wing
On the wing     

Here’s to the ones who know what is real
And what is just for show
Fear is a mask
In a funhouse mirror
Here’s to those who really know

Mirror Image

A woman becomes aware that an apparent doppelgänger is with her in the bus station. A man assists her when she faints at seeing her double in her bus and says she believes the doppelgänger is evil and seeking to replace her. Believing she’s losing her sanity, the man has her taken away by police, then is confronted by his own doppelgänger displaying an evil smile. 

• This was the 21st episode in season one, originally airing on Feb. 26, 1960.
• The lead role is played by Vera Miles, a former Miss Kansas who had roles in 45 movies during her career, including Psycho and The Searchers. 
• The Upstate New York cities of Cortland, Binghamton, Tully and Syracuse all play into the travel plans of the episode’s characters. 

By Pete Hasler

On my way to a better day, I’ll hop a bus for a dollar and change 
The waiting room is ghastly gray, and I’m feeling a little strange 
People suspect that I’m unfit, and it makes me feel uptight 
They all act like I’m losing it, and in fact, they might be right 
I’m staring at the mirror, and I can’t believe what I see

It can’t be any clearer, there’s more than one of me 

I’m over here while I’m over there, but this ain’t no deja-vu 
I really could be everywhere, and now it’s happening to you 
I’m staring at the mirror, and I can’t believe what I see

It can’t be any clearer, there’s more than one of me 

The Bewitchin’ Pool 

Jeb and Sport Sharewood live in a big fancy house with cold parents who bicker. In their swimming pool, a boy pops up and asks them to follow him underwater. They resurface in a swimming hole where kids play in the yard of Aunt T’s rustic homestead. Jeb and Sport return home, learn that their parents plan to divorce, and then dive back in the pool, permanently returning to Aunt T’s. 

• This was the final episode of the original “The Twilight Zone” anthology series, episode 36 in season five, originally airing on June 19, 1964.
• Back lot noise rendered some of the original audio unusable, so June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel, dubbed Sport Sharewood’s lines in the outdoor scenes. 
• The episode was one of the first TV shows to address the problem of divorce and bad parenting.
• The Watkins and the Rapiers song was performed in the 2017 If All Rochester Wrote the Same Song program, themed, “How Did We Get Here.”

By Kerry Regan

Handsome Gil Sharewood is a propserous man and a picture of success
With a colonial mansion, a glamorous wife, and 2 kids how they were blessed
But behind that façade their happiness is a fraud
They fought, they argued, they treated their kids cruel
So the kids escaped in fantasy at their pool

Jeb and Sport Sharewood imagine they’re poling down a river on a raft
A Tom Sawyer-like boy appeared suddenly, “wanna have some fun,” he laughed
They dive deep in the pool, and the place they come up is so cool 
It’s way more fun than their parents would allow
And they say Tom Sawyer, you must tell me hoooow

Did we get here?
How did we get here?
How did we get here?
How we can get home again? And Tom Sawyer said
You get there the same way that you came in

The next day the Sharewoods tell Jeb and Sport, we have good news to share
Our lives will be better, the screaming will stop, and we’ll take trips everywhere
We’re gonna set a new course, starting with a divorce
Jeb and Sport can’t hide their outrage
So they dive deep in the pool and turn the page

Handsome Gil Sharewood stares at the pool, what will he do now?
Their kids disappeared, he turns to his wife
And he asks her hoooooooooooow

Did we get here?
How did we get here?
How did we get here?
I’ve searched the pool and looked all around the lawn
For the life of me I don’t know where they’ve gone

One For the Angels

Lew Bookman, a sidewalk salesman, is told by Mr. Death that he will die at midnight. Bookman schemes a way to cheat death, but then learns that a young girl who is his friend will die in his place. Bookman makes his greatest sales pitch to save the girl’s life and in turn accepts that he must be the one who dies. The final reveal: he goes to Heaven. 

• This was the Twilight Zone’s second episode. It aired Oct. 9, 1959.
• Lew Bookman was played by Ed Wynn, who later played Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. His gravestone reads: Dear God: Thanks…Ed Wynn

By Rick McRae

Mr. Bookman is a salesman with a sidewalk display.
His expert sales pitch is so good that he profits each day
Along comes Mr. Death
Demanding Bookman’s final breath
But Bookman begs for one last chance to say
“I gotta make one last pitch, 
I’m talking about a real big pitch
One for the angels.”

Mr. Bookman’s pulled a fast one, there’s a smirk on his face.
Mr. Death has chosen someone else to die, in his place.
With a sudden screech of brakes,
Bookman’s realized his mistake
A little girl’s instead the fatal case
“I’ve gotta save that girl
I just have to save that poor girl 
With one for the angels.”
To help this girl to heal
I have to seal the deal …with a spiel!

Mr. Bookman starts to reel off his greatest sales pitch.
Mr. Death gets mesmerized– he’s now in a spending blitz!
When the midnight hour arrives,
The little girl survives
And Bookman agrees to make the switch.
He has done the best he can
He will die a happy man
He’s one for the angels 
He’s one for the angels 
Mr Bookman, he’s a pitchman.
It can happen 
In the Twilight Zone.

Perchance to Dream

Edward Hall has a severe heart condition and believes that if he falls asleep he’ll die. Yet staying awake also strains his heart. He seeks help from a psychiatrist whose receptionist looks like the carnival dancer who appears in his dreams and lures him to risky places. Frightened by her, he jumps out the window to his death. In reality he died in his sleep on the doctor’s couch. 

• This was the ninth episode of the show’s first season, airing originally on Nov. 27, 1959.
• The title of the episode and the Charles Beaumont short story that inspired it is taken from Hamlet’s “To be, or not to be” speech.[1]
• This was the first episode not written by Rod Serling. It was written by Charles Beaumont. 
• Rod Serling also died from a heart condition, at age 50, on June 28, 1975, two days after heart surgery, at Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, N.Y.

By Tom Whitmore

Don’t fall asleep Edward
It’s a matter of life or death
Don’t fall asleep Edward 
Or you may’ve drawn your last sweet breath
There’s a girl who comes to you in your dreams
She’s not so beautiful as she seems
Beware of her malevolent schemes
And please don’t fall asleep

Don’t fall asleep Edward
Though you feel a little woozy
Don’t fall asleep Edward
It’s time to dump this fatal floozy
That heart condition your shrink’s been treating
Mere shock will stop your poor heart’s beating
This is why I keep repeating
Please don’t fall asleep

Don’t fall asleep Edward
You’ve heard it all before
Don’t fall asleep Edward
Or you might wind up at death’s front door
The slinky feline is a dancing tease
The kind that makes a grown man weak in the knees
I will ask you once more please, please, please, please
Please don’t fall asleep

Don’t fall asleep Edward
There’s something you should know
Don’t fall asleep Edward
There are eeny meeny many worse ways to go
The open window calls to you
Mesmerized by this déjà vu
What are you supposed to do
Please don’t fall asleep

A Stop At Willoughby

A Madison Avenue ad executive caught up in the rat race falls asleep on his train commute and “awakens” in the peaceful town of Willoughby in 1888. On subsequent commutes this occurs twice more. The third time he abandons the train for Willoughby, but we learn that in fact he has jumped off the train and died, and his funeral home is Willoughby & Son. 

• This was the 30th episode of the first season, airing originally on May 6, 1960.
• The town of Willoughby is said to be modeled after Rod Serling’s hometown, Binghamton, N.Y. 

By Steve Piper

Do you long for a yesterday
When the sky was always blue
And folks you met as you went your way
Would know your name and they’d smile at you?
Have you had enough of misery
And all this pointless strife
Do you wish you could just be free
To go and find a better life?

Just go down to the station
You can come as you are
Do you need a vacation?
Well, you needn’t look far
Everything your heart desires will be there
In Willoughby (Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby)

Selling cars, selling lawn chairs
Selling hope, selling youth
Is it giving you nightmares
Do you long for the truth?
There’s a place of civility
You can go there today
Leave your sense of futility
Lift your feet from the clay

Just go down to the station
You can come as you are
Do you need a vacation?
Well, you needn’t look far
And your dreams just might come true
In a world that’s bright and new
And the pain will all be through
When you’re there
In Willoughby (Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby)
Willoughby (Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby) 
Willoughby (Willoughby, Willoughby, Willoughby)     

The 16-Millimeter Shrine

An aging actress is offered a part she feels is beneath her. She rejects it and spends her days watching her old movies. When an acting friend visits, she’s horrified by his aged appearance and disappears in the house. Looking for her in the movie room, her friends play a film in which the actress invites them to a party with her young acting friends of yore—in her current home. She’s now living in her movies. 

• This was the fourth episode in the programs first season. Its original air date was Oct. 23, 1959.
• Martin Balsam played agent Danny Weiss and went on to appear in hit movies “Psycho,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Cape Fear.”
• Ida Lupino played the aging film star and became the only person to act in one Twilight Zone episode and direct another (“The Masks”).

By Rick McRae

Love for her former self,  the Star of the Silver Screen. 
The Golden Girl of Hollywood, the Legendary Movie Queen
She’ll fly into one of her rages;  if you ask her what her age is; 
And seclude herself,  in her den. Gazing at movies from her prime,
On her 16-millimeter shrine 

And I’m her friend and agent, My name is Danny Weiss.
The producer wants her acting in his next flick, Would a role as a mother suffice?
She screams, I won’t be in it! The meeting lasts less than a minute.
She will not play anyone, 0ther than the starring roles that shine
On her 16-millimeter shrine. 

And then, she had a visit, from her former leading man.
Both of them making a comeback film, had been her dream and long-term  plan.
But she yelled, Get out! Please don’t come closer! You’ve become an ugly grocer!
And she ran back to her den, she made a wish, and then
She was in the film, looked at me, tossed her scarf it  smelled so fine
She’s now the 16-millimeter shrine! 

Time Enough at Last 

A bank teller is an obsessive reader, annoying his customers, boss and wife. At lunch he reads in the bank vault, protected when a bomb destroys the city. Exploring the ruins he falls into despair, recovering when he discovers the library and its books have survived. With time enough at last for reading, his thick glasses fall off and shatter as he reaches for his first book, rendering him unable to read. 

• The show was episode 8 in season 1 and originally aired on Nov. 20, 1959.
• “Time Enough at Last” was a ratings success, is the most remembered episode in polls, was No. 25 in TV Guide‘s “100 Most Memorable Moments in Television,” and was cited by Serling as one of his two favorite episodes. 

By Scott Regan

You only got me, you only got me, 
Stuck inside this wishing well you only got me
I married a fool, and he married me
Hiding in his little world of books and poetry
But books can be lost, scarred and denied
Now you know the cost of the times that I’ve tried

You only got me, you only got me, 
Stuck inside this wishing well you only got me

I married my gal, and she married me
Without much regard of who we might be
Just crawled in this cage where the clock beats the day
Without turning a page, time slipping away

I saw the world as it was, or it was as I saw
Then everything changed, moved outside the law
No limits or needs, staring death in the face
Even if you succeed, won’t know the end of this race

You only got me, you only got me, 
Stuck inside this wishing well you only got me
Stuck inside this wishing well you only got me

The Night of the Meek 

Henry Corwin arrives for his job as a department store Santa Claus an hour late and drunk and gets fired. In an alley he finds a burlap sack filled with empty cans, and soon discovers the bag produces anything he asks for. He distributes gifts to neighbors and gets arrested for alleged stealing, but is released after producing the brandy his accusers’ request. He rides off in an airborne sleigh pulled by reindeer.

• The show was episode 11 in season two. It originally aired Dec. 23, 1960.
• Santa Claus is played by Art Carney who played Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners,” and won the for Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in “Harry and Tonto.” 
• The song also is one of the band’s 100+ original Christmas songs.

By Kerry Regan

Corwin’s over at Jack’s, he’s had six drinks, and his jokes are funny
He grabs another bottle and gets kicked out because he has no more money
He’s the Santa at the department store
He’s late for work by an hour or more
He’ll face an angry critique on this night of the meek

So Percival sits on his lap and cries out’ “Santa Claus is loaded”
The straight-laced store boss Mr. Dundee looks like his head exploded
Corwin makes a speech that’s purely inspired
Nevertheless he still gets fired
That’s how you end the workweek on this night of the meek

Then in the alley out back
Tripping over a sack
Corwin opened it up just to have a peak
On this night of the meek

Well it turned out Corwin could pull from the sack whatever anyone requested
But Dundee figured those were stolen goods so he had Corwin arrested
At the station the sack had just cans and a cat
But when Dundee asked for brandy it produced that
Set your expectations to freak on the night of the meek

Then Dundee looks up in the sky
A sleigh with reindeer’s flyin’ by
But this Santa looks like that Corwin guy
Their throats go dry, they can barely speak
On this night of the meek
On this night of the meek
The meek have inherited the North Pole
The meek have inherited the North Pole