'The Twilight Zone' flawlessly translates the spirit of the original series

It’s impossible to overestimate the cultural impact of the original The Twilight Zone.

So many lovable elements of current TV — like anthology formats, twist-based plots, and cerebral moral plays — became popular through its success, and they continue to pervade some of the medium’s best efforts to date. Unrelated movies are said to have “Twilight Zone-ish” twists, and its tone is so well known that simply humming its theme song is universal shorthand for “shit’s getting spooky.” Not bad for a show that premiered in the 1950s.