Television's Mysteries: The Twilight Zone Of Other Televisio

By Author: T Frady
Total Articles: 4
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You unlock this door with the key of imagination. That's what Rod Serling would say. It appears to me that the Twilight Zone may have affected more than the 30 minutes it controlled every week those many years ago. So with the keys of your imagination lets journey farther into the Outer Limits of television and discover that the weird and the bizarre were not just limited to the great classic sci-fi hits like the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits. Nor is the unexplained always presented on Ripley's Believe it or Not. 

The Mysterious changing Andy Taylor
What happened to Andy Griffith from the black and white days of the Andy Griffith Show to the days of color? It is common knowledge the black and white episodes with Barney were more funny and entertaining, but why did Andy suddenly change from a loveable country bumpkin, who was always wise but never serious, to a almost bitter man that seemed to even lose his country accent?

Is the original answer for this something that belongs in the Twilight Zone? Did the writers of the show have an intriguing plot to reveal that just never came to be? What ...
... could make a man change so drastically from the changing of black and white to color? Is there a scientific explanation? Could the answer be as bizarre as a UFO kidnapping? Was Andy Taylor replaced with a clone? Were we watching two different dimensions of time and space?

I have some more reasonable explanations, but you be the judge. Perhaps Andy had attempted to quit smoking which made him grumpy in real life. Perhaps he was trying to impress the equally grumpy Miss Crump or should we say Miss Grump. Why, oh why, didn't he marry the lady druggist? Perhaps none of this would have happened.

The changed Andy happened about the time Barney Fife left town. Did the antics of Don Knotts keep Andy in a good ol' home town mood? Or did the emergence of the Jughead hat wearing Goober affect Andy in a way that can't be explained. After all, just before the show turned color, Andy threatened the life of Goober, after he put a car together right inside the court house.

So what do you think? Was it aliens, a lack of nicotine, Goober, Gomer, Miss Crump, or no Barney? You be the judge, I just present the facts as I know them.

The Disappearing Son on Happy Days
What about Chuck on Happy Days? How could a mother and father completely forget they ever had a son? But if you watched the recent Happy Days reunion if then there was no reasonable explanation given as to why Chuck just disappeared. In the final episode of Happy Days, Mr. C even relates to the audience how he was happy to have raised two children, not three as we know really happened. Is this another case of alien abduction? There is precedence for this strange phenomenon. If you have seen the recent movie The Forgotten, you can see how aliens can put the mind whammy on parents, making them completely forget their kids for purposes of evil alien experiments on parental mindsets. Surely the explanation cannot be as simple as the writers were just too lazy to keep up with the fact that the Cunninghams had another son beside Richie. Perhaps the strange powers of the Fonz were not simply from his cool as we were told. Maybe the Fonz himself was an alien with the power of mind control over other humans, including the power to snap his fingers to bring herds of screaming girls to his side. Now that I think of it, no wonder people think Elvis is still alive. Maybe he too was from another world. Could it be Elvis and the Fonz were part of a rival gang from Ork preparing for the arrival Mork from Ork?

More Unexplained Phenomenon
There are many more strange and bizarre unexplainable phenomenon on television.

1.Where did all the deputies go after the first episode of the Dukes of Hazzard? Clearly there were more than Enos and Rosco in the pilot episode.

2. On the last episode of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a baby arrives just for the closing moments of the show, just because the Kents want a child. No explanation is ever given. Is it then just coincidence that Dean Cain would soon host the new Ripley's Believe It or Not?

3. How can Metropolis be in Kansas as it is only a couple of hours away from Smallville on the popular WB hit Smallville? On one episode Clark climbed a water tower with a friend and they could actually see Metropolis without X-ray vision. In the past it has always been accepted that Metropolis represented New York City.

4. After 9 years of episodes, can anyone truly say that any of the bizarre happenings on the X-files were ever explained. What mind control did they use to force us to watch year after year with no answers? I beg of you Chris Carter make a movie or something that can explain all of this unexplained phenomenon. 

5. On The Greatest American Hero, a 1980's tv show about a teacher who gains Superman like powers by wearing a super suit from aliens, there was one strange occurrence. The Greatest American Hero's main character Ralph Hinkley inexplicably becomes Ralph Hanley. What happened? Well even though Ralph got his super suit from aliens this was no alien conspiracy. After the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinkley, they decided to rename the main character to avoid any association with the John Hinkley.

I'm sure there are many more unexplained events on television throughout the years, but was it all by television writers, or did Rod Serling's Twilight Zone infect the rest of TV history as well?
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