Where is Everybody ? - Wikipedia Where is Everybody ? This article is about the television episode. For the hypothetical question relating to extraterrestrial life, see Fermi paradox. `` Where Is Everybody ? '' The Twilight Zone episode Earl Holliman in `` Where Is Everybody ? '' Episode no. Season 1 Episode 1 Directed by Robert Stevens Written by Rod Serling Featured music Original score by Bernard Herrmann Cinematography by Joseph La Shelle Editing by Roland Gross Production code 173 - 3601 Original air date October 2, 1959 Guest appearance ( s ) Earl Holliman James Gregory Garry Walberg Episode chronology ← Previous -- Next → `` One for the Angels '' The Twilight Zone ( 1959 TV series ) ( season 1 ) List of The Twilight Zone episodes `` Where Is Everybody ? '' is the first episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It was first broadcast on October 2, 1959. Contents 1 Original pilot narration 2 Opening narration 3 Plot summary 4 Closing narration 5 Cast 6 Original transition after the story 7 Production information 8 Themes 9 Critical response 10 Footnotes 11 Further reading 12 External links Original pilot narration `` There is a sixth 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, and it lies between the pit of man 's fears, and the sunlight of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area that might be called, The Twilight Zone. '' ( Note : In following first - season episodes, `` sixth dimension '' in the above narration was changed to `` fifth dimension '', `` sunlight '' was changed to `` summit '' and ' It is an area that might be called ' changed to ' An area in which we call '. ) Opening narration `` The place is here. The time is now, and the journey into the shadows that we are about to watch, could be our journey. '' Plot summary A man finds himself alone on a dirt road, walking towards a diner. Inside he finds a jukebox playing loudly, and a pot of hot coffee on the stove, but there are no other people. He inquires for some breakfast, but no chef or waitress is to be found. He is dressed in an Air Force flight suit, but he does not remember who he is or how he got there. After leaving the diner, he walks to a nearby town called Oakwood. The town seems deserted, but everywhere the man goes, he seems to find proof that someone had been there recently : food is cooking on a stove, water dripping in a sink, and a cigar is burning in an ashtray. He grows more and more unsettled as he wanders through the empty town, looking for someone -- anyone -- to talk to, all the while having the strange feeling that he is being watched. He even mistakes a mannequin sitting in the cab of a delivery truck for a live person. In a soda shop after talking to himself he idly spins racks filled with paperback books until he comes to an already spinning rack filled from top to bottom with the same book : `` The Last Man on Earth, Feb. 1959 '', upon noticing it he is upset and leaves. Day turns to night and the man is still alone in the town. Street lights turn on all around him. The marquee of the movie theater is illuminated. As he goes into the theater, he sees a poster advertising the film playing Battle Hymn, which causes him to remember that he is in the US Air Force. Finding no one in the audience, he begins to wonder if he is the last survivor of a nuclear war, until the film begins onscreen. He runs to the projection booth, again finding it empty. He desperately runs through the theater until he crashes into a mirror. In a panic, the man runs through the streets, even more paranoid that he is being watched, until he finally collapses next to a street crossing and presses a button labeled WALK. As he screams for someone to help him, it is revealed that the walk button is actually a panic button. The man is not alone in a deserted town, but is instead in an isolation booth being observed by a group of uniformed servicemen. Along with the panic button, the isolation booth shows a clock with its glass shattered from the man pounding on it. His name is Mike Ferris, an astronaut in training who has been confined to an isolation room located within an aircraft hangar for 484 hours and 36 minutes, with all of his vitals being monitored and recorded. He has been undergoing tests to determine his fitness for spaceflight and whether he can handle the psychological stress of a prolonged trip to the Moon alone, without any contact with others. The town was a complete hallucination, an escape valve for his sensory - deprived mind. One of the officers explains that while all of his physical needs such as nutrition, water, and oxygen, along with rudimentary entertainment, can be provided, there is one thing that ca n't be supplied : companionship. As Ferris is carried out of the hangar on a stretcher, he sees the Moon above him, and says wistfully, `` Hey ! Do n't go away up there ! Next time it wo n't be a dream or a nightmare. Next time it 'll be for real. So do n't go away. We 'll be up there in a little while. '' Closing narration `` The barrier of loneliness : The palpable, desperate need of the human animal to be with his fellow man. Up there, up there in the vastness of space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever waiting... in The Twilight Zone. '' Cast Earl Holliman as Mike Ferris James Gregory as General Garry Walberg as Colonel Original transition after the story Announcer : ( as the title appears ) `` Rod Serling, the creator of Twilight Zone, will tell you about next week 's story -- after this word from our alternate sponsor. '' Production information Prior to this episode, Rod Serling had written an episode called `` The Happy Place '' as the pilot for his new series. It was rejected, because the story -- centered on a society where people were executed when they turned 60 due to their inability to contribute to society -- was considered too depressing by network executives. William Self is the network executive who rejected `` The Happy Place ''. At first, Serling tried to get him fired, but the next day realized that William Self was right, and came in with `` Where Is Everybody ? ''. From that point on, Rod Serling and William Self became fast friends. This idea was presented in Anthony Trollope 's 1882 novel The Fixed Period, which envisaged a College where men retired at 67 and after a contemplative period of a year were ' peacefully extinguished ' by chloroform. It was also endorsed in a 1905 speech by the famous physician William Osler. It was then used, slightly modified, in Isaac Asimov 's novel `` Pebble in the Sky '', in the 1967 novel Logan 's Run and adaptations of the novel as well as a 1991 episode of Star Trek : The Next Generation, `` Half a Life ''. The episode, as debuted to potential advertisers, originally featured narration by announcer Westbrook Van Voorhis. As Voorhis was unavailable for subsequent episodes, however, narration for both the episode and the introduction was re-recorded for consistency by Serling himself ; his presence later became a hallmark of the series. The `` Twilight Zone '' was the sixth dimension in the original narration but was changed to the fifth dimension in the re-recording. Together with the re-recording the series logo was also changed to the familiar typeface. Several years later, Serling adapted this and other episodes into short stories for a book, Stories From the Twilight Zone. Reportedly dissatisfied with the lack of science fiction content, he added an additional twist to the end by having Mike Ferris discover a movie ticket in his pocket after being carried away on the stretcher. A variation on this twist was later used in `` King Nine Will Not Return ''. The haunting score composed by Bernard Herrmann for this episode would be reused for several episodes of the series, most notably `` The After Hours '' and `` The Last Flight ''. Several record albums of original soundtrack music from the series were released, some having alternate theme music for the series that was never used. One of the alternate themes is a cue from the episode. This was the only Twilight Zone episode filmed at Universal Studios ; the rest of the entire series was filmed at Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer. The centerpiece of the episode is the Courthouse Square set, most well known for being used as the town square of `` Hill Valley '' in the Back to the Future series of films over 25 years later. This episode was the lead - in to another CBS original, Hotel de Paree, which coincidentally premiered on the same day as this episode and starred Earl Holliman. Themes The main theme in this episode, as the title suggests, is isolation and loneliness and their effects on humans. The commanding officer in the final scene sums this up, observing, `` The barrier of loneliness -- that 's the one thing we have n't licked yet. '' Serling would return to this theme in several other episodes, most prominently `` The Mind and the Matter '', in which a man finds he can eliminate outside influences and uses the power to rid himself of all humanity, only to realize the extreme loneliness that comes with deprivation of human interaction. Critical response The pilot episode began a trend for The Twilight Zone of critical success accompanied by adequate, if not phenomenal, ratings. A New York Times review of the episode on October 3, 1959 stated : Mr. Serling conceived his playlet in imaginative terms and underscored his point that science can not foretell what may be the effect of total isolation on a human being. Indeed, the play 's situation was almost bound to be better than its resolution, which by comparison seemed trite and anticlimactic. In the desultory field of filmed half - hour drama, however, Mr. Serling should not have much trouble in making his mark. At least his series promises to be different. Later that year, in the December issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science - Fiction, Charles Beaumont wrote :... I read Serling 's first script. It was, or seemed to be, an end - of - the - world story. Resisting the impulse to throw the wretched thing across the room, I read on. A man is alone in a town which shows every sign of having been recently occupied. He finds cigarettes burning in ash trays. Stoves are still warm. Chimneys are smoking. But no one is there, only this one frightened man who ca n't even remember his name... Old stuff ? Of course. I thought so at the time, and I think so now. But there was one element in the story which kept me from my customary bitterness. The element was quality. Quality shone on every page. It shone in the dialogue and in the scene set - ups. And because of this, the story seemed fresh and new and powerful. There was one compromise, but it was made for the purpose of selling the series. Footnotes ^ Jump up to : Zicree, Marc Scott : The Twilight Zone Companion. Sillman - James Press, 1982 ( second edition ) Further reading DeVoe, Bill. ( 2008 ). Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA : Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978 - 1 - 59393 - 136 - 0 Grams, Martin. ( 2008 ). The Twilight Zone : Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD : OTR Publishing. ISBN 978 - 0 - 9703310 - 9 - 0 External links Full video of the episode at CBS.com `` Where Is Everybody ? '' on IMDb `` Where Is Everybody ? '' at TV.com The Twilight Zone Series The Twilight Zone ( 1959 -- 1964 ) The Twilight Zone ( 1985 -- 1989 ) The Twilight Zone ( 2002 -- 2003 ) See also Rod Serling Episodes Guest stars Twilight Zone : The Movie ( 1983 ) Rod Serling 's Lost Classics ( 1994 ) Literature Twilight Zone : 19 Original Stories on the 50th Anniversary Radio series Night Gallery Twilight Zone accident Pinball Tower of Terror ride The Twilight Zone ( 1959 ) episodes Season 1 `` Where Is Everybody ? '' `` One for the Angels '' `` Mr. Denton on Doomsday '' `` The Sixteen - Millimeter Shrine '' `` Walking Distance '' `` Escape Clause '' `` The Lonely '' `` Time Enough at Last '' `` Perchance to Dream '' `` Judgment Night '' `` And When the Sky Was Opened '' `` What You Need '' `` The Four of Us Are Dying '' `` Third from the Sun '' `` I Shot an Arrow into the Air '' `` The Hitch - Hiker '' `` The Fever '' `` The Last Flight '' `` The Purple Testament '' `` Elegy '' `` Mirror Image '' `` The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street '' `` A World of Difference '' `` Long Live Walter Jameson '' `` People Are Alike All Over '' `` Execution '' `` The Big Tall Wish '' `` A Nice Place to Visit '' `` Nightmare as a Child '' `` A Stop at Willoughby '' `` The Chaser '' `` A Passage for Trumpet '' `` Mr. Bevis '' `` The After Hours '' `` The Mighty Casey '' `` A World of His Own '' Season 2 `` King Nine Will Not Return '' `` The Man in the Bottle '' `` Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room '' `` A Thing About Machines '' `` The Howling Man '' `` The Eye of the Beholder '' `` Nick of Time '' `` The Lateness of the Hour '' `` The Trouble with Templeton '' `` A Most Unusual Camera '' `` The Night of the Meek '' `` Dust '' `` Back There '' `` The Whole Truth '' `` The Invaders '' `` A Penny for Your Thoughts '' `` Twenty Two '' `` The Odyssey of Flight 33 '' `` Mr. Dingle, the Strong '' `` Static '' `` The Prime Mover '' `` Long Distance Call '' `` A Hundred Yards Over the Rim '' `` The Rip Van Winkle Caper '' `` The Silence '' `` Shadow Play '' `` The Mind and the Matter '' `` Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up ? '' `` The Obsolete Man '' Season 3 `` Two '' `` The Arrival '' `` The Shelter '' `` The Passersby '' `` A Game of Pool '' `` The Mirror '' `` The Grave '' `` It 's a Good Life '' `` Deaths - Head Revisited '' `` The Midnight Sun '' `` Still Valley '' `` The Jungle '' `` Once Upon a Time '' `` Five Characters in Search of an Exit '' `` A Quality of Mercy '' `` Nothing in the Dark '' `` One More Pallbearer '' `` Dead Man 's Shoes '' `` The Hunt '' `` Showdown with Rance McGrew '' `` Kick the Can '' `` A Piano in the House '' `` The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank '' `` To Serve Man '' `` The Fugitive '' `` Little Girl Lost '' `` Person or Persons Unknown '' `` The Little People '' `` Four O'Clock '' `` Hocus - Pocus and Frisby '' `` The Trade - Ins '' `` The Gift '' `` The Dummy '' `` Young Man 's Fancy '' `` I Sing the Body Electric '' `` Cavender Is Coming '' `` The Changing of the Guard '' Season 4 `` In His Image '' `` The Thirty - Fathom Grave '' `` Valley of the Shadow '' `` He 's Alive '' `` Mute '' `` Death Ship '' `` Jess - Belle '' `` Miniature '' `` Printer 's Devil '' `` No Time Like the Past '' `` The Parallel '' `` I Dream of Genie '' `` The New Exhibit '' `` Of Late I Think of Cliffordville '' `` The Incredible World of Horace Ford '' `` On Thursday We Leave for Home '' `` Passage on the Lady Anne '' `` The Bard '' Season 5 `` In Praise of Pip '' `` Steel '' `` Nightmare at 20,000 Feet '' `` A Kind of a Stopwatch '' `` The Last Night of a Jockey '' `` Living Doll '' `` The Old Man in the Cave '' `` Uncle Simon '' `` Probe 7, Over and Out '' `` The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms '' `` A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain '' `` Ninety Years Without Slumbering '' `` Ring - a-Ding Girl '' `` You Drive '' `` The Long Morrow '' `` The Self - Improvement of Salvadore Ross '' `` Number 12 Looks Just Like You '' `` Black Leather Jackets '' `` Night Call '' `` From Agnes -- With Love '' `` Spur of the Moment '' `` An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge '' `` Queen of the Nile '' `` What 's in the Box '' `` The Masks '' `` I Am the Night -- Color Me Black '' `` Sounds and Silences '' `` Caesar and Me '' `` The Jeopardy Room '' `` Stopover in a Quiet Town '' `` The Encounter '' `` Mr. Garrity and the Graves '' `` The Brain Center at Whipple 's '' `` Come Wander with Me '' `` The Fear '' `` The Bewitchin ' Pool '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Where_Is_Everybody%3F&oldid=803688824 '' Categories : The Twilight Zone ( 1959 TV series ) episodes 1959 American television episodes American television pilots Solitude in fiction Hidden categories : Pages using deprecated image syntax Vague or ambiguous geographic scope from January 2015 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from April 2012 Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016 Articles with unsourced statements from January 2010 Tv.com template using numeric id Talk Contents About Wikipedia Nederlands Română Edit links This page was last edited on 4 October 2017, at 01 : 05. 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Question: who starred in the first episode of the twilight zone
Answer: Earl Holliman