The Twilight Zone debuted on CBS TV in October 1959.
Created by Rod Serling, the show’s episodes were a blend of fantasy, science fiction, horror, black comedy and psychological thrills that often ended with an unexpected twist and/or moral.
The first series, shot entirely in black and white, ran from 1959 to 1964.
From IMDb:
A former boxer, paratrooper and general all-around angry young man, Rod Serling was one of the radical new voices that made the “Golden Age” of television. Long before The Twilight Zone (1959), he was known for writing such high-quality scripts as “Patterns” and “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” both later turned into films (Patterns (1956) and Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)). Even The Twilight Zone (1959) featured forays into controversial grounds like racism, Cold War paranoia and the horrors of war. His maverick attitude eventually drove him from regular network television.