Trivia / The Twilight Zone (2002)

• Creator Backlash: Producer Ira Behr would later do an interview to SyFy talking about the problems he had during the production of this revival.
• Production Posse: Ira Steven Behr was the executive producer and showrunner of both this series and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Seven writers (Behr himself, Hans Beimler, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, James Crocker and Frederick Rappaport) and four directors (Jonathan Frakes, Winrich Kolbe, Allan Kroeker and John T. Kretchmer) worked on both series.
• Playing Against Type: In "Burned", Jason Bateman, who usually plays a Nice Guy or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold in comedies, plays a Smug Snake Corrupt Corporate Executive with absolutely no humorous or redeeming qualities.
• Real-Life Relative: In "It's Still a Good Life", the sequel episode to the classic series episode "It's a Good Life", an adult Anthony Fremont gains a daughter named Audrey, who is played by Bill Mumy's real life daughter, Liliana Mumy.
• Recycled Script:
  • "Dream Lover" for "A World of Difference".
  • "The Lineman" for "The Prime Mover".
  • "The Path" for "What You Need".
  • "Rewind" for "A Most Unusual Camera".
  • "Into the Light" for "The Purple Testament".
  • "Memphis" for "Back There".
  • "Eye of the Beholder" has the exact same script as the original episode.
• Sequel Gap: "It's Still a Good Life" was produced more than 41 years after "It's a Good Life", making it possibly the longest gap between the original episode and its sequel in television history.
• Shout-Out:
  • In "Night Route," Ione Sky's character first compares her situation, in which she keeps seeing a strange bus, to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, specifically comparing the bus to the Headless Horseman. Later, she tries to convince her soon-to-be husband that she is experiencing something similar to the film Jacob's Ladder, spoiling that film's twist in conversation.
  • The series was produced with New Line Cinema, whose big money-maker at the time was the Lord of the Rings trilogy, leading to a high number of shout-outs across many episodes, virtually to product placement levels:
    • In "Azoth The Avenger Is A Friend Of Mine," Craig has a poster for The Fellowship of the Ring.
    • In "Another Life," Marvin Jr. plays EA Games' The Two Towers on his PlayStation 2.
    • In "How Much Do You Love Your Kid?," Donna is able to quickly answer a trivia question about what film series contains characters like Treebeard and The White Lady of Rohan because her missing son "made [her] take him to see it three times."
  • In "Fair Warning," stalker George tells stalkee Tina that he observed her going to the movies to see Austin Powers, presumably talking about Goldmember based on the release date.
  • In "Into the Light," a teacher assigns students to write an essay about Romeo and Juliet, asking if the characters would have stayed together if they had lived or if they were "just Shakespeare's version of Justin and Britney," referencing the then-topical break up of the two pop musicians.
  • In "The Monsters Are on Maple Street," the cell phones of all of the attendees of an HOA meeting start to ring at once before a power outage that also affects handheld devices. The only child present at the HOA meeting compares the event to Independence Day.
  • In "Cold Fusion," Commander Skyles is playing Halo when the episode's protagonist first meets him. He advises said protagonist to "watch [him] beat [his] high score."
  • "The Collection" is about a babysitter whose charge talks about how she used to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer with one of her dolls, Jenny, "who wanted Spike and Buffy to hook up." Both this series and Buffy were airing on UPN during the 2002-2003 TV season. Later in the same episode, the babysitter references Alias, noting that a doll that the girl claims is alive and acting out is just a doll, "not Sydney Bristow."
  • In "Homecoming," a father returning from active duty attempts to bond with his son after missing several years of the boy's life. One such activity involves working on a 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback, which he notes is the same model driven by Steve McQueen in Bullitt.

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