/ Modified jan 15, 2011 5:36 p.m.

Pioneers of Television: Science Fiction

On the small screen, classic science fiction programming entertains us, but it also challenges the limits of our humanity. Tuesday at 9 p.m. on PBS –HD.

Storytellers Gene Roddenberry, Irwin Allen and Rod Serling created the storylines and characters behind the best-loved futuristic television of their time. But as Roddenberry’s “Star Trek” competed for ratings with Allen’s “Lost in Space,” each show’s creator aimed for a very different direction.

pioneers_tv_rserling617x347 “The Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling
PBS

This episode explores how Roddenberry and Serling (of “The Twilight Zone”) used the future as a stage for modern morality plays, and William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and other science-fiction stars describe how they prepared to interact on-camera with a malevolent alien force … or, perhaps, a giant radish.

Tuesday at 9 p.m. on PBS –HD.

Pioneers of Television

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