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This set was advertised as "The 40th Anniversary Collection," and even 40 years after the debut of the show, there was a very strong following of it. An enigma for its time, the show was not only craftfully scripted, with strong acting performances, but also featured consistently impressive musical scores for its episodes. Like many television shows of the time, composers wrote lengthy suites of cues for "Twilight Zone" that would be recycled countless times for the 156+ initial episodes. Some of the music would also be pulled from stock library cues written for CBS by most of the same composers. Bernard Herrmann was the first composer to contribute to the "Twilight Zone" phenomenon, and his 1957 "Outer Space Suite" would be kept in the CBS Music Library for use in a plethora of early episodes. Interestingly, Herrmann's music, even though it was limited by a very small ensemble, has all the same characteristics of his music for Alfred Hitchcock films, including the concurrently written Psycho. The first CD features only Herrmann's music, and is a must-have for collectors of the composer. It includes several "alternate takes" of the title theme as a bonus and, as a whole, makes for a very entertaining listening experience. With the second season of "Twilight Zone" came the all-too-familiar theme by Marius Constant and a switch to Jerry Goldsmith for many of the episodic scores. Goldsmith was obviously not as well established as Herrmann had been at the time, and the difference shows. The Goldsmith CD is perhaps the weakest of the four; although his music is interesting to analyze for the veteran film music listener (especially "The Invaders," which would influence his later score for the Twilight Zone film), his early talents did not allow him to make as good of use out of the occasionally eight player mini-orchestra as Herrmann could.

The third and fourth CDs are, though, the highlights of the set. As the show began to experiment with other various composers, hidden gems began to appear. Nathan Van Cleave's contributions to the show (the most voluminous in the history of the series) highlight innovation (especially with the electronic sound effects inserted into "Perchance to Dream") and are presented with an even better depth of sound. The fourth CD has noteworthy scores by Leonard Rosenman (which accentuates some of the creepiest music on the set), Fred Steiner (carrying over some of his "Star Trek" sensibilities), and Franz Waxman (whose involvement with this particular episode recalls the Golden Age style of Sunset Boulevard). Each of the final three CDs features the main and end title themes for the show by Marius Constant, and all four include the introductory monologue by narrator Rod Serling. The set really has no weaknesses (beyond the disjointed incorporation of some of the jazz source cues on the second CD). The sound quality is improved both overall and even moreso in specific cues appearing on the last two CDs. The editing and remastering by James Nelson, John Beal, and Alan Howarth is superb, with sound quality that will easily exceed your old "Twilight Zone" LPs. The packaging is similarly improved upon, though you should be aware that the track listings on the insert are incorrect for the first CD. That insert does, however, include very in-depth notes by Christopher Landry and a fold-out calendar poster (for the year 2000) featuring the cover art of the album. With a price far below the typical 4-CD set, the quality and value of this new album cannot be surpassed for fans of the "Twilight Zone" series. The lack of subsequent albums featuring original music from the show serves as testimony to a rare occasional when a label hit the nail right on the head.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.23 (in 140 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 154,785 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 291:04