Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society’s Descent into Hell

Darkness in Primetime: How Classic-Era TV Foresaw Modern Society’s Descent into Hell reveals how television shows of the 1950s and 1960s, with shocking accuracy, envisioned a world of 24/7 surveillance, thought control, disinformation, persecution, and the loss of freedom-a world disturbingly similar to our own.

From science fiction legends like The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, and Star Trek to dramatic anthologies such as Studio One, Playhouse 90, and Kraft Television Theatre, each of the 21 programs explored in this book presents a vision of a dystopian future that feels all too familiar today.

With rare insight into the political, cultural, and historical currents of their time, Mitchell Hadley brings these episodes out of the shadows and into the harsh light of our present moment-showing how they are even more relevant now than they were 60 or 70 years ago.

The powerful and prophetic stories brought to life in these programs-paired with Hadley’s dramatic and insightful examination of their creation-offer a compelling and eye-opening journey into television’s most prescient era.

Mitchell Hadley is a television historian who has explored classic-era TV’s impact on American culture, history, and politics at itsabouttv.com for more than 15 years. He is the author of The Electronic Mirror: What Classic TV Tells Us About Who We Were and Who We Are, as well as two novels: The Collaborator, set amid Vatican intrigue, and The Car, an existential mystery. He lives with his wife in northeastern Indiana.

Christian Toto is the founder of hollywoodintoto.com and host of the Hollywood in Toto podcast.