For many viewers, the cautionary tales in each episode of The Twilight Zone provided a moral roadmap for a range of impossible situations. They are still eerie metaphors for the present day.

But before Rod Serling became a thrilling writer of societal truths, there was another famous writer who reached an even wider audience with books that rhymed their important lessons into the hearts of children everywhere: Dr. Seuss.

Classic Dr. Seuss books like And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), The Cat in the Hat (1957) and Wacky Wednesday (1974) showed kids warped worlds that taught them how to share and care and do right by others, even when things get really, really weird.

This thematic overlap between Dr. Seuss and Serling makes us wonder if the good doctor wasn't an influence on the master suspense spinner.

Fans of Dr. Seuss know the reason why his books were such a hit had as much to do with the way he wrote the stories, relying on a limited vocabulary, repetition and colorful imagery to help kids understand the full story. Here, we attempt to stay as true as we can to Dr. Seuss' writing style to rewrite some of Serling's classic episodes of The Twilight Zone.

1. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to see.

But I boarded the plane

and flew to 20,000 feet. Up there in the air,

there was no cause to sing,

for I tell you, I swear,

there was something out there.

Yes, out there on the wing

was this terrible thing. Shaking, I sat in my window seat.

I screamed again and again,

white as a sheet,

“There’s a thing on the wing!”

But the rest could not see.

“Not a thing,” my wife decreed,

“Not a thing on the wing.

You’re hallucinating!”

2. "The Hitch-Hiker" I am Nan Adams. Nan Adams I am.

I got a flat tire. Now I’m in a jam. I did not call a hearse.

I did not call the cops.

I called a mechanic.

He pulled out all the stops! In just a few minutes,

I say, just like that,

he finished the job.

He fixed my flat! Off and away and away, I go

on the road that goes and goes and goes.

When there in my mirror, what did I see?

There’s a man in my mirror,

his thumb stuck out at me! Would you brake with your feet

for a man in the street?

I would not, no not I,

for Nan Adams am I.

I do not like to take up strangers.

I do not like to brake for dangers.



I am Nan, Nan I am,

a very safe driver.

And most of all, as Nan Adams,

I do not trust hitch-hikers.

3. "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" When I walk on Maple Street,

Dad waves and says to me,

“Tommy, keep your eyelids up,

and see what you can see.” So I tell him the story,

and what I have seen?

An alien invasion

and eerie alien beings.

They live here on Maple Street.

They look ordinary.

I plea and I plea! Please, please believe me! He looks at me and says sternly,

“Your eyesight’s too keen.

There is no such thing as alien beings!

Stop telling outlandish tales!

Stop turning minnows to whales!” But it was too late and neighbors agree.

There was a ring of truth in Tommy’s story.

Lights started flashing,

and the mob turned to monsters.

When up overhead, was a real flying saucer!



There were real aliens, who really could see:

It doesn’t take much to mess with humanity.

Just a flicker of lights and a rumor to repeat,

and to think that I saw it

on Maple Street.

4. "Time Enough at Last" One book.

Two book.

Green book.

Blue book. Black book.

Brown book.

Old book.

New book. Yes. Some are red.

And some, not read!

Some, they are light.

Some, they are white.

And some, they have heft.

So many books are left!

This little man, he loves all books.

The ones that are sad.

The ones that are glad.

Even the ones that are very, very bad. From there to here, from here to there,

books and books,

they’re everywhere! And now at last, he has the time.

To read and read and read each line.

The world has ended.

The next book’s just begun!

This little man plans to read each one. But then in a snap,

his plan ends just like that.

This man is now in a bind.

In his greed to read, his glasses have cracked.

There’s time enough at last,

but alas, gasp, gasp, gasp.

In just one bad move,

the man is now blind.