The beloved sci-fi anthology series The Twilight Zone, created and hosted by Rod Serling, was a crazy, twisty, wildly entertaining TV show with a barely concealed progressive heart. After its television debut in 1959, it quickly became a destination for some of the most talented writers and actors of its era. The Twilight Zone's original run lasted until 1964, but in the decades since it went off the air, there have actually been two other revivals: One that aired on CBS from 1985 to 1989, and one that aired on UPN from 2002 to 2003. But last year—when, frankly, we needed it most—The Twilight Zone was nowhere to be found.

The Twilight Zone’s legacy is already showing some signs of fading. In Disney's California Adventure Park, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror—a lovingly crafted theme-park ride that pays homage to the classic series—has officially closed for good, to be converted into a Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

Even in its decade-plus absence from the airwaves, though, The Twilight Zone is still there, in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition. Syfy has aired an annual Twilight Zone marathon on New Year’s Day for more than 20 consecutive years. The ongoing, widely acclaimed sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror owes Twilight Zone an obvious debt, bringing many of the show's core concepts into the 21st century. And several respected creatives have taken their own recent steps to revive The Twilight Zone, though no one has managed to succeed so far. Reports that Bryan Singer was pitching another Twilight Zone in 2012 ultimately went nowhere. And just last April, Ken Levine—the creative director of the BioShock video-game series—revealed he was working on an "interactive film" based on The Twilight Zone. That hasn't surfaced yet, either.

So we’ll see if any of those projects actually comes to fruition someday—but until then, it’s worth contemplating what an ideal modern Twilight Zone revival might look like. Submitted for your approval, a proposal for bringing The Twilight Zone back to life in 2017.

Recruit established writers and stars who grew up loving The Twilight Zone.

Neither Twilight Zone revival achieved anything near the critical or commercial success of the original series, but both are actually pretty good—in large part because they were clearly crafted by people with a genuine reverence for the original series.

The 1985 revival featured episodes directed by such big names as Wes Craven, William Friedkin, John Milius, and Joe Dante; written by sci-fi icons like Harlan Ellison and George R. R. Martin; and starring a murderer’s row of talented actors, including Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, and Elliott Gould. The 2002 revival ran for just one season, but attracted an eclectic array of TV actors over its brief run, including Jason Bateman, Jessica Simpson, Wayne Knight, Linda Cardellini, and Jeremy Piven.

Why would so many well-known Hollywood directors, writers, and actors line up to star in these attempts to recapture The Twilight Zone’s former glory? Because they have so much respect and affection for the original series, and because they wanted the chance to put their own stamp on such a massive icon of television. The Twilight Zone has always inspired this level of devotion—when Rod Serling invited fans to submit Twilight Zone scripts, he was immediately swamped with more than 14,000—and more than 10 years since the last time a new Twilight Zone graced the airways, a whole new generation of fans-turned-creators has risen up, primed to give their own take on Twilight Zone a shot.