THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1959-1964)

Submitted for your approval: this early gem. Perfectly setting up the nervy drama of Rod Serling's groundbreaking sci-fi anthology series, the sequence begins with a wood-frame portal drifting in space, the stentorian tones of Serling's voice (''You unlock this door with the key of imagination...''), and, of course, the now-famous theme music. Composer Marius Constant's jittery four-note melody, introduced to the show in the second season, has become a kind of audio shorthand for the strange and the mysterious: