One Gilligan's Island Actor Played A Similar Role On The Twilight Zone

The late actor Charles Maxwell is best known for his time on "Star Trek" and his many roles on the western series "Bonanza," but he also voiced the recurring off-screen radio announcer on "Gilligan's Island." It was a memorable role in the mid-'60s sitcom, and it wasn't Maxwell's first time playing such a character. Six months before "Gilligan's Island" premiered, Maxwell played a radio announcer on one of the darkest episodes ever of "The Twilight Zone."

The episode was "I am the Night — Color Me Black," and its story uses the supernatural premise of a darkness descending upon a small town to comment on racial prejudice and mob mentality. Maxwell's character explains over the radio that the darkness isn't just contained to the town but is being observed in places all over the world. There are no major plot twists here like there are in the show's other standout episodes; the big reveal here is the characters simply reckoning with the darkness inside them all along. 

"At two o'clock this afternoon, a dark cloud suddenly appeared over a street in Dallas, Texas," Maxwell's character announces. "The mayor of West Berlin verified the fact that a rectangular area over the Berlin Wall has suddenly gone dark ... In Birmingham, Alabama ... an area in Shanghai ... the entire northern section of Vietnam ... a section of Chicago, Illinois ... the darkness continues to make itself known."

Maxwell's only "The Twilight Zone" appearance just so happened to be in one of the most memorable episodes of the show. Although it didn't quite make the cut of "The Twilight Zone" episodes everyone should watch at least once, it was praised by critics for its ominous mood and its sharp social commentary. A critic at the New Jersey-based newspaper The Record called it "weird and imaginative ... The idea may send some fans away but stick with it, the drama is worth it."

The episode was inspired by a series of devastating events that occurred throughout the time period, from the 1955 murder of Emmett Till to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Writer Rod Serling used Maxwell's announcer character to draw a parallel between the town lynching that occurs in the episode to the real-world injustices going on in the early '60s — from the still-divided Berlin to the war in Vietnam. 

"I am the Night" is by far one of the bluntest episodes of the series, and one of its most interesting. "The Twilight Zone" was always pulling a balancing act of writing sharp satire while avoiding the ire of strict network censors. This episode was aired after the show's cancelation was already confirmed, and shows Serling seemingly throwing all caution to the wind.