An early sponsor of The Twilight Zone stopped supporting the show because he did not understand it, according to creator Rod Serling. In a 1962 interview with TV Guide, Serling recalled that the show had a sponsor in an early season whom the crew called "the Old Man." Serling did not identify the sponsor's business, but said the advertiser had money to spend and was drawn to The Twilight Zone by Serling's reputation.
The Old Man preferred more straightforward programs, including the Steve McQueen-led Western Wanted: Dead or Alive. The strange scenarios and twists of The Twilight Zone made no sense to him. Serling said the sponsor would call the agency on Monday morning and demand to know what Friday's script had been about, then demand an explanation of the explanation. The sponsor apparently reasoned that if he could not understand the show, neither could the people who bought his products.
Serling described renewals as coming down to the wire. He recalled one day receiving eight phone calls, four saying the show was off the air and four saying it was back on. Still, the Old Man remained with the show for a full season before deciding he could no longer stand it.
Other sponsors caused different kinds of trouble. The CBS series' second season was originally set to include an episode written by George Clayton Johnson about a man whose severed hand regrows, only for the hand to have also regrown a man, with room for only one of them. Serling bought the script but returned it after a food company sponsoring The Twilight Zone found the story too gruesome and worried it would upset customers' appetites. In another case, an instant coffee company wanted a script changed so it would not mention tea, which the sponsor saw as a competing hot beverage. The result was that characters simply asked for "a tray" of unspecified beverages.
Serling was outspoken about his dislike of sponsors censoring work. According to the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, he said in a 1959 interview with Mike Wallace that a writer who tried to dramatize a theme involving a current social controversy would be in deep trouble. Despite sponsors' efforts, Serling still conveyed messages about important social events in many of The Twilight Zone's best episodes.
Sources: TVLine.