00:00 EDT Saturday, August 09, 1986

EARLIER THIS year, The Twilight Zone disappeared from TV screens. A revival of the 1960s science-fiction anthology, the CBS show had been steadily building an audience for devotees of the warped, weird and witty. All of a sudden it was gone, as if banished to the netherworlds it explored.

But it was only a hiatus somebody forgot to announce. The show is now in production for its second season, when it will shift from 8 on Friday to 10 on Saturday.

There has been an identity problem from the beginning. This series has no relation to the ill-fated, mediocre 1983 theatrical release. Also, it outdistances Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories and a revived Alfred Hitchcock Presents, competing anthologies which also began last fall.

The new Twilight Zone is spooky, but is abundantly more than cops, robbers and ghosts. It approaches the supernatural through common reference points - no matter how weird it gets, there is always some intersection with modern life. This implies that anything portrayed could happen.

Some possibilities: . A struggling young couple is presented with a button that, when pushed, will both earn them $200,000 and cause a stranger to die. After they push it, they are told that it will next be given to someone they don't know. . Late one night, a roadside greasy spoon is visited by a belligerent, frazzled Vietnam veteran who refuses to accept local lodging. There is a scuffle and he's knocked out, cutting his war dreams loose. The place is bombed to smithereens. . An Agent of Death, new on the job, attempts to claim a 20-year- old whose "number is up." The kid slips through a time warp into a town Mr. Death's predecessor had deliberately ignored because "they were so nice, and weren't hurting anybody." Death spares both the town and the kid, suggesting that he's not all bad and that bureaucracy, even on the spectral level, can foul up. If this seems too transcendental for prime time, there is added a lethal dose of levity. A shroud-and-scythe windshield decal is pasted to his flying white Mercedes.

It is the pervasive wit that differentiates the new show from its earlier incarnation. Here can be found a wise-cracking, jive-talking devil with changing Satanic sayings on his T-shirt, and an insolent restaurant critic who ends up in Hell - for him, a large table crammed with a perpetual supply of second-rate Chinese food.

The original Twilight Zone was the brainchild of Rod Serling, who died in 1975. For five seasons, 1959-64, Serling produced, narrated and wrote most of the episodes, imprinting his own brand of macabre ingenuity.

There is no such singular presence on the new show; it is the result of collective imagination. Executive producer Philip DeGuere has tried to encourage diversity and an anthological flavor; there is no attempt to pick up where Serling left off.

Serling is perhaps best known for his stark introductions, often- satirized staccato voice-overs that set the eerie scene. While the actor who now narrates has been told to keep his delivery as unlike Serling's as possible, DeGuere says many viewers think it is a deliberate imitation. The voice is deep, and the pacing is the same.

In the greatest television tradition, the show has clashed with censors. One episode had to be reshot because network code prohibited showing a noose - even in a suicide scene.

And last Christmas, Ed Asner was to portray a bigot whose pet monster attacked non-white children. CBS censors pulled the plug in mid- production, prompting noted sci-fi author Harlan Ellison, a contributing writer, to quit the series.

At the time, CBS said it was only inappropriate for Christmas, promising the show would be broadcast later. But the episode was quietly killed months later after, according to DeGuere, censors showed the script to members of several minority groups.

"They managed to find somebody who had objections," DeGuere says. "It was the most egregious of self-fulfilling prophecies." He seems gleeful the network censors now face a stiff budget cut, but adds: "They didn't cut the people who were harassing us." Odds are good that this season will see a tiff or two with the standards and practices folks.

The writing, from both scrappy Hollywood newcomers and science-fiction veterans, is the show's strongest point. Many actors would love a crack at one of these parts.

"This show gives actors and directors the opportunity to do something different, to step out of type," DeGuere says. "There is also a short window of commitment. When someone works on a Twilight Zone, they know it won't take more than three weeks."

DeGuere promises the new season will maintain last year's momentum, and will continue to take chances. The only committed actors he will mention are Shelley Duvall and Akosua Busia (Nettie in The Color Purple). Lindsay Wagner and Richard Chamberlain have been approached, and there is the possibility an unfilmed Rod Serling script will be produced.

"At 10 on Saturday a lot of these things will play better," DeGuere says. "There is too much competition at the earlier hour. Not just from other programs, but from eating dinner, dealing with the kids, and life. In some cases, anyone seeing this at 8:30 would be shocked by the intensity of it. Later, things calm down."

For now, DeGuere has proven there is room in series television for a blend of entertainment, thought-provoking stories and even metaphysical discourse. He denies the show has a guiding philosophy. Still, the devil turns up frequently, and never acting the way you would expect. Supernatural beings are always granting people's wishes, with the mortals finding they were better off before magic entered their lives.

The future of The Twilight Zone itself could end up reading like one of its scripts. In another year or two this edition may start to lose its freshness, then hibernate for a while and re-emerge in syndication. Like its predecessor, it could go through revival, and then resurrection.

The first show was watched on tinny black and white sets. The current incarnation enhances the concepts with color and special effects. It remains to be seen what kind of hardware the next generation of Twilight Zone fans use. The issues, though, will be unchanged. People will still wonder what Death looks like, and if he could possibly be driving an antique white Mercedes.