A man, Pete Jenson, has a recurring dream that he is at Pearl Harbor on December 6, 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the dream he tries to warn people but no one listens. He visits Dr. Gillespie, a psychiatrist, and explains his dream. The doctor is understanding, but unbelieving. Jenson falls asleep on the psychiatrist's couch, and his dream continues. Just as the attack begins and an explosion destroys the building Jenson is in, Dr. Gillespie wakes up in his office all alone. He feels uncomfortable and checks his appointment book which has no entries for the day. To calm his nerves, he goes to a bar down the street. There he sees a picture of Jenson behind the bar. The bartender tells him that it's a picture of Pete Jenson, a guy who once bartended there. Dr. Gillespie asks where he's at now. The bartender says he was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This was shown as an episode of "Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse." CBS had bought the script for $10,000, then shelved it for roughly a year before Bert Granet convinced them to use it as a Playhouse project. After its broadcast, CBS received more viewer response for it than for any other drama they had ever produced. CBS suddenly decided they wanted a pilot episode for Serling's new show. Rod originally intended "The Time Element" to be the pilot episode for the Twilight Zone, but that was out of the question. So, he later submitted, and CBS accepted "Where is Everybody" as the pilot for The Twilight Zone.