Indeed.
Though probably Reagan made it more famous to more people. Hard to say.
Thanks.
Well, H.G. Wells had a go with the idea in print in 1898, only his were aliens, and Howard Koch, Orson Welles, and the Mercury Theater did their Halloween show in 1938 on the radio....then the 1953 movie, and many, many, more since.
The concept of humans unifying against a common enemy isn't new, but the idea of creating that common enemy (from space) in the flesh was a twist I had not seen elsewhere when I saw the Outer Limits show. Of course, we were full on in the earlier part of the space program (Mercury series) in those days..so this just seemed possible with a little imagination.
Which is what made it one of the best Outer Limits episodes, skipping at the very boundaries between reality and possibility.