Rod Serling
(1924–1975)

Rod Serling was born in Syracuse, New York, on December 25, 1924, but spent most of his childhood in Binghamton, New York, a place that always lived on in his imagination. Serling was an outgoing, popular boy with a vivid imagination. He and his older brother loved to read the stories in popular fantasy magazines such as Amazing Stories and Weird Tales. If they saw a movie together, they would come home and act out all the parts. Serling was a leader in high school. He acted in class plays and was the editor of his high school newspaper.

On the day he graduated from high school in 1942, Serling enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper, a dangerous choice when the nation was in the middle of fighting World War II. After basic training, Serling was sent to the Philippines as part of an assault and demolitions team. He received a severe shrapnel wound in battle and was sent to the hospital. Bitter and restless when he returned home after the war, Serling said he turned to writing to express his feelings.

After the war, Serling attended Antioch College in Ohio, where he majored in literature and began writing original radio dramas for the college radio station. In 1949 he entered one of his scripts in a national contest and won second prize–a check for five hundred dollars and a trip to New York City.

Encouraged, Serling began submitting scripts to radio shows–receiving 40 rejections before making his first sale. After graduating from college in 1950, he took a job as a staff writer with a Cincinnati radio station, but found the job creatively unsatisfying. Serling continued to write dramatic scripts for radio on his own time.

In 1951, Serling sold a script to the Lux Video Theatre series, which then quickly bought ten more of his scripts. By 1953, he was able to quit his job in Cincinnati and become a full-time freelance writer. Serling produced more than seventy scripts for television from 1951–1955.

In 1955 Serling wrote a television drama called Patterns, a realistic look at ruthless corporate politics. The drama was a big hit and was rebroadcast by popular demand, the first television drama to receive this honor. It also won Serling critical acclaim and his first Emmy Award. Patterns was followed by two-more Emmy winners, Requiem for a Heavyweight in 1956 and The Comedian in 1957. Suddenly, Rod Serling was a highly-regarded writer.

Serling was a serious writer with a strong social conscience, and many of his scripts dealt with controversial social issues of the 1950s. Television, however, was ruled by networks and advertising sponsors, who wanted to avoid controversial programming.

Serling faced increasing battles over censorship of his work, especially with his dramas A Town Has Turned to Dust (about racial prejudice) and The Rank and File (about corruption in labor unions). Weary of fighting the censors, Serling turned to fantasy in 1959, and the now legendary Twilight Zone was born.

The Twilight Zone was broadcast from 1959–1964. The stories featured memorable characters, mysterious plots, and often disturbing themes. They raised intriguing questions about science and superstition, good and evil, innocence and guilt, success and failure, dreams and reality, and isolation and community.

Of 156 episodes, more than half were written by Serling himself. The Twilight Zone became a showcase for other writers too, including Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, as well as for up-and-coming actors such as Robert Redford, Burt Reynolds, and William Shatner.

After The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote or co-wrote scripts for movies such as Seven Days in May (1964) and Planet of the Apes (1968). He launched a new science-fiction series called Night Gallery in 1970, but it never attained either the critical or popular success of The Twilight Zone.

From 1968–1975, Serling taught writing seminars at Ithaca College and gave lectures at other colleges across the country. He died on June 28, 1975 following complications during surgery.

Although television broadcasting began in the 1930s, only a few hundred people owned television sets, and there were very few programs. It wasn't until after World War II, when millions of soldiers came home and bought houses, that television ownership and television programming expanded.

The film industry in Hollywood felt threatened by the new medium and refused to release any of its stars or movies for television broadcast. As a result, the television industry, centered in New York City, was forced to develop its own original programming. Television recruited thousands of directors, writers, actors, and technicians from New York's theatres, and early television became, in effect, an "electronic Broadway," exposing millions of Americans to their first taste of live drama. Among the writers who created plays for television at this time were Rod Serling, Paddy Chayefsky, and Reginald Rose.

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