Nearly each and every episode of the Twilight Zone opens with the firm voice of reason, a.k.a. Rod Serling. Mr. Serling is the creator, writer, producer, etcetera of the series. The Twilight Zone was not Serlings' original occupation. Before we get into the episodes, let's get to know our host, Mr. Rodman 'Rod' Edward Serling.
Born Christmas day, 1924 in Syracuse, New York into a Reformed Jewish family. His father was a butcher and his mother was the home keeper. The family moved to Binghamton, New York where he spent the rest of his childhood.
Serling graduated high school and enlisted in the United States Army. While in basic training, Rod began a short-term career as a boxer. He won all except one match. He served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division in New Guinea and through the invasion of the Philippines. He received a Purple Heart for being wounded and was discharged in 1946.
The sights and sounds of warfare are horrendous. In the 1940s, the troops didn't have the opportunity to receive medical care or attention for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, that is exactly what Rod and all the other soldiers suffered. Albeit, his PTSD helped develop plotlines of The Twilight Zone.
After his dismissal from the army, Serling attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He began write short stories about the war and his experiences.
He met his wife, Carol Kramer, his first year at Antioch and married her in 1948. Together, they had two daughters, Jody and Ann Serling.
Serling graduated from Antioch in 1950 with a degree in literature and began his media career as a staff writer from a radio station in Ohio. Yet, Rod needed to write. He quit the radio station in 1952 and moved to New York where three of his teleplays, Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Comedian all won Emmys.
By the late 1950s, the Serling family moved to California where The Twilight Zone began to present itself more clearly on scripts, in the actors and the worlds Rod created. Worlds quite similar to our own.
Serling's first episode of The Twilight Zone premiered on October 10, 1959, "Where is Everybody?".
Originally, Serling wanted Orson Welles to narrator the series, but the rich bastard asked for an unprecedented amount of money. And so, our host was born. Mr. Rod Serling.
After 156 episodes, 99 written by Serling, he took a job as a professor at Antioch College in 1962. Two years later, he wrote Seven Days in May. 1968, he adapted Pierre Boulle's The Planet of the Apes. The early seventies, Serling appeared again as host to our entertainment in The Night Gallery. A spin-off series of The Twilight Zone that would never match its success and popularity.
Serling died during bypass surgery on June 28, 1975. He was an avid smoker, as can be seen on The Twilight Zone. He typically opens the show with a cigarette and a wildly, mysterious message to the audience.
Serling was a man of higher intelligence, rationality and imagination. He challenged his audiences to be the best human being possible because he understood that mankind was not always kind.
Mike Wallace Interview with Rod Serling
Rod Serling on "Writing for Television"
My father reminds me of Rod Serling. Stern, calming voices, always staying honest and rational. Advising a younger generation of lessons of human nature. My father was a paratrooper in the army and now he is a teacher. American history teacher, showing the next generation of teenagers how to avoid the same mistakes we've made in the past. Lessons of social injustices and human horrors. Even in appearance, my father possesses similar features of Mr. Serling.
See, what I mean?
No comments:
Post a Comment