Rod Serling
(1924–1975)
Rod Serling grew up in upstate New York. After high school, he joined the army and served as a paratrooper in World War II. His experiences growing up in a working-class environment and his experiences in the war made him conscientious about social issues.
Taking advantage of the G I Bill, Serling attended Antioch College, where he began to write radio dramas. When he was a senior, he won a prize in a television script contest sponsored by CBS. Soon he was writing for radio and television full-time.
Serling’s first big success was a 1955 drama on NBC called Patterns. It was a story of the competitive world of business executives and was the first television show to be rerun because of popular demand. Serling’s other dramas, such as Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956), A Town Has Turned to Dust (1958), and The Rank and File (1959), were also well received. However, some of his scripts faced censorship by the networks and underwent extensive revisions before they were aired.
Because Serling was tired of his scripts being censored, he decided to write for The Twilight Zone. In this fantasy series he was able to address social problems in a way that escaped censorship. He found that on television, Martians were able to explore issues that humans could not. Serling’s stories on The Twilight Zone were very popular and won three Emmy Awards.
After five seasons of The Twilight Zone, Serling turned to teaching and writing for movies. His most famous movie was Planet of the Apes (1968), a science fiction story in which he used a fantastic setting to explore human issues.
Serling died in 1975, but his works remain popular and powerful.
The Twilight Zone continues in reruns and in revivals of the series.
Planet of the Apes was followed by several more movies in the series and in 2001 was remade by director Tim Burton.
