Description
ROD SERLING — screenwriter, dramatist, visionary, chain-smoker — is best known as the creator and host of The Twilight Zone, which for five historic seasons (1959–1964) brought thoughtful and sometimes controversial science fiction themes onto American homes on a weekly basis. He later created (and hosted) Night Gallery (1969–1973), which focused more on tales of the macabre, and wrote the screenplay for the film Planet of the Apes. Serling was a stubborn, combative craftsman who often fought TV network executives for creative control over his projects, while attempting to inject themes of social activism into his scripts.
Serling was an anomaly in the entertainment world—despite his visual familiarity as a TV host, his foremost art was writing. It isn’t often that screenwriters become household names, but sitting at the typewriter was Serling’s obsession. “Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one,” he said. “And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn’t embrace it. I succumbed to it.” He also succumbed to smoking three or four packs a day (he was rarely seen on-screen without a lit cigarette in hand), passing away at age 50 after a series of heart attacks.
Serling’s centenary is observed in 2024 (he was born December 25, 1924).