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SERLING, ROD (1924–1975). American writer.
Wrote
episodes of The Twilight Zone: "Where Is Everybody?" "The Lonely,"
"Escape Clause," "Walking Distance," "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," "One for the
Angels," "Judgment Night," "And When the Sky Was Opened" (story Richard
MATHESON), "The Hitch-Hiker" (radio play Lucille Fletcher), "The Sixteenth
Millimeter Shrine," "Time Enough at Last" (story Lynn Venable) (1959), "People
Are Alike All Over," "Third from the Sun" (story Matheson), "The Mighty Casey,"
"The Four of Us Are Dying" (story George Clayton JOHNSON), "The Purple
Testament," "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," "I Shot an Arrow into the
Air," "What You Need" (story Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), "The Fever,"
"Mirror Image," "Execution" (story Johnson), "The Big Tall Wish," "Nightmare as
a Child," "A Stop at Willoughby," "A Passage for Trumpet," "Mr. Bevis," "The
After Hours," "King Nine Will Not Return," "Nervous Man in a Four Dollar
Room," "The Man in the Bottle," "The Eye of the Beholder," "A Most Unusual
Camera," "A Thing about Machines," "Night of the Meek" (1960), "Mr. Dingle, the
Strong," "Back There," "Dust," "The Odyssey of Flight 33," "The Lateness of the
Hour," "The Whole Truth," "Twenty-Two," "A Hundred Yards over the Rim," "The
Rip Van Winkle Caper," "The Silence," "The Mind and the Matter," "Will the Real
Martian Please Stand Up," "The Obsolete Man," "The Arrival," "It's a Good
Life," "The Shelter," "Death's-Head Revisited," "Five Characters in Search of
an Exit" (story Marvin Petal), "Still Valley" (story Manly Wade Wellman), "A
Quality of Mercy," "The Passersby," "The Midnight Sun," "The Mirror" (1961),
"To Serve Man" (story Damon Knight), "One More Pallbearer," "Showdown with
Rance McGrew," "The Little People," "Four O'Clock" (story Price Day), "The
Gift," "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby" (story Frederic Louis Fox), "The Dummy" (story
Lee Polk), "Cavender Is Coming," "The Changing of the Guard," "The Trade-Ins"
(1962), "The Thirty-Fathom Grave," "He's Alive," "No Time like the Past," "The
Bard," "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" (story Malcolm Jameson), "The
Parallel," "On Thursday We Leave for Home," "In Praise of Pip," "Uncle Simon,"
"A Kind of a Stopwatch" (story Michael D. Rosenthal), "The 7th Is Made Up of
Phantoms," "The Old Man in the Cave" (story Henry Slesar), "A Short Drink from
a Certain Fountain," "The Last Night of a Jockey" (1963), "The Masks," "Sounds
and Silences," "The Fear," "The Brain Center at Whipple's," "The Long Morrow,"
"I Am the Night—Color Me Black," "Probe 7—Over and Out," "The Jeopardy
Room," "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" (story Mike Korologos) (1964).
Wrote
episodes of Night Gallery: "The Little Black Bag," "The Nature of the
Enemy," "The House," "Certain Shadows on the Wall," "Make Me Laugh," "Clean
Kills and Other Trophies," "Pamela's Voice," "The Academy," "Lone Survivor,"
"The Doll," "They're Tearing Down O'Riley's Bar," "The Last Laurel" (1970),
"The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes," "A Fear of Spiders," "Class of '99," "A
Death in the Family," "The Different Ones," "Dr. Stringfellow's Rejuvenator,"
"The Diary," "The Miracle at Camafeo," "The Dear Departed," "Cool Air," "Camera
Obscura," "Deliveries in the Rear," "The Waiting Room," "The Messiah of Mott
Street," "The Caterpillar," "Lindemann's Catch," "Midnight Never Ends," "Green
Fingers," "You Can't Get Help like That Anymore" (1971), "Rare Objects," "You
Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan," "Something in the Woodwork," "Finnegan's
Flight" (1972).
Hosted
tv series: The Twilight Zone (also created) (1959-64); Night Gallery
(1970-72).
Narrated:
Encounter with the Unknown (Harry Thomason 1975); In Search of
Ancient Astronauts (documentary) (1975); In Search of Ancient Mysteries
(documentary) (1975); The Outer Space Connection (documentary) (Fred
Warshovsky 1975); UFOs: It Has Begun (documentary) (Ray Rivas 1976).
Film
based on his work: "Night of the Meek" (1985), "The After Hours" (1986), "Our
Selena Is Dying" (story; script J. Michael STRACZYNSKI) (1988), episodes of Twilight
Zone; The Enemy Within (tv movie) (Jonathan Draby 1994).
For The Twilight Zone, Serling churned out an
amazing number of scripts, and it is not surprising that they vary in
quality. His weakest scripts often fall into the category of science fiction,
since that genre most tempted Serling into simple-minded morality plays
with obvious messages, as in "People Are Alike All Over," "Time Enough
at Last," "The Fear," and "The Eye of the Beholder." (The latter has been
inexplicably advanced as Serling's masterpiece; however, despite the cleverness
of the conceit and the careful way the surprise ending is withheld and
finally revealed, the episode is painfully stretched out to fill twenty-two
minutes with meandering dialogue and a generally listless atmosphere,
its characters are empty, and its special effects are inept even by the
low standards that the series set.) Serling was more subtle and evocative
in his fantasy scripts, like "A Passage for Trumpet," "Twenty-Two," and
"In Praise of Pip." Serling was not happy writing for his second series,
Night Gallery, as producer Jack LAIRD effectively controlled the
series and Serling vocally disliked its accent on the occult, but he did
write one of his best scripts, the haunting "They're Tearing Down O'Riley's
Bar," for the series. Serling also scripted the television movie The
Doomsday Flight, an effective suspense thriller (even if the location
of the concealed bomb is painfully telegraphed in an opening scene), but
it is rarely seen since its original airing triggered a rash of copycat
bomb threats; he produced a better-than-it-should-have-been adaptation
of Irving Wallace's The Man; and he inexplicably collaborated with
Irwin ALLEN on the story for the pilot film The Time Travelers.
Serling might be better celebrated for the imaginative opportunities that
his series provided for other talented writers—including Richard MATHESON,
Charles BEAUMONT, and George Clayton JOHNSON—and neophyte directors
like Steven SPIELBERG, John BADHAM, and Jeannot
SZWARC.
And one cannot neglect Serling's distinctive power as
a performer. He served as the perfect host for The Twilight Zone,
standing in the darkness behind the fog machine, lighted cigarette perpetually
in hand, as he wrapped his arms around his chest and deftly epitomized
each episode's story. (While the revived Twilight Zone was in many
ways superior to the original, the series suffered greatly from Serling's
absence.) He did not seem quite as impressive making his introductions
in Laird's surrealistic art gallery, but it is worth noting that plans
to add episodes of an unrelated series, The Sixth Sense, to the
syndicated version of Night Gallery were carried out only when
Serling agreed to film introductions to them. Unfortunately, Serling wasted
his charisma on a number of unworthy projects in the 1960s, including
numerous commercials and, of all things, a game show, and later he unwisely
lent his authority to three dubious documentaries about ancient aliens
and UFOs by reading their narration. Years after his death, Dan Ackroyd
was still parodying Serling in Saturday Night Live sketches, and
it is possible that Serling's appearance will have a more enduring impact
than his words (though his words are hanging in there too, largely in
various revivals of The Twilight Zone).
Serling smoked incessantly and, no doubt as a result,
died suddenly of a heart attack. It was an anticlimactic ending to an
unsatisfying story that would have made a lousy Twilight Zone episode;
but if it had been the only script available, Serling would have done
his best to give the story some punch in his closing comments: "Consider
the case of Rod Serling, a writer with just enough talent to be a success,
but not enough talent to go beyond conventional success. Unwilling to
retreat, unable to advance, he worked at whatever project was presented
to him, all the while dreaming of the great achievements he might, but
could never, accomplish. Although death is a tragedy, it may come as a
blessed relief to a person trapped in—The Twilight Zone." |
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