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Life with Rod: a Conversation with Carol Serling

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Life with Rod: a Conversation with Carol Serling It would be diffiCl//t to imagine a T wi­ light Zone without the genius of Rod Serli/lg. Al1d it's likely Rod would IJa ve had far less impact on the televisioll industry wilii out the Ileip al1d support of Carol Kramer Serlitlg, his wife. Their marriage provided Rod with sufficient motivation to persevere il1 spite of "forty rejection slips ill a row, " (as he once described it), leave tIle security of CillCillllClti, and head for New York City just ill time to assume a pioneering role in th e developing TV medium, Television was lucky to have Serlillg. Lotlg before the creatioH of The Twi­ light Zone, he had participated in the early shaping of TV drama, writiHg for such landmark programs as the Hall mark Hall of Fame, Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, alld Play­ house 90. Rod was o l1 e of a hmldful ",...-;or of gifted young writers to w hom the illdustry fumed for direction duril1g its "Go ld€l1 Age". By 1959, tlte year The Twilight Zone had its debut, Serlillg had received three TV Emmys and a Peabody A ward - tlte first ever awarded to a w riter. Rod and Carol working together on a radi o broadca st at Antioch College . TIl e rapid trallSitioll from strugglillg playwright to successful producer put azine, anlollg other activ ities. Carol ers, which is another story. When he pressw 'es a l l Serling alld his fal/lily. graciously cOl/ sented to this interview, came back after the war, he took a "He was bas ically a writer," Carol it'l which she offers us some personal college work-study job at a rehabili t a~ recalls, "and a w riter is a very solitary perspectives 011 her life witl1 a tion hospital near Chicago, because he persall who does his best work off by remarkable man. had been wounded. himself. In fact, he w as nervous at ROSENBAUM: Was it somethi ng first about appearillg as all 01l-camera ROSENBAUM: Where did you and serious? lIarrator for his OWII show. But I thi1lk Rod first meet? SERlING: It was with him a ll his li fe. he got comfo rtable w ith it after a SERlING: At Antioch Coll ege, in He was wounded in the wrist and the w hile. He did have a very gregarious Yell ow Springs, Ohio. He was one of knee, but the knee was the serious side, too." that large group of re turni ng veterans one. He went through school with ad­ TIl e Serlings were determilled to right after the second World War. It ditional compensati on because of disa­ lIIaintain a norlllal, healthy hom e life was the fall of '46. I was a freshman. bility. He could have had disabili ty all for themselves and their two dallgh ~ I was seventeen and Rod was twenty­ hi s li fe , because the knee was always tel'S, lody and AIm. All during Ser~ one, We were married two years later, going out on him . He'd be going down lirlg 's most productive years, they kept at the end of our second year. the stairs a nd all of a sudden it would a second hom e 0 11 Cayuga Lake near ROSENBAUM: I know at one point "s nap". I'd hear a bong-bong-bong and Ithaca, far away from the press tlre~ you were living in a house trailer . I'd think, "Oh, God, he's fa llen down cooker atmosphere of New York and When was that? the stai rs again." But he lived with it. Hollywood. Each year fro m the "Iid ~ SE RLl NG: That was right after the Actua ll y, hi s major that first year 50 's O1'lward, the family would shuttle war. We lived in surplus trailers was Physical Education. After th at. he back and forth between coasts, w itll brought up from someplace in Texas, began to get involved in theater, and Rod's Jlea v iest work perfonned during I think, There was no running water; later, broadcasting. the mild Southern California w inter there was kerosene heat and cooking. ROSENBAUM: What happened after montils, alld the SW11mer months re­ We had a communal place where graduation? served for relaxation alld recreation everybody washed. SERLI NG: We were graduated in ill the wooded quiet of IIpstate New The college put the trailers up ­ 1950. Rod's first job out of college was York. there must have been 20 or 25 of at a radio stat ion in Cincinnati. He Since Serling's death ill 1975, them. But nobody fe lt sorry for them­ had worked all over the country in dl/ri1l g open-heart surgery at the age selves, we were lucky to get them. radio during his Antioch co ll ege work of 50, Carol has helped mail/taill ROSENBAUM: Was Rod set on a periods. I think they were generally public access to his work and ideas. writing career at that point? offering $45 or $50 a week, And Her OWII creative contriblltiolls are SERlING: Not exactly. He didn't real­ WLW offered him the princely sum of evident il/ Stepilell Spielberg's Twilight ly know where he was going at first. $75 a week about two days before Zone - The Movie, a recellt He'd been accepted at Antioch while graduation. Broadway producti0 11 of Requ iem For he was in high school, but the war At WLW Rod was asked to write a Heavyweight. a docuHlelltary 011 intervened, He enlisted w itho ut gradu­ Geritol ads. [Laughs] With a south­ Serlil1g ill tile works artd ill this mag ~ ating - and ended up in the paratroop- ern accen t and a ll , making up the Twilight Zone 47 testimonials. wrote was that good. So even though But he just up and quit one day, there was a lot of his work on TV, during the winter of 1952, about six he began to wonder if it was real, if months before our first daughter Jody he could ever achieve that level of was born - though he was also doing success aga in. some free- lancing and working on a Fortunately a couple of years later weekly dramatic show for another came Requiem for a Heavyweight, Cincinnati station. which received the same kind of pub­ ROSENBAUM: Did you help to sup­ lic acclaim that Pattem s had. That port the fami ly at that time? was proof that his fir st success really SERLI NG: Yes, I was working up until wasn't just a fl ash in the pan. Jody was born, and then there was a ROSENBAUM: Wha t prompted you lot of pressure on Rod to make up the to move from Connecticut to difference. And after a couple of years California? it just became impossible. Rod's agent 5ERLI NG: Again, the business moved. said , "You 've got to move to New When we first arrived in New York, tel­ York where the action is." evision was mostl y live drama. Start­ ROSENBAUM: So you left Cincinnati ing a round 1957 it beca me more of a and moved to Connecticut. film medium, and moved west. $ SERU NG: Right, in 1954. Our second Act ually, Rod went to los Angeles ~ daughter Nan was born in 1955 in earli er on a series of assignments for ~ Greenwich. And right about then Rod's MGM. In 1955 we went out for three Ij) career began to take off. months while he worked on a ~ ROSENBAUM: What was that period screenplay - a terrible little dog ca lled ~ like for you? Saddle tIle Wind. And the fo llowing &SER LI NG: It was very excit ing. It was yea r he did the same for a three u really a n overnight recognition for month period. That was sort of a test­ The young couple arriving at the Em- him. It started with Pat/ems in 1955. ing ground for us, to see if we wanted my ce remonies in Los Angeles in 1959. Ja ck Gould in the New York Times to make the fina l commitment to gave the program a rave review. We move west. had just moved to the east coast. We At that time - when we fina ll y did went out the night the show aired. move-our oldest daughter was ready and we'd told the babysitter that no for school, and we decided we couldn't "After the first one would call because we had just continue the peripatetic life. We had moved to town. And the phone just to ma ke a decision. We finally made success, Rod started ringing and didn't stop for the move in the fall of 1957. began to wonder years! ROSENBAUM: How did you manage ROSENBAUM: How did you handle to return each yea r to Cayuga lake in if it was real, thaI? Upstate New York? SERLI NG: Listen, at least they learned SERLING: Well the summer place has if he could ever to spell his name! They used to call been in my fam il y forever. I've been him "Sterling" or "Sperling"! spending summers up there forever. achieve that ROSENBAUM: How did Rod deal Rod and I spent our honeymoon with it all? there, and hardly ever missed a sum­ level of success SERLING: Well , in the beginning it mer. We missed two summers - the agazn, " happened so quickl y that you just summers the girls were born .
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