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 . But didn't stop to think, "What's going otherwise we always went up for Ju ly on7" After a little while, you know and August, from Ohio originally, that you hit a hi gh or had a success. then from Connecticut, then later Then you start to say "Can I do it from Cali fo rni a. again? Maybe I can't reach that pin­ That was always a very impor­ nacle again." And then you start to tant part of our li ves - to spend as doubt yourself. It's cyclical. I think all much time as possible up there. writers and most people in the arts go ROSENBAUM: That was more or less through that. There is a high point, your recreational time? and it 's damn ha rd to get there again; SERLING: We ll , Rod never stopped and then you begin to question your writin g, no matter where. The only own ability. pl ace I can recall that he didn't have I know that Rod ,>vent through a typewriter or a dicta phone was that for a couple of years, because the when he was on the boat. And then problem after the first success was that he was thoroughly relaxed because he he would resubmit work that had been knew the telephone was far away and turned down and re jected in the past, there was nothing he could do about and a ll of a sudden it would be it. But other than that he was always bought. He would have been the first writing. to say, "You know, there are some ROSENBA UM: It was rea ll y the only real dogs here." Not everything tha t he chance to get away from the hu st le

48 Twilight Zo ne and bustl e- was the hardest thing in the world. SERLING: Yes, absolutely. He rea ll y But it was something he had to --do. loved it up there. He felt he just had Even when he was on vacation, his to get some d istance from his work mind was going. Sometimes, when I'd once in a while. And he'd also go see him sitting o utside in the sun by back to Binghamton, where he grew the lake, I'd say to . myself: "O h, he's z up. I think sometimes he had a not-so­ not out there workmg; he can come Q totall y realistic memory of his child­ in and watch the baby for a change!" ~ hood in Bi nghamton. But his memor­ But of course, when you're a writer, 5 ies were idyllic! Oh, he recalled some the mind never stops. He'd keep a pad fr traumas of adolescence and that sort by the bed and jot down thoughts in of thing, but hi s hometown was a the middle of the night. great love. That's why whenever he In the Twilight Zone days, he had an opportunity, he'd go back to really had to come up with that Binghamton, and sometimes just drive material very quickly. But it came around on the streets, and kind of very easily for him. Some of the other relive hi s boyhood. dramatic work didn't! Sometimes the ROSENBAUM: At what point did things he worked o n were very diffi­ Rod first begin to develop The cult - a difficult pregnancy a nd horren­ The Serling Family: lody, 6, Nan, 4, Twilight Zone? dous birth. Carol and Rod in 1959. SERLING : I can't remember specifi cal­ ROSENBAUM: Where did he work? ly . I know I was talking to lactorl SERllNG: In the backyard. George Segal in 1985 when we were ROSENBAUM: In the backyard, doing Requiem in New York as a literally1 play, and he was asking me questions SERLING: Yes , we built an office in "He was-J don't like that, "When did this happen . .. the backyard. "How did this evolve . .. . " And he ROSENBAUM: What was it like, hav­ know how to put said, "You were there, weren't you?" ing a working writer around the house [Laughs] But that was 25 years ago! all the time? What sort of father was this exactly - a Who can remember! And I can't say he1 exactl y why Rod decided to get in ­ SERLING: He a lways threa tened to liberated male, volved in a seri es but I do know tha t get a little office downtown! He never drew having cont rol - creative conlrol - was He was - I don't know how to put the important thing to him, and he it , exactly - a liberated male. He never those sharp lines realized that he would have that. With drew those sha rp lines of demarcation: Twilight Zone, CBS said, "Hey, it's This is women's work and this is of demarcation: your baby, you go ahead and do what man's work." you want with it," And in truth, be­ ROSENBAUM: He obviously had a 'This is women's cause it was a fan tasy show, through great fondness fo r children. analogy, para bl e and suggestion, he SERllNG: Yes. He had a great rap­ work and this lS was able to say and do things that he port with children . He really did . men's work, '" was not able to do in a straight drama ROSENBAUM: He was also a very ef­ in those days. And so for him it was fec ti ve teacher, a very involved a happy playground. There was cen­ teacher, at Antioch and Ithaca and sorship to a certain extent, on words Cornell. and things like that, but not on ideas SERllNG: At Ithaca he did a week­ and concepts. He could pretty much long seminar in the fa ll a nd one in the writ e what he wanted to. spring and a couple of other short ROSENBAUM: Rod was a prolific courses. The kids loved them, because write r. How was he able to write as they got a credit for a week-long much - and as well - as he did? course. And what did they do? T hey SERLlNG: I think he was very disci­ sat and watched film! Then they had pli ned. A writ er ha s to be disciplined: to critique it. But Rod was an easy other things have to be put aside. He grader. He hated to fail anyone! would start working very earl y. He He a lso did a lot of speaking on would get up and grab a cup of coffee college campuses all over the country. and work pretty much all morning. In He enjoyed the contact with the the beginning he had his typewriter, students. with his two-finger typing. T hen, He had mixed feelings about about the time Twilight Zone started, teaching. He wasn't sure he was offer­ he began dicta ting. It was kind of fun ing anythi ng of any great value. He to li sten to him dictate because he did spend o ne half of a year back a t acted out all the roles. 1 wish I'd saved Antioch College, teaching as a fu ll ­ those old dictaphone belts. tim e writer in residence. At that But obviously, you have to have time - this was in the '60s - it was a the inherent, creative ability and im­ fai rl y political climate. He fe lt he was agination. Rod used to say writing relating better in hi s evening courses,

Twilight ZO ll e 49 which were adult courses, than he was think, "Well, this will end next week,

with the day students. Because he or next month or next year ... /I and thought the students must be thinking: then something else comes up. "What's this Hollywood fat~cat doing We're talking about doing a docu ~ here on the campus? What does he mentary on Rod. There are some very really know? He's sold out to the good people that are interested in do~ Establishment." He really wanted to ing it; it's just a matter of getting the teach drama and creative writing. That clearances. It may happen yet. was where his strengths were and that ROSENBAUM: The Twilight Z01le was where he really belonged. was filled with references to the ROSENBAUM: He was gardening up strange, the unseen, and the unex~ a t the lake at the time he had the plained. Did Rod believe in any of heart attack. that) SERllNG: Pushing the roto-tiller. SERLING: He really wanted to believe ROSENBAUM: He made some sort of in the supematural-ESP, visitations remark about that - from outer space. Things like that. SERLING: It was just an inglorious The lines in Peru at Nazca. He wanted way to have it happen, you know? He to believe it was an airfield laid down said that he'd like to have been on a long ago by visitors from out there. podium with people hearing him, to It was a willing suspension of disbe­ go down in that kind of way. And lief. He wanted to believe in ESP z here he was up in the garden pushing studies that were going on at Duke g the rota-tiller. University and various other places. ~ ROSENBAUM: When he went into But he had no direct experiences of his "5 the hospital for open heart surgery, do own and so he remained skeptical. f( you think he was scared? He could be scared at night in a ~ SERllNG: I think anybody in that graveyard, but be fascinated by it at gkind of situation, particularly eleven the same time. Long before The ~ years ago, when the procedure was Twilight Zone his favorite reading ma~ " not as common, would be. But he was terial late at night would be short ~ willing to take the risk. ghost stories or Lovecraft or Poe or ~ ROSENBAUM: He was always a James. But he was pretty even keeled. 8 vigorous-looking man with a lot of I mean , people must have thought he L-",,-=~_--,lI: energy. It's difficult to imagine him was kind of a far out Suy and kind Rod Serling at Broome Community slowing down. His dad died at about of nuts, but he wasn't. He really College in Binghamton, N.Y., the same age, didn't he? wasn't. shortly before his death. SERLING: Rod's father died at the age ROSENBAUM: All hi s life Rod was a of 52. The whole family had a history man passionately devoted to justice . of heart complications and heart prob~ He spent a lot of his time fighting the lems, most of the men in the family network, the censors. It must have "He cared very died around that age. So I think Rod been hard in those later years to see always felt this was hanging over his the country tearing itself apart. It deeply about head - I know he did. must have been demoralizing for a ROSENBAUM: Rod's death must have writer so optimistic about the human things. He used to been very difficult for you - and the spirit. children - because there wasn't much SERLING: You couldn't be more right. say that the preparation . He used to say the ultimate obscenity ultimate SERLING: Well , that summer we were is not caring, not doing something all together. And I guess we sort of about what you feeL not feeling! Just obscenity is not pulled the curtains and took care of drawing back and drawing in; becom~ each other. We were all supportive of ing narcissistic. caring, not doing each other. We needed that. We were I remember when he was in the a very close group. And for those hospital after his heart attack, and the something about summer months we just sort of lived whole Watergate thing was going on. with it, lived through it. I used to have to turn the television what you feel. " ROSENBAUM: You seem to be very off, because he was ge tting so upset! much involved with Rod's legacy these He was so angry at what was happen­ days. It seems like a full-time job. ing in Washington, and the fact that SERLING: In a sense it is. It's not that so many people didn't seem to be I'm a keeper of the flame . But it has concerned. kept me busy. The Twilight Zone has He cared very deeply about things turned into a business. I think Rod and felt that it was - it sounds pre~ would be absolutely amazed that the tentious- it was our responsibility to interest is still there and that so many do something about it. I don't know people remember hi s work. There are how he'd feel about the current scene times when I think it's time for me to now, but he'd probably be out on get out of the Twilight Zone! And I some soap box somewhere. •

50 Twilight Zone