October 2, 1959, was the premiere of The Twilight Zone. CNY native Rod Serling wrote 92 of the 156 episodes. 

Rod Serling was known as the 'angry young man' of Hollywood. In 1924 he was born Christmas Day in Syracuse, and describes himself as " a Christmas present that was delivered unwrapped."  After graduating from Binghamton High School in 1943, he joined the Army as a paratrooper in WWII. The quote below shows his love for Binghamton and Upstate New York found at Binghamton.org.

“Everyone has to have a hometown, Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat, or kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up. When I dig back through my memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling and that’s one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find, I’ve still got a hometown. This, nobody’s gonna take away from me.” – Rod Serling

Biography.com reports: In May of 1975, when he was 50 years old, Serling had a heart attack while running on a treadmill. A couple of weeks later, he had a second heart attack, at his cottage on Cayuga Lake, and was sent to the hospital for open-heart surgery. On June 28, 1975, Rod Serling died at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.

Rod Serling wrote 92 of 156 episodes for The Twilight Zone and was also the narrator. This script was the intro for all episodes except the final five.

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone won numerous awards including 3 Emmys and a Golden Globe. Rod Serling was nominated for a total of 9 Emmys and won 6 for various writing achievements. Some other honors bestowed upon him after his death according to Wikipedia:

  • 1985: Inducted into the Television Hall of Fame
  • 1985: A star honoring Serling can be found at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • 2007: Ranked No. 1 on TV Guide's "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" list (the only non-fictitious person on the list)
  • 2008: Inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame

Do you have a favorite episode of The Twilight Zone? Let us know in the comments below.


More From Lite 98.7