“Noon on Doomsday” was published in “Television Plays for Writers,” which you can find at the advanced book exchange (ABE). 

Every script that Rod Serling wrote was reproduced in Tony Albarella’s ten-volume set “As Timeless As Infinity,” which is out of print but can be found at numerous online outlets, including ABE and Amazon. A Google search for albarella “As Timeless As Infinity” buy yields dozens of links to the book series and reviews.

Yes, this is classic Rod Serling. Daughter Anne Serling quotes him in her book “As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling“

Agreed! “Night of the Meek” is a memorable and acclaimed Twilight Zone episode. CBS owns the rights that you need to stage any episode; you must contact CBS.

The Serling family can grant permission for a reading only, but it usually must be free to the public. To our knowledge, “Night of the Meek” has never been staged. Best of luck!

It’s in Volume Nine of “As Timeless as Infinity,” Tony Albarella’s ten-volume series of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone scripts.

It’s a movie and definitely not a Twilight Zone episode. Basic research turns up the names James Clavell and Howard Koch, with their screenplay based on a Frederick E. Smith novel. But Hollywood Script Shop lists Serling as the author of the 2nd draft of the script.

Bridget Bower manages the Rod Serling Archive at Ithaca College, which includes a number of unproduced scripts. She found this record in the archive:

M-9 The Violent Sky
“633 Squadron” [was the final name of the movie, produced in 1964] Second draft; 4-6-1959; carbon copy; 188 p. indicated.

What you saw is quite likely a genuine Serling script. As you probably know, credit for screenplays is a complex area that is governed by contracts and internal politics.

We do not own the rights to any photographic images of Rod Serling. We do possess the rights to use the Johnny Hart sketch (at the top of this web page) and this art by board member Robert Keller… and therefore cannot sell copies. Your best bet is to search eBay.com or similar sites for publicity shots. Just query for “Rod Serling photo” and you’ll get a constant stream of available photos and art.

We found a knock-off painting for sale on EBay for $200. Ouch! The best free image we’ve found online is here.

We will forward your request to the Serling Trust. That story is a perfect fit for a school program such as yours, so we hope that you are successful.

Carol Serling replies: “To the best of my knowledge, Rod was not at Fort Niagara. He enlisted in the paratroopers in Binghamton and I believe was immediately sent to parachute school down south (one of the Carolinas?) for basic training.”

The 1997 PBS documentary American Masters episode Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval is an excellent source that uses Serling’s own filmed work, especially his autobiographical “The Velvet Alley,” to tell his story. For a list of books, go to our Media:Books page.

He began writing for radio but switched to television early on. He learned the necessary discipline of writing through radio and in trying to succeed in TV—lots of practice and dedication to the craft itself. He kept writing, constantly, relentlessly, until it made him better, and he never lost that work ethic. His Patterns intro (linked above) deals with that, too.

Early in his TV career he began speaking his scripts into a dictation machine instead of typing them. He mentions that it saved him time, but it probably made a profound difference in his writing voice and his mastery of dialog.

His war experiences on Leyte (where he fought as a paratrooper) informed his writing throughout his career. But we are unaware of any paratrooper characters in his work.

The pre-Twilight Zone stuff is particularly war-heavy. I would point to the 2009-reissued The Strike (1954) as emblematic of Rod’s response to war.

Rod complained loudly about censorship’s ruination of his 1956 drama The Arena, which lost its focus on the specific issues of the time, but did not lose its greater point about personal honor. This is typical of his strongest writing (for example, his screen adaptation of Seven Days in May) — the issues are almost beside the point; his forte is moral conflict and wrenchingly tough choices.

He wrote at great length about his early career, including censorship, in the forward to his 1957 paperback Patterns.

A YouTube search for the phrase “serling writing for tv” turns up many videos of Rod teaching a seminar on Writing For Television, recorded at Ithaca College circa 1972 and appearing on Laserdisc during the 90s.

In these videos he speaks about being one of 11 million WWII veterans who came home with a horrific and memorable experience in common. That experience was the engine behind much of his writing during the 1950s Golden Age of Television. In fact, he began writing as therapy while recovering from a war wound.

SyFy is correct about teaching at Antioch, but off by a decade. Unbelievably, considering he was also writing screenplays and Twilight Zone episodes, Rod did teach some writing courses at Antioch in the early sixties. Foundation member Jeanne Marshall attended one of them and took copious notes.

It’s BernhardMod BT, a nice font made great by the fact that it was used in most of the original Twilight Zone episodes. This is a TrueType font, suitable in just about any computer (Mac or Windows, for two examples). You can download it from here:

Download File

One caveat if you plan to use this font on a website: you cannot count on your audience having the font. That’s why the font does not appear much on the current version of our website. If youb really, really want to use the font on a web page here’s how: create the BernhardMod BT banners in a word processor and then use a screen shot to convert them to .jpg or .gif graphics when you use them on the web pages. It’s also an excellent way to display bigger letters than HTML normally allows.

Rod only has one sibling – Robert Serling, a successful writer himself. If Phil Serling from Syracuse is related to Rod he would be a distant relative.

No, the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation does not receive royalities from anything associated with the Twilight Zone. We are a non-profit organization of volunteers who donate their time and resources. We raise money by donation only (and some clothing sales). Scroll to the top of this web page for a list of who controls the rights to which aspects of Rod’s work.

Rod loved to speak with students and relished the opportunities to do so. He spoke virtually anywhere he was asked, and unfortunately Binghamton University never asked him. His friend Lloyd Hartman was employed at Broome Community College, and often asked him to speak. Same situation with Helen Foley at Binghamton Central High School.

Rod was offered a teaching position at Ithaca College and that is why he went there rather than Cornell.

Rod was a founder, on the faculty, and a pitchman for the infamous and now-defunct Famous Writers School during the 1960s. A 5-minute infomercial for the school, hosted by Rod, appears on the DVD Meet Rod Serling, which is a gift to all new members of the Foundation.

Confirmed! The crashed UFO is an exact reverse image from a frame from the episode Death Ship, tree brush and all. The alien body does not appear in the episode. This prop spaceship also appeared in The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street, and in the film Forbidden Planet.

Death Ship originally aired on February 7, 1963.

The Serlings have a summer home on Cayuga Lake in upstate New York, and it was a revered place for Rod. It was his refuge from Hollywood. But he had no Cayuga Indian ancestors.

There appears to be an online streaming podcast of an 18-minute segment here:
http://www.reelradio.com/bw/index.html. First, they want $12 to join their organization.

Of course! There is a long list of articles about him and by him on our website.

Most of his work was filmed for TV and the movies, and can be found by searching sites such as Amazon.com and Netflix—as well as your local library. eBay and Amazon.com (or any online bookstore) are also fantastic resources for videos and books, since there is nothing truly new. I personally found every paperback of his, numbering almost a dozen and mostly adaptions of Twilight Zone episodes, on eBay. Just search for “Rod Serling” and keep looking.

There is far more to Rod Serling than Twilight Zone, which accounted for 2 of his 6 Emmy awards. His legacy is mostly in video. But there is a wonderful series of books which contain all of his Twilight Zone screenplays and tons of other fascinating information about him, his times, and Twilight Zone. Go to Gauntlet Press and look for the 10-volume series “As Timeless As Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling” edited by Tony Albarella. I reviewed the first volume in 2004: https://rodserling.com/ATAI_review_2004.htm.

The 50th anniversary of Twilight Zone’s premiere is in October 2009. Rod’s hometown Binghamton, NY, will hold ceremonies and a film festival around that time. Ithaca College in upstate New York, where Rod taught writing, held Rod Serling Conferences in 2006 and 2008; the college will hold another conference in October 2009. Keep your eye on the www.rodserling.com home page for specific news and dates.

Until recently, the best book about Rod Serling was a video. You can buy the 1997 PBS American Masters special “Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval” in many places, and you might even find it for free on YouTube. Look around.

The video is worth seeing for its use of Rod’s own work to document his life, borrowing from his biographical Playhouse 90 script “The Velvet Alley.” Now the written word has finally caught up. Two excellent books have come out with balanced and insightful accounts Rod’s life and inspirations…

Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination by Nicholas Parisi explores Rod Serling’s entire body of work, and includes never-published insights drawn directly from Serling’s personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts.

UNKNOWN SERLING: An Episodic History by Amy Boyle-Johnston is painstakingly researched, well-written and respectful of Rod Serling and his legacy. The first portion, out as an e-book, has tales you haven’t heard: The Bradbury, Kennedy, Pentagon and WWII stories. Excellent, inexpensive, and available at Amazon for their Kindle reader, or for the free Kindle reader app on IOS and Android.

As I Knew Him, My Dad, Rod Serling by Anne Serling is a touching remembrance of her father. She writes: “In Twilight Zone reruns, I search for my father in the man on the screen, but I can’t always find him there. Instead, he appears in unexpected ways. Memory summoned by a certain light, a color, a smell–and I see him again on the porch of our old red lakeside cottage, where I danced on the steps as a child.”

Although many of the architectural gems from Binghamton may have inspired Rod Serling, no filming was ever done here for the Twilight Zone. Our webmaster, Steve Schlich, resides in California so on his first visit to Binghamton he was awed by some of our architecture and thus inspired to create the “Architecture from the Twilight Zone” photo gallery. You may or may not know but the State Hospital building which has sat empty for the last 8 years finally received funding in 2008 to start its restoration. This includes restoring its original spires. Upstate Medical will be using it as a training medical center.

The photos we have in our Photo Gallery section regarding the Twilight Zone are the photos CBS has given us permission to display. CBS owns the rights to all images from the Twilight Zone and therefore we cannot display other pictures from the series without infringing on those rights. Sorry.

Sorry, but we don’t any information on Rod’s boat Carolyn II, other than it was housed at their cottage on Cayuga Lake in New York State. Others in the past have claimed that they now owned the boat, but no one can confirm it.

(Tony Albarella) Karloff didn’t die until 1969, so it’s possible he appeared. He acted in TV and movies until his death, and in the early sixties hosted the TZ/Alfred Hitchcock Presents-like series THRILLER, which was frequently quite good. You’ll also remember him, quite memorably, as the voice of THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS in the animated classic.

I saw the original “In the Presence of Mine Enemies” at the NY Museum of TV & Radio some years ago (it was fantastic), but don’t recall Karloff being in it. Still, that doesn’t mean much. His role could have been small or I simply might not have recognized him. His casting would make sense, however, given the ethic-looking actors that made up the rest of the cast. And I do know that he appeared in at least three other PLAYHOUSE 90’s during the run of the show. I’d have to see “In the Presence” again, keeping an eye out for him, to know for sure.

An internet search on this turned up an interesting page of a Karloff bio, which lists his appearance as coming from an “unconfirmed report” and adding that “The date does not bear this out.” Here’s the page if you want to check it out:
Google Books

(You’ll need a Google ID, but that is free.)

This is the only info of any substance that I can find. Someday I’ll have to return to the MT&R and have another look at this gem. I hope some of this helps.

Rod wrote a semi- autobiographical account of his rise as a screenwriter in the 40-page introduction to his 1957 paperback book “Patterns,” which also contains 4 of his live TV screenplays. You can get the paperback itself on eBay–well worth it–or read the introduction on this Patterns paperback page. It’s not a true autobiography since Rod was just 32 (and had Twilight Zone ahead of him) when he wrote those pages, but there is very little else. Look to the top right of this News & Print page–the section Rod Speaks Out for more of his words.

There have been two biographies written about Rod: “Rod Serling: Television’s Last Angry Man” by Gordon Sander and “Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone” by Joel Engel. Unfortunately both books have some factual errors. A great bio is available on DVD and VHS by the American Masters titled “Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval.” There is also a lot of biographical information on the internet.

Good luck and enjoy!

Sorry, Serling did not narrate any Nostradamus specials. I remember one called “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow” that was narrated by Orson Welles, another famous voice/figure, so perhaps that explains the confusion.

My other guess is that this refers not to a special entirely on Nostradamus but one that might have included a segment on him. Rod narrated several documentaries that covered extraordinary material and could have mentioned Nostradamus. Shows such as:

UFOs: It Has Begun (1976)
The Outer Space Connection (1975)
In Search of Ancient Mysteries (1975)
Monsters! Mysteries or Myths? (1974)
UFOs: Past, Present, and Future (1974)
In Search of Ancient Astronauts (1973)
The Unexplained (1970)

Wow, that’s an urban legend all right. Totally untrue. Both of Rod Serling’s children are alive and well, and have never been to that building.

My personal favorite theory about ghosts is that they are not the remains of people or their souls, but the emotional residue left over from a traumatic experience (which of course *could* include death). So perhaps Morrison or Hearst—or others less well known—had traumatic experiences there.

Tony Albarella is on our Board of Directors and author of the series “As Timeless as Infinity: The Complete Twilight Zone Scripts of Rod Serling.” He also happens to be the number one expert on Rod Serling’s THE LONER series. He presented a comprehensive talk at this year’s Rod Serling Conference held at Ithaca College (April 2006).

This is Tony Albarella – sorry for the delay in responding. In answer to your questions, THE LONER cannot be found commercially but, as you’ve seen from the list Steve Schlich from our organization sent you, we’ve managed to obtain quite a few. It’s taken years of tracking down people who transferred old 16mm films or taped episodes during a brief run on TV LAND some time ago.

As to the viability of the series being released, I’m not optimistic, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it’s not well-known or popular, and sales are the key for any company seeking to release a title. Secondly, there aren’t many episodes relative to your average series. This means a DVD release could not command a high retail price and thus it would have little resale value.

But, you never know. The DVD market is constantly evolving and TV shows on DVD have become a big part of their business. Twilight Zone sells very well on DVD. Perhaps if Serling’s – or maybe Lloyd Bridges’ – work becomes more widely recognized in the future, some company will take a chance and pay for the rights to release THE LONER.

In regards to episodes being considered “lost,” I’ve not heard or read anything to verify this. All the episodes did make it into the syndication package. It’s just that since there are so few of them, it’s hard for any station to pick it up and run it without adding another series to the rotation, thereby doubling their costs. It’s cheaper for a television network to simply buy the syndication rights to a show that has enough episodes to fill a time slot without having to repeat entries every other week.

It’s a problem faced by any show that suffered from a short run before getting cancelled, and one of the factors that continues to hold them down. If it’s not popular, it’s cancelled, and if it’s cancelled quickly, there’s not enough product to viably rebroadcast. In every aspect, the fewer episodes a series has, the better the chance that it will remain obscure. Bearing this in mind, the entire series can be considered “lost.”

The only other factor I can think of to explain your observation is the TV LAND reruns. That cable channel once broadcast some but not all LONERS as part of a rotating lineup with other TV Westerns. (“TV LAND GOES WEST” was the umbrella title of this, and sadly none of us here at the RSMF caught it when it ran. We had to track down people who taped them.) However, TV LAND stopped this multiple-show program before all of the LONERs were shown. Perhaps this led someone to the assumption that the episodes not seen during this run were lost.

At any rate, I’m happy to answer any other questions on the show, as well as listen to any comments or opinions you may have. The article I wrote on THE LONER a few years ago is available via our website, and I added more material for the talk that Andy mentioned, at the recent Rod Serling Conference. I have detailed notes on that and would be happy to send them to you at your request.

The “Patterns” teleplay appeared in a 1957 paperback–along with “Requiem for a Heavyweight” and two other plays. It can still be found at used bookstores and on eBay (although not at this very moment). I had better luck at www.abebooks.com: at this moment they list 29 copies ranging from $10 to $875 (autographed). It’s a great book with Rod’s commentary about each script and a 40-page autobiography.

A VHS video of the theatrical movie (starring Van Heflin) is usually for sale on the internet and sometimes locally. A VHS video of the TV broadcast can be had by members of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation–along with many other videos of Rod Serling’s Golden Age shows–for the price of the tape and postage (around $6 total) from other members who collect.

RSMF membership begins at $15 and I urge you to consider this worthy cause.

No. If you seek copies of the original run, try www.ebay.com.

Yes, the classic black and white episodes of TWILIGHT ZONE are available on DVD. There are many sites on the internet offering them for sale as well as most large size music/video stores. Do a quick search and you’ll find many options. Good luck and enjoy!

The Famous Writers School, which Rod Serling promoted, is no longer in existence. See the 60s ad and a 5-minute infomercial on the MEET ROD SERLING DVD, which is given to new members of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.

Carol wrote back that: “No, Rod didn’t know Frank Capra, but absolutely loved “Wonderful Life” and we watched it every Xmas.” Thought you would enjoy hearing that.

Thank you for your interest. The idea you propose sounds unfortunately like projects Carol Serling has already done, most recently with “Adventures in the Twilight Zone.” She has edited three such anthology books that I am aware of, the other two being “Return to the Twilight Zone” and “Journeys to the Twilight Zone.” Check these books out and see if your project is something different than this. If so and it is something you’d like to pursue I would be happy to pass along information on how to contact Carol through her agent. Wishing you continued success.

PBS American Masters program “Rod Serling: Submitted for your Approval.” It is a quality piece and quite comprehensive. It is available on VHS and DVD.

If you prefer reading, the two biographies I am familiar with are both unauthorized and although comprehensive, they take liberties. They are: “Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television’s Last Angry Man” by Gordon F. Sander, 1992; and “Rod Serling: The Dreams and Nightmares of Life in the Twilight Zone” by Joel Engel, 1989.

The poet named in the episode:
Howard Arnold Walter, who wrote in 1906:
The poem is “I Would Be True.”

“I would be true for there are those who trust me.
I would be pure for there are those who care.
I would be strong for there is much to suffer
and I would be brave for there is much to dare.”

There are two other verses. Read them here:
http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/usa/iwouldbe.htm

The website:
American Folksongs /
Volkslieder aus den Vereinigten Staaten
Folksongs, Hymns and Spirituals of America

I have personally seen him in ads for Genessee Beer, Famous Writers School, another beer, and a floor wax. I know there were many others, as well as some where he lent his voice only. I don’t believe that any appeared during the Fifties, though. To the best of my knowledge, he didn’t begin doing ads in earnest until after Twilight Zone in 1965.

Like you mentioned, many of the actors that appeared in TZ episodes have gone on to have grand careers and many already had impressive credentials before appearing on the show.

The two actors that come to mind that appeared in the most episodes of The Twilight Zone are Burgess Meredith and Jack Klugman who each appeared in four episodes. I believe that was the most.

Thanks for your praise of the web site. It’s a pleasure to help anyone gain a fuller appreciation of Rod Serling and his legacy. I urge you to consider joining the Foundation. As a reward, we offer a not-available-anywhere-else video about Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone.

Tony Albarella is editing a 10-book series of every script Rod wrote for The Twilight Zone. These books contain the scripts in their original formatting, and lots of extras such as ads from that era and Albarella’s insightful commentary about each script and episode. You can read about these books, and about the writer. Both web pages contain links to the publisher.

The Sixties saw a number of paperback books published with Twilight Zone scripts converted to short stories, usually by Rod Serling himself. While these books are all out of print, copies appear constantly on www.ebay.com and can also be located through used book sites such as www.abebooks.com. They are reasonably priced and good reading!

My guess is that he was never asked. Helen Foley always asked him to speak at the public schools when he was in town and he did. His former teacher and friend Lloyd Hartman invited him to speak at Broome Community College and he did. He spoke at SUNY-Oswego so he had nothing against the SUNY schools. They had a summer home near Ithaca which is how he formed his relationship with Ithaca College. I believe he just had no contacts at Binghamton University and no one there ever made an effort to invite him. Rod loved to speak and he spoke across the country at countless colleges. I only wish I was able to have witnessed one in person. I’ve heard a taping of one and it was thoroughly enjoying.

Twilight Zone, being an anthology series, lent itself to having different directors throughout the series. George T. Clemens being the director of photography on most of the episodes gave them the “look” to tie the series together. Having the same director on every episode may have kept the series from continuing to be fresh. Of course, this is only my opinion and I have no experience in producing a television program.

No TZs were actually shot in Binghamton. The episode that most utilizes Rod’s memories of Binghamton is “Walking Distance” with a Recreation Park setting near his hometown neighborhood. There are many hints of Binghamton in other episodes but none so blatant.

I wish I was able to point you to readily available early works of Rod Serling’s but unfortunately it isn’t that easy. That is one of the goals of our Foundation: to make Rod’s work—ALL of Rod’s work—more readily available to the public. If you haven’t already, request at your library for them to obtain more Serling writings and see what they can come up with.

I’m sorry to say I can’t help you in locating the script of Rod’s writing about the Emmet Till case. He did two stories based on the case: “Noon on Doomsday” and “A Town Has Turned To Dust.” Perhaps the titles will help you but our archives don’t include either script.

“Patterns” is available commercially in VHS video format. I just checked www.amazon.com and they list it for $13.99. The script was published by Simon and Schuster in 1957 – “Patterns: Four Television Plays with the Author’s Personal Commentaries” and EBay is one place where you might find a copy.

Here’s a “greatest hits” list from The Rod Serling Resource Site. I would add to it the PH90 In the Presence of Mine Enemies.

Cayuga Productions was the name of Rod Serling’s production company during the years of Twilight Zone. Cayuga Lake, one of New York’s “finger lakes,” is about an hour drive northwest of Binghamton, and where Rod and his family had a summer home.

Rod served in the 511th. He received his injuries in Leyte.

Twilight Zone, Playhouse 90, any CBS-TV series:
CBS Radford
4024 Radford Ave.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 655-1609
www.cbsfootagelicensing.com

CBS owns all Twilight Zone rights. Not the Serlings, not the Foundation. You must contact CBS…

• To request permission to stage an episode
• To request permission to use any element of those broadcasts
• To report misuse of images, sounds or phrases from the Twilight Zone

Requiem for a Heavyweight or Patterns:
Concord Theatricals
250 W. 57th Street
6th Floor
New York, NY 10107-0102
(866) 979-0447
info@concordtheatricals.com

For almost everything else:
Rick Berg
Code Entertainment, Inc.
280 S Beverly Dr # 513
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
(310) 772-0008
http://www.codeentertainment.com

Other
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: MCA/Universal. Sorry, we have no contact information.
The Zero Hour: Many episodes are listed in the U.S. Copyright Office’s database: http://www.copyright.gov/records/