Please enjoy these videos, compliments of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation. Most cannot be found anywhere else, except through these links. And apologies: even though they are now digital, these videos are not high quality. Many began life as kinescopes–16mm film shot directly off video monitors during the 50s and 60s. Others were transferred and copied multiple times on VHS tape.


Rod Serling faviconAbout the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation (2:11)
A little about the history of the Foundation and its mission.

 


Genesee Beer Commercial – Rod Serling (0:33)

Circa 1970.

 


Rod SerlingFamous Writers School infomercial – Rod Serling narrates (4:31)

Rod hosts one of TV’s first infomercials, circa 1965. This plug for the Famous Writer’s School in Bridgeport Connecticut, which Rod helped found, has a sincerity that is emblematic of those relatively innocent times. As with the kinescopes of Rod’s work during the Golden Age of TV, the accompanying atmosphere is a fascinating time capsule.


Rod Serling Memorial FoundationDay of a Playwright: Rod Serling (29:02) 

The Foundation itself produced “Day of a Playwright” in 1988, and released it in conjunction with the opening of a permanent display of Rod Serling historical materials at the Forum Theater in Binghamton, NY. Helen Foley, Rod’s middle school teacher and lead character in the Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare as a Child,” narrates the video.


Keenan WynnIntroduction to Requiem for a Heavyweight broadcast (7:26)

In this 1988 introduction to a rebroadcast, actors Keenan Wynn and Jack Palance, producer Martin Manulus, and director Ralph Nelson discuss the amazing backstory of the 1957 Playhouse 90 episode “Requiem for a Heavyweight,” which was Ed Wynn’s first dramatic role. Tough Guy Palance reveals his sensitive side. And in a special treat, four-episode Twilight Zone star Jack Klugman introduces 1958 footage of Rod Serling accepting his Emmy award for the Requiem script.


The Loner readingThe Loner: Live Reading in Ithaca, NY 1987 (28:51)

In 1987, Ithaca College stage-read an episode of Rod Serling’s TV show “The Loner”. This raw recording is historic and unique, but unfortunately also of poor audio and video quality, and incomplete.


MORE! We didn’t upload these videos to YouTube, but they are worth watching.

 

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