098 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U Kpoignancy by Jack Palance.’
Though ‘Requiem’ tends to soak up the praise
(it was even adapted into a movie in 1962,
with Anthony Quinn stepping into the Palance
part), Serling actually penned ten episodes of
Playhouse 90. “The best of the bunch,” says
Nicholas Parisi, “is one that few people today
have seen or heard of: ‘The Rank And File’
starring Van Hefl in and Charles Bronson. It’s a
powerfully written story about a man’s rise from
union worker to union president, and the ethical
sacrifi ces that he makes along the way. It’s one
of the forgotten gems in the Serling catalogue.”
Despite his successes on the Playhouse 90,
the battles with the suits were relentless. Since
fi rst breaking into television in the early Fifties,
he’d been forced to live with the often brutal
realities of corporate sponsorship and network
censorship. Sometimes the compromises were
small (in ‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’, the line:
‘Got a match?’ was excised because one of
the play’s sponsors was Ronson lighters), other
times they cut deeper. Spurred by the lynching
of black teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi
in 1955, Serling crafted an impassioned and
stirring play about homicidal prejudice in the
present-day Deep South. But sponsors didn’t
want anything to do with something that
perfect-aimed. When ‘A Town Has Turned
To Dust’ made it to the screen in 1958, it had
become the story of a white man murdering a
Mexican in a US southwest town in the 1870s.
“By the time the censors had gotten to it, my
script had turned to dust,” Serling opined.
Bruised by one too many headbutts with
gutless sponsors and craven producers,
Serling decided to change tactics. In a now-
famous interview with TV newsman Mike
Wallace in 1959, he said: “I don’t want to
fi ght anymore. I don’t want to have to battle
sponsors and agencies. I don’t want to have
to push for something that I want and have to
TWILIGHT ZONE:
ROD SERLING’S
LOST CLASSICS
Nineteen years after Serling’s death, two
‘new’, previously lost, stories fi nally found
themselves in front of the camera. Twilight Zone:
Rod Serling’s Lost Classics was a 1994 TV
movie consisting of an unmade story outline for
the original Twilight Zone run, and a script that
Serling had penned in 1968 (four years after
The Twilight Zone ended). Richard Matheson
was tasked with turning Serling’s story, titled ‘The
Theatre’, into a full screenplay, with the other
script, ‘Where The Dead Are’, reaching the
screen just as Serling had intended. Playing like a
delayed coda to the original series, Rod Serling’s
Lost Classics features the sonorously voiced James
Earl Jones as the Serling-like narrator, with Jack
Palance (who’d headlined Serling’s 1956 play,
‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’) also headlining
‘Where The Dead Are’.COMPLETE GUIDE
ROD SERLING
“THE TWILIGHT ZONE LOOKS RADICAL
NOW...NOTHING COMPARES”
MARK MILLARsettle for second best. I don’t want to have to
compromise all the time, which in essence is
what a television writer does if he wants to put
on controversial themes.”
Of course, The Twilight Zone was as socially
charged, if less obviously incendiary, as any
of his work for Playhouse 90. Through the
camoufl age of science fi ction, Serling was able
to slink his social and political messages past
the sponsors and censors. The show, which
premiered on 2 October 1959, had its genesis
in a 1958 play titled ‘The Time Element’ about
a man who time travels back in his dreams to
warn Americans about the impending attack
on Pearl Harbour. The episode was screened
as part of Desilu Productions’ Westinghouse
Desilu Playhouse, and its success (Desilu wasreportedly fl ooded with over six thousand
letters of praise) was enough to convince CBS
to commission an anthology series of Serling-
penned science-fi ction plays.
Of the 156 The Twilight Zones made, 92
were written by Serling. Yet his presence is on
every single episode – quite literally, in fact.
As intrinsic to the show as Marius Constant’s
blisteringly iconic theme music are Serling’s
in-person introductions to each tale. There
he was each week, standing omnisciently to
the side, all crisp vowels and a never-absent
cigarette, easing us into the fantastical world
of The Twilight Zone. His appearances made
him so well-known that he appeared as himself
on the ratings topping Jack Benny Program
on CBS and, a few years after that, evenFar-out concepts
and real fears.Serling did begin
to tire of TTZ.098 | W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U Kpoignancy by Jack Palance.’
Though ‘Requiem’ tends to soak up the praise
(it was even adapted into a movie in 1962,
with Anthony Quinn stepping into the Palance
part), Serling actually penned ten episodes of
Playhouse 90Playhouse 90Playhouse 90. “The best of the bunch,” says. “The best of the bunch,” says
Nicholas Parisi, “is one that few people today
have seen or heard of: ‘The Rank And File’
starring Van Hefl in and Charles Bronson. It’s a
powerfully written story about a man’s rise from
union worker to union president, and the ethical
sacrifi ces that he makes along the way. It’s one
of the forgotten gems in the Serling catalogue.”
Despite his successes on the Playhouse 90,
the battles with the suits were relentless. Since
fi rst breaking into television in the early Fifties,
he’d been forced to live with the often brutal
realities of corporate sponsorship and network
censorship. Sometimes the compromises were
small (in ‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’, the line:
‘Got a match?’ was excised because one of
the play’s sponsors was Ronson lighters), other
times they cut deeper. Spurred by the lynching
of black teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi
in 1955, Serling crafted an impassioned and
stirring play about homicidal prejudice in the
present-day Deep South. But sponsors didn’t
want anything to do with something that
perfect-aimed. When ‘A Town Has Turned
To Dust’ made it to the screen in 1958, it had
become the story of a white man murdering a
Mexican in a US southwest town in the 1870s.
“By the time the censors had gotten to it, my
script had turned to dust,” Serling opined.
Bruised by one too many headbutts with
gutless sponsors and craven producers,
Serling decided to change tactics. In a now-
famous interview with TV newsman Mike
Wallace in 1959, he said: “I don’t want to
fi ght anymore. I don’t want to have to battle
sponsors and agencies. I don’t want to have
to push for something that I want and have to
TWILIGHT ZONE:
ROD SERLING’S
LOST CLASSICS
Nineteen years afterNineteen years afterNineteen years after Serling’s death, two Serling’s death, two
‘new’, previously lost, stories fi nally found
themselves in front of the camera. Twilight Zone:
Rod Serling’s Lost Classics was a 1994 TV
movie consisting of an unmade story outline for
the original Twilight ZoneTwilight ZoneTwilight Zone run, and a script that run, and a script that
Serling had penned in 1968 (four years after
The Twilight Zone ended). Richard Matheson
was tasked with turning Serling’s story, titled ‘The
Theatre’, into a full screenplay, with the other
script, ‘Where The Dead Are’, reaching the
screen just as Serling had intended. Playing like a
delayed coda to the original series, Rod Serling’s
Lost ClassicsLost ClassicsLost Classics features the sonorously voiced James features the sonorously voiced James
Earl Jones as the Serling-like narrator, with Jack
Palance (who’d headlined Serling’s 1956 play,
‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’) also headlining
‘Where The Dead Are’.COMPLETE GUIDE
ROD SERLING
“THE TWILIGHT ZONE LOOKS RADICAL
NOW...NOTHING COMPARES”
MARK MILLARsettle for second best. I don’t want to have to
compromise all the time, which in essence is
what a television writer does if he wants to put
on controversial themes.”
Of course, The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone was as socially was as socially
charged, if less obviously incendiary, as any
of his work for Playhouse 90.Playhouse 90.Playhouse 90. Through the Through the
camoufl age of science fi ction, Serling was able
to slink his social and political messages past
the sponsors and censors. The show, which
premiered on 2 October 1959, had its genesis
in a 1958 play titled ‘The Time Element’ about
a man who time travels back in his dreams to
warn Americans about the impending attack
on Pearl Harbour. The episode was screened
as part of Desilu Productions’ Westinghouse
Desilu PlayhouseDesilu PlayhouseDesilu Playhouse, and its success (Desilu was , and its success (Desilu wasreportedly fl ooded with over six thousand
letters of praise) was enough to convince CBS
to commission an anthology series of Serling-
penned science-fi ction plays.
Of the 156 The Twilight ZonesThe Twilight ZonesThe Twilight Zones made, 92 made, 92
were written by Serling. Yet his presence is on
every single episode – quite literally, in fact.
As intrinsic to the show as Marius Constant’s
blisteringly iconic theme music are Serling’s
in-person introductions to each tale. There
he was each week, standing omnisciently to
the side, all crisp vowels and a never-absent
cigarette, easing us into the fantastical world
of The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone. His appearances made. His appearances made
him so well-known that he appeared as himself
on the ratings topping Jack Benny Program
on CBS and, a few years after that, evenFar-out concepts
and real fears.Serling did begin
to tire of TTZ.