Rod Serling His life, work, and imagination

Nicholas Parisi

Book - 2018

"Long before anyone had heard of alien cookbooks, gremlins on the wings of airplanes, or places where pig-faced people are considered beautiful, Rod Serling was the most prestigious writer in American television. As creator, host, and primary writer for The Twilight Zone, Serling became something more: an American icon. When Serling died in 1975, at the age of fifty, he was the most honored, most outspoken, most recognizable, and likely the most prolific writer in television history. Though best known for The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote over 250 scripts for film and television and won an unmatched six Emmy Awards for dramatic writing for four different series. His filmography includes the acclaimed political thriller Seven Days in May... and cowriting the original Planet of the Apes. In great detail and including never-published insights drawn directly from Serling's personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, Nicholas Parisi explores Serling's entire, massive body of work. With a foreword by Serling's daughter, Anne Serling, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis. It is a painstakingly researched look at all of Serling's work--in and out of The Twilight Zone." -- Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Published
Jackson : University Press of Mississippi [2018]
Language
English
Main Author
Nicholas Parisi (author)
Physical Description
xiv, 541 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781496817501
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Chapter 1. From Binghamton to the Battlefield and Back
  • Chapter 2. A Storm in Cincinnati
  • Videography 1. Stars over Hollywood and Lux Video Theatre
  • Chapter 3. Serling's Obsolete Men
  • Videography 2. Armstrong Circle Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, The Doctor, and Kraft Television Theatre
  • Chapter 4. A Return to Radio
  • Videography 3. Chrysler Medallion Theatre, Motorola Television Hour, and Studio One
  • Chapter 5. Say Something about Something: Serling on Having a Point of View
  • Chapter 6. In Praise of the Individual
  • Videography 4. Danger and Ford Theatre
  • Chapter 7. "Patterns": An Overnight Sensation Five Years in the Making
  • Videography 5. Climax!, United States Steel Hour, Matinee Theatre, and Kaiser Aluminum Hour
  • Chapter 8. Serling in the Censorship Arena
  • Chapter 9. From the Middle Ground to the Murder of Emmett Till
  • Chapter 10. Of "Dust" and "Doomsday"
  • Chapter 11. Live from Television City in Hollywood: Playhouse 90
  • Chapter 12. A Ninety-Minute Knockout: "Requiem for a Heavyweight"
  • Videography 6. Playhouse 90
  • Chapter 13. In the Presence of Whose Enemies? Serling and Anti-Semitism
  • Chapter 14. Patterns of Violence
  • Chapter 15. Its about Time: Desilu Playhouse's "The Time Element"
  • Chapter 16. Entering The Twilight Zone
  • Videography 7. The Twilight Zone: Season 1
  • Videography 8. The Twilight Zone: Season 2
  • Videography 9. The Twilight Zone: Season 3
  • Videography 10. The Twilight Zone: Season 4
  • Videography 11. The Twilight Zone: Season 5
  • Chapter 17. After Twilight: Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Movie and The Twilight Zone: Season 6
  • Chapter 18. The Loner
  • Videography 12. The Loner
  • Chapter 19. Another Christmas, Another Carol, and the Soviet Communist Conspiracy
  • Chapter 20. Odd Street and The Doomsday Flight: The Twilight Zone Sequel That Never Was
  • Chapter 21. Rod Serling and Planet of the Apes
  • Chapter 22. The New People and the Same Old Song and Dance
  • Chapter 23. "A Storm in Summer"
  • Chapter 24. A Season to Be Wary of the Night Gallery
  • Videography 13. Night Gallery: Pilot and Season 1
  • Videography 14. Night Gallery: Season 2
  • Videography 15. Night Gallery: Season 3
  • Chapter 25. Rod Serling: Actor, Narrator ... Game Show Host?
  • Chapter 26. Between Science and Superstition: Rod's Religion
  • Chapter 27. A Legacy as Timeless as Infinity
  • Acknowledgments
  • Appendix A. Additional Videography
  • Appendix B. The Storm: Videography, Notes, and Sources
  • Appendix C. Selected Uncredited and/or Unproduced Titles
  • Appendix D. Rod Serling's Works and Awards
  • Notes
  • Sources
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Serling's only legacy is The Twilight Zone. However, Serling was a highly regarded, prolific writer of socially conscious teleplays and screenplays, which resulted in Emmy Awards for this and other series, such as Playhouse 90 and Kraft TV Theatre. Serling's established place in popular culture has resulted in countless books about him as well as The Twilight Zone, including biographies such as Serling: The Rise and Twilight of TV's Last Angry Man (CH, Dec'12, 50-1851), a memoir by daughter Anne Serling, and scholarly critical analyses. Parisi, a Rod Serling Memorial Foundation board member, combines biography, critical analyses, and videography to explore Serling's body of work through a personal correspondence, published and unpublished writings, speeches, lectures, and unproduced scripts. The overarching value of this book is its incorporation of material not presented before, as well as its examinination of scripts beyond The Twilight Zone. It includes a bibliography; videographies of published and uncredited and/or unproduced scripts; and a comprehensive list of Serling's works, awards, and nominations. This is a valuable contribution to the canon of work about Rod Serling. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. --Patricia E. Mardeusz, University of Vermont

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.