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Rod Serling’s 1963 ‘The Twilight Zone’ Interview Gets Animated Makeover [Watch]

By Ny MaGee
Published on: 16:04 PST, May 26, 2016

The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling was interviewed in 1963 by Australian radio presenter Binny Lum and their five-minute conversation about the show, his writing style and how science fiction predicts the future, has been illustrated in a delightful video that fans of the series should watch below.

The vintage audio was dug up from The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, and PBS Digital Studios’ Blank on Blank put together the fascinating video, as Blood-Disgusting.com notes. In the poignant interview, Serling talks about his childhood and the inspirations behind The Twilight Zone.

The Twilight Zone consisted of 156 episodes that ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series explored paranormal and supernatural themes, and each episode emphasized a moral and featured a surprise ending. The success of the series led to a feature film and various spin-offs that spanned five decades, including two reboot series. The Twilight Zone was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two.

Back in April, TheWrap.com reported that CBS and interactive-video company Interlude intend to resurrect the series “as a mix of TV and video game.” The companies define the revival as an “original interactive project” that will let viewers “step in and become a part of the story.”

The new Twilight Zone will honor the template of the original series, but will also allow the viewer to “change and adapt the story based on what he or she feels,” the companies said. “As with all other Interlude videos, viewers can return repeatedly and have a different viewing experience each time.”

In addition to The Twiligth Zone, Serling’s most notable work is Night Gallery and Planet of the Apes. A winner of the Emmy, Hugo, Peabody and Golden Globe, Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen — often clashing with television executives and sponsors over issues of censorship and racism.

During his last interview with Writers’ Digest Magazine, Rod said, “I don’t have close relationships with agents. They’re friends, but they’re not confidants. I don’t know too many agents that analytically read properly. The good agent probably is not the reader, he’s just the guy who can put together a deal. It would be a marvelous asset if there were a literate man who could read stuff and make judgments. Not too many are.”

He also recalled breaking into Hollywood and making his first sale.

“The most important thing about the first sale is for the very first time in your life something written has value and proven value because somebody has given you money for the words that you’ve written, and that’s terribly important, it’s a tremendous boon to the ego, to your sense of self-reliance, to your feeling about your own talent. I remember the first sale I made was a hundred and fifty dollars for a radio script, and, as poor as I was, I didn’t cash the check for three months. I kept showing it to people.”

In spite of being considered a pioneer of science fiction narratives, as well as receiving acknowledgment for helping to set the standards in television, Serling also told the publication that he didn’t enjoy “any of the process of writing.”

“I enjoy it when it goes on if it zings and it has great warmth and import and it’s successful. Yeah, that’s when I enjoy it. But during the desperate, tough time of creating it, there’s not much I enjoy about it. It tires me and lays me out, which is sort of the way I feel now. Tired.”

When asked if writing is a “suffering process,” Serling replied, “It is. Giving birth, you know. Waiting. Should we call the doctor? You know, for the caesarean. It’s obviously not going to come out normally.”

Serling suffered a minor heart attack on May 3, 1975, and was hospitalized for two weeks. Several weeks later, a second heart attack forced doctors to perform open-heart surgery, but during the ten-hour-long procedure, Rod had a heart attack on the operating table and died two days later. He was 50 years old.

The Twilight Zone continues to be broadcast in syndication, with many of the episodes airing on U.S. cable network Syfy channel in marathons every year on New Year’s Eve and Day and the Fourth of July.


[Photo via AP Images]

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