DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. On October 2, the state of Ohio placed a new historical marker on the campus of Antioch College. It commemorates screenwriter and TV writer and producer Rod Serling, who graduated from Antioch after his military service in World War II and later returned to teach there. October 2, not coincidentally, marked the 66th anniversary of the premiere of Serlings "The Twilight Zone" on CBS. Our TV critic David Bianculli says both the man and his TV work deserve all the remembrances they can get.
DAVID BIANCULLI, BYLINE: Rod Serling's most famous anthology series premiered in 1959 and was canceled in 1964. But even those born too late to watch it on CBS during its original five-season run were very familiar with it decades later. Local stations showed reruns in syndication and kids would rush to their TV sets to watch it in the afternoons or sneak to watch it late at night. Eventually, cable TV entered the mix with networks like the Syfy Channel presenting New Year's marathons of old "Twilight Zone" episodes, introducing Rod and his captivating ideas to an even newer generation of viewers.
But today, the TV universe is fragmented. You still can watch every episode of the classic "Twilight Zone" on Paramount+. But how many people, even those who subscribe to that streaming service, know it's there? And Serling was anything but a one-hit, one-show wonder. By the time he began hosting "The Twilight Zone," he already had won three Emmys in a row for writing the live Golden Age dramas "Patterns," "Requiem For A Heavyweight" and "The Comedian." And after "The Twilight Zone," he wrote the screenplays for "Seven Days In May" and "Planet Of The Apes."
He also wrote a TV movie called "Carol For Another Christmas" for ABC in 1964, the same year "The Twilight Zone" ended. That show was so bold and chilling yet has been so largely forgotten that many of you may never have heard of it, much less heard the excerpt I'll soon play. Rod Serling was born on Christmas Day in 1924 and died at age 50 in 1975. The Ohio historical marker at Antioch is one way of remembering Rod and his creative output. Another way happened last month, when the nonprofit Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, with involvement from members of his surviving family, mounted its annual SerlingFest in Rod's hometown of Binghamton, New York.
The town's Recreation Park has long featured a carousel refurbished with images of Rod and from "The Twilight Zone," tied to his nostalgic zone episodes inspired by Binghamton. Last year, the memorial foundation erected a statue there in Rod's honor as part of SerlingFest. And this year, in September, the foundation commemorated the 50th anniversary of Rod Serling's death and the centenary of his birth by inviting speakers to Binghamton to talk about his influence and legacy. His daughter Anne, an author in her own right, was there. So were Frank Spotnitz, who wrote for "The X-Files," and Joseph Dougherty, who wrote for "Thirtysomething" and has a new book coming out about Rod Serling, and so was I.
We all were there to celebrate Rod's accomplishments and his ideas, and to point out why they were as important and topical as ever. Several speakers quoted from or referred to Rod's first-season episode, "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street," from 1960. Serling had launched "The Twilight Zone" because he sensed correctly he could say things in a fantasy setting that he was prevented from saying at the time in more traditional TV dramas. "Maple Street" was about how aliens from outer space agitated people in small-town neighborhoods merely by provoking them to mistrust one another. At the time, it was a parable about McCarthyism. But played at SerlingFest, Serling's epilogue had an all-too-contemporary ring, especially if you imagine social media as a modern equivalent weapon of choice. Here are the aliens observing their test subjects, followed by Serling's own observations.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TWILIGHT ZONE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) And this pattern is always the same?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) With few variations. They pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves. All we need do is sit back and watch.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Then I take it this place, this Maple Street, is not unique?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) By no means. Their world is full of Maple Streets. And we'll go from one to the other and let them destroy themselves. One to the other. One to the other. One to the other.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ROD SERLING: (As narrator) The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy. And a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own, for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to "The Twilight Zone."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BIANCULLI: I promised a taste of "Carol For Another Christmas," and here it comes. Serling took the Charles Dickens story "A Christmas Carol" and adapted it to modern times. His Scrooge-like protagonist, a military leader who believed in isolationism, was visited by ghosts who tried to persuade him that a peaceful future depended upon supporting other countries in their times of need. Steve Lawrence, in a powerful performance, played the Ghost of Christmas past, arguing his case.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHRISTMAS")
STEVE LAWRENCE: (As the Ghost of Christmas Past) Yeah, after 1918, we got sick of war, fed up - all those American kids getting blown to pieces, out of sight in foreign places with strange-sounding names. So for the next 20 years, we closed our eyes and decided what we couldn't see wouldn't happen, right? Of course, we don't want to take all the credit, do we? I mean, we weren't the only ones playing shut-eye. When old Adolf walked into the Rhineland, France didn't want to get involved. Italy pulled down the window shade when Hitler took Austria. England wasn't about to involve herself when Czechoslovakia went under. And Russia kept the phone off the hook while Poland was destroyed. And before you knew it, everybody was singing, don't rock the boat, while it sank slowly to the bottom.
BIANCULLI: The things Rod Serling wrote about and warned about are anything but dated. All these years later, you can still find and watch and think about "The Twilight Zone," and I hope you do.
DAVIES: David Bianculli is FRESH AIR's television critic. His most recent book is "The Platinum Age Of Television: From I Love Lucy To The Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific."
On tomorrow's show, Grammy Award-winning singer and musician Laufey sings and plays some songs for us. Her music is a hybrid of pop, jazz and classical music. She had rigorous classical training in Iceland where she's from. Her mother, who is Chinese, plays in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Laufey has a new album. I hope you can join us.
To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram, @nprfreshair.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MR. ECLECTIC")
LAUFEY: (Singing) Bet you think you're so poetic, quoting epics and ancient prose. Truth be told, you're quite pathetic, Mr. Eclectic Allan Poe. Did you ever stop and give a wonder...
BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi, Anna Bauman and John Sheehan. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavey-Nesper. Our consulting visual producer is Hope Wilson. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross and Tanya Mosley, I'm Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MR. ECLECTIC")
LAUFEY: Oh, grandiose thinker of mine, talking about some dead composer, you're just a stoner patronizing... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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