Requiem for a Heavyweight

                               There is a fifth dimension...


Rod Serling's career ambition was probably not to make a name for himself in the world of television; he simply wanted to be a writer. His unique worldview, it has been said, was largely shaped as the result of his especially brutal experiences in combat during World War Two. When it was all said and done, Serling was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Philippine Liberation Medal for his service to the US Army. Based on remarks he would make to close acquaintances and to interviewers over the years, one could make the argument that Serling likely suffered from PTSD; writing may well have been a form of therapy. Upon the conclusion of his combat service, Serling was beset with  physical and psychological maladies that would plague him for the rest of his life--nightmares, flashbacks, a serious knee injury. 

The career path Serling would take was shaped by and large during his college years, in which he studied theater, broadcasting and literature. He cut his teeth as a writer doing marginal work in the field of radio. Once he had exhausted the possibilities of that medium, the next logical step was to begin writing for the small screen. Network television was pretty new, still in its infancy, and it was the perfect venue for a man of Serling's creative  impulse. As the 1950s unfolded, he would make a steady living selling his early scripts to some of  the popular live anthology drama series of the day, including Kraft Television Theater, Appointment with Adventure, and Hallmark Hall of Fame. He received rave reviews for two original teleplays of note, Patterns and Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Irritated by censorship and general interference by network executives and corporate sponsors, Serling hit upon the idea of utilizing specific genre motifs to camouflage the message he wanted to impart. The 50s were nothing if not circumspect; topics concerning racism or other "tricky" political subjects were considered too taboo for TV in those days. However, if you couched those ideas in the hazy metaphor of say, science fiction or mystery and suspense, the suits tended to leave you alone. With that thought in mind, Serling revised an old script from his college days called The Time Element, which he intended to serve as the pilot for a unique weekly anthology series he was pitching to the CBS television network called The Twilight Zone. The network passed on that proposal, but used the script anyway for a new show produced by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz called The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse. Public response to The Time Element was such that the network decided to give Serling the go-ahead for his own series after all...

The Twilight Zone premiered on October 2, 1959. It was an instant hit with critics, but was slow to build an audience at first. Over time that would change, as Serling and his two other principal writers, Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, found novel ways to stretch the boundaries of network series television. For the most part, Serling's original notion proved to be accurate; the science fiction format enabled the series to avoid controversy and to escape too much network censorship. He could not entirely sidestep network interference, however; Serling always had to fight to maintain creative control over his series. 

Rod Serling wrote 92 of the show's 156 episodes. CBS, never really happy with the series' consistently middling ratings (despite strong critical support and a loyal fan base), tried as best they could to meddle with the show. Tampering with the intro segments, expanding the show from a half-hour to an hour for season 4 (then returning it to a half hour for season 5), and actually canceling the series twice. Most folks probably don't remember that one. The third time CBS cancelled The Twilight Zone proved to be the last. Serling decided he had had enough of dealing with network bosses, and besides, he was burned out producing, writing and hosting the show week in and week out. The final telecast of one of the most iconic creations in television history took place on June 19, 1964.  Serling parted company with CBS by making the (subsequently) ill-advised decision to sell his 40% share of the series to the network.

If anybody was living proof that fame is a bitch goddess, it was Rod Serling. His aim to become a "serious" writer was curtailed by his becoming an unexpectedly marketable television personality, the result of his weekly onscreen appearances as host and narrator of The Twilight Zone. His original choice to serve as the face and the voice of the show was Orson Welles, but Welles reportedly wanted too much money. Mostly as a cost-cutting measure, Serling as de facto executive producer decided to do the job himself. Ironically, this decision would transform him into a celebrity at least as popular as his beloved TV series, if not more so. Over the years, Serling was a familiar face to TV viewers as a guest on other series, even pulling duty as a commercial pitchman.

His years in the wake of The Twilight Zone's final cancellation were productive if unspectacular. He produced a series called The Loner which was not well-received by critics or audiences, and was axed after one season. He wrote and produced a TV movie called The Doomsday Flight (1966) which sparked considerable controversy when its story (apparently) inspired a string of copycat ransom threats to several major airlines. He co-wrote the screenplay to the film adaptation of The Planet of the Apes (1968). In 1969, Serling hosted a short-lived game show called Liar's Club. When he wasn't preoccupied with his own projects, Serling also kept his schedule full with a number of teaching positions he held throughout the 1960s and 70s.

I suppose in such a context, it was inevitable that Serling would write the pilot for Night Gallery, an anthology series that would once again showcase Serling as onscreen host and principal scriptwriter. The series managed to eke out three seasons' worth of material, mostly on life-support. Serling passed on the opportunity to produce this time around, a decision that would prove costly in the long run in terms of the level of quality Serling wanted that new series to maintain. That pilot episode, a two-hour TV movie broadcast on November 8, 1969, was actually pretty good. It featured three vignettes starring Ossie Davis, Roddy McDowall, Richard Kiley, and Joan Crawford in what proved to be one of her final acting appearances. 

Serling would live to regret not having the clout with which to fight the network that producing would have afforded him. On Night Gallery, he was just another hired hand; the network this time around, NBC, didn't have to listen to him, and would typically ignore his suggestions and general attempts at creative input. The meddling Serling dealt with during The Twilight Zone's run was nothing compared to his treatment on this new series, a program that many observers regarded as little more than The Twilight Zone's bastard stepchild. In all fairness, Night Gallery did have its moments, but those moments I think we can all agree were few and far between. Serling still had what it took to write compelling television when the inspiration struck him, but the TV landscape had changed somewhat in the years since the earlier series left the airwaves. The audience had certainly changed, and it can be safely said that the medium had little room for what amounted to a " Twilight Zone" rehash. Serling had all but disowned the series by the time of its its cancellation in 1973.


Serling was a lifelong heavy smoker, and this undoubtedly contributed to serious health problems he would encounter in his final years. After suffering two minor coronary episodes in May of 1975, doctors convinced him to undergo open-heart surgery. On June 28, 1975, he suffered a third heart attack on the operating table, and it proved to be fatal. Rod Serling, as formidable a visionary and creative force that the narrow medium of television has ever seen, was 50.

                     ...beyond that which is known to man.