" I learned ' time ', writing for a medium that is measured in seconds ," Serling later said of his early experiences.

In an interview, Serling said the show's science fiction format would not be controversial with sponsors, network executives or the general public and would escape censorship, unlike the earlier Playhouse 90.

In an interview with Mike Wallace on September 22, 1959, Serling said, " We changed, in eighteen scripts, Mike, we have had one line changed, which, again, was a little ludicrous but of insufficient basic concern within the context of the story, not to put up a fight.

In Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man, writer Douglas Heyes said, " That was one of the great things about The Twilight Zone.

However, the U. S. was involved in World War II at the time, and Serling decided to enlist rather than start college immediately after he graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1943.

In addition to earning $ 45 to $ 50 a week at the college radio station, Serling attempted to make a living selling freelance scripts to radio programs, but the industry at that time was involved in many lawsuits, which affected willingness to take on new writers ( some who had scripts rejected would often hear a similar plot produced, claim their work had been stolen and sue for recompense ).

Serling would live in California for much of his life, but kept property in Binghamton and Cayuga Lake as retreats for when he needed time to himself.

Said Rod Serling at the time ( quoted in The Twilight Zone Companion by Marc Scott Zicree ):

" Stuart Reynolds, a television producer, threatened to sue Serling for the use of the name because at the time he was selling an educational film of the same name to public schools.

While in college, Serling won his first accolade as a writer.

Serling began his employed professional writing career in 1950, when he earned $ 75 a week as a network continuity writer for WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Serling moved from radio to television, as a writer for WKRC-TV in Cincinnati.

As in Serling's 1963 screenplay for the political thriller, Seven Days in May, in which a highly moral minor character is named Art Corwin, the appellation of Carney's " Night of the Meek " character, Henry Corwin, was a tribute to Serling's idol, legendary television, film and, most memorably for Serling, radio writer Norman Corwin whose lengthy career, in contrast to Serling's relatively brief 50-year lifetime, had spanned over seven decades.

* June 28 – Rod Serling, 50, television writer and creator of The Twilight Zone ( 1959 – 64 ) and Night Gallery ( 1969 – 73 )

He appeared extensively in television, including the 1957 live 90-minute broadcast on Playhouse 90 of The Comedian, a drama written by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer in which Mickey Rooney portrays a television comedian while O ' Brien plays a writer driven to the brink of insanity.

Licensed by CBS Enterprises and The Rod Serling Estate, The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas is produced by Carl Amari, CEO of Falcon Picture Group and scripts from the original Twilight Zone are adapted by Dennis Etchison and others, including one episode by Chas Holloway and several by British writer M. J. Elliott.

Requiem for a Heavyweight was the beginning of what became one of the new medium's most successful creative teams, writer Rod Serling and director Ralph Nelson.

The film, written by Rod Serling, costarred Fredric March as the President and Ava Gardner as a former flame of Lancaster's, was nominated for two Oscars.

He was known for his impersonations of celebrities like Jimmy Carter, Vincent Price, Richard Nixon, Rod Serling, Tom Snyder, and others.

It contains Binghamton High School ( formerly Binghamton Central High School ), which is noted for Helen Foley Theater, named by Rod Serling for his drama teacher.

Leading writers who created original material for radio included Norman Corwin, Carlton E. Morse, David Goodis, Archibald MacLeish, Arthur Miller, Arch Oboler, Wyllis Cooper, Rod Serling, Jay Bennett, and Irwin Shaw.

This episode originally aired on September 2, 1942, and was later adapted for television by Rod Serling as a 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone.

Rodman Edward " Rod " Serling ( December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975 ) was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone.

Rod's older brother, author Robert, recalled that at the age of six or seven, Serling entertained himself for hours by acting out dialogue from pulp magazines or movies he'd seen.

For a variety of reasons, Serling was transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon ( nicknamed " The Death Squad " for its high casualty rate ).

As they waited for darkness, Lewis noticed Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines.

Serling led the funeral services for Levy and placed a Star of David over his grave.

Serling returned from the successful mission in Leyte with two wounds ( including one to his kneecap ), but neither kept him from combat when General Douglas MacArthur used the paratroopers for their typical purpose on February 3, 1945.

For extra money in his college years, Serling worked part-time testing parachutes for the Army Air Force.

Serling won a trip to New York City and $ 500 for his radio script, " To Live a Dream.

Serling was rejected for reasons including " heavy competition ", " This script lacks professional quality " and " not what our audience prefers to listen to ".

Realizing the boxing story was not right for Grand Central Station, Serling submitted a lighter piece called Hop Off the Express and Grab a Local, which became his first nationally broadcast piece on September 10, 1949.

Other radio programs Serling wrote scripts for include Leave it to Kathy, Our America, and Builders of Destiny.

According to his wife, Serling " just up and quit one day, during the winter of 1952, about six months before our first daughter Jody was born – though he was also doing some freelancing and working on a weekly dramatic show for another Cincinnati station.

Immediately following the original broadcast of Patterns, Serling was inundated with permanent job offers, congratulations and requests for novels, plays and television or radio scripts.

Many playwrights, screenwriters and novelists got their start in radio drama, including Caryl Churchill, Rod Serling, Irwin Shaw and Tom Stoppard.

Serling was interested in radio and writing at an early age.

As part of his studies, Serling became active in the campus radio station, work experience which was often useful in his future career.

While attending college, Serling worked at the Antioch Broadcasting System ’ s radio workshop and was managing the station within a couple of years.

Serling submitted an idea of a weekly radio show in which the ghosts of a young boy and girl killed in World War II would look through train windows and commentate on day-to-day human life as it moved around the country.

Serling believed radio was not living up to its potential, later saying: " Radio, in terms of ... drama, dug its own grave.

* Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, lived in Finneytown during the 1950s, in a middle-class suburban house, as a radio script-writer for WLW.

for the Rod Serling radio anthology, see The Zero Hour ( radio series )

Years later, Rod Serling, who counted radio fantasists like Cooper, Oboler, and Norman Corwin among his inspirations, would use a similar process to churn out his many teleplays for The Twilight Zone, a series that in many respects was to television what Lights Out was to radio.

In this area he was a peer of Orson Welles and William N. Robson, and an inspiration to other later radio / TV writers such as Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, Norman Lear, J. Michael Straczynski and Yuri Rasovsky.

* The Zero Hour ( radio series ), a 1973-74 radio drama series hosted by Rod Serling