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Rod Serling, creator and narrator of iconic 'Twilight Zone,' honored with hometown statue

10:03

September 12, 2024

Television writer Rod Serling, right, huddles with producer-director Fielder Cook, backstage at a New York rehearsal for a precedent-making telecast of Serling's "Patterns," on Television Theater. Years before he journeyed to "The Twilight Zone," Serling made a brief detour to the strike zone, writing a comedy about baseball. (Bob Wands/AP)

It's been 65 years since Rod Serling’s iconic “The Twilight Zone” hit the TV airwaves in 1959. The show, known for its eerie music, aliens, lugubrious tone and 1950s-style special effects, aired for only 6 years. But its impact and life in re-runs created generations of fans who also find meaning in the themes it tackled: racism, corporate greed and man’s inhumanity.

Serling, who famously said, “Everybody has to have a hometown, and mine’s Binghamton,” has been honored annually at SerlingFest in Binghamton, New York. This year’s event, which begins Friday, will conclude with the unveiling of a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Serling at Recreation Park, a short walk from his childhood home.

Host Robin Young talks to his daughter Anne Serling. Her memoir is “As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling.” She also talks to Mark Dawidziak, author of “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone.”

This segment aired on September 12, 2024.

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