{"id":38807,"date":"2018-10-02T10:40:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T14:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=38807"},"modified":"2019-03-13T15:00:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T19:00:45","slug":"on-this-day-rod-serlings-the-twilight-zone-made-tv-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/on-this-day-rod-serlings-the-twilight-zone-made-tv-debut.html","title":{"rendered":"On This Day: Rod Serling\u2019s \u2018The Twilight Zone\u2019 Made TV Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 2 October 1959, television viewers turned on CBS to watch a brand-new show that challenged everyone, confusing some and pleasing others: it was the debut of Rod Serling\u2019s The Twilight Zone<\/em>. Critics and viewers alike had trouble defining this strange new show: was it science fiction, horror, thriller, or serious drama with heavy moral undertones? No one was quite sure, least of all the show\u2019s sponsors.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Rod Serling and actress Inger Stevens with Serling’s model airplane collection at his home, 5 January 1960. Stevens starred in “The Twilight Zone” episode “The Hitchhiker.” Credit: CBS Television; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rod Serling, the 34-year-old creative genius behind The Twilight Zone<\/em>, was the show\u2019s creator, writer, producer and narrator. The description he intoned on each episode of the show\u2019s first season perhaps best explains what The Twilight Zone<\/em> was about:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man\u2019s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the time of The Twilight Zone\u2019s<\/em> debut, Serling was a heavyweight among television writers, having won three Emmys for his shows \u201cPatterns,\u201d \u201cRequiem for a Heavyweight,\u201d and \u201cThe Comedian.\u201d This status gave Serling clout, and he fought an unrelenting battle against sponsors\u2019 tight control and censorship. Serling was a maverick and a rebel, an \u201cangry young man\u201d who wanted to bring moral issues and cutting-edge social concerns such as racism into primetime television, at a time when the networks favored safe, non-threatening cowboy and detective shows.<\/p>\n

Serling insisted that television could be a powerful medium that challenged viewers to think and reconsider their preconceived notions. He wanted programming that was daring and imaginative, rather than dulling the audience\u2019s minds with the same scripts over and over again. He also hated the rating system that killed many good shows before they had a chance to attract and build a sizeable following \u2013 which almost happened to The Twilight Zone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The show only gained moderate ratings and was threatened with cancellation almost from its inception. But Serling had the last laugh: The Twilight Zone<\/em> ended up airing for five seasons and 156 episodes. Serling won his fourth Emmy the show\u2019s very first season, for dramatic writing, and his fifth the next year. He also won the Golden Globe for best television director\/producer in 1962.<\/p>\n

The following six newspaper articles give an indication how The Twilight Zone<\/em> \u2013 and Serling himself \u2013 were perceived and received in 1959. Some articles give reactions to the show, while others present a platform for Serling to discuss his ideas and his many battles with executives and sponsors.<\/p>\n

This first article appeared on the day of The Twilight Zone\u2019s<\/em> debut. Having already screened an advance viewing of the first episode, this critic predicts the series \u201cmay really be a hit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 2 October 1959, page 62<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

10:00 p.m. (Ch. 6) Twilight Zone. (Premiere) \u201cWhere Is Everybody?\u201d Fantasy for grownups. Rod Serling\u2019s gripping opening tale finds a man alone in a city. Some of the shots are calculated to make you jump right out of your seat, and a few of them are pips. Earl Holliman does a good job in the role of the terrorized young man. We think this series may really be a hit.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Georgia), 23 October 1959, page 28<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

\u201cTwilight Zone\u201d seems to have divided its viewers into those who don\u2019t dig it and those who are wild about it. I veer to the latter as Rod Serling continues to write, produce, direct, etc., his strange stories. Tonight Ida Lupino stars as an ex-movie queen who lives in the past with the aid of a projector. Ch. 12.<\/p>\n

In this next article, Serling explains his determination to bring challenging, imaginative programming to television, and details his dislike for the rating system.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 8 November 1959, page 202<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

CONDON ON SERLING<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 Gives Playwright New, \u2018Fantastic\u2019 Point of View<\/strong><\/p>\n

By George E. Condon
\nRadio-Television Editor<\/p>\n

It is accurate enough to say now that the 1959-60 television [season] has been launched, but such is the nature of the business that some of the new shows already are foundering.<\/p>\n

The business of television is unreasonable in demanding instantaneous success from its new program products \u2013 not success in the artistic sense, but in the coldly commercial area of audience measurement.<\/p>\n

Rod Serling, unquestionably one of TV\u2019s leading playwrights, has a heightened awareness of the necessity for quick victory in the rating field because this season he has taken on the worries of an executive producer, as well as writer, with the new program series \u201cThe Twilight Zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program, carried by the CBS-TV Network and Channel 8 in Cleveland on Friday evenings from 10 to 10:30, is unique as an experimental project by a richly-talented creative man. As both writer and producer of the show, Serling has a freedom given to few playwrights. He has chosen to use this freedom to explore the field of fantasy in his television story-telling.<\/p>\n

To illustrate the one-man task that Serling has undertaken here, he has written 22 out of the 26 shows in the series. Twelve of those stories are entirely original creations; the other 10 are adaptations of stories written by other writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been writing seven days a week since February,\u201d he said, \u201cbut this is a labor of love. Television has never had a series that was totally imaginative in nature and there is plenty of room for such a show. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to prove. Let\u2019s face it, \u2018The Twilight Zone\u2019 isn\u2019t the \u2018Loretta Young Show.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Serling, a graduate of Ohio\u2019s Antioch College, could have chosen an easier, more lucrative writing assignment in 1959, but none, in his own words, that would have been as satisfying.<\/p>\n

He is the author of more than 90 television plays, including such smash successes as \u201cPatterns,\u201d \u201cRequiem for a Heavyweight,\u201d \u201cThe Comedian,\u201d and \u201cBomber\u2019s Moon.\u201d With his heavy list of successes, he is free to pick his own writing assignments for motion pictures, stage and television. His decision this year was to experiment in television.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a purely subjective decision,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel that the horizons of television are still unlimited and that not enough has been done in the field. I can\u2019t look at such programs as \u2018The Moon and Sixpence,\u2019 or \u2018The Taming of the Shrew,\u2019 for example, without feeling there will be a big upsurge in live TV drama in the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sponsors and networks, in demanding immediate high ratings from new programs, in his view, are not quite fair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key is the television audience, which has become satiated with entertainment. Program producers and sponsors don\u2019t have enough patience with the audience, which, after all, has nineteen million shows to choose from. It takes the audience time to look over new programs and make a decision as to preference, but shows often are not given enough opportunity to prove themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou remember how it was in radio? A show usually had two seasons to make the popularity grade. The first season usually was written off as the introductory period \u2013 the time when the audience had a chance to get acquainted with the program. In television, though, a new series usually has to prove itself in its first six shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serling\u2019s \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d apparently has cleared the rating hurdle in its first three outings, picking up audience strength as it moved along, until it is now running neck-and-neck with its Friday night competition, the Madison Square Garden fights and Robert Taylor\u2019s \u201cThe Detectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Serling experiment is one worth watching because it represents an honest effort to provide \u201cqualitative dramas with performances in depth.\u201d<\/p>\n

This next newspaper article details how sponsors were uneasy about The Twilight Zone\u2019s<\/em> moderate ratings, and concludes with a plea from Serling himself to television viewers, encouraging them to write him with their feedback.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 22 November 1959, page 38<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

VIEWING TELEVISION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Serling Is in Rating Trouble<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Hal Humphrey
\n(Mirror Enterprises Syndicate)<\/p>\n

HOLLYWOOD \u2013 Luckily for TV viewers, Rod Serling still hopes to prove that we are not a pack of wide-eyed morons.<\/p>\n

Most of the other angry young men who were writing mature drama for TV a few years ago gave it up for the freer and lusher movie vineyards. Rod has stayed with TV because he is still angry and believes commercial TV should not be left to die of pernicious anemia.<\/p>\n

But right now the three-time Emmy winner (\u201cRequiem for a Heavyweight\u201d) needs our help. His first TV series, \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d launched on CBS last month, is not being watched by enough people every Friday night.<\/p>\n

To the statistic-crazed men who buy TV programs, a \u201c20\u201d rating makes \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d a borderline case.<\/p>\n

Already the soothsayers in this screwball business are laying wreaths on Rod\u2019s show. \u201cIt\u2019s too far out,\u201d says one. \u201cIt\u2019s a think show and viewers don\u2019t want to think\u201d says another.<\/p>\n

At a party recently Rod was confronted by an executive from ABC who said, \u201cRod, that\u2019s a humdinger of a show, but you\u2019re doomed because you can\u2019t compete with \u2018The Detectives.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In one of the rating polls, Rod\u2019s series came within a point of ABC\u2019s competing \u201cThe Detectives,\u201d but sponsors have been known to drop a series which trailed by a single point. It is ridiculous, of course, because no rating service takes a big enough sample to be that accurate \u2013 but that\u2019s the way the game is played.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true,\u201d says Rod, \u201cthat \u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 is a think show. You can\u2019t afford to miss a line of dialogue without maybe losing the plot. But is this a crime? Ninety per cent of TV talks down to the audience. I\u2019m just trying to get TV to take off those trench coats and get the other half off those horses. \u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 isn\u2019t attempting to uplift or enlighten the viewers but simply entertain them in a little different manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all of the half-dozen shows Rod has had on \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d so far have been good ones, but at least two have been excellent. The others still rate far above the par established this season by weekly series generally.<\/p>\n

What bothers Rod now is all of this trade talk about the series being too \u201clong-hair\u201d for the average viewer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to know,\u201d he says, \u201cif the viewers think \u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 is \u2018too far out\u2019 or over their heads. Tell them to write me a card or letter and send it to me at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, Culver City, Calif.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, gentle viewers, there is an invitation. Write your opinions to Rod. You may be doing yourselves and him a favor. If you prefer watching \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d to a cop-and-robber series, or the Friday night fights (NBC\u2019s opposition in most mid-West and Eastern cities), it\u2019s a good time to say so.<\/p>\n

Rod Serling\u2019s chief worry is that he won\u2019t be given the time to prove his point. Most sponsors operate on a 13-week basis. If the ratings don\u2019t \u201cmeasure up\u201d at the end of that period, they start shopping for another show. (\u201cHow about a good crime show like the one that beat us?\u201d)<\/p>\n

Jack Benny might very well have been just a second-rate fiddle player, if this rule of thumb had been used in the early days of radio. Very few shows can build a rating in only 13 weeks. It takes that long for TV viewers to discover a new show.<\/p>\n

Rod is not running scared. Naturally, he would like to prove a point \u2013 namely, that you can be a success on TV without a trench coat or a horse. But it is not going to be any skin off his hide if he is proven wrong. He can quit being angry and join his fellow writers at the movie studios. The pay is good and there are no rating points to worry about.<\/p>\n

This next article reports the astonishing response of viewers to Serling\u2019s plea for feedback, demonstrating that the show had already gained loyal followers.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 15 December 1959, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

Serling Faith Reaffirmed<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Hal Humphrey<\/p>\n

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. \u2013 \u201cMy faith in TV viewers has been reaffirmed,\u201d says Rod Serling, writer-producer of the CBS \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d series.<\/p>\n

The cause for Rod\u2019s rather oratorical outburst is a huge bundle of mail (more than 2,500 pieces so far) which has accumulated in a corner of his MGM studio office during the past three weeks.<\/p>\n

It is the result of a plea which Rod made through this column after being nettled by some critics who liked his shows but predicted the series was doomed because it was over the heads of \u201cthe masses.\u201d<\/p>\n

To date, only eight of the hundreds of viewers writing to Rod have knocked \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d and even those eight didn\u2019t feel it was too much of a strain on their mental capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had some very aware comments about their dislike for the series, and two of the eight made valid points about the characters being too vague in some instances,\u201d says Rod.<\/p>\n

Nearly all of the comments included a complete disenchantment with most of the private-eye and western type shows on TV now. They welcomed \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d they said, because it challenged them to do a little thinking, and they could remember the plots the next day.<\/p>\n

Mrs. H. Diehl of Toledo, O., summed it all up for many viewers: \u201cAs of now I feel capable of being an assistant to any of the private eyes on TV \u2013 in fact, Pappy and I can predict the next move and even some of the conversation that follows. The plots of the westerns are pretty well worn and tiresome, and those, too, we can predict\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m all for the \u2018think shows\u2019 and heartily endorse them before I become a total vegetable in the living room\u2026By all means, give us a program that takes concentration for a change!\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs. Diehl\u2019s reaction was quite typical, whether the letters came from Philadelphia, New Orleans, Kansas City or Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sponsors and CBS are impressed by this mail,\u201d says Rod. \u201cIn fact, one of the sponsors has gone on record to tell me the chances are 90 to 1 that he will renew for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Rod and me, mail like this proves again that a rating (number of people watching) does not properly evaluate a TV show. No one called by a rating service is ever asked how he likes a particular program, but only if he is watching. Millions of viewers turn on their sets each night but get no stimulation. As Mrs. Diehl admits, they become vegetables and can\u2019t recall the plots 10 minutes later, much less the name of the sponsor.<\/p>\n

Rod went to New York last week and gained a new hope for the medium, as well as for himself as a TV writer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen such fright. Everyone is walking around white-faced. I think this quiz-payola shakeup has been a good thing. When the executives settle down again, they are going to be more interested in quality than ratings. I think already there is a trend toward less sponsor control of programs, too,\u201d observes Rod.<\/p>\n

Within the next few weeks Rod says he will answer all of you viewers who wrote to him.<\/p>\n

That will include the girl who dispatched a three-page missive asking him for a date and assuring Rod that \u201cI am no ugly duckling.\u201d Also the three people who asked for jobs and the 11 who submitted manuscripts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard from two Army buddies that I had lost track of since the war, too. So you see, nothing is ever a total loss,\u201d says Rod.<\/p>\n

Occasionally, one of Rod\u2019s contemporaries confronts him and inquires, \u201cWhat are you pushin\u2019 for \u2013 relax!\u201d But Rod isn\u2019t the type to relax. Television gave him his first break as a writer. His \u201cPatterns\u201d on the old Kraft Theater catapulted him to a position of fame and authority in the industry. There hasn\u2019t been any drama as gutty as that on TV since then. If Rod keeps \u201cpushin\u2019,\u201d we may all be saved from becoming vegetables in the living room.<\/p>\n

In this final article, Serling shares his concerns and hopes for television as a medium of great impact and potentially great influence on society.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), 27 December 1959, page 142<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

\u2018The Twilight Zone\u2019 Author Concerned for TV Future<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Margaret McManus<\/p>\n

NEW YORK \u2013 Surveying the scene, on this last Sunday of the decade, it is an inevitable conclusion that one of the few truly imaginative, original series on television today is \u201cThe Twilight Zone\u201d (10 p.m. Fridays, Channel 8).<\/p>\n

Created, written, narrated and partly produced by Rod Serling, the distinguished and much honored television playwright, the series is difficult to describe. The network bills it as science fiction. Serling regards it as a \u201cjourney into imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

A people quivering at the gateway to the moon, staring with unbelieving eyes at the miracles of atoms and rockets, might see in the series an eerie glimpse of future reality.<\/p>\n

Serling, the winner of three Emmy Awards for his television dramas, \u201cPatterns,\u201d \u201cRequiem for a Heavyweight,\u201d and \u201cThe Comedian,\u201d suffers from the writer\u2019s chronic malady, acute concern about the product.<\/p>\n

He knows he must present a confident and cheerful front to the world, but, a quarter of an inch beneath the surface, he worries and frets like a mother with a wayward child.<\/p>\n

Like to Start Trend<\/p>\n

\u201cIf \u2018Twilight Zone\u2019 doesn\u2019t go [i.e., make it], I\u2019ll be bitterly disappointed in television,\u201d he said. \u201cTelevision needs new and different ideas even more than it needs sponsors. I\u2019d like to think I could start a trend, push off some of the westerns and detectives for the kind of shows that only television can do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt drives me to desperation to consider all the waste in television. There are some shows on the air which help people to know, to see, to understand, but they are so few. Why is everybody so timid, so afraid?\u201d<\/p>\n

At lunch here in a restaurant facing a frosty, wintry Central Park, Serling put down his fork and pushed aside his plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk too much, you know. And maybe I talk without fully understanding the other side\u2019s problems. I\u2019m a little bitter. I just finished a script which I wrote for \u2018Playhouse 90.\u2019 It\u2019s a play about the Warsaw Ghetto, called \u2018In the Presence of Mine Enemies.\u2019 I researched this for eight months and I know it is a most meaningful and significant script.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sponsor turned it down cold. Not enough laughs I suppose. The point is that if we can so easily forget that the Warsaw Ghetto happened, it could happen again. Television could help millions of people remember this for the rest of their lives. But sponsors want their dramatic shows neutral. Let\u2019s not offend even one of the buying public. Oh well, maybe I can rewrite it into a Broadway play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, this is what Serling most wants anyway. He moved to the West Coast several years ago when \u201cPlayhouse 90\u201d moved out from Manhattan, and he has settled down there in his workroom by the swimming pool, but his heart is beating for a Broadway play.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaddy Chayefsky is my idol,\u201d he said. \u201cHe has the gift of melting significance and meaning and humor into one play, often into a single situation. He gave stature to television.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chayefsky, of course, is the Bronx-born playwright who first came to notice on television with \u201cMarty,\u201d \u201cBachelor Party,\u201d [and] \u201cMiddle of the Night,\u201d and who is the author of one of Broadway\u2019s current hits, \u201cThe Tenth Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eyes on Broadway<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeday I\u2019ll have a play on Broadway and I\u2019ll be a proud man,\u201d said Serling.<\/p>\n

Rodman Serling is a small, dark-haired, brown-eyed man, 34 years old, who was born in Syracuse, N.Y., and grew up on a tree-lined, middle-class suburban street in Binghamton, where he claims to have been \u201cdumb in school except for history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enlisted in the paratroops the week he graduated from high school and he served three years in the Pacific. When he was released from service, he entered Antioch College on the GI Bill and in his sophomore year, he married another student, Carol Kramer, an Ohio girl whose family were distinguished educators in that state.<\/p>\n

Serling obviously rather enjoys telling that his wife\u2019s grandfather was the first president of Ohio State, and his grandfather was a Lithuanian fisherman.<\/p>\n

It was while he was at Antioch that he began to write, and he sold his first script to the \u201cGrand Central Station\u201d radio show for $150. He now earns a hearty, annual six-figure income but he says that no check, whatever the size, can ever equal that first one.<\/p>\n

\u2018Such a Thrill\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I hadn\u2019t had to cash it,\u201d he said. \u201cSuch a thrill. That was the check that made me a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he was graduated from college, Serling got a job as a staff writer on radio station WLW in Cincinnati and in 1954 he moved to New York and made his home outside the city in Westport, Conn. His success was established with the television drama \u201cPatterns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among his most recent plays, all presented on \u201cPlayhouse 90,\u201d are \u201cThe Dark Side of the Earth,\u201d \u201cBomber\u2019s Moon,\u201d and \u201cA Town Has Turned to Dust.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will also see on \u201cPlayhouse 90\u201d in February a play, written by Ralph Nelson, revolving around the behind-the-scenes production of his own \u201cRequiem for a Heavyweight,\u201d which was originally presented on that dramatic series and which won him his second Emmy.<\/p>\n

This play will be of interest to Serling, naturally, but it is not nearly so absorbing an interest as is \u201cTwilight Zone,\u201d or the Warsaw Ghetto play he has just finished writing.<\/p>\n

These two projects consume him at the moment, gnaw at his nerves, pull him alternately between hope and pessimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019re both significant beyond their immediate value,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very much a part of television and I want to see this great force stand up and show courage and not bow down to the dollar sign and the rating mark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Serling and his wife and their two daughters, Jody, 7, and Nan, 4, will sit beside the Pacific Ocean in their old, rambling house in the Pacific Palisades. He will write his probing, often frighteningly perceptive prose and speak his mind and attempt to enlarge and enrich the medium which has nurtured him.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors \u2013 the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers. Are you a fan of The Twilight Zone<\/em>? Please share your stories with us in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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