Rod Serling: Submitted For Your Approval (Serling Documentary On TV Tonight)

PBS.Org ^ | December 2003

[waterstraat]

I always heard, and seem to remember, that The Twilight Zone was NOT popular, and always had very poor Neilson ratings.

WRONG! The Twilight Zone was VERY POPULAR from the get-go.

That is not what this site sayshttp://www.thetzsite.com/details/dream.html:

"During the first few months of its coast-to-coast lifespan, the Twilight Zone struggled for survival. Being the very first network science-fiction/fantasy anthology merit of any it took a while for the show to catch on with the public. Initial ratings were horrendously low, although that situation was destined gradually to change. The sponsors became nervous. The network began to grumble. Even in those lean days, Serling somehow found positive arguments to use on the show's behalf. Concerning its initial ratings, he exploded "Fifteen million viewers (saw the show) - more than saw Oklahoma! during the entire run of the show on Broadway, and they want to cancel us!!"

My books on Rod Sterling, and on the Twilight also say that it never did get very good Neilson ratings. The Twilight Zone was more popular AFTER it was canceled, much like Star Trek.

[waterstraat]

I always heard, and seem to remember, that The Twilight Zone was NOT popular, and always had very poor Neilson ratings.

WRONG! The Twilight Zone was VERY POPULAR from the get-go.

Here is another site:

http://www.tvparty.com/unseentwilight.html

'The Twilight Zone' debuted October 2, 1959 to critical acclaim and dreadful ratings (against the hit '77 Sunset Strip'). Audience numbers grew as the season progressed. Ratings remained respectable during the five-year run of the series, but the show never finished any season in the top 25.

Serling sold his rights to the series to CBS. Serling missed out on millions in future royalties when 'Twilight Zone' proved a major hit in syndication.

[F16Fighter]

"The one's I remember are: 1) the painting of the house that keeps changing, showing a cadaver emerging from a grave and closing in on the house..."

"That one was the SCARIEST!!!"

Gets MY vote! That episode was terrifying! Who can forget Roddy McDowell's horrified face as the cadaver in the picture knocked at the door.

Nope, they don't do it like this anymore -- now it's ALL blood, gore, and FX.

[jocon307]

Very good Senator! May I add a verse?

There's a child with too much power
Before him all folks do cower
Don't make him mad, that is bad
He doesn't listen to his dad
The boy's anger may indeed yield
Your final end in a spooky corn field

It's really not up to your level, but I couldn't resist, I think that is my fave episode. I loved one thing about this documentary tonight, which was how they had all the interviews in black & white and not color, it was a very nice artistic choice, kept it all in the same visual tone. And great to see the old interview with Mike Wallace, him puffing away too. I wonder how steamed he is about his son working for Fox now? The only part that was a little hard to take was Jack Klugman, his voice is soooo shot, it made me sad.

[Political Junkie Too]

I found a great site. Rod Serling's The Night Gallery.

The painting:

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

you understand shit

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

looking glass retort,........ fool!

Hillary want all the gloves washed............that is where u come in!

[gatorbait]

Serling was a paratrooper and jumped into Corregidor.

A car dealer in Huntsville,Al knew him well, apparently he was well thought of and a loyal buddy, but ,they all thought him kinda weird(wonder why?) Okay Trivia Buffs, that's it.

[PJ-Comix]

So far--20 minutes in--the report is very good.

Yeah. Jack Palance was PERFECT as the fighter in Requiem For A Heavyweight.

[PJ-Comix]

My books on Rod Sterling, and on the Twilight also say that it never did get very good Neilson ratings.

I'm sure that is incorrect. The public always loved the Twilight Zone.

[PJ-Comix]

I loved one thing about this documentary tonight, which was how they had all the interviews in black & white and not color, it was a very nice artistic choice, kept it all in the same visual tone.

One of the things I hate about the redone Twilight Zone was the color. Somehow the Twilight Zone HAS to be in b&w. However, I believe there was one small segment of the original TZ that was shot in color.

[waterstraat]

My books on Rod Sterling, and on the Twilight also say that it never did get very good Neilson ratings. I'm sure that is incorrect. The public always loved the Twilight Zone.

Nope.

The more I think about it, the more I remember that I was about the only one I knew who watched it at the time when it first came out - and that was only because my family had 2 TV SETS!!!!!!

I also remember being quite scared watching it, because I was alone when I watched it. This was the first television show that I can remember which scared me. Until the Twilight Zone, no tv shows had anything scary or with twisted endings.

77 Sunset Strip on the other hand was very popular, old people like it, men liked the action, women liked watching Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and all the teenage girls tunred it on to watch Kookie(who even had a pop hit record with Connie Stevens). Most people back then watched 77 Sunset Strip instead.

Anybody who watched The Twilight Zone when it first came out, was not in the American mainstream.

[Pagey]

I watched this, I think it was a repeat from last year that I saw 30 minutes of, because I always wanted to know who that Producer 'Buck Houghton' was. LOL Those first 3 seasons were just brilliant. I've appreciated Rod Serlings genius for years, (seen nearly every one of them at one time or another) and the only thing I need is that Twilight Zone Companion Book, by that Zicree guy. 2 of my all-time Faves: "It's a Good Life" w/ that kid 'Anthony' who can 'wish it into the cornfields' (and the Cloris Leachman scream) and "And When The Sky Was Opened" with
Col. Clegg Forbes: Rod Taylor
Col. Ed Harrington: Charles Aidman
Maj. William Gart: James Hutton
That might be my favorite, as I remember seeing that at lunch in 8th grade and thinking, "What if That Happened to ME"? A great episode, w/out doubt.

[Ghengis]

you understand shit
looking glass retort,........ fool! Hillary want all the gloves washed............that is where u come in!

Jeez! Don't get your lace panties in a bunch up your tight ass! It was an honest question.

It ain't so often that you get a chance to meet someone so badly in need of a beer and a monica as do you.

[Dane]

excellent writing with unexpected twists in the plots

I have a lot of "favorite" Twilight Zone episodes, but if you had to pin me down, I would say "To Serve Man" is the one. Who would have thought at the end that the book the alien left was a "cookbook". Quite provacative for the time. Also I never knew he wrote the "Planet Of the Apes". Learn something new everyday.

[Dane]

William Shatner character did in one of the episodes

Shatner was in another good TZ episode where he becomes obsessed with the fortunes spewed out by a fortune telling machine.

[VOA]

I was lucky to stumble into the PBS documentary last night...I suspect at about
the one-third point.

I love many of the TZ episodes, but one really happily suprised me after seeing
Dennis Hopper in "Blue Velvet". Just by dumb luck, I saw a "different" TZ on TV...
A ONE-HOUR show with Dennis Hopper in the lead.
And what gave me giggles was that Hoppers "Frank Boothe" in "Blue Velvet" was
almost a copy of the radical politician (American populist of Hitlerian strain).
In "Blue Velvet", Hopper loved using the salutation "Neighbor!"...
in the TZ episode, when he's addressing the audience, he opens his speeches with
an equally full-throated "Neighbors!...".

I googled and think I've tracked down the synopsis of the episode:

"He's Alive"
Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider, Blue Velvet) turns in a very powerful and charismatic
performance as an American neo-Nazi, Peter Vollmer, bent on doing what he has
to do in order to get his message of hatemongering across to the public.
But there are some weaknesses in his past that need exorcising, it seems,
when a shadowy Shickelgrüber begins to instruct the fledgling fascist in the ways
of oratory, politics, and self-destruction.

This is one of the one-hour episodes from the fourth season, but it never lags
as some of the others do. Directed ably by Stuart Rosenberg, who went on to
direct Cool Hand Luke, and featuring film director Paul Mazursky as one of the Nazis.

Dennis Hopper, the director of Cool Hand Luke (What we have here is a failure
to communicate!)and Paul Mazursky...boy the TZ was actually that incredible
place where so many real talents intersected.

[VOA]

"Rod Serling was a genius and always will be."

Amen to that. I felt lucky to catch most of the documentary.
And even if Serling might have taken a slightly "left-of-center" approach in some of
his work, I feel that like Bill Mauldin, hell, both of them earned the right to
speak their mind after their tours of duty.

[spectre]

Aside from the usual Santa Claus and Devil in the Monastery favorites of mine, an especially scary episode of Night Gallery:

"THE SINS OF THE FATHERS*. In 19th century Wales, a devastating famine forces a young boy to play the part of a sin-eater at a dead man's wake. Cast: Geraldine Page, Richard Thomas, Michael Dunn, Barbara Steele."

This one haunts me to this day..

sw

[breakem]

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb!