‘The Twilight Zone’ Creator Suffered From Put up-Traumatic Stress After World Battle II: His Daughter

Rod Serling spent three years as a paratrooper throughout World Battle II – an expertise that haunted him for the remainder of his life.

The Emmy Award-winning creator and host of “The Twilight Zone” died in 1975 on the age of fifty following a coronary heart assault.

As he approaches what would have been his a centesimal birthday — Dec. 25 — Serling’s daughter, Anne Serling, and tv author Marc Scott Zicree look again on his life and legacy.

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Rod Serling was born December 25, 1924. (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)

Anne, creator of the memoir “As I knew him: my father, Rod Serling”, informed Fox Information Digital that the star suffered from PTSD after serving his nation.

“My father enlisted within the conflict the day after he graduated from highschool,” she stated. “He actually needed to go struggle the Nazis, however… he was despatched to the Philippines. He was in Laos… the place the fiercest preventing was going down… He noticed one in every of his pals beheaded when a crate of meals fell from the sky – simply horrible issues.”

Anne Serling as a toddler along with her father Rod Serling. (Courtesy of Anne Serling.)

“I do know my father had nightmares,” Anne stated. “I heard him generally. And within the morning I requested him what occurred, and he stated he dreamed that the enemy was coming at him.”

Anne Serling’s memoir, “As I Knew Him,” and TV screenwriter Marc Scott Zicree’s e-book, “The Twilight Zone Companion,” can be found now. (Commonwealth Guide Firm, Inc. | Silman-James Press)

“When I was writing my book, I learn the letters he wrote to… his dad and mom earlier than he was despatched away whereas he was in coaching camp,” Anne recalled. “They usually broke my coronary heart as a result of he was asking issues like sweet and gum and a belt buckle or one thing, and underwear as a result of he did not like GI underwear. It confirmed how younger these guys had been. »

Anne stated he coped together with his PTSD signs “the very best he may.”

Anne Serling with Rod Serling on Father’s Day. (Courtesy of Anne Serling)

“It was referred to as shell shock again then,” she stated. “It wasn’t even a time period, PTSD… However I will inform you, he wore his paratrooper bracelet his complete life. It was extraordinarily significant to him.”

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Rod Serling served in World Battle II. (Courtesy of Anne Serling)

Anne’s sister, Jodi Serling, later wrote that the conflict “opened darkish horizons of terror” for her father. She stated it left the patriarch with “heartbreaking reminiscences” that influenced his writing and woke him up at night time, “sweating and screaming inconsolably.”

Zicree, a screenwriter who wrote “The Twilight Zone Companion”, burdened to Fox Information Digital that Serling was not a “darkish, depressed, damaged man.”

Rod Serling and Carol Burnett share an off-camera second whereas filming an episode of “The Twilight Zone.” (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)

“When he turned 40, he went again to his battalion to do one other parachutist bounce out of a airplane simply to point out he may nonetheless do it,” Zicree laughed. “He all the time had nice affection for his fellow veterans… [And] he was energetic, full of delight. He was current, loving – he beloved his household. He had very shut pals. He was a extremely nice man.”

Dick York, of “Bewitched” fame, is filming “The Purple Testomony” for “The Twilight Zone.” Director Rod Serling is seen right here between scenes. (CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Pictures)

In response to The National Museum of the Second World Warone in three males in Serling’s regiment survived. He obtained a Bronze Star and a Purple Coronary heart.

“As a author, he was in a position to eliminate all that by way of writing,” Zicree stated. “There’s an amazing episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ referred to as ‘The Purple Testomony,’ which is a few soldier in World Battle II…preventing within the Philippines, who can see the faces of those that are about to die in battle.”

“The Twilight Zone” aired from 1959 to 1964. (File images/Getty Pictures)

“He can see an odd mild affecting them, and the sense of weariness within the souls of those troopers – it appears so actual and genuine,” he shared. “You would say the person who wrote this episode lived by way of this expertise. It is among the finest issues ever written about conflict.”

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Rod Serling and his household arriving from Los Angeles to New York, circa 1962. (Hulton Archives/Getty Pictures)

Anne described Serling as a loyal father who was undeterred by fame – household all the time got here first.

“My father was so totally different from what the general public imagines,” she stated. “They see this darkish picture coming throughout the soundstage, however my dad was hilarious. He loved “The Flintstones”.

Anne Serling celebrates her birthday with Rod Serling. (Courtesy of Anne Serling)

“He had an amazing singing voice. He sang Sinatra and Tony Bennett. He did the very best gorilla impersonation you might think about, as evidenced in virtually each residence film. He informed an viewers [member] as soon as, ‘You assume you understand me, however really I do not even like going into the attic until the sunshine is on.'”

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“There are such a lot of reminiscences of my father that make me smile,” Anne continued. “One time he got here down with my lampshade, and it was only a humorous factor. One other time, when he obtained offended, he would depart the room and, about 5 minutes later, come again and say, ‘ Have you ever seen “my twin brother someplace?

Right here Rod Serling presents an episode of his tv present “The Twilight Zone” in California, circa 1962. (CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Pictures)

“The opposite good reminiscence I’ve is touring with my father to New York. Each time we obtained in an elevator he would say to me – this was once I was a little bit older – a limerick I began laughing as quickly as we obtained within the elevator, after which he began laughing.

The screenwriter and producer rapidly grew to become one in every of tv’s most prolific and best-known writers, The New York Times reported. Zicree stated Serling had a “blended response” to his Hollywood success.

Anne Serling had an in depth bond along with her father, Rod Serling. She insisted that he was not a darkish, brooding determine, however somewhat somebody energetic. (Courtesy of Anne Serling)

“I actually assume he was proud of “The Twilight Zone”” he defined. “He felt that ‘The Twilight Zone’ had completed what he got down to do, which was to take all the things he cared about, all the things he felt about life, about humanity, love and dying – all the large actual points, and put them in his collection.

“However I feel Hollywood… will be extremely corrosive. It could actually break your coronary heart. It could actually break your spirit. Rod was not a damaged man in any respect. However actually after ‘The Twilight Zone,’ when he did “Evening Gallery” and different main tasks, he actually felt how unnecessarily merciless Hollywood may very well be, the way it did not acknowledge high quality the best way all of us do.

Rod Serling would go on to encourage filmmakers like Jordan Peele and M. Evening Shyamalan. (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)

“I want Rod Serling by no means had a day the place an government rejected him as a result of he was our genius,” Zicree mused. “However I feel in direction of the top of his life he did not assume ‘The Twilight Zone’ would stand the take a look at of time. He stated that in interviews.”

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Rod Serling died in 1975. He was 50 years previous. (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)

“Once I wrote [my book]I’ve interviewed over 100 individuals who labored on the present,” Zicree defined. “Nobody stated a nasty phrase about Rod – nobody… in a city identified for its imply mood, gossipy qualities and his cat fights, everybody beloved Rod.”

Anne stated Serling was filled with hope in his later years. He was smitten by writing a novel and a Broadway play. He additionally “needed to fulfill his grandchildren someday.”

“He felt very constructive about his future,” she stated. “My dad and mom had thought of perhaps staying longer within the East as a result of they each beloved the change of seasons.”

Rod Serling with Robby the Robotic, circa 1963. (CBS by way of Getty Pictures)

“He was removed from a damaged man, simply cowering within the shadows,” Zicree chimed. “I feel we’re fortunate that he labored in a medium the place we are able to see his work…And the standard of ‘The Twilight Zone’ is what has saved it going now and 100 years from now. After we’re in full swing types tanks with robotic our bodies, we’ll in all probability come again right here to say how superior Rod was.”