Rod Serling's moral struggle against evil

Rod Serling not only co-wrote the screenplay for the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film, which launched the world's third-longest-running film franchise, but also its TV series The twilight zonewhich he used as a platform to fight against fascism, racial injustice and prejudice while promoting social justice. Serling was one of the first to use television to examine moral and political issues of his time and to address controversial topics through the prism of science fiction and horror.

Who was Rod Serling?

Rod Serling was born into a Jewish family on December 25, 1924 in Syracuse, New York. His family belonged to the Binghamton Jewish Community Center. He graduated from high school at the end of June 1943 and enlisted in the Army the day after his graduation. He wanted to go to Germany and kill Hitler. As a member of the 511th^Th While serving in the Parachute Infantry Regiment, he experienced bitter fighting in the Philippines that gave him lifelong nightmares. He was a decorated war hero and received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

But he was disappointed that he was not sent to Europe to fight the Nazis. In a few years he would have the chance to do just that in an unexpected way.

He went to college on the GI Bill and became active in the college radio station with roles as a writer, actor and director. In 1954 he plunged into the evolving world of early television, writing scripts for live television dramas and winning praise for his boxing drama 1956's. Requiem for a heavyweight.

The twilight zone

Serlings Twilight zone The television anthology premiered in 1959 and produced 156 episodes over a five-year period. Serling won six Emmy Awards for his writing, a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award and became an integral part of American popular culture. Replays are still shown today and appear in many all-day marathon broadcasts. It has aired in nearly 100 foreign markets and has spawned full-length films and television reboots.

In honor of his lasting influence on American culture, Serling and the Twilight Zone appeared on a US postage stamp in 2009.

The twilight zone used allegory through a mix of horror, science fiction, history and fantasy to explore the darkest corners of humanity. Many episodes had unexpected endings. The fight against evil, prejudice and fascism were common themes for Sterling.

Serling's fight against evil

Let's look at some Twilight Zone episodes as examples.

Deaths-Head Revisited (11/10/61, Season 3, Episode 9)

This episode was broadcast during the war crimes trial of Nazi Adolph Eichmann, where he was accused of planning and implementing the Holocaust as an SS officer. Eichmann was hiding in Argentina, but was tracked down by Israeli Mossad agents and brought to justice.

Serling created the character of a ruthless and sadistic SS officer named Lutze, who returns to the Dachau concentration camp only to be haunted by the ghosts of his murdered victims and brought to justice. The ghostly trial judge had the prisoner Lutze killed. Wearing his striped concentration camp pajamas, he accuses the defendant of these crimes: “Captain Lutze, ten million people were tortured to death in such camps.” Men, women, children, toddlers, tired old men – they burned them in ovens. You shoveled them into the ground. You tore their bodies apart in anger.”

Serling narrates the epilogue forcefully in the following words:

“All roof houses must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitz – all of them. They must remain standing because they are a memorial to a moment when some men decided to turn the earth into a cemetery. Into it they shoveled all their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we are no longer haunted by his memory, we become gravediggers. Something to think about and remember, not just in the Twilight Zone, but everywhere people walk on God’s earth.”

The anger and rage in Serling's script may be one of his finest.

He's Alive (01/24/63, Season 4, Episode 4)

In this episode, the ghost of Adolph Hitler visits the leader of a ragtag group of American Nazis. Hitler's ghost teaches him how to whip a crowd into a frenzy, admonishing and manipulating him to commit increasingly violent acts and murder. Hitler finally turns against his student and Serling delivers another sharp epilogue:

“Where will he go next, this phantom from another time, this resurrected ghost of a previous nightmare – Chicago? Los Angeles? Miami, Florida? Vincennes, Indiana? Syracuse, New York? Anywhere, anywhere, where there is hatred, where there is prejudice, where there is bigotry. Experienced. He lives as long as these evils exist. Remember this when he comes to your city. Remember this when you hear His voice speaking through others. Remember this when you hear someone being called names, when a minority is attacked, or when you hear a blind, unreasonable attack on a people or a human being. He lives because we keep him alive through these things.”

I am the night – color me black (03/27/64, season 5, episode 26)

In this episode, a gloomy fog of darkness descends on certain cities around the world. In a small town, this delays the execution of a man who was sentenced to execution that morning. His guilt is questionable. Darkness appears over North Vietnam, Berlin, Germany, Dallas, Texas and elsewhere. I read that this episode was written as Serling's response to the assassination of President Kennedy and that the darkness was a metaphor for hate and racism.

Serling's eloquent narrative concludes the episode with:

“A disease known as hate. Not a virus, not a microbe, not a germ – but still a disease, highly contagious and deadly in its effects. Don't look for it in the Twilight Zone – look for it in the mirror.” Look for it before the lights go out completely.

The Obsolete Man (06/02/61, Season 2, Episode 29)

Here a fascist government puts a simple librarian on trial for being “outdated.” The government and its chancellor have banned religion and books, and have legally made belief in God and possession of books crimes punishable by death. The hero of the episode has 48 hours to choose his method of execution. He devises a decision that will also kill the Chancellor.

Serling wrote another brilliant epilogue:

“The Chancellor, the late Chancellor, was only partially right. He was out of date. But this also applies to the state, the being he worshiped. Any state, entity or ideology becomes obsolete when it accumulates the wrong weapons: when it conquers territory but not minds; if it enslaves millions but convinces no one. When it is naked but puts on armor and calls it faith, while in the sight of God it has no faith at all. Any state, any entity, any ideology that does not recognize the value, the dignity, the rights of human beings… that state is outdated. A case to be filed under “M” for “Mankind” – in The Twilight Zone.”

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (3/4/60, Season 1, Episode 22)

TIME magazine named it one of the ten best “Twilight Zone” episodes of all time. A small town hears a whistling sound and sees a flash of light in the sky. Was it a meteor? Soon the city's power supply is compromised and appliances, lawn mowers and even cars stop working. Suspicion grows as to which citizen is responsible for the chaos, and a man is murdered.

The residents of Maple Street are convinced that aliens disguised as “normal” people live on their street. Drawing on the “Red Scare” of 1950s McCarthyism, Serling weaves together themes of mob mentality, paranoia, “outsiders,” scapegoats, prejudice, stereotypes, and disinformation.

Serling's afterword summarizes the events on Maple Street as follows:

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily include bombs, explosions and radioactive fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices… and that can only be found in people's minds. For the record: Prejudice can kill… and distrust can destroy… and a thoughtless, fearful search for a scapegoat has its own consequences – for the children and the children yet to be born. And the shame is… these things can't be limited to… the Twilight Zone!”

Serling's death and legacy

Serling was a chain smoker and suffered three heart attacks in 1975 before dying during surgery. He was six months away from turning 50^Th Birthday.

Television was still in its infancy back then The twilight zone was premiered in 1959. Sterling is credited with injecting the medium with a sense of morality, social consciousness, provocative drama, and ethics, in contrast to the light-hearted comedy, variety, and game shows that were popular at the time.

Biographer Nicholas Parisi wrote: “When Serling died in 1975 at the age of fifty, he was the most honored, outspoken, best-known and probably most prolific writer in the history of television.”

In the 1995 public television episode “American Masters,” he summed up his social influence as follows: “Fed up with the difficulties of writing about serious topics on the conservative networks, Serling turned to science fiction and fantasy . Through an ingenious mix of moral fables and fantasy writing, he managed to circumvent the shyness and conservatism of television stations and sponsors.”

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