Rodman Edward Serling was born on December 25, 1924, in Syracuse, New York, USA.

Since his childhood, Rod Serling liked performing and writing stories. The USA entered World War II and after graduating from high school, the young Rod decided to enlist. He served as a paratrooper and was seriously injured. For his bravery, he was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star Medal.

After the end of the war, Rod Serling went to study at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he earned a bachelor’s in literature. There he worked in the university radio station, where he wrote, directed, and performed various programs. At the university, he met Carolyn Louise Kramer, with whom he married on July 31, 1948. The couple had two daughters, Anne and Jodi.

For some time, Rod Serling wrote screenplays for the radio but was unhappy with the level of that medium and started working for television, which was still in its experimental stage. The turning point came in 1955, when the anthology series “Kraft Television Theater” broadcast the episode “Pattern” he wrote, which was a great success among critics.

The following year another success came with the episode “Requiem for a Heavyweight” of the series “Playhouse 90”, set in the world of boxing he knew for practicing that sport. That story was adapted in other productions, including the film of the same title with Anthony Quinn and Mickey Rooney, which became a classic of the genre.

Rod Serling was often frustrated because his scripts were modified and sometimes censored according to the needs of the sponsors of the shows for which they were written. For this reason, he decided to create his own show and in 1959 “The Twilight Zone” debuted on CBS, in which he could maintain creative control. Serling wrote the screenplay of most of the episodes and others were written by other high-level authors such as Richard Matheson. Serling also wrote literary adaptations of various screenplays.

“The Twilight Zone” mixed science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other elements that could hardly be labeled and was strongly characterized by episodes with a moral and a surprise ending. It was critically acclaimed and over time has become a legend in the history of television but the audience was just decent and it was threatened a number of times the cancellation, which came at the end of its fifth season.

Rod Serling had often lectured on the campuses of several universities and when “The Twilight Zone” was still on the air he decided to try to be a writing and drama teacher at Antioch College. Later, he made other experiences as a teacher, in particular at Ithaca College.

In the following years, Rod Serling wrote scripts for several other TV shows and was also co-writer of the original 1968 movie “Planet of the Apes”. In the early ’70s he started collaborating especially with the production of the series “Night Gallery”, mainly focused on horror stories. He preferred to leave to others the role of the show producer but in time regretted it because he had increasing disagreements with the production and more and more of his scripts were rejected.

In the ’70s, Rod Serling went back to working for radio productions, especially the anthology series “The Zero Hour”, also known as “Hollywood Radio Theater”, which aired for two seasons.

In 1975, Rod Serling had his first heart attack on May 3. Two weeks later, he had another one that forced him to undergo open-heart surgery even though at the time it was risky. During the surgery, Serling had another heart attack and died on June 28, 1975.

Rod Serling is best remembered for “The Twilight Zone”. The show had two new versions, one between 1985 and 1989 and another that lasted only one season in 2002-2003, and a movie in 1983. However, Serling had an important role in the success of television in general having been one of the first authors to write scripts for it since the beginning of the ’50s.