Rod Serling
Publicity photo of Serling, 1959
Born	Rodman Edward Serling (1924-12-25)December 25, 1924 Syracuse, New York, USA
Died	June 28, 1975(1975-06-28) (aged 50) Rochester, New York, USA
Resting place	Lake View Cemetery in Interlaken, New York
Occupation	Screenwriter, TV producer, narrator
Language	English
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Education	Bachelor of Arts in Literature
Alma mater	Antioch College
Period	1954–1975
Genres	Literary realism, Speculative fiction, Science fiction, Horror fiction
Subjects	Television, Social Justice
Literary movement	Realism, Social Commentary, Moralism
Notable work(s)	Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery
Notable award(s)	Emmy, Hugo, Peabody, Golden Globe
Spouse(s)	Carol Serling
Children	Jodi, Anne
Relative(s)	Robert J. Serling (brother)
Influences World War II, Arch Oboler, Norman Corwin, Ernest Hemingway, H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, Edward R. Murrow, Nolan Miller
Influenced Television, R.L. Stine, Stephen King
www.rodserling.com
Literature portal

Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues including censorship, racism, and anti-war politics.

Early life[link]

Serling was born December 25, 1924, into a Jewish family in Syracuse, New York, the second of two sons born to Esther (née Cooper) and Samuel Lawrence Serling.^[1] Serling's father had worked as a secretary and amateur inventor before having children, but took on his father-in-law's profession as a grocer in order to earn a steady income.^[2] Sam Serling later took up the trade of butcher after the Great Depression forced the store to close.^[3] Serling's mother was a homemaker.^[4]

He and his family spent most of his youth seventy miles south of Syracuse in Binghamton after moving there in 1926.^[1] Even as a boy he was known for his imagination and outgoing personality. Family members remember a child with an engaging smile, beautiful brown eyes, and a love for entertaining others.^[5] As a performer he was encouraged by his parents from his earliest days. Sam Serling built a small stage in the basement where Rod, with or without the aid of neighborhood children, would often put on plays.^[6] His older brother, author Robert, recalled at the age of six or seven, Serling could entertain himself for hours by acting out dialogue from pulp magazines or movies he'd seen. Rod was often found talking to the people around him without waiting for answers. On an hour trip from Binghamton to Syracuse the rest of the family remained silent to see if Rod would notice their lack of participation. He didn't, talking non-stop through the entire car ride.^[1]

In elementary school Serling was seen as the class clown and dismissed by many of his teachers as a lost cause.^[7] That is until his seventh grade English teacher, Helen Foley, 'discovered' Rod and encouraged him to enter the school's public speaking extracurriculars.^[8] Serling joined the debate team and was later a speaker at his high school graduation. He also began writing for the school newspaper, where he was not afraid to write scathing pieces that showed his liberal political leanings.^[9]

Serling as a senior in high school, 1943.

In addition to performance, Serling was also interested in sports. He excelled at tennis and table tennis, but when he attempted to join the varsity football team he was told he was too small at 5'4" tall.^[10]

Serling was interested in radio and writing at an early age. He listened to a variety of radio programs, especially thrillers with a fantasy or horror feel. Arch Oboler and Norman Corwin were two of his favorite writers.^[11] He also, "...did some staff work at a Binghamton radio station...tried to write...but never had anything published."^[11] Serling applied to, and was accepted to college during his senior year of high school; however, the U.S. was deeply involved in World War II at that time and Serling decided to enlist rather than start college^[12] immediately after he graduated from Binghamton Central High School in 1943.^[4]

Military service[link]

As editor of his high school newspaper, Serling tried to persuade his fellow students to support the war effort in a variety of ways. He wanted to leave school before graduation to join the fight, but his civics teacher talked him into staying through graduation. "War is a temporary thing," Gus Youngstrom told an eager Serling, "It ends. An education doesn't. Without your degree, where will you be after the war?"^[13] Serling enlisted into the U.S. Army the morning after his high school graduation, following brother Robert.^[14]

Serling began his military career in 1943 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia under General Raymond "Joe" Swing and Col. Orin D. "Hard Rock" Haugen^[15] and served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division.^[4] Over the next year of paratrooper training Serling and others took to boxing as a way to get their aggressions out. Serling competed as a flyweight, and totaled 17 bouts, rising to the second round of division finals before getting knocked out.^[16] He was remembered for his berserker style and for "getting his nose broken in his first bout and again in last bout."^[17] He tried his hand at the Golden Gloves, but was not overly successful.^[11][18]

April 25, 1944, was the day Serling had been looking forward to: the day he received his overseas orders. When he saw that he was headed west, through California, he knew he was headed to fight the Japanese rather than the Germans. He was disappointed; being Jewish, he had hoped to have a hand in combating Hitler.^[19] On May 5, the division boarded the USS Sea Pike and headed into the Pacific, ending up in New Guinea, where they would be held in reserve for a few more months.

Men and equipment on Leyte beachhead. October 20, 1944.

It wasn't until November 1944 that these troops would see combat on the Philippine island of Leyte. The 11th Airborne Division would not be used as paratroopers; however, they were sent in as light infantry after the Battle of Leyte Gulf to help mop up after the six divisions that had gone ashore earlier.^[20] Their mission seemed simple; go from point A to point B, cleaning out Japanese positions as they went. In reality, the terrain and lack of military intelligence proved to be just as difficult to handle as the unpredictable enemy.

For a variety of reasons Serling was transferred to the 511th's demolition platoon, nicknamed the 'death squad' for its high casualty rate. According to Sergeant Frank Lewis, leader of the demolitions squad, "He screwed up somewhere along the line. Apparently he got on someone's nerves."^[21] Lewis also noted that Serling was not cut out to be a field soldier. "...[H]e didn't have the wits or aggressiveness required for combat."^[21] At one point Lewis, Serling and others were in a firefight trapped in a foxhole. As time passed and they waited for darkness Lewis noticed that Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines. Another example of how Serling was a dreamer in a harsh reality was that he would go off exploring on his own, against orders, and then get lost."^[21]

Serling's time in Leyte would shape his writing and his political views for the rest of his life. He witnessed death every day while in the Philippines, both at the hands of the enemy and through random events such as those that killed another extroverted Jewish private named Melvin Levy. Levy was in the middle of a comic monologue as the platoon sat resting under a palm tree when a food crate dropped from above, decapitating him as the men watched. Serling led the services for Levy and created a Star of David over his grave.^[21] In his future writing career Serling would set several of his scripts in the Philippines and use the unpredictability of death as a source for much of his material.^[22]

Serling marched away from the successful mission in Leyte with two wounds including one to his kneecap^[23] but neither was enough to keep him from combat when General MacArthur used the paratroopers as they were intended on February 3, 1945. Colonel Haugen led the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment as it landed on Tagaytay Ridge, met up with the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment and marched into Manila. There was minimal resistance until they reached the city where Vice Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi had barricaded his 17,000 troops behind a maze of traps and guns and ordered them to fight to the death.^[24] The next month witnessed Serling's unit involved in a block-by-block battle for control of Manila. As portions of the town were freed from Japanese control, the civilians showed their gratitude by throwing parties and hosting banquets. During one of these parties Serling and his comrades were fired upon and many people, both soldiers and civilians, were killed. Serling, still a Private after three years, caught the attention of Sergeant Frank Lewis when he ran into the line of fire to rescue a performer who had been on stage when the artillery started.^[25] As the troops continued to move in on Iwabuchi's stronghold Serling's regiment suffered a 50 percent casualty rate, with over 400 men killed. Serling was wounded, and three of the men he was with were killed by shrapnel from rounds fired at his roving demolition team by an anti-aircraft gun.^[26] He was sent to New Guinea to recover but soon chose to return to Manila to finish 'cleaning up'. Private Serling's final assignment was as part of the occupation force in Japan.^[27] For his service to the U.S. Army he was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star,^[28] and the Philippine Liberation Medal.^[4]

Serling's Army combat service affected him deeply and also influenced much of his writing. His wartime combat experiences left Serling with nightmares and flashbacks which would plague him for the rest of his life.^[4] He was quoted as saying, "I was bitter about everything and at loose ends when I got out of the service. I think I turned to writing to get it off my chest."^[1]

Postwar life, education and family[link]

After being discharged from the Army in 1946, Serling worked at a rehabilitation hospital while recovering from his wounds. His knee would continue to give him trouble though, and his wife became used to the sound of Serling falling down the stairs after his knee refused to take his weight.^[12]

Once he was fit enough, he used the federal G.I. Bill's educational benefits^[17] as well as disability payments^[12] to enroll in the Physical Education program at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He had been accepted to Antioch, his brother's alma mater, while still in high school.^[29] His interests led him to the theater department and later, broadcasting.^[12] He soon changed his major to Literature and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950.^[1] "I was kind of mixed up and restless, and I kind of liked their work-for-a-term, go-to-school-for-a-term set-up," Serling once said.^[29]

Serling family, 1959. His wife Carol in left photo; his daughters in right

Serling's college years brought about many changes for the young man. First, as part of his studies he became active in the campus radio station, which led to work experience that he called on often in his future career. He wrote, directed, and acted in many radio programs on campus, then around the state as part of his work study.^[30] Second, he met the woman who would become his wife in fellow student Carolyn Louise Kramer. At first she refused to date Serling because he had a reputation around campus as a ladies man, but she eventually overcame her reticence.^[1] Additionally, it was in college that he converted from Judaism to Unitarianism,^[4] an act that allowed him to marry his wife on July 31, 1948.^[1] Together they had two daughters, Jodi and Anne.^[1]

Carol Serling's maternal grandmother, Louise Taft Orton Caldwell,^[31] had a summer home on Cayuga Lake, in Interlaken, New York, which the newlyweds used as a honeymoon destination. The Serling family continued to use this house annually throughout his life, missing only the two summers in the years when his daughters were born.^[12]

As a way to make some extra money throughout his college years, Serling took a part-time job testing parachutes for the Army Air Force. According to co-workers at the radio stations where he was also working, he received $50 for each successful jump. They recall Serling's telling them that he had once been paid $500, half before and half if he survived, for a hazardous test.^[32] His last test jump took place only a few weeks before his wedding. The pay was $1000 for him to test a newly invented jet ejection seat. Serling survived the test, but barely. Serling told friends later that three other men had been killed before he made the trial.^[33]

Career[link]

Radio[link]

Serling started at the bottom. He had no writing credits to his name, no published work and no hands-on experience. To solve this problem he volunteered during the summer of 1946 at WNYC in New York as an actor and writer.^[11] The following year he worked at that same station as a paid intern for his Antioch work study program.^[34] He then took on odd jobs in other radio stations in New York and Ohio.^[35] "I learned 'time', writing for a medium that is measured in seconds," Serling later said of his early experiences.^[11]

While attending college classes he worked at the Antioch Broadcasting System’s radio workshop and was managing the station within a couple years. He then took charge of full-scale radio productions at Antioch that could be heard on WJEM, Springfield. He wrote and directed the scripts, and also acted in them as needed. His strong work ethic was exemplified as he created the entire output for the 1948–49 school year. With one exception, an adaptation, all the writing that year was his original work.^[11]

While still in college Serling won his first accolade as a writer. A radio program called Dr. Christian had started an annual script writing contest eight years earlier. Thousands of scripts were sent in annually, but very few could be produced.^[11] Serling won a trip to New York City and $500 for his radio script "To Live a Dream."^[36] He and his new wife attended the awards broadcast on May 18, 1949, where Serling and the other winners were interviewed by the star of Dr. Christian, Jean Hersholt. One of the other winners that day was Earl Hamner, Jr., a 'regular' winner who had earned prizes in previous years as well. Later, Hamner would write scripts for Serling's The Twilight Zone.^[11]

In addition to earning $45 to $50 a week at the college radio station, Serling attempted to make a living selling freelance scripts to radio programs, but the industry at that time was involved in many lawsuits which in turn affected their willingness to take on new writers. Writers who had submitted scripts that were rejected would often hear some similar plot produced and claim that their work had been stolen and they sued to receive recompense. This made radio producers wary of taking unrequested scripts from unknown authors.^[11] Serling received rejections for reasons ranging from 'heavy competition' to 'This script lacks professional quality' and 'not what our audience prefers to listen to'.^[11]

In the fall of 1949 Martin Horrell of Grand Central Station, a radio program known for romances and light dramas, rejected one of Serling's scripts about boxing because his mostly female listeners “have told us in no uncertain terms that prize fight stories aren’t what they like most.” He then went on to offer some advice, “I have a feeling that the script would be far better for sight than for sound only, because in any radio presentation, the fights are not seen. Perhaps this is a baby you should try on some of the producers of television shows.”^[11]

Seeing that the boxing story was not right for Grand Central Station, Serling submitted a lighter piece called Hop Off the Express and Grab a Local, which became his first nationally produced piece on September 10, 1949.^[11] His Dr. Christian script wasn't produced until November 30 of that year.

Serling began his professional writing career in 1950 when he took a job earning $75 a week as a network continuity writer for WLW radio in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[11][12] As he worked for WLW he continued to freelance. He sold several scripts to WLW's parent company Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, some for radio, some for television. Once the scripts were sold to Crosley, Serling had no further involvement with them, as they were sold to local stations across the country.^[11]

Serling submitted an idea for a weekly radio show in which a young boy and girl, who were killed during the war and were now ghosts, would look through train windows and give commentary on day-to-day human life as it moved around the country. His idea was changed dramatically, but was produced from October 1950 to February 1951 as Adventure Express, a drama about a girl and boy who travel by train with their uncle. Each week they find adventure in a new town and get involved with the locals.^[11]

Other radio programs that Serling wrote scripts for include, Leave it to Kathy, Our America, and Builders of Destiny. During production of these scripts, Serling became acquainted with a voice actor, Jay Overholts, who would later become a regular on The Twilight Zone.^[11]

Serling said of his time as a staff writer for radio, “From a writing point of view, radio ate up ideas that might have put food on the table for weeks at a future freelancing date. The minute you tie yourself down to a radio or TV station, you write around the clock. You rip out ideas, many of them irreplaceable. They go on and consequently can never go on again. And you've sold them for $50 a week. You can't afford to give away ideas – they're too damn hard to come by. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't staff-write at all. I'd find some other way to support myself while getting a start as a writer.”

He also believed that radio was not living up to its potential. He said, "Radio, in terms of...drama, dug its own grave. It had aimed downward, had become cheap and unbelievable, and had willingly settled for second best."^[37] He argued that in the lifespan of radio, about 20 years, there were very few writers who would be remembered for their literary contributions.^[37]

Television[link]

Serling moved from radio to television, where he worked as a writer for WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. His duties included menial tasks such as writing ads for dubious medical remedies or script writing for a comedy duo.^[1] He continued at WKRC after graduation and, despite the mostly dreary day-to-day work, also managed to create scripts for a series of live TV programs called The Storm as well as scripts for other anthology dramas, which were in demand by New York based networks.^[4] Following a full day of classes, or in later years, work, Serling spent his evenings on his own, writing. He sent copies of completed manuscripts to publishers and received forty rejection slips during these early years.^[1]

In 1950 he took Blanche Gaines as an agent. His radio scripts received more rejections, and so he began retuning them for television. Whenever a script was rejected by one program, he would resubmit it to another, eventually finding a home for many of them in either radio or television.^[11]

As his college career came to a close, his scripts began to sell. He continued to write and sell for television and^[17] eventually left WKRC to become a full-time freelance writer. "Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn't embrace it. I succumbed to it."^[1]

According to his wife, "He just up and quit one day, during the winter of 1952, about six months before our first daughter Jody was born – though he was also doing some freelancing and working on a weekly dramatic show for another Cincinnati station"^[12] He and his family then moved to Connecticut in early 1953. Although not an overnight success, Serling did make a living by selling his work to the live dramatic anthology shows that were prevalent on television at that time such as Kraft Television Theater, Appointment with Adventure, and Hallmark Hall of Fame.^[1] By the end of 1954 Serling's agent convinced him that he needed to move to New York, "where the action is."^[12]

His early work was positively reviewed. Author Marc Scott Zicree, who spent years researching his book, The Twilight Zone Companion, noted: "Sometimes the situations were clichéd, the characters two-dimensional, but always there was at least some search for an emotional truth, some attempt to make a statement on the human condition."^[1]

Gaining fame[link]

In 1955, the nationwide Kraft Television Theater televised a program based on Serling's seventy-second script. To Serling, it was just another script, and he missed the first live broadcast. He and his wife had found a babysitter for the night and told her, "that no one would call because we had just moved to town. And the phone just started ringing and didn't stop for years!"^[12] The title of this episode was Patterns, and it soon changed Rod Serling's life.

Patterns dramatized the power struggle between a corporate boss, an old hand running out of ideas and energy, and a bright young executive being groomed to take his place. Instead of simply firing the loyal employee, and risk tarnishing his own reputation, the boss enlists the young up-and-coming employee into a campaign to push aside his competition.^[38] Serling modeled the main character on his former commander, Colonel Oren "Hard Rock" Haugen.^[39]

Following the show, New York Times critic Jack Gould called it "one of the high points in the TV medium's evolution" and "[f]or sheer power of narrative, forcefulness of characterization and brilliant climax, Mr. Serling's work is a creative triumph."^[38] Robert Lewis Shayon stated in the Saturday Review that, "in the years I have been watching television I do not recall being so engaged by a drama, nor so stimulated to challenge the haunting conclusions of an hour's entertainment."^[1] The episode was a big hit with audiences as well, and a second live show was re-created by popular demand only one month later.^[40] During the time between the two shows, Kraft executives were in discussion with people from Hollywood who were trying to buy the rights to Patterns. The newspapers announced that Patterns would be rebroadcast, but then stated that the show might be unavailable if the rights were sold before that time.^[41]

Patterns established Serling's career. Immediately following the original broadcast he was inundated with permanent job offers, congratulations and requests for novels, plays, television or radio scripts.^[40] He quickly sold off many of his earlier, lower-quality works and then could only watch in dismay as they were published. Critics expressed concern that Serling was not living up to his promise and began to doubt that he would be able to recreate the level of writing that Patterns had shown.^[1]

But then Serling created Requiem for a Heavyweight for the Playhouse 90 TV series in 1956, again gaining accolades from critics.

In the fall of 1957 the Serling family moved to California. When television was new, it was a live production, but as the studios began to tape their shows, the business moved from the east coast to the west.^[12] Serling would live in California for a significant percentage of his life but always kept Binghamton and Cayuga Lake as places to return to when he needed time to himself.^[12]

Corporate censorship[link]

The early years of television were filled with growing pains, one of which was the ubiquitous nature of sponsors as editors and censors. Serling was often forced to change his scripts after corporate sponsors had read them and found something they felt was too controversial. Sponsors wanted no associations with anything that might make them look bad to buyers, so references to many modern social issues were omitted, as were references to anything that might compete commercially with any given sponsor. For instance, the line "Got a match?" was deleted because one of the sponsors for Requiem For A Heavyweight was Ronson lighters.^[1]

A New York Times television reviewer added an editorializing note at the end of a glowing review for A Town Has Turned to Dust, a show about racism and bigotry in a small Southwestern town. "'Playhouse 90' and Mr. Serling had to fight executive interference...before getting their play on the air last night. The theater people of Hollywood have reason to be proud of their stand in the viewers' behalf."^[42]

Tired of seeing his scripts butchered in manners that removed any political statements and ethnic identities, and even having the Chrysler Building removed from a script sponsored by Ford, the frustrated, angered Serling decided that the only way to avoid such artistic interference was to create his own show. In an interview with Mike Wallace, Serling confessed, "I don't want to fight anymore. I don't want to have to battle sponsors and agencies. I don't want to have to push for something that I want and have to settle for second best. I don't want to have to compromise all the time, which in essence is what a television writer does if he wants to put on controversial themes."^[1]

He submitted The Time Element to CBS executives, intending it to be a pilot for his new weekly show, The Twilight Zone. Instead, CBS used the science fiction script in the new show produced by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, in 1958. The eerie story concerns a man who has vivid nightmares of Pearl Harbor. The man goes to a psychiatrist and after the session the plot twist, which Serling became known for, is revealed. The patient had died in the Pearl Harbor bombings, and the psychiatrist was the one actually having the vivid dreams.^[1] But the Desilu show received so much positive fan mail about the episode that CBS finally agreed to let Serling go ahead with his pilot for his Twilight Zone show.^[1]

[edit] The Twilight Zone

Serling working on his script with a dictating machine, 1959

On October 2, 1959, CBS-TV broadcast the first episode of Serling's series, The Twilight Zone.^[4]

For this series, Serling always fought hard to get and maintain creative control. He most admired his co-worker, A.J. Posen. He hired scriptwriters whom he respected (such as Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont). In an interview, Serling said that its science fiction format would not be controversial ^[43](with sponsors, network executives, the general public, etc.), and his program would escape censorship, unlike the earlier Playhouse 90. Actually, this TV series gave Serling the opportunity to communicate social messages within a more veiled context.

Serling drew on his own experiences for many episodes, with frequent stories about boxing, military life, and airplane pilots, which integrated his firsthand knowledge. The Twilight Zone also incorporated Serling's progressive social views on racial relations, somewhat veiled by the science fiction and fantasy elements of the shows. Occasionally, however, Serling could be quite blunt, such as in the episode "I Am the Night—Color Me Black", where racism and hatred causes a dark cloud to form in the American South, before proceeding to spread across the country. Serling was also a progressive thinker in matters of gender, with many Twilight Zone stories featuring quick-thinking, resilient women. However, he also wrote or paid for stories that featured shrewish, nagging wives. In this way, he included the whole spectrum of personalities, male and female.

The series The Twilight Zone was produced for five TV seasons (the first three seasons presenting half-hour episodes, the fourth season having hour-long episodes and the fifth season returning to the half-hour format). It won many TV and drama awards, and it drew much critical acclaim for Serling and his co-workers. While having a loyal fan base, The Twilight Zone never had very high audience numbers, and it was canceled twice, only to be revived. After five years and 156 episodes, ninety-two of them written by Serling himself, he grew weary of his TV series. In 1964, he decided to let its third cancellation be final. The quality of Serling's prose and productions was indisputable, especially relative to his television drama competitors of the time regarding plot complexity and unexpected, creative-but-plausible outcomes. One memorable, representative example is the episode concerning a man who visits a less- complicated, more serene past through a train trip to a location named "Willoughby." "Willoughby" turned out to be the business name of his morticians.

Serling sold his rights to The Twilight Zone to CBS. His wife later claimed that he did this partly because he believed that his own studio would never recoup the costs of producing the programs, which frequently went over budget.

[edit] Night Gallery

In 1969, NBC aired a Serling-penned pilot for a new series, Night Gallery. Set in a dimly lit museum that was open after hours, the pilot film featured Serling (as on-camera host) playing the part of curator introducing three tales of the macabre, unveiling canvases that would appear in the subsequent story segments (its brief first season rotated as one spoke of a four-series programming wheel titled Four in One), focused more on gothic horror and the occult than did The Twilight Zone. Serling, no longer wanting the burden of an executive position, sidestepped an offer to retain creative control of content, a decision he would come to regret. Although discontented with some of the script and creative choices of producer Jack Laird, Serling maintained a stream of creative submissions and ultimately wrote over a third of the series' scripts. By season three, however, Serling began to see many of his script contributions rejected and flat-out butchered. With his complaints ignored, the disgruntled host dismissed the show as "Mannix in a cemetery". Night Gallery lasted until 1973.

Other television[link]

After Twilight Zone was canceled, Serling wrote an unsuccessful western television series called The Loner, which ran from the fall of 1965 to April 1966. The network asked Serling to have more action and less character interaction. He refused to comply, even though the show had received poor reviews and low ratings.^[4]

In a complete departure from his earlier work, Serling hosted the first version of the game show Liar's Club for a brief run in 1969.

An overlooked period in Serling's TV history was 1970 when he was signed to host and narrate a 30-minute weekly series on Los Angeles television station KNXT. It was called Rod Serling's Wonderful World of... and presented stylized essays on off-beat subjects such as Gluttony, Propaganda, Sloth, Greed and other human frailties. The series ran for 13 weeks.

Writing prose[link]

Writing prose did not come easily to Serling. Several of his short stories were rewrites of scripts that had already been produced, but there were original works as well.

In his book, The Evolution of the Weird Tale, S. T. Joshi titled his chapter on Serling "The Moral Supernatural" and spoke of how difficult it is to categorize Serling's writings. The bulk of his writing was created for television; however, Joshi looked to the three dozen prose pieces that Serling published as a basis for literary analysis.^[44] S.T. Joshi's overview of Serling's writing says, "If there is anything that unites the whole of Serling's works – whether it be short stories or film scripts, whether it be fantastic or mainstream – it is an abiding concern with human feeling."^[45]

Joshi compares an original script version of "Walking Distance" to a short story version of the same work, then to the finalized script. The scripts utilize visual images to show the locations, what the characters look like and emotions they are experiencing; in comparison, Serling fleshes these all out in the short story with strong nuances, inner dialogue and elaborate memories that are not able to be translated to the screen. Each is successful in its medium although each include pieces that are not found in the other. Joshi comments that Serling has used pacing well, each correct for the medium and that "in spite of Serling's own doubts on the matter – he mastered the short story technique in every way."^[46]

Other radio[link]

[edit] The Zero Hour

Serling c. 1974, promoting The Zero Hour

Serling returned to radio late in his career with The Zero Hour (also known as Hollywood Radio Theater) in 1973. The drama anthology series featured tales of mystery, adventure and suspense, airing in stereo for two seasons. Serling hosted the program and wrote some of the scripts.

Originally placed into syndication on September 3, 1973, the series was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System in December of that year. The original format featured five-part dramas broadcast Monday through Friday with the story coming to a conclusion on Friday. Including commercials, each part was approximately 30 minutes long. Mutual affiliates could broadcast the series in any time slot that they wished.

In 1974, still airing five days a week, the program changed to a full story in a single 30-minute installment with the same actor starring throughout the week in all five programs. That format was employed from late April 1974 to the end of the series on July 26, 1974.

Fantasy Park[link]

Serling's final radio performance, which he recorded just a few weeks before his death, was even more unusual: Fantasy Park was a 48-hour-long rock concert aired by nearly 200 stations over Labor Day weekend in 1975.^[47] The program, produced by KNUS in Dallas, featured performances by dozens of rock stars of the day, and even reunited The Beatles. It was also completely imaginary, a "theatre-of-the-mind for the 70s", as producer Beau Weaver put it, using record albums recorded live-in-concert, plus crowd noise and other sound effects. (Allegedly, rock fans all over the country flooded participating stations with phone calls wanting directions to Fantasy Park; some even hitchhiked in attempt to actually attend the fake show.) KNUS General Manager Bart McLendon recruited Serling (his old teacher) to record the host segments, bumpers and custom promos and television spots.

Serling himself wrote the disclaimers, which aired each hour:

"Hello, this is Rod Serling and welcome back to Fantasy Park.....the crowds here today are unreal."

"This is Fantasy Park...the greatest live concert....never held."

Teaching[link]

Serling kept his schedule full. When he wasn't writing, promoting or producing his work, he was often seen speaking on college campuses all over the country.^[12] He would also teach week-long classes on film in which students would watch films and then critique them. In the political climate of the 1960s, he often felt a stronger rapport with older students in his evening classes than he did with the youth of the day.^[12]

By the fourth season of Twilight Zone, Serling was exhausted and turned much of the writing over to a trusted stable of writers, writing only seven episodes himself. In an attempt to take a break and clear his mind, he took a one-year teaching job as writer in residence at Antioch College. He taught classes in the 1962–63 school year on writing, drama, and a survey course covering the "social and historical implications of the media."^[1][4] He used this time to teach as well as work on a new screenplay, Seven Days in May.^[4]

Later he also taught at Ithaca College from 1970 until his death in 1975.^[1][48] He was also one of the first guest teachers at the Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in Hollywood, California. Audio recordings of some of his lectures there are included as bonus features on some Twilight Zone home video editions.

Themes[link]

According to his wife, Rod Serling often said that "the ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in; becoming narcissistic."^[12] This philosophy can be seen in his writing. Some themes appear again and again in his writing; many are concerned with war and politics. Another common theme is equality among all humans.

Anti-war activism[link]

Serling's experiences as a soldier left him with strong opinions about the use of military force. He was an outspoken anti-war activist, especially during the Vietnam War.^[4] He supported anti-war politicians, most notably Eugene McCarthy in his presidential bid.^[4]

The Rack is a prime example of Serling's using television to speak his mind on political issues. It tells the story of an army captain charged with collaborating with the North Koreans. The New York Times reviewer, J. P. Shanley, called it 'controversial and compelling'. Serling tackled a question that was much in the media at the time: should veterans be charged with a crime if they cooperated with the enemy while under duress?^[49] In this courtroom drama the accused is put on trial for helping the enemy by urging fellow prisoners of war to cooperate with their captors. Serling offers many valid arguments on behalf of both the defense and the prosecution. Each has a strong case, but in the end, the Captain is found guilty. There is no Serling narration to conclude the drama, as he had become famous for in The Twilight Zone; instead, the audience is left to make their own conclusions after the verdict has been rendered.^[49]

No Christmas This Year was a script written early in Serling's career, around 1950, but was never produced. It told of a place that no longer celebrated Christmas, although none of the residents know why it has been canceled. Meanwhile, in the North Pole the audience sees Santa Claus dealing with striking elves. Rather than creating toys and candy, the North Pole manufactures a diversity of bombs and offensive gases. Santa has been shot at on his route, and an Elf was hit by shrapnel.^[11]

24 Men to a Plane recounts Serling's first combat airdrop into the area around Manila in 1945. The drop was a fiasco after the jump-master in the first plane dropped their men too early, causing every plane after them to drop in synchronicity with the mistake.^[50]

Misanthropy[link]

S.T. Joshi devotes a portion of his book to covering pieces that he believes show a misanthropic side to Serling. Specifically, Joshi refers to "the degree to which his vision of human life is dark, pessimistic, cynical and even misanthropic."^[51] His sources include "The Fever", "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" and "The Shelter", all of which show how easily humans can be turned against anyone who is different from themselves.^[52] Joshi also sees a dislike of the human being in the way Serling often uses supernatural beings and situations to get revenge upon innately evil characters, specifically bullies and those who misuse positions of power such as the thieves in "The Rip Van Winkle Caper".^[53]

Racial equality[link]

A Town Has Turned to Dust received a positive review from critic Jack Gould, who was known for being straightforward to the point of being harsh in his reviews. He called A Town Has Turned to Dust, "a raw tough and at the same time deeply moving outcry against prejudice."^[42] Set in a Southwestern town suffering a deep drought, poverty and despair turn racial tensions deadly when the ineffectual sheriff is unable to stand against the town. A young Mexican boy is lynched, and the town as a whole is to blame. A second lynching is in the works after a series of events leads again to the town turning against the Mexicans. This time, the sheriff stands strong, and the first boy's brother is saved, even as the town is not. "Mr. Serling incorporated his protest against prejudice in vivid dialogue and sound situations. He made his point that hate for a fellow being leads only to the ultimate destruction of the bigoted."^[42]

Serling took his 1972 screenplay for the film The Man from the Irving Wallace novel of the same title. The black Senator from New Hampshire, and President Pro Tempore of the Senate, played by James Earl Jones in a stellar cast, assumes the US Presidency by succession.

Death[link]

Serling's home town of Binghamton erected a memorial in honor of Rod Serling.

On May 3, 1975, Serling, a long-time chain cigarette smoker, suffered a minor heart attack and was hospitalized. He spent two weeks at Tompkins County Community Hospital before being released.^[55] A second heart attack two weeks later forced doctors to agree that open-heart surgery, though considered risky at the time, was in order.^[56][57] The 10-hour long procedure was carried out on June 26, but Serling suffered a heart attack on the operating table and died two days later at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY.^[58] He was 50 years old.^[48] His funeral took place on July 2.

A memorial was held in Cornell University's Sage Chapel on July 7, 1975.^[48] Speakers at the Memorial included his daughter, Anne, and the Reverend John F. Hayward.^[56]

As newspapers began spreading word of his death, it was common to mention that he had been a heavy smoker for years and was angry and stressed most of his life.^[30] Although this was all true, interviews with his wife in later years mentioned that both his father and grandfather had also died in their 50s of heart problems. On the other hand, his older brother, Robert Jerome, lived to the age of 92.

Legacy[link]

Television[link]

Sam Jaffe and Jack Albertson in Serling's 1976 posthumous TV presentation, The Sad and Lonely Sundays

Rod Serling began his career when television was a new medium. The first public viewing of television was presented by inventor Philo Farnsworth at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on August 25, 1934, when Rod was only nine years old. Commercial television officially started on July 1, 1941; however, fewer than seven thousand TV sets could be found in America, and very few of those were in private homes.^[59] Only five months later the U.S. entered WWII, and the television business was put on hold until war's end,^[60] as many of the sets were confiscated by the government and re-purposed to train air-raid wardens.^[34] Only after WWII ended did money begin flowing towards the new medium of television; at the same time Serling began his writing career. Early programming consisted of newsreels, sporting events and what would be called public-access television cable TV today. It wasn't until 1948 that filmed dramas were first shown, beginning with a show called Public Prosecutor.^[61] Serling began having serious dramas produced in 1950 and is given credit as one of the first to write scripts specifically for the medium of television. As such, he is said to have helped legitimize television drama.^[62]

The format of writing for television was in flux in the beginning but eventually settled into a pattern in which time was set aside for a commercial break on the quarter hour. Writers, Serling included, were forced to write around a break in the action. Serling's response to this convention was, "How can you put out a meaningful drama when every fifteen minutes proceedings are interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits with toilet paper? No dramatic art form should be dictated and controlled by men whose training and instincts are cut of an entirely different cloth. The fact remains that these gentlemen sell consumer goods, not an art form."^[63] Throughout his career Serling helped to mold the future of television.

Challenging the censors[link]

Known as 'the angry young man' by those who witnessed his battles with network executives over censorship,^[28] Serling revolutionized the way writers and sponsors interacted.

Writing for multiple media[link]

As early as 1955 Jack Gould from the New York Times commented on the close ties that were then being created between television and the big screen by writers. Serling was one of the first to exploit crossover between media by turning his early television successes, Patterns and The Rack into full-length movie productions.^[64] Up to that time, many established writers were often unwilling to write for television because the medium was often only viewed once then shunted into a vault, never to be seen again.^[65]

Beginning of the rerun[link]

After the first showing of Patterns, the studio received such high feedback that they produced a repeat performance, which was the first time that a television show had been shown again at the behest of the audience. Although successful shows had sometimes been recreated after two years or more, this was the first time a show was recreated exactly – with the same cast and crew – as it had been originally created.^[66] The second live performance, only a month later, was equally successful and inspired New York Times critic Jack Gould to write an essay on the use of re-plays within the tele-play format. He stated that Patterns was a prime example of a drama that should be seen more than once, as was the norm for television shows of the day. Sponsors believed that creating new shows every week would assure them the largest possible audience, and so they purchased a new script for each night. Gould suggested that as new networks were opened and the viewers were given more choices, the percentage of viewers would spread out among the offerings. Patterns was proof that a second showing would garner more viewers because those who missed the first showing could then watch it the second showing, adding to the total viewers and reaching a larger audience for sponsors.^[65]

Effects on popular culture[link]

During his lifetime[link]

After the made-for-television movie The Doomsday Flight was released in December 1966, a rash of copy-cats phoned in ransom demands to most of the largest airlines. The fictional plot concerned an airplane with a bomb aboard. If the plane landed without the ransom money being paid, the aircraft would explode. The bomb was set with an altitude trigger so if the plane dropped below four thousand feet, it would detonate. The show was one of the highest rated of the television season, but both Serling and his brother Robert, a technical advisor on the project (a specialist in aviation), regretted making the film. Serling himself was truly devastated by what his script had encouraged. He told reporters who flocked to interview him, "I wish to Christ that I had written a stagecoach drama starring John Wayne instead."^[67]

After being knocked out in a 1961 boxing match Archie Moore said, "Man, I was in the Twilight Zone!"^[68]

Also in 1961, the FCC chairman Newton Minow gave a speech in which he called television programing a 'vast wasteland', citing The Twilight Zone as one of only a few exceptions.^[68]

Continuing effects[link]

Serling is indelibly woven into modern popular culture due to the popularity of his hit television show The Twilight Zone. Even youth of today can hum the theme song, and the title itself is a synonym for all things unexplainable.^[69] Serling's widow, Carol, maintains that the cult status that now surrounds both her husband and his shows continues to be a surprise, "as I'm sure it would have been to him."^[30] "It won't go away. It keeps bobbing up...Each year, I think, well, that's it—and then something else turns up."^[30]

The Twilight Zone has been rerun, re-created and re-imagined since soon after it went off the air in 1964. It has been released in comic book form, as a magazine, a movie, and two additional television series from 1985 to 1989 and again from 2002 to 2003. In 1988, J. Michael Straczynski scripted Serling's outline "Our Selena Is Dying" for the 1980s revival The New Twilight Zone.

Even those who have never seen a black and white episode of the original Twilight Zone are now able to read some of Serling's work in graphic novel format. Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone is a series of adaptations by Mark Kneece and Rich Ellis based on original scripts written by Serling.^[70]

The Twilight Zone is not the only Serling work to reappear throughout the years. In 1994, Rod Serling's Lost Classics released two never-before-seen works that Carol Serling found in her garage. The first was an outline called "The Theatre" that Richard Matheson expanded. The second was a complete script written by Serling titled "Where the Dead Are".

Serling was ranked No. 1 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (in the August 1, 2004 issue). He was also the only real-life person on the list. All the others were fictitious characters.

More than 30 years after his death, Serling was digitally resurrected for an episode of the TV series Medium that aired on November 21, 2005. The episode, filmed partially in 3-D, opened with Serling's introducing the episode and instructing viewers as to when to put on their 3-D glasses. This was accomplished by using footage from The Twilight Zone episode "The Midnight Sun" and digitally manipulating Serling's mouth to match new dialogue spoken by impersonator Mark Silverman. The plot of the episode involved paintings coming to life, a nod to both The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery.

On August 11, 2009, the United States Postal Service released its Early TV Memories commemorative stamp collection, honoring notable television programs. One of the twenty stamps honored The Twilight Zone and featured a portrait of Rod Serling.^[71]

Rod Serling and his works on The Twilight Zone went on to inspire the basis for the Walt Disney attraction, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The attraction takes place in an abandoned Hollywood hotel that was struck by lightning and caused the mysterious disappearance of five hotel guests. Riders enter an abandoned elevator shaft as they soon become part of their very own "lost episode" of The Twilight Zone. The attraction takes guests up thirteen stories and drops them multiple times. Again, Mark Silverman provides the impersonation of Rod Serling for both the Walt Disney World and California Adventure versions of the ride.^[72]

Every year, Binghamton High School, Rod Serling's high school, hosts the Rod Serling Video Festival for students in grades K-12. The festival encourages young students to engage in filmmaking, potentially sparking a career that follows that of Rod Serling himself.

Influences on other writers[link]

When casting for the role of the shady Mr. Morden for the television series Babylon 5, creator J. Michael Straczynski chose Ed Wasser (who had played a bit part in the series' two-hour pilot TV movie) for the role because of his slick looks, charm, and vocal mannerisms reminiscent of a young Rod Serling.

Awards, honors, and memberships[link]

Serling at his home, smoking a cigar. On the cabinet are three Emmys, 1959

Honors[link]

Serling was inducted posthumously into the Television Hall of Fame in 1985.

A star honoring Serling can be found at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Memberships[link]

• National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

– New York City chapter, board of governors 1956–57;
– California chapter, 1959;
– national president, 1965–66

• Writers Guild of America West

– council member, 1965–67

Selected works[link]

Filmography[link]

• Patterns (1955)
• Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956)
• The Comedian (1957)
• A Town Has Turned to Dust (1958)
• The Velvet Alley (1958)
• The Twilight Zone (1959–1964 television series)
• Seven Days in May (1964)
• Night Gallery (1970–1973 television series)
• It Has Begun (1974 UFO Documentary)
• Planet of the Apes (1968), co-written with Michael Wilson
• The Loner (TV series)
• The Man (story and screenplay)
• Phantom of the Paradise (1974) (uncredited introductory voice)
• Encounter with the Unknown (1975) (narrator)
• The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau as the Narrator; these specials were produced by Alan Landsburg in the 1960s and 1970s

Bibliography[link]

• Stories from the Twilight Zone, Bantam (New York City), 1960.
• More Stories from the Twilight Zone, Bantam, 1961.
• New Stories from the Twilight Zone, Bantam, 1962.
• From the Twilight Zone, Doubleday (Garden City, NJ), 1962.
• Requiem for a Heavyweight: A Reading Version of the Dramatic Script, Bantam, 1962.
• Rod Serling's Triple W: Witches, Warlocks and Werewolves; A Collection,(Editor) Bantam, 1963.
• The Season to Be Wary (3 novellas, "Escape Route", "Color Scheme", and "Eyes"), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1967.
• Devils and Demons: A Collection, Bantam, 1967. (Editor and author of introduction)
• Night Gallery, Bantam, 1971.
• Night Gallery 2, Bantam, 1972.
• Rod Serling's Other Worlds, Bantam, 1978.

Short stories[link]

• Escape Clause (1960)
• The Fever (1960)
• The Mighty Casey (1960)
• The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street (1960)
• Walking Distance (1960)
• Where is Everybody? (1960)
• The Big, Tall Wish (1961)
• Dust (1961)
• The Lonely (1961)
• Mr Dingle, the Strong (1961)
• The Odyssey of Flight 33 (1961)
• A Stop at Willoughby (1961)
• A Thing About Machines (1961)
• The Midnight Sun (1962)
• The Night of the Meek (1962)
• The Rip Van Winkle Caper (1962)
• The Shelter (1962)
• Showdown with Rance McGrew (1962)
• The Whole Truth (1962)
• The Riddle of the Crypt (1963)
• The Escape Route (1967)
• The Sole Survivor (1971)
• Lindemann's Catch (1972)
• Suggestion (1972)

Posthumous releases[link]

• Rod Serling's Lost Classics, 1994 telefilm

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Douglas, John and Mark Olshaker (1999). "Magnum Force". The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals. Pocket. pp. 101. ISBN 0-671-02393-4. 
• Joshi, S. T. (2004). "Rod Serling: The Moral Supernatural". The Evolution of the Weird Tale. Hippocampus Books. pp. 139–148. ISBN 0-9748789-2-8. 
• Kneece, Mark (2009). Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone: The Monsters are Due on Maple Street. Walker & Company. ISBN 0-8027-9713-X. 
• McMahon, Ed and David Fisher (2007). When Television Was Young. Thomas Nelson. pp. 3. ISBN 1-4016-0327-0. 
• Sander, Gordon F. (1992). Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man. Dutton. pp. ix – 284. ISBN 0-525-93550-9. 

Further reading[link]

• DeVoe, Bill. (2008) Trivia from The Twilight Zone. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-136-0
• Grams, Martin. (2008) The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9703310-9-0
• Nicholls, Peter (1979) Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Granada. ISBN 0-586-05380-8
• Marc Scott Zicree. (1992) Twilight Zone Companion Silman-James Press. ISBN 978-1-879505-09-4

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rod Serling

• Rod Serling at the Internet Movie Database
• Rod Serling at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Rod Serling Museum – Binghamton, New York
• Serling entry in Unitarian Universalist Biographical Dictionary
• Rod Serling's Dream Town of Willoughby
• Rod Serling Archives at Ithaca College – scripts, screenplays, films, published works by Serling, and secondary materials
• Rod Serling Conference at Ithaca College
• 1959 interview by Mike Wallace
  • The interview as video (21:31)
• An Interview with Carol Serling: 'Life With Rod'
• Rod Serling Archive at the Wisconsin Historical Society Serling's papers consist of roughly 80,000 documents ranging from scripts to personal correspondence, including a folder of angry letters received by Serling
• Rod Serling's gravestone
• Twilight Zone and Serling's writings
• Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone music
• You're Entering The Twilight Zone (BBC Radio 4 programme)
• Rod Serling at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Rod Serling at Find a Grave

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

Robert Edward "Bob" Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor and disc jockey, best known for his performance as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in the television sitcom Hogan's Heroes from 1965 to 1971, and for his 1978 murder, which remains officially unsolved.

Early life[link]

Bob Crane was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but he spent his childhood and teenage years in Stamford, Connecticut.^[1] He graduated from Stamford High School (Stamford, Connecticut) in 1946.^[1] Music was important to Crane, and he started playing drums early in life. By junior high, he was organizing local drum and bugle parades with his neighborhood friends in Stamford.^[2] Later, he became very involved in his high school marching and jazz bands, as well as in the school’s orchestra.^[3] He also played for the Connecticut Symphony and the Norwalk Symphony Orchestras as part of the youth orchestra program.^[4] On June 21, 1948, Bob enlisted in the National Guard and was honorably discharged on May 1, 1950.^[5] In 1949, he married high school sweetheart Anne Terzian, and they raised three children - Robert David,^[6] Deborah Ann, and Karen Leslie.^[7]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

In 1950, Crane started his broadcasting career at WLEA in Hornell, New York. He soon moved to WBIS in Bristol, Connecticut, followed by WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This was a 1,000-watt operation with a signal covering the northeastern portion of the New York metropolitan area where he remained until 1956. At that time CBS radio network executives plucked Crane out partly to help stop his huge popularity from affecting the subburban ratings of their New York flagship WCBS, and partly to re-energize their flagging West Coast flagship KNX in Los Angeles. Crane moved his family to California to host the morning show at KNX. He filled the broadcast with sly wit, drumming, and guests such as Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope. It quickly became the number-one rated morning show with adult listeners in the LA area, with Crane known as "The King of the Los Angeles Airwaves."

Crane's acting ambitions led to his subbing for Johnny Carson on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? and appearances on The Twilight Zone (uncredited), Channing, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and General Electric Theater. When Carl Reiner appeared on his show, Crane persuaded him to book him for a guest shot on The Dick Van Dyke Show, where he was noticed by Donna Reed, who suggested him for the role of neighbor Dr. Dave Kelsey in her eponymous sitcom from 1963 through 1965.

[edit] Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971)

In 1965, Crane was offered the starring role in a television comedy pilot about a German P.O.W. camp. Hogan's Heroes became a hit and finished in the Top Ten in its first year on the air. The series lasted six seasons, and Crane was nominated for an Emmy Award twice, in 1966 and 1967. During its run, he met Patricia Olsen, who played Hilda under the stage name Sigrid Valdis. He divorced his wife of twenty years and married Olsen on the set of the show in 1970. They had a son, Scotty (Robert Scott), and adopted a daughter named Ana Marie.

In addition to playing the drums on the theme song, Crane's musical talent can also be seen in the sixth season episode "Look at the Pretty Snowflakes," where he has an extended drum solo during the prisoners' performance of the jazz standard "Cherokee".

In 1968, during the run of Hogan's Heroes, Crane and series costars Werner Klemperer, Leon Askin, and John Banner appeared, with Elke Sommer, in a feature film called The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz. The setting was the divided city of Berlin inside East Germany. Paula Schultz was being tempted to defect to the West, with Crane encouraging her to do so. Klemperer and Banner were involved as East German officials trying to keep Paula in the East.

[edit] Career after Hogan's Heroes (1973-1978)

Following the cancellation of Hogan's Heroes in 1971, Crane was frustrated that he was offered few quality roles. He appeared in two Disney films, Superdad (1973) in the title role and Gus (1976) in a cameo.

In 1973, Crane purchased the rights to Beginner's Luck, a play that he starred in and directed. The production toured for five years, predominantly at dinner theatres from Florida to California to Texas, Hawaii and Arizona in 1978.^[8] During breaks, he guest starred in a number of TV shows, including Police Woman, Quincy, M.E., and The Love Boat. A second series of his own, 1975's The Bob Crane Show, was canceled by NBC after three months.

Crane's murder[link]

Bob Crane's grave

During the run of Hogan's Heroes, co-star Richard Dawson introduced Crane (a photography enthusiast) to John Henry Carpenter, who worked with the video department at Sony Electronics and had access to early video tape recorders. Carpenter photographed some of Crane's sexual escapades with various women.^{[citation needed]}

In 1978, Crane was appearing in Scottsdale in his Beginner's Luck production at the Windmill Dinner Theatre. On the night of June 28, 1978, Crane is alleged to have called Carpenter to tell him that their friendship was over. The following day, Crane was discovered bludgeoned to death with a weapon that was never found (but was believed to be a camera tripod) at the Winfield Place Apartments in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Crane is buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles next to his wife and Hogan's Heroes co-star, Sigrid Valdis.

[edit] A&E's Cold Case Files account

According to an episode of A&E's Cold Case Files, police officers who arrived at the scene of the crime noted that Carpenter called the apartment several times and did not seem surprised that the police were there, which raised suspicions. The car Carpenter had rented the previous day was impounded. In it, several blood smears were found that matched Crane's blood type. DNA testing, which might have confirmed whether it was Crane's blood or not, did not exist at that time. Due to insufficient evidence, Maricopa County Attorney Charles F. Hyder declined to file charges.

Murder case reopened[link]

The case was reopened in 1990, twelve years after the murder. A 1978 attempt to test the blood found in the car that Carpenter had rented resulted in a match to Bob Crane's blood type, but it failed to produce any additional results. DNA testing in 1990 could not be completed due to an insufficient remaining sample. The detectives in charge, Barry Vassall and Jim Raines, instead hoped that additional witnesses and a picture of a possible piece of brain tissue found in the rental car^[9] (which had been lost since the original investigation) would incriminate Carpenter. He was arrested and held for trial after a preliminary hearing before a Superior Court Judge finding that evidence presented justified a trial by jury.

During Carpenter's 1994 trial, defense attorneys attacked the prosecution case as circumstantial and inconclusive. They denied the claim that Carpenter and Crane were on bad terms just before the slaying, and they said the police theory that a camera tripod was the murder weapon was sheer speculation based on Carpenter's occupation. They also disputed the claim that the rediscovered photo showed brain tissue, and they noted that authorities did not have the tissue itself. The defense pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed in compromising sexual positions with numerous women, implying that a jealous person or someone fearing blackmail might have been the killer.

Carpenter was found not guilty. He maintained his innocence until his death on September 4, 1998, and the murder remains officially unsolved.^[10]

In July 1978, Bob Crane was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, California. More than 20 years later, Crane's family had the actor's remains exhumed and transported about 25 miles southeast, to another cemetery, Westwood Village Memorial Park, located in Westwood.

[edit] Biographical film Auto Focus (2002)

Crane's life and murder were the subject of the 2002 film Auto Focus, directed by Paul Schrader and starring Greg Kinnear as Crane. The film, based on Robert Graysmith's book The Murder of Bob Crane: Who Killed the Star of Hogan's Heroes?, portrays Crane as a happily married, church-going family man and popular L.A. disc jockey who suddenly becomes a Hollywood celebrity, and subsequently declines into sex addiction.

Crane's son, Scotty, bitterly attacked the film as being inaccurate. In an October 2002 piece he wrote on the movie, Scotty said that his father was not a regular church-goer and had only been to church three times in the last dozen years of his life, which included his own funeral. There is no evidence that Crane engaged in S&M and director Paul Schrader told Scotty that the S&M scene was based on his own personal experience. Scotty also claims that his father and John Carpenter did not become close friends who socialized together until 1975. Also, Crane was a sex addict long before he became a star, who started recording his sexual encounters at least as early as 1956.^[11]

Scotty and his mother had shopped a rival script for a Bob Crane movie biography. The script, alternately entitled "F-Stop" and "Take Off Your Clothes and Smile". The spec script was written up in Variety by columnist Army Archerd, but after "Auto-Focus" was announced, interest in Scotty's script ceased.^[12]

At the time of the article denouncing Auto Focus, Scotty Crane was operating the Web site www.bobcrane.com, which included a paid section that featured outtakes from his father's pornographic films and videos. It also included the autopsy report, which Crane claimed proved his allegation that his father did not have a penile implant. The site now calling itself "Bob Crane The Official Web Site" is now far more sedate and does not include any controversial material.

Filmography[link]

• Return to Peyton Place (Uncredited, 1961)
• Man-Trap (Uncredited, 1961)
• The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968)
• Patriotism (educational film, 1972, re-released by Rifftrax in 2008)
• Superdad (1973)
• Gus (1976)

Television[link]

• The Twilight Zone (1 episode, 1961)
• General Electric Theater (2 episodes, 1953–1961)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1 episode, 1962)
• Your First Impression (1 episode, 1962)
• The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1 episode, 1963)
• Channing (1 episode, 1963)
• The Donna Reed Show (63 episodes, 1963–1965)
• Hogan's Heroes (168 episodes, 1965–1971)
• The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1 episode, 1967)
• Arsenic and Old Lace (1969)
• Love, American Style (4 episodes, 1969–1971)
• Night Gallery (1 episode, 1971)
• Here's Lucy (1 episode, 1972)
• The Delphi Bureau (1972)
• Tenafly (1 episode, 1974)
• Police Woman (1 episode, 1974)
• The Bob Crane Show (14 episodes, 1975)
• Joe Forrester (1 episode, 1976)
• Spencer's Pilots (1 episode, 1976)
• Ellery Queen (1 episode, 1976)
• Gibbsville (1 episode, 1976)
• Quincy, M.E. (1 episode, 1977) as Dr. Jamison on Season 2, episode 7 "Has Anybody Here Seen Quincy?"
• The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1 episode, 1977)
• The Love Boat (1 episode, 1978)
• Celebrity Cooks (1 episode) - never broadcast due to his death

Award nominations[link]

Emmy Award

• Nominated: Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series, Hogan's Heroes (1966)
• Nominated: Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series, Hogan's Heroes (1967)

See also[link]

• Hogan's Heroes

	Biography portal
	United States Army portal

• The Donna Reed Show

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bob Crane at the Internet Movie Database

American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.^[1]

Groups or organizations featured include: Actor's Studio, Algonquin Round Table, Group Theatre, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Women of Tin Pan Alley, Negro Ensemble Company, Juilliard School, the Beat Generation, The Singer-songwriters of the 1970s, Sun Records, Vaudeville, and Warner Bros. Pictures.

History[link]

American Masters, a series "devoted to America's 'greatest native-born and adopted' artists," was originally scheduled to premier in September 1985; for "logistical scheduling reasons" the premiere was delayed until summer 1986, though on October 16, 1985, an American Masters "special" called Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait was aired.^[2]

The first of the 15 first-season episodes was Private Conversations,^[3] a "cinema-verite documentary by Christian Blackwood done in that trickiest of cinematic forms: a film about a film, in this instance the television version of Death of a Salesman, directed by Volker Schlöndorff".^[4] It aired on June 23, 1986, as one of two episodes not specifically commissioned for the show's first season.^[4]

Susan Lacy, American Masters creator and executive producer, selected each subject, matched them to the specific film makers, and oversaw a first-season budget of $8 million.^[4] Before creating the series Lacy had been the senior programmer for Great Performances and one of the "architects" of American Playhouse, having written the original proposal for the latter. At the time of the show's premiere, she was also the East Coast head of the Sundance Institute.^[4]

After the show's first two seasons, American Masters began producing most of its episodes; in those cases, it hires directors, arranges for funding, manages the budget, and supervises the editing; the show reserves the right to make the final cut on every film it produces.^[5] The American Masters production company occasionally plays a more limited role and co-produces some of its episodes, such as the 2005 documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home, and then in 2010 The Doors, When You're Strange.

Subjects[link]

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

A[link]

• Actor's Studio
• Stella Adler
• Louisa May Alcott
• Algonquin Round Table
• Woody Allen
• Atlantic Records
• Louis Armstrong
• John James Audubon
• Richard Avedon

B[link]

• Joan Baez
• George Balanchine
• James Baldwin
• Lucille Ball
• Tony Bennett
• Leonard Bernstein
• Jeff Bridges
• James Brown
• Carol Burnett

C[link]

• John Cage
• Alexander Calder
• Cab Calloway
• Robert Capa
• Truman Capote
• Johnny Carson
• John Cassavetes
• Willa Cather
• Lon Chaney
• Charlie Chaplin
• Ray Charles
• Julia Child
• Harold Clurman
• Nat King Cole
• Sam Cooke
• Aaron Copland
• Walter Cronkite
• George Cukor
• Merce Cunningham
• Edward S. Curtis

D[link]

• James Dean
• Placido Domingo
• The Doors (When You're Strange)
• Bob Dylan (No Direction Home)

E[link]

• Thomas Eakins
• Charles and Ray Eames
• Clint Eastwood
• Albert Einstein
• Duke Ellington
• Ralph Ellison

F[link]

• Ella Fitzgerald
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• John Ford/John Wayne
• Miloš Forman
• Aretha Franklin
• Buckminster Fuller

G[link]

• Judy Garland
• Marvin Gaye
• Frank Gehry
• George Gershwin
• Allen Ginsberg
• Lillian Gish
• Philip Glass
• Samuel Goldwyn
• Benny Goodman
• Glenn Gould
• Martha Graham
• Cary Grant
• D.W. Griffith
• Woody Guthrie
• Group Theatre

H[link]

• Merle Haggard
• Dashiell Hammett
• John H. Hammond
• Helen Hayes
• Lillian Hellman
• Ernest Hemingway
• Jerry Herman
• Don Hewitt
• Al Hirschfeld
• Alfred Hitchcock/David O. Selznick
• Hollywood Chinese
• David Hockney
• Billie Holiday
• Lena Horne
• Zora Neale Hurston

I[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

J[link]

• Jasper Johns
• Philip Johnson
• Bill T. Jones
• Quincy Jones
• Juilliard School

K[link]

• Danny Kaye
• Elia Kazan
• Buster Keaton
• Garrison Keillor
• Gene Kelly
• André Kertész

L[link]

• Harper Lee
• Annie Leibovitz
• John Lennon
• James Levine
• Harold Lloyd
• Cachao Lopez
• George Lucas
• Henry Luce

M[link]

• Norman Mailer
• Bob Marley
• Sanford Meisner
• Yehudi Menuhin
• Arthur Miller
• Joni Mitchell
• Margaret Mitchell
• Marilyn Monroe
• Robert Motherwell
• John Muir
• Edward R. Murrow

N[link]

• Negro Ensemble Company
• Willie Nelson
• Bob Newhart
• Mike Nichols/Elaine May
• Alwin Nikolais/Murray Louis
• Isamu Noguchi

O[link]

• Phil Ochs
• Georgia O'Keeffe
• Eugene O'Neill

P[link]

• Jack Paar
• Charlie Parker
• Les Paul
• Pearl Jam (Pearl Jam Twenty)
• Gregory Peck
• I.M. Pei
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Sidney Poitier
• Cole Porter
• Katherine Anne Porter

Q[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

R[link]

• Robert Rauschenberg
• Man Ray
• Lou Reed
• Frederic Remington
• Diego Rivera
• Jerome Robbins
• Paul Robeson
• Norman Rockwell
• Richard Rodgers
• Will Rogers
• Arthur Rubinstein

S[link]

• Mort Sahl
• Augustus Saint-Gaudens
• Waldo Pressman Salt
• Charles M. Schulz
• Martin Scorsese
• Pete Seeger
• Maurice Sendak
• Rod Serling
• Neil Simon
• Paul Simon
• Isaac Bashevis Singer
• W. Eugene Smith
• Alfred Stieglitz
• Isaac Stern
• George Stevens
• Preston Sturges
• William Styron
• Sun Records
• Sweet Honey in the Rock

T[link]

• Paul Taylor
• Dalton Trumbo

U[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

V[link]

• Sarah Vaughan
• Gore Vidal

W[link]

• Andy Warhol
• Warner Brothers
• Alice Waters
• Muddy Waters
• Billy Wilder
• Hank Williams
• Tennessee Williams
• William Wyler

X[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

Y[link]

Neil Young

Z[link]