The Twilight Man : Rod Serling and the Birth of Television
-
-
4.0 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
A biographical tale that follows Hollywood revolutionary Rod Serling's rise to fame in the Golden Age of Television, and his descent into his own personal Twilight Zone.
We recognize him as our sharply dressed, cigarette-smoking tour guide of The Twilight Zone, but the entertainment business once regarded him as the “Angry Young Man” of Television. Before he became the revered master of science fiction, Rod Serling was a just a writer who had to fight to make his voice heard. He vehemently challenged the networks and viewership alike to expand their minds and standards—rejecting notions of censorship, racism and war. But it wasn’t until he began to write about real world enemies in the guise of aliens and monsters that people lent their ears. In doing so, he pushed the television industry to the edge of glory, and himself to the edge of sanity. Rod operated in a dimension beyond that of contemporary society, making him both a revolutionary and an outsider.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This sharp graphic biography mimics Rod Serling's gift for mordant trickery without descending into parody as a martini-downing Serling spills his life story to a flirty seatmate on a nighttime PanAm flight. Shadmi (Highwayman) approximates Serling's clipped and portentous style: "This particular specimen is Private Rodman Serling, age eighteen. A Jewish boy from small town Binghamton, New York," he writes, describing Serling at the time of his WWII paratrooper service. Crushed by the "futility" of combat, Serling nearly succumbs to PTSD. But the success of his 1956 teleplay Patterns sparked a streak culminating in the 1959 launch of his groundbreaking anthology show The Twilight Zone, whose scripts were fueled by the fears swirling in his "night terrors." He declares his intent is to dig into America's subconscious, "harvest dark matter, reshape it, disguise it, and serve it back to the masses." Shadmi's art evokes the show's signature hard lines and stark framing. The subversive series ended in 1964; Serling's later years were a struggle, lightened by the surprise hit of his Planet of the Apes screenplay. While the book introduces the kind of dramatic final twist its subject would have approved, less attention is paid to the psychology behind why Serling so often concocted them. Nevertheless, it's a perceptive take, which celebrates and illuminates one of early television's true artists.
Customer Reviews
Amazingly good read!!
I had hoped this was going to be good, as I have always loved watching The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. But at least he was a realist when it came to the powers that be and his screenplays getting chopped up to hell.
I held onto every word, Koren Shadmi had written this book, like Rod was channeling him in his very own Twilight Zone episode, because every time you see the plane, you think of the William Shatner episode called Nightmare At 20,000 Feet. And man....what a helluva twist at the end!!
Yes, we know he died way to young, but that’s life as we know it.