130 | Nicholas Parisi (Rod Serling: His Life, Work & Imagination)
My Summer Lair Chapter #130: How Much Do We Know About The Fifth Dimension’s Narrator?
Rodman Edward Serling was born on December 25, 1924 and passed away on June 28, 1975. And in between those two dates is a wealth of work. For example: Rod Serling wrote 92 of The Twilight Zone scripts (70 originals and 22 adaptations).
I’m delighted to welcome to My Summer Lair writer Nicholas Parisi whose dense and delicious non-fiction book is Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination a massive undertaking that documents Serling’s impressive body of work.
In this interview Nicholas and I explore a fascinating aspect of Rod Serling’s work…and ultimately his legacy. People?our society?had to be taught to have a suspension of disbelief.
Like the idea of somebody time travelling was a surreal concept. Viewers in the 50s into the 60s couldn’t fully grasp the notion what viewers in say the 80s or 90s fully understood. Currently…for us: an individual who time travels is at the start of an adventure not the entire adventure. Back to the Future is a trilogy not a 30 minute Twilight Zone episode, right?
I mean check out these significant nerd/sci-fi Big Bangs…
Action Comics #1 on April 18, 1938
Twilight Zone October 2, 1959 – June 19, 1964
The Fantastic Four #1 (November, 1961)…the begging of Stan Lee’s Marvel run
The Outer Limits September 16, 1963 – January 16, 1965
Doctor Who November 23, 1963 (day after JFK’s assassination) – December 6, 1989
Batman 66 January 12, 1966 – March 14, 1968
Star Trek September 8, 1966 – June 3, 1969
That’s the (pop culture) foundation of our disbelief and our attraction to wonder and mischief. We are indebted to Rod and his work; his astonishing writing.
I’m deeply grateful Nicholas hung out with me so we can talk about Rod Serling. Anything and everything to keep his legacy alive: we don’t get quality like this often. Treasure it like a trip to the Fifth Dimension.
