In The ‘Zone’ with Carol Serling

Forty years after his death, the widow of ‘Twilight Zone’ mastermind and ‘Planet of the Apes’ screenwriter Rod Serling shares fond memories of the longtime Palisadian

By MICHAEL Aushenker | Pali Life Editor

hose odd opening titles…That familiar logo…Those haunting four notes, repeated ad nauseum into the infinite cosmos…

“The Twilight Zone”—the chilling black-and-white television series created by, written and produced by, and memorably hosted by the eternal Rod Serling—has left its indelible mark on our pop culture.

Serling died 40 years ago this summer on June 28 in Rochester, New York. A memorial was held at Cornell University’s Sage Chapel in nearby Ithaca, New York on July 2, 1975.

There are three things that many fans of Rodman Edward Serling’s work may not realize: he was born on Christmas Day; he was only 50 years old when he passed away; and he wrote all of his “Twilight Zone” scripts at his 1490 Monaco Drive and his 1329 Amalfi Drive, both in the Riviera (the latter which no longer exists).

Nobody was closer to Serling’s creative process than wife Carol Serling. In this conversation with the Highlands resident, the widow of the late screenwriter/producer reveals that the de facto backyard of “The Twilight Zone” is the Palisades, where the writer of this article works, and Ithaca, New York, where he attended Cornell University…

…Weird, huh? Cue those four notes…

MICHAEL Aushenker: When were you and Rod married?

CAROL Serling: 1948. We were both in college—Antioch College in Ohio. We got married and spent two more years in school for our bachelor’s degrees. In 1963, we returned to Antioch and he spent a few months as a professor in residency.

He had just come back from World War II and started college right after the war. His major originally was physical education. He switched to literature and language. I was majoring in psychology.

Aushenker: Did you read those “Twilight Zone” scripts he wrote?

Serling: Oh, yes. I was his harshest critic all through the years.

Aushenker: Where did he write the scripts for those great shows?

Serling: He worked at home. When he finished a section, he’d run it into the house. He had a study in the back. We lived over in the Riviera at the time.

Aushenker: How did you and Rod settle on Pacific Palisades?

Serling: We moved to the Palisades in 1958 from Westport, Connecticut. We came out here because the television industry had changed. It was live and based in New York City and then everything moved out to California. We had come out during previous winters when Rod was working for MGM and rented a house in Beverly Hills. We did not like Beverly Hills at all.

We rented a house [in the Palisades] from an old time movie actress Virginia Bruce on Amalfi. We rented it for about six months. [Note: Virginia Bruce served as the first of Pacific Palisades’ many celebrity honorary mayors in 1951.]

Aushenker: I had heard that a young Randy Newman lived next door and would make a racket practicing music.

Serling: We didn’t know the Newmans. They lived a few houses away though.

At the time, there were not so many people living here in the Palisades. People would say, ‘Why are you going so far out? You’re out at the end of the world.’

In the late ’50s, Ralph Bellamy lived down the street, Jerry West across the street.

Aushenker: When “The Twilight Zone” aired, you and Rod had relocated to a house a couple of blocks away on Monaco Drive. Where on the Monaco property did Rod write?

Serling: Inside kind of a pool house that we used. We built it for him.

Aushenker: What was his routine like during the “Twilight Zone” years?

Serling: He’d get up early in the morning, grab a cup of coffee and start. He would type, two fingers, then begin to dictate. He used a Dictabell, an old-fashioned machine, and would dictate to his secretary.

Aushenker: What kind of creative control did he have?

Serling: He had complete creative control with the program. During the “Twilight Zone” years, he’d go to Metro [-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in Culver City, today Sony Pictures] for the shoot. Sometimes, he’d work in the evening.

Aushenker: You and Rod had two daughters, Jody and Anne [three years apart]. Did they grow up in the Palisades?

Serling: Yes. They went to all of the area schools: Canyon, Paul Revere, Pali High.

Aushenker: I had also heard that he taught the kids writing at Canyon Elementary.

Serling: He probably did go down to Canyon. He was fairly active with PTA, that kind of stuff.

Aushenker: Did you and Rod enjoy life in the Palisades?

Serling: We loved it. We’d take the kids down to the Hot Dog Show and the Bay Theatre. The kids went up there practically every Saturday. We also went to the beach, of course.

Aushenker: Did Rod retain the rights to his greatest creation?

Serling: Unfortunately, the worst business decision he ever made is that he sold the rights to “The Twilight Zone.” At the time, there was no syndication. They told him, ‘You’ve gone over budget. We have to sell you out.’ We both know that “The Twilight Zone” has never left the air since. The rights all went back to CBS.

Aushenker: What do you think of the remakes?

Serling: Well, there was what I call “Twilight Zone 2” in the ’80s, and “Twilight Zone 3”, which took “Twilight Zone 2 “into little bits and pieces. There were some good shows on “Twilight Zone 2.”

Rod wasn’t around to write any of them. They don’t seem to have the lasting quality of the originals. He wrote 92 of the 156-odd shows so he was very much a part of [the original “Twilight Zone”].

Aushenker: Rod was so prolific. Did he ever tire of writing “The Twilight Zone”?

Serling: He did after a while. He said he was beginning to see himself coming around the corner.

They made “Twilight Zone” in an hour format during the fourth year and that really didn’t work very well. So the fifth year, it went back to the half-hour format. In the fifth year, they brought in a new producer, Buck Houghton. Rod was kind of tired of it. The year of the hour-long show, we were back in Ohio. So we were back and forth.

Aushenker: Rod’s production company on those old “Twilight Zone” episodes was called Cayuga Productions. Cayuga Lake is near Ithaca, New York, where the Cornell campus is. Rod also taught at Ithaca College across town. What’s the connection?

Serling: My great-great-grandfather, George Caldwell, was the first professor hired when they started the whole university of Cornell. My family lived [in Ithaca]. Before the turn in the 1880s, they built a summer home on Cayuga Lake. That’s where I went all my life.

We went up there the year we got married and we went there every year. I still go there every summer. It’s a great place to live with Cornell and Ithaca College. The only problem is the long, long winters, which you probably remember.

Aushenker: Oh, yeah. [Laughs.] But it’s beautiful. A real winter wonderland. It’s like living inside a postcard.

Serling: We just had nine more inches of snow. Anne and Jody, they love it. But yes, that’s where Rod got the name for Cayuga Productions. Later, we moved to Interlaken [New York], also up in that area.

Aushenker: What did Rod teach at Ithaca College?

Serling: He taught for quite a few years a one-week seminar in film. The kids loved it. They got to watch films and get a credit. He spoke at Cornell some, too.

Aushenker: How was Rod’s experience on his other anthology show, “Night Gallery” [1969-73]?

Serling: He did not have creative control. He was not pleased with “Night Gallery.” He was identified with it. It was not a very good show, really.

Aushenker: Was this the opposite of his “Twilight Zone” experience?

Serling: Pretty much. He didn’t have too much interference from the network or the sponsors. The sponsors really didn’t even know what he was saying with “Twilight Zone.” He was fairly left alone.

With “Night Gallery,” the interference was from [the network] and another producer he didn’t agree very much. It was only on for a couple of years.

Rod also did a show called “The Loner” but it wasn’t violent enough. That one only lasted a year.

Aushenker: Was working on the original “Planet of the Apes” movie (1968) a positive experience?

Serling: For sure, for sure!  He got a kick out of doing it. We knew Charlton Heston. He was great. There was some talk about doing [sequels]. There was some talk of doing a series.

Aushenker: Did he co-write the screenplay or did the other writer [Michael Wilson] come in and work on top of Rod’s draft?

Serling: He wrote the screenplay and they did bring someone to polish it. Rod never wrote with anyone.

This rare interview with Carol Serling was conducted in February 2011. The original version was published in Back Issue! Magazine #55 (April 2012) and appears here courtesy of Back Issue! Editor Michael Eury. For more information on Back Issue!, visit TwoMorrows.com.