Posted on 06/28/2025 11:16:11 AM PDT by Borges
Residents of the Binghamton area have been visiting the statue honoring Rod Serling 50 years after The Twilight Zone creator died.
The six-foot statue in Recreation Park on the city's West Side was unveiled last September. It stands in the southeast section of the park, just a short distance from Serling's childhood home on Bennett Avenue.
Although Serling was born in Syracuse, he considered Binghamton to be his hometown.
The legendary television writer and producer died at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester on June 28, 1975. He was 50 years old.
Serling had undergone heart surgery two days before his death.
At the time of his death, he was residing in Seneca County. He made frequent visits to Binghamton to speak at various events.
In her book "As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling," his daughter Anne recalled that she last saw her father in the Rochester hospital, three days before he died.
Anne wrote: "He was just fifty years old, I barely twenty."
In the book, Anne Serling observed that "driving back to his hometown was a pilgrimimage my dad took every summer until his death. I recognized that these visits re-centered my dad."
Rod Serling fans will gather again in Binghamton in a few months for the annual SerlingFest. It will be held from September 19 to 21.
He was a highly decorated Combat Vet...
Combat Infantryman Badge
Bronze Star
Purple Heart
Army Good Conduct Medal American Campaign Medal Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with arrowhead device and four campaign stars
World War II Victory Medal
Army of Occupation Medal
Philippine Liberation Medal with one service star
Glider Badge
Parachutist Badge
Army Presidential Unit Citation Philippine Presidential Unit Citation
Rod Serling was a cultural Nastradamus.
A chain smoker . . no, he didn’t smoke chains but smoked a lot of cigarettes.
Been watching reruns of the old TV Western, “the Loner,” starring Lloyd Bridges. It was created and produced by Rod Serling, and he often directed and wrote scripts for episodes. Story wise, it’s fairly standard TV Western fare, but it does have that well-produced, written, and directed tone that is the mark of anything produced by Serling. The acting and writing is always above par, it has good cinematography, and it has kind of a quirky theme song. It’s a very good Western, with a Rod Serling touch.
He created stories that people have been talking about for 60 plus years and will continue to be talked about.
A genius writer who could entertain you and make you think at the same time.
Didn’t he say being a Hollywood writer was very stressful they keep wanting more than you can produce?.
No wonder he smoked that or booze or pills a Hollywood trade mark.
"The Westerner," a 1960 TV series created by Sam Peckinpah, starring Brian Keith as Dave Blassingame, a laconic cowboy drifter wandering the Wild West with his dog, Brown. The show, which aired on NBC from September to December 1960, ran for 13 episodes and was notable for its gritty, morally complex take on the Western genre, setting it apart from more polished contemporary shows like Bonanza. Keith’s portrayal of Blassingame is understated and authentic, embodying a flawed, relatable hero who’s skilled with a gun but often caught in morally ambiguous situations. John Dehner co-stars as Burgundy Smith, a rakish conman appearing in three episodes. The series, produced by Four Star Television, is considered a cult classic and an early showcase of Peckinpah’s revisionist Western style.I REALLY enjoyed it. It ranged from silly slapstick with Burgundy Smith to violent reality.
Amazon recommended another show I'd never heard of which resonates with me having been a Californian in the mid 1950s and then from 1973 onward. The music is awful, but the show is good.
The Californians was a half-hour American Western television series set during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. It aired on NBC from September 24, 1957, to August 27, 1959, for two seasons, with a total of 69 episodes. The show was set in San Francisco, a bustling and chaotic city during the Gold Rush, and focused on efforts to maintain law and order amidst criminals, con men, and corruption.The universal and modern themes in 1950s and 1960s were amazing and resonate today.The series initially centered on Dion Patrick (played by Adam Kennedy), an Irish newspaperman who worked for a newspaper owned by Sam Brennan and fought crime as part of a vigilante group led by storekeeper Jack McGivern (Sean McClory). The vigilantes were a response to the city’s rampant lawlessness, as San Francisco’s population exploded due to the Gold Rush. However, sponsors were uneasy about glorifying vigilantes (I'm still in the Season 1 vigilante shows), so the show was restructured mid-first season. In March 1958 (episode 23, “Gentleman from Philadelphia”), Matthew Wayne (Richard Coogan) was introduced as a gambling man who arrived in San Francisco seeking revenge for his partner’s murder. Wayne bought a saloon, was elected sheriff, and later became marshal, organizing a 50-man police force. By the second season, Wayne became the main character, and the vigilante angle was phased out, with Dion Patrick and Jack McGivern fading from prominence. The show explored themes of justice, corruption, and the challenges of a rapidly growing city, with plots involving murders, blackmail, shanghaiing, and conflicts with outlaws or dishonest officials.
He started out writing for radio which he said was the most draining of all.
“Bloody” Sam Peckinpah made of the finest westerns ever in “The Wild Bunch” which had a slew of star actors.
AND, she had never set foot in the west when she started writing. But she was a stickler for authenticity and traveled all over the west getting story ideas and interviewing people.
Here’s how I know I’m getting older. I looked at that picture, and thought, was Rod Serling in the navy?
It took me a good minute to catch on. It’s Ensign Parker’s old friend Wally.
He was great. The show was terrible after Kennedy died. He took it hard. Then he got a second wind with Night Gallery.
But that smoking did him in...
He created stories that people have been talking about for 60 plus years and will continue to be talked about.
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So true.
Serling was so ahead of his times. I could watch the Twilight Zone episodes a million times and never tire of them.
Thanks. I need to re-watch “The Wild Bunch”.
He brought a real brutal, realistic style to “The Westerner” which apparently turned off a lot of audiences when it was aired. It lasted only one season.
Your screenshot is not of the Serling's Night Gallery version.
Rather, it is of the 1964 version, which had no involvement by Rod Serling.
Regards,
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