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.
It’s about paranoia. A universal theme.
We slammed them all and by the time they got to that last one with the kids in the swimming pool, it was bad.
One of the few Serling wrote after 11/22/63 was an actual response to the event...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734577/
Only one statue? I’d put them up all over town. Burgess Meredith on the library steps with his broken glasses and pile of books. Elizabeth Montgomery as the Russian survivor chick. The guy who went looking for Willoughby in a crumpled heap by the railroad tracks. Buster Keaton with the time travel gadget. The beautiful “ugly” woman and her plastic surgeons. And the guy yelling that “To Serve Mankind” is a cookbook.
The show didn't work too well at that length. They felt padded.
A half hour worked better; setup the premise, then a surprise twist.
Serling was the original “WOKEster.” His scripts are full of Socialist themes.
His positions were taken out of a naive humanism more than anything else. He never aligned himself with socialism.
“Walking Distance” ⏳
He missed Leonard Nimoys hasty (Jewish) funeral because of that.
“There was another series I watched last year (I wish I could remember the name) that had a jazzy, Count Basie type theme song.”
I get it. I’m thinking of a show called Paladin but I can’t remember much about it. I think it starred Pernell Roberts but again, I’m not sure. Sucks getting old! I know I know, it beats the alternative.
Many citis and towns west of the Albany/NYC corridor are like that. The Democrats are slowly but surely destroying NY State.
"The check is in the mail."
"The dog ate my homework."
"I swear I thought she was 18 years old!"
"We finally beat Medicare!"
No problem!
Regards,
I never heard of that series, ‘The Loner’ . I just finished watching the first episode. I could tell right away it was Sterling’s work. Nearly as good as the Twilight Zone and that remains my favorite TV show.
Yes, the first time I watched it it I felt like it could be a Western-themed episode of “Twilight Zone”.
IIRC in the 1990’s he shipped for an online travel agency called Priceline.
Those b&w look so much better when they are reissued as blu-ray.
Black Mirror first season minus the first episode seems to be this generation’s version of the twilight zone.
I used to complain about the boo-boos on HOUSE too.
I stopped watching The New Outer Limits (1990s reboot) after the first season. It seems half the episodes were about some right-wing, often Christian, dystopia. Many episodes had environmental extinction/global warming themes.
I did like the Patterns episode of Night Visions.
And The Conversation episode of The New Outer Limits.
Finally got to check out the first two episode of “The Westerner.” I like it very much, thanks for the recommendation.
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