Serling Book

3.5 out of 5.

I’ve always been a big admirer of Rod Serling’s gritty stories and parables – he was an opiniated writer who was able to make his points without sacrificing good story telling. He was mostly known as one of the pioneers of the live American TV broadcast play, and the creator of The Twilight Zone of course. But he was so much more. I'd read many articles over the years about his war years, his battles with TV stations and sponsors, the acclaimed reception of his plays, and his work on The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, and a few films. I’ve recently started reading his short stories, which have only added to my appreciation. If you want to know more about the man, there are quite a few books out there to choose from. Did I choose the right one?

Well, this is a tad workmanlike; Gordon F.Sander’s 1992 biography is possibly at its best in Serling’s early years - through his para-trooping war years, and his beginnings in radio and TV. But once the broadcasts of his big TV plays start (probably beginning with The Strike in 1954 and Patterns the following year) a systemised formula takes over. We get the plot, relevance, and reaction to each work, followed by a biographical thread to the next big broadcast, which itself is then covered in precisely the same manner. The facts and quotes provide fascinating detail, but for me there is something missing. The essence of the man. The intimate. And given the rather formulaic system Sander has chosen for himself, it ultimately collapses when we reach the last ten years of Serling’s life – where there are so few works for the biographical thread to lead to. Hence, ten years of a life is quickly whittled off in just twenty pages.

The biographer states in the beginning that he met Serling’s wife Carol, three times in the 80s, “On each occasion she was at once supportive and skittish. By the third meeting, it had become clear that Mrs Serling would never allow a biography over which she did not exercise creative control, a caveat I found unacceptable; and I decided to forge ahead on my own, with the aids of the leads I had already established. Fortunately, Mrs Serling’s approval was not essential, and the absence of it actually proved a blessing in disguise by catalysing the bloodhound in me.” Fine words, and I agree. I don’t want any airbrushing and over-glorifying in a biography, no matter how much I admire the person and their work. But it nevertheless leaves a biographer stymied when the artist in question has those inevitable quiet times in their career – and Rod had some pretty lengthy ones in the last ten years. It’s only those close family and friends who are likely able to fill in the details of these often revelatory periods of the artist.

There are other books about Rod Serling; I have a couple (by Joel Engel and Nicholas Parisi), which I will be reading over the next year or so, plus one other which I am curious to read by Serling’s daughter Anne [thanks to Jim Dooley for bringing this to my attention] – it’ll be very interesting to see what she has to say with regards to some of the things Gordon F.Sander has to say here – that Rod was subservient to his wife, that the marriage became distant, and that he dallied with the ladies etc etc.

As well as his work on Planet of the Apes (which takes up only a page here), I hope some of the other biographies cover Rod’s barely mentioned books. For years I put off reading his short stories, thinking they were merely quickly churned out versions of the TV scripts. But that’s not the case. I’ve read his three Twilight Zone collections and the prose is as snappy as his suits and Twilight Zone intros.

Overall, I found this a fine, fact filled biography, with a very useful appendix listing his TV and film work. It was just a little formulaically written, and perhaps through no fault of his own, a little short on the close and intimate moments that would have added more heart and depth to the facts, figures and quotes. A general capturing of the atmosphere of the period, as well as more on the artistic and frenetic activity on the studio floor could have added colour, tension and involvement to the story.

I’m not normally one to read more than one biography of a person, but I was so aware of the mechanics of this one that I’m curious to study how other writers approach the subject – not just of Rod Serling, but how they approach the art of the biography. Given that Serling was a gifted writer and opinionated character in a fascinating time of change, it won’t be a difficult task.