Rod Serling was born today in 1924.

[Va Lefty]

Link to tweet

?s=19

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Hard to believe

he was only in his mid-30s when he hosted those TZ episodes. He seemed so much older.

[marybourg]

2. Especially to those of us who were younger than him!

[Cirque du So-What]

8. I'm much older than he ever lived to be

In reruns he possesses a gravitas I couldn't pull off no matter how hard I tried.

[Ron Obvious]

7. Probably the cigarettes

He was only 50 when he died...

[erronis]

3. Thanks Lefty from VA (me too.) A bit of research for fill-in.

1960 TZ. McCarthy era was still fresh in everyone's mind. The Red menace was still there. The "quiet" presidency of Ike was coming to an end.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rod_Serling

The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs, and explosions, and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy; and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is, that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.

From The Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street (March 6, 1960).

[yortsed snacilbuper]

5. The twilight zone.

It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call ... The Twilight Zone.

[bluestarone]

6. LOVE THIS

Sooooo true! Sad part is his movies were fiction BUT this PICTURE is a TRUE NIGHTMARE!!!!!!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

9. Here's a classic episode: "To Serve Man"

"It's a cookbook!"