Mike Wallace interviews Rod Serling (1959)

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

[bluerum]

1. Great stuff. The focus - as it should be is on Serling.

Serling is a character and a half. Interesting interview - thanks for posting.

[izquierdista]

2. How did my lungs ever survive the '50s?

cough-cough-cough.

[stlsaxman]

3. Wallace is, here, the anti-Murrow.

"Well you can understand that sponsors want to sell a product, right?"

[byronius]

4. Great post.

[jerseyjack]

5. Does anyone recall Serling's commercial for the bank ( I believe it was Manufacturer's Hanover)?

The theme was "Nightmares of Banking."

[provis99]

6. I notice Rod Serling told a fib at the end there.

He claimed the Twilight Zone didn't use scripts as social criticism; having been watching old Twilight Zone episodes over the past month, I noticed it delves HEAVILY into the social criticism. that's one of the things I liked most about the old Twilight Zone episodes; the social liberalism focus in many of the episodes.

[thesquanderer]

7. It was the Star Trek trick. He originated it.

He could make all the social criticism he wanted, with impunity, and get it past the censors, if he put it in the context of worlds and people who were clearly "not us."

And if you have any doubt at all that that was his intent from the very start, continue watching the next part of the interview...

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But the strategy absolutely depends on his telling that "fib." Especially since he was, in fact, Rod Serling, who already had a reputation for controversy.

[bluecoat_fan]

8. Great 10 minute time travel, thanks!