Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval

I saw this PBS production on Christmas week - December 25th being Serling's birthday, it was appropriate. The opening sequence is shot in the same expressionistic, tense way as the best Zone episodes. And in all honesty, it focused on Serling's "Twilight Zone" work because it was the best and most available of his TV work.

There is little talk of his post-Zone work; he loathed "Night Gallery" and pretty much despaired of TV after that. His movie work, such as his screenplay for "Planet of the Apes," showed little of the boldness of his Zone scripts. I'd also hazard a guess that these parts of his career work was unavailable to the producers. (Some of Serling's works, such as his anti-Semitism episode of the Catholic show "Insight" and his UN-brotherhood fantasy "Carol for Another Christmas," are just plain unavailable.) Given what they had, the producers did a remarkable job, using sequences of "Zone" to illustrate Serling's worldview and state of mind. They gave him a fitting tribute, far better than what his industry gave him.

In preparation of watching a couple of Rod Serling's TV films on the internet, I thought I'd rewatch this "American Masters" episode on his life and career, especially of the show he is most famous for. Presented entirely in black-and-white, Lee Grant narrates the first and last segments while other passages taken from Serling quotes and writings are spoken by Mitch Greenberg in an uncanny impersonation of Rod. We also get photos of him at home, in Hollywood, in New York, as a paratrooper during World War II, and near the end of his life when he looks aged and maybe a little tired. Well chosen scenes of the show itself provide astute commentary on Serling's philosophy and attitude and show what a brilliant writer he really was. We also get scenes of his earlier TV successes, "Patterns" and "Requieum for the Heavyweight". Various actors, directors, producers, and other writers who worked on Serling's shows provide their own commentary on Rod and Mike Wallace gives his take on his interview with him just before "The Twilight Zone" premiered. The most poignant ones, however, come from widow Carol and his two daughters as well as surviving brother Robert. So if you're interested in a good documentary on the life and career of this vastly talented man, "Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval" is a fine place to start. P.S. I got a kick out of seeing clips of Serling's teleplay "The Velvet Alley" that featured future Odd Couple stars: original Broadway Felix Unger, Art Carney, talking to TV's Oscar Madison, Jack Klugman.

This is a somewhat sad but extremely well made episode from "American Masters". I say sad because Rod Serling was probably the greatest television writer who ever lived, yet despite six Emmy awards and fan that no other TV writer ever attained, he was incredibly insecure and unsatisfied.

The show only briefly talks about Serling's life before he went to New York City to become a writer and his writing is the main focus of the shows he wrote. The first part of this concentrates on his early work and in particular the wonderful teleplays he wrote. While it only talks about a few of these, those few are among the best television of the age and resulted in his first Emmy awards. Then the show concentrates a lot of attention on his "Twilight Zone" series. My only complaint about this is that most folks are already very familiar with these shows and I would have preferred less--not that the show wasn't brilliant. But I would have liked more about Serling the man is the final portion of the show and discusses his emotional and physical decline brought on by self-doubts and uneasiness with his ability to keep producing hits.

Apart from concentrating too much on individual episodes of "Twilight Zone", the only other complaint I had was how the show mostly was dismissive of his work on movies apart from "Seven Days in May". This seemed a bit of an overstatement and some of his 'less worthy' scrips (such as "Planet of the Apes") were still very good. Still, I appreciate how the show managed to capture the uneasiness Serling had with fame and his own insecurities. And, it really was interesting when the program talked about the network and sponsors and how they were cowardly in re-writing some of his best work. Well worth seeing.

Very good and interesting documentary on Rod Serling. It focuses on his early TV work on Playhouse 90 and most notably The Twilight Zone. There are many clips from the old TV shows and lots of talking heads discussing Serling--his work and personality. What comes across is a very complex man. He was (obviously) a fantastic writer who changed the course of TV but was riddled with self-doubt and insecurities. It also goes on about how he was constantly fighting with TV censors who did their best to tone down his work. It's a fascinating portrait of a pioneer of TV and a nice look at how TV was run in the 1950s. This is a must for Twilight Zone fans especially.

Originally aired as a part of the "American Masters" series on PBS; I haven't seen much of that show, but this episode was included on "The Twilight Zone" DVD set on Season Five, so may be the most viewed installment as a result.

Takes a look at Rod's whole life, which was cut short at the age of 50. Rod Serling would become a fast-rising writer in Hollywood, who had many scripts adapted for live theater broadcasts, and he won many different awards, but of course will be remembered mostly for "The Twilight Zone". Many interviews are conducted, some with stars now deceased like John Frankenheimer and Jack Klugman, both of whom have interesting things to say. Worth a look.