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Rod Serling on Doomsday

by ecliptik on 12/27/24, 4:10 AM with 11 comments

  • by JKCalhoun on 12/30/24, 5:15 AM

    Some haunting episodes of "The Twilight Zone".

    I remember seeing the episode "Walking Distance" for the first time as a Freshman just in college. I was away from home, away from all my friends. I was coming to realize, with a kind of horror, that the door behind me, my childhood, had truly shut. I wasn't sure at all that I would like this new adult world.

    Gathered in the "commons" room of the dorm, watching that "Twilight Zone" episode, I just sat in the back of the dark room and cried. But his final message, that there are merry-go-rounds in the adult world if you know to look for them stuck with me.

    Also blown away when I saw the episode, "The Lonely". If you know the episode, you know how it ends.

    "All you're leaving behind Corry, is loneliness."

    "I must remember to keep that in mind."

  • by anonzzzies on 12/30/24, 5:44 AM

    I remember watching Examination Day (later Twilight Zone from the 80s) when I was a kid when my parents were away (I wasn't allowed to watch the twilight zone) and I couldn't sleep well for quite a while after that but could not tell my parents why.
  • by jauntywundrkind on 12/30/24, 8:37 AM

    SyFy had a write-up on him for 100th birthday (died age 50 alas). https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/rod-serling-100th-birthday-re...

    Went down some a rabbit hole of videos on Rod Sterling a while ago. Amazing man, saw such a change, and kept himself creative & enabled even when the world was denying him and itself, shielding itself from challenging & complex stories.

  • by sebmellen on 12/30/24, 7:49 AM

    The best story I have about Rod Serling is that my dad (who went to Cornell) knew him during his time as a teacher at Ithaca College, and ended up briefly dating his daughter! A very amiable person, who you'd never guess had such a chambered mind, at least from all the stories I hear.

    Try looking ahead: https://youtu.be/tDtT7CEQcMs.

  • by FrustratedMonky on 12/30/24, 1:29 PM

    "Serling spent his entire career trying to reconcile the tendency of man to turn against their fellow man"

    Wish someone like Serling could have written "The Purge". Seems like it was good idea, that didn't get executed well.

  • by csours on 12/30/24, 3:29 AM

    There are things that I want to shout at people, things that seem so blindingly obvious to me, but at the same time, I know that I probably would never have learned them if someone had shouted them at me. They are things that I had to notice while my mind was able to be quiet and curious.

    A hint of what I mean:

    Conspiracy theories come from seeking satisfaction and comfort, not ignorance. Debunking will never be enough. If a person tells themselves that they will not be affected by a conspiracy theory or scam, they have made themselves MORE vulnerable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42454945

    ---

    Unsatisfying narratives feel nihilistic, but there might be something important on the other side of that nihilism https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42261315

    ---

    'Blame' is a place in our minds where we set down our heaviest burdens. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42248548

    ---

    Anyway, what I mean to say is that fiction can take us places that shouting at each other never will.