What do you think?
Rate this book
Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination
Long before anyone had heard of alien cookbooks, gremlins on the wings of airplanes, or places where pig-faced people are considered beautiful, Rod Serling was the most prestigious writer in American television. As creator, host, and primary writer for The Twilight Zone, Serling became something more: an American icon. When Serling died in 1975, at the age of fifty, he was the most honored, most outspoken, most recognizable, and likely the most prolific writer in television history.
Though best known for The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote over 250 scripts for film and television and won an unmatched six Emmy Awards for dramatic writing for four different series. His filmography includes the acclaimed political thriller Seven Days in May and cowriting the original Planet of the Apes.
In great detail and including never-published insights drawn directly from Serling's personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, Nicholas Parisi explores Serling's entire, massive body of work. With a foreword by Serling's daughter, Anne Serling, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis. It is a painstakingly researched look at all of Serling's work--in and out of The Twilight Zone.
Though best known for The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote over 250 scripts for film and television and won an unmatched six Emmy Awards for dramatic writing for four different series. His filmography includes the acclaimed political thriller Seven Days in May and cowriting the original Planet of the Apes.
In great detail and including never-published insights drawn directly from Serling's personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, Nicholas Parisi explores Serling's entire, massive body of work. With a foreword by Serling's daughter, Anne Serling, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis. It is a painstakingly researched look at all of Serling's work--in and out of The Twilight Zone.
558 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2018
52 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
July 26, 2024
"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 scape goat has fallout of its own for the children and the children unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone"
My Top 10 Favorite Twilight Zone episodes
1. Shadow Play
2. A Stop At Willoughby
3.To Serve Man
4. Where is Everybody
5. Time Enough at Last
6. The Hitch Hiker
7. Third from the Sun
8. Judgement Night
9. Twenty Two
10. The Parallel
Honorable Mentions
1. The Time Element
2. A World of Difference
3. Perchance to Dream
4.The Midnight Sun
5. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
I love The Twilight Zone. The original is obviously the best but the 1980s reboot is also very good. I've recently started watching Night Gallery and I'm surprised by how much I enjoy it. This book is less a biography of Rod Serlings life and more a biography of his work. This book gives you episode break downs of all the TV shows he wrote for. I didn't know his career started in Cincinnati and that he wrote 2 other shows. Both were short lived, one was a western The Loner and the other was called The New People. He also worked on movies including The Planet of the Apes and he wrote a play.
Rod Serling was one of the greatest TV writers ever. His work has age surprisingly well after 60 + years. I remember falling in love with The Twilight Zone when I was 13 years old during a New Years Day marathon on SyFy. The list I made of my favorite episodes is just the current list, that list could change tomorrow. I know the episodes I picked are not the most popular episodes, in fact some are actually hated but I like what I like. The Time Element btw was an episode on Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse but most people consider to be the real pilot episode of the Twilight Zone and it's fantastic.
Rod Serling was a man ahead of his time and if you want to learn about this great man's work than this is a great read.
My Top 10 Favorite Twilight Zone episodes
1. Shadow Play
2. A Stop At Willoughby
3.To Serve Man
4. Where is Everybody
5. Time Enough at Last
6. The Hitch Hiker
7. Third from the Sun
8. Judgement Night
9. Twenty Two
10. The Parallel
Honorable Mentions
1. The Time Element
2. A World of Difference
3. Perchance to Dream
4.The Midnight Sun
5. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
I love The Twilight Zone. The original is obviously the best but the 1980s reboot is also very good. I've recently started watching Night Gallery and I'm surprised by how much I enjoy it. This book is less a biography of Rod Serlings life and more a biography of his work. This book gives you episode break downs of all the TV shows he wrote for. I didn't know his career started in Cincinnati and that he wrote 2 other shows. Both were short lived, one was a western The Loner and the other was called The New People. He also worked on movies including The Planet of the Apes and he wrote a play.
Rod Serling was one of the greatest TV writers ever. His work has age surprisingly well after 60 + years. I remember falling in love with The Twilight Zone when I was 13 years old during a New Years Day marathon on SyFy. The list I made of my favorite episodes is just the current list, that list could change tomorrow. I know the episodes I picked are not the most popular episodes, in fact some are actually hated but I like what I like. The Time Element btw was an episode on Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse but most people consider to be the real pilot episode of the Twilight Zone and it's fantastic.
Rod Serling was a man ahead of his time and if you want to learn about this great man's work than this is a great read.
July 18, 2019
A long volume of the workings, life story, and development of Mr. Serling- the man who created 'The Twilight Zone' and 'Night Gallery' among many other works.
It gives awesome insight into the time frames, struggles, and triumphs that he experienced on his journey to becoming the legendary writer he is today. This book narrows down so many aspects of his life and work while delving into experiences that helped to mold the way he wrote and the topics he covered. It is a great work for writers and history buffs.
It gives awesome insight into the time frames, struggles, and triumphs that he experienced on his journey to becoming the legendary writer he is today. This book narrows down so many aspects of his life and work while delving into experiences that helped to mold the way he wrote and the topics he covered. It is a great work for writers and history buffs.
November 7, 2021
Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is a biography of Rod Serling, an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and host. Nicholas Parisi, a board member of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, wrote this biography with a forward written by the daughter of Rod Serling – Anne Serling.
Rodman Edward Serling was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator and on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series, The Twilight Zone.
Nicholas Parisi's comprehensive study covers Sterling's wide-ranging work in multiple mediums that included radio, television, theater, and film. It is a volume of perceptive criticism with valuable biographical insights as Parisi traces Serling's evolution as a writer and the themes he returned to throughout his career as a writer and public personality.
Serling grew up in in Binghamton, New York and had a rather ordinary childhood, a place he would often return to in his writing. He served in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War as a paratrooper, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. His war experiences would influence his work which often dealt with the lasting consequences of violence.
After college Serling found work writing scripts for local radio and television in Cincinnati. Parisi devotes particular attention to a short-lived anthology television series Serling authored entitled The Storm – a precursor to The Twilight Zone. The Storm revealed his interest in fantastical storytelling to address current social issues.
From Cincinnati he moved on to New York City and began writing for the television networks. He broke in during the "Golden Age of Television" when live dramas were shaping the future of the medium.
Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is written and researched rather well. Parisi explores Serling's entire, massive body of work, besides The Twilight Zone. Great insights were drawn directly from Serling's personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, which Parisi, being on the Board of Directors of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, had unprecedented access to. It is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis.
All in all, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is a wonderful and painstakingly researched look at all of Serling's work – in and out of The Twilight Zone.
Rodman Edward Serling was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator and on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series, The Twilight Zone.
Nicholas Parisi's comprehensive study covers Sterling's wide-ranging work in multiple mediums that included radio, television, theater, and film. It is a volume of perceptive criticism with valuable biographical insights as Parisi traces Serling's evolution as a writer and the themes he returned to throughout his career as a writer and public personality.
Serling grew up in in Binghamton, New York and had a rather ordinary childhood, a place he would often return to in his writing. He served in the Pacific Theatre during the Second World War as a paratrooper, earning a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. His war experiences would influence his work which often dealt with the lasting consequences of violence.
After college Serling found work writing scripts for local radio and television in Cincinnati. Parisi devotes particular attention to a short-lived anthology television series Serling authored entitled The Storm – a precursor to The Twilight Zone. The Storm revealed his interest in fantastical storytelling to address current social issues.
From Cincinnati he moved on to New York City and began writing for the television networks. He broke in during the "Golden Age of Television" when live dramas were shaping the future of the medium.
Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is written and researched rather well. Parisi explores Serling's entire, massive body of work, besides The Twilight Zone. Great insights were drawn directly from Serling's personal correspondence, unpublished writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts, which Parisi, being on the Board of Directors of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, had unprecedented access to. It is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis.
All in all, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is a wonderful and painstakingly researched look at all of Serling's work – in and out of The Twilight Zone.
February 8, 2020
I was incredibly impressed with this exhaustive look at Serling's life and career. It doesn't just focus on The Twilight Zone, which so many books do, but also on plays, other TV shows, movies, everything Serling worked on. I was mostly impressed with how much detailed information Parisi managed to dig up at this late date. This is terrific.
This is a five-star book all the way. I also love that Parisi got Serling's daughter, Anne, to pen an introduction. This is a great book. Recommended for anyone who loves Serling's work and would like to know more.
This is a five-star book all the way. I also love that Parisi got Serling's daughter, Anne, to pen an introduction. This is a great book. Recommended for anyone who loves Serling's work and would like to know more.
January 31, 2021
His ouvre is nice and whatever you wanna name it, BUT if you really want to appreciate the context and understand the meaning and what Rod is trying to say it's such a helping resource to count with this book.
It has parts kinda descriptive about episodes/season's but at the same time we have lots of quotes and material that's kinda hard to find nowadays. It's a really nice components if you want to explore deeply his work.
It has parts kinda descriptive about episodes/season's but at the same time we have lots of quotes and material that's kinda hard to find nowadays. It's a really nice components if you want to explore deeply his work.
October 13, 2025
I’m not sure I’d call this book a biography per se, but it is biographical in nature. I appreciated that it was filled with a lot of analysis & some evaluation of Serling’s work. It also demonstrates how Serling’s life & work was so much more than just The Twilight Zone.
July 17, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed this biography. I’ve enjoyed Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone stories since I was a child, but this book gave me a deeper understanding of his talent as a writer and the topics that were most important to him—prejudice, the common/everyday person, and human nature. I highly recommend this book.
April 6, 2020
A thorough critical (in sense of being assessing) biography of Rod Serling, whose career may be defined by "The Twilight Zone" but encompassed so much more. Clearly a labor of love, the author seems to have ferreted out every last bit of information he could, including detailed discussions of the two (!) television series Serling worked on between "Twilight Zone" and "Night Gallery."
January 3, 2022
Thoroughly researched and well written, this book is a must read for Serling fans. While not every show he wrote or produced is given full details, they are all covered to some degree. I learned a lot about Rod Serling and a ton about TV production during his time in the medium. Recommended.
December 29, 2018
What a terrific book, sprawling across some 400 plus pages is perhaps the most extensive, most academic, most engaging focus on the writings (later dictations?) of the incomparable Rod Serling. (Admittedly one of my heroes, therefore I may be biased).
I, personally, for a long time have been wracked over the fact that very little of Serling’s work outside of the Twilight Zone and the Night Gallery is available for consumption.
In various biographies there has been a few sips about these Golden Age of Television plays he had written, but one never gets to the cup for a gulp, you know?
And the prospects of actual getting to the three various locations of where these plays, scripts &c in order to read and study these works seemed even more impossible.
That is, until this book came from the fog.
Mr. Parisi’s work here just may go down in history as the most comprehensive and complete “index” of Serling’s work, and what’s more is that Parisi has even given the reader more insight into Serling himself than any other previous book has done before* all without being an actual biography.
Here you’ll find Serling’s early life, just a taste, and you’ll find a few pages focused on his time in the Service with an unexpected emotional punch to the guts (even though Serling Scholars already are already privy to it, Parisi’s handling of it still picks a wallop).
But this early biographical start gives way, quickly, to Serling’s writing. Starting with a few comments about an essay he’s done.
And now, you’re off to the races, Parisi tackles the early radio days, then television days, all of it. He tears down myths about Serling’s works, such as the ones that circle Planet of the Apes, &c. He provides anecdotes about nearly every piece of work Serling has done.
The Twilight Zone, all of it, the whole story (including Serling’s aggressive push for a trilogy film and a season six) and included anecdotes only covers 104 pages (185-288) out of the 494 that occupy the space between covers.
You’ve got descriptions of un-produced scripts of Serling’s, lost shows, alternative takes and drafts, aw heck you’ve even got a whole Appendix (Appendix D) that gives you a full and complete list of everything that came from the quill of Serling’s pen! What more can a fella want?
It’s a crime of both Hollywood and the literary world that Serling’s works are more readily available and accessible- but Nicholas Parisi’s book is just about the closest you’ll get to Rod Serling and the full bore of his imagination.
Easily the best read for me of 2018.
* with possible exception to “As I Knew Him” by Anne Serling.
I, personally, for a long time have been wracked over the fact that very little of Serling’s work outside of the Twilight Zone and the Night Gallery is available for consumption.
In various biographies there has been a few sips about these Golden Age of Television plays he had written, but one never gets to the cup for a gulp, you know?
And the prospects of actual getting to the three various locations of where these plays, scripts &c in order to read and study these works seemed even more impossible.
That is, until this book came from the fog.
Mr. Parisi’s work here just may go down in history as the most comprehensive and complete “index” of Serling’s work, and what’s more is that Parisi has even given the reader more insight into Serling himself than any other previous book has done before* all without being an actual biography.
Here you’ll find Serling’s early life, just a taste, and you’ll find a few pages focused on his time in the Service with an unexpected emotional punch to the guts (even though Serling Scholars already are already privy to it, Parisi’s handling of it still picks a wallop).
But this early biographical start gives way, quickly, to Serling’s writing. Starting with a few comments about an essay he’s done.
And now, you’re off to the races, Parisi tackles the early radio days, then television days, all of it. He tears down myths about Serling’s works, such as the ones that circle Planet of the Apes, &c. He provides anecdotes about nearly every piece of work Serling has done.
The Twilight Zone, all of it, the whole story (including Serling’s aggressive push for a trilogy film and a season six) and included anecdotes only covers 104 pages (185-288) out of the 494 that occupy the space between covers.
You’ve got descriptions of un-produced scripts of Serling’s, lost shows, alternative takes and drafts, aw heck you’ve even got a whole Appendix (Appendix D) that gives you a full and complete list of everything that came from the quill of Serling’s pen! What more can a fella want?
It’s a crime of both Hollywood and the literary world that Serling’s works are more readily available and accessible- but Nicholas Parisi’s book is just about the closest you’ll get to Rod Serling and the full bore of his imagination.
Easily the best read for me of 2018.
* with possible exception to “As I Knew Him” by Anne Serling.
May 19, 2020
For me, the holy trinity of writers that I've admired for most of my life are Ray Bradbury, Sam Sheppard and Rod Serling. There are others I greatly admire as well, but these 3 have impacted me at different points in my life. So when this book arrived on my doorstep the other day I dove right in. Nick Parisi has created an amazing work. He has covered the entire writings of Serling. Not just The Twilight Zone or the usual suspects, like Patterns, Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Night Gallery. He covers the entire depth and breadth of his career. His entire life is on display here. Along the way, Parisi tells the story of how Serling's experiences in WWII informed his writing. Both scholarly an entertaining, this is the book all Rod Serling fans have been waiting for.
September 18, 2019
This was a exhaustive look at the writings of another great New York native. If you grew up too late to enjoy Rod Serling's contribution to pop-culture as it was airing, this book is a great way to familiarize yourself with most of his work. There were things about his life spread throughout the book, but the majority of the information was a summary of his individual works. I would have enjoyed a bit more about his life that a typical biography would have normally provided, but this book was a very enjoyable experience nonetheless.
October 3, 2019
This book focuses on Serling's works including lists of performers and characters on individual program episodes, a synopsis of each and discussion about the stories' impact on other works. Biographical material takes a back seat, but, one still develops an understanding about Serling's life, motivations and passions. However, if you want a real biography of the man, you will have to go elsewhere.
I recommend this book for those interested in a catalog of Rod Serling's TV work, which is the primary focus of the author.
I recommend this book for those interested in a catalog of Rod Serling's TV work, which is the primary focus of the author.
June 12, 2022
I would have preferred if it focused more on Serling’s central themes and concerns as the evaluative notes and reviews—what worked, what didn’t work from a storytelling perspective—is too subjective to be useful. The three-star rating system used for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery episodes is pretty hokey also. Well researched and extensively documented account of the writer, nonetheless. Required reading for Rod Serling and Twilight Zone fans.
March 19, 2019
Rod Serling was a unique voice in television, and this book covers his art in depth. There's a certain amount of repetition (inevitable when you're tracing themes), but it's very readable and detailed. Absolutely required reading for anyone interested in his works - or in the history of TV in general.
August 14, 2023
Good Biography When We're Having One
I really wanted to love this, but there's too much time spent with seemingly endless synopses of Sterling's works which, after a bit, seem to upstage the actual story of his life. True, his life was in the stories but I don't need a scene-by-scene outline of everything, the majority of which I've already seen multiple times.
I really wanted to love this, but there's too much time spent with seemingly endless synopses of Sterling's works which, after a bit, seem to upstage the actual story of his life. True, his life was in the stories but I don't need a scene-by-scene outline of everything, the majority of which I've already seen multiple times.
November 13, 2021
A straightforward overview of Rod Serling’s life and work, which includes synopses of all Twilight Zone, Night Gallery episodes written by Serling.
A decent introduction to a man whose influence on popular culture continues to this day.
A decent introduction to a man whose influence on popular culture continues to this day.
August 4, 2025
Wow! I enjoyed this book very much! In addition to giving a summary of the life of Rod Serling, the book listed most if not all of the Twilight Zone and Night Gallery episodes with synopsies, actors and the story. I loved this book! Rod Serling was a brilliant writer and a wonderful human being.
February 9, 2019
A fun read. It is amazing that Sterling wrote 92 episodes of the Twilight Zone's 156 Episode run over 5 seasons. I am very interested to see what Jordan Peele is going to do with the reboot.
October 19, 2019
Excellent biography and exhaustive critical and overview of everything Serling wrote.
November 25, 2019
Loved this book, but then again I am a Hugh Serling Mark. This is a good introduction to Serlings TV and movie work. Wish the writer had gone deeper into his fights with censorship.
January 19, 2020
Looking for a volume that with treats Rod Serling's remarkable 25-year career. Your search is over.
October 3, 2021
My only minor complaint is there's not much about Serling's childhood years etc...
April 19, 2022
A through and in-depth look at the man and his writings. If you are a Rod Serling fan this is a must have
December 19, 2024
Loved this book! Perfect for any Rod fan. Definitely recommend it.
October 29, 2023
A detailed reference read that brings out the genius of its subject.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews