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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Mark Scott's degree is the author of the best selling

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Speaker 2: twilight Zoned Companion book and Saturday June twenty eighth is

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Speaker 2: the anniversary of the death of the founder, Rod Serling.

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Speaker 2: Mark's with us now as we talk about the life

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Speaker 2: of Rod Serling in the one hundred and fifty six

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Speaker 2: episodes of the twilight Zone television program. Mark, welcome back,

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Speaker 2: my friend. Have you been.

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Speaker 3: I've been great, George, and I'm always great whenever I'm

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Speaker 3: talking with you.

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Speaker 2: I cannot believe it's been fifty years that Rod Serling

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Speaker 2: has been gone.

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Speaker 3: Incredible, incredible. I remember when I was a teenager, when

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Speaker 3: I was nineteen years old when Rod died, and when

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Speaker 3: it came on the news, everyone was just stunned. I mean,

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Speaker 3: he was fifty years old when he died, and now

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Speaker 3: it's fifty years since his death. But twilight Zone is

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Speaker 3: more famous than ever. The episodes are loved and they're

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Speaker 3: still proving a point and telling a story and doing

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Speaker 3: what Rod designed them to do. So you know, the

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Speaker 3: sad thing is, he never knew that it was going

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Speaker 3: to continue and be popular. He died thinking he has

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Speaker 3: kind of not grabbed the brass ring, and that's very sad.

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Speaker 2: How many years did those one hundred and fifty six

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Speaker 2: episodes were on?

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Speaker 3: Twilight's A was on for five seasons, and the fourth

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Speaker 3: it was a half hour show, but the fourth season

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Speaker 3: they expanded it to an hour for about eighteen episodes

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Speaker 3: and then and it really didn't work as well, so

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Speaker 3: they took it back on the final season to half hours.

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Speaker 2: And there was something special about black and white, wasn't there?

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Speaker 3: Yes, my god, Well, the DP George Clemens won an

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Speaker 3: Emmy for his cinematography, and he had been a camera

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Speaker 3: operator on the classic films like the Frederick Mark jackal

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Speaker 3: and Hyde and Valance Tino's Blood and Sand, and so

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Speaker 3: he was trained in the golden age of Hollywood. So

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Speaker 3: he I think Twilight one was the best looking black

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Speaker 3: and white show ever shot for television. It's gorgeous.

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Speaker 2: Rod Sirlene had heart issues, did.

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Speaker 3: He not, Yes. And he also smoked, you know, you know,

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Speaker 3: as a chain smoker. And and and he also kept

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Speaker 3: his emotions very bottled up because he was he was

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Speaker 3: he cared so passionately about so many things. And his

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Speaker 3: father had died at fifty two of a heart attack,

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Speaker 3: and so there was that that genetic factor as well. So,

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Speaker 3: but it was it was still a shock. He died

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Speaker 3: of open heart's complications from open heart surgery.

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Speaker 2: His wife, Carol died a few years ago. She made

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Speaker 2: it to ninety, did.

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Speaker 3: She Yes, yes, yes, And she was a dear soul

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Speaker 3: and she was the keeper of the flame and she

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Speaker 3: really really kept kept kept the uh, you know, Rod's

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Speaker 3: Rod's message going. And and now now that now the

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Speaker 3: torch bearers are the two daughters, and and Jodie, and

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Speaker 3: they're they're both wonderful and I'm I'm in very close

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Speaker 3: touch with him.

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Speaker 2: What was it about the Twilight shone that got Rod

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Speaker 2: interested in that concept, that genre.

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Speaker 3: Well, the fascinating thing is, you know, Rod never wanted

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Speaker 3: he never aspired to be a science fiction writer. He

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Speaker 3: wanted to be sort of the Arthur Miller of television.

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Speaker 3: He wanted to be writing mainstream, hard hitting dramas. And

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Speaker 3: at first in live TV, which shows like you know,

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Speaker 3: Playhouse ninety, it looked like he was going to succeed

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Speaker 3: in that ambition. He was the most awarded writer working

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Speaker 3: in TV. Ultimately he won six Emmys. But then as

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Speaker 3: he tried to write about politics or racial issues or

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Speaker 3: anything that could be viewed as controversial in any way,

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Speaker 3: the sensors and the network and sponsors would would essentially,

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Speaker 3: you know, given notes that rendered everything meaningless. And he

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Speaker 3: was feeling very, very frustrated. And then he had the

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Speaker 3: idea that if he wrote it in science fiction, he

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Speaker 3: could slide it past the sensors and still say what

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Speaker 3: he had to say. And so that's why he chose

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Speaker 3: Twilight Zone. And and he was absolutely right. And what's

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Speaker 3: a great bonus that he didn't foresee was that by

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Speaker 3: making it more universal, such like a show on like

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Speaker 3: Monsters Do on Maple Street, which deals with mob hysteria

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Speaker 3: and scapegoating, that is as relevant now as it was

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Speaker 3: back in nineteen fifty nine when he wrote it.

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Speaker 2: Truly remarkable, wasn't it amazing?

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Speaker 3: An amazing show and amazing singular talent. And Rod of

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Speaker 3: course was really the first showrunner, and in the modern sense,

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Speaker 3: he was the writer, producer of the show. He was

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Speaker 3: at the top of the food chain, and he had

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Speaker 3: power to make sure that his vision was what got

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Speaker 3: to the audience, and the audience was huge, huge, back then,

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Speaker 3: it was regularly around forty million viewers per episode, so

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Speaker 3: that was phenomenal compared to what TV viewership is now.

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Speaker 2: In his episodes, Mark always had that strange ending, that

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Speaker 2: strange twist.

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Speaker 3: Nice yes, yes, talked about it like the O Henry twist. Oh.

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Speaker 3: Henry was a writer who wrote short stories that always

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Speaker 3: had that twist at the end, and Rod really liked that.

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Speaker 3: But he said, he said that if he had the

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Speaker 3: end of a story, he could write the story. But

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Speaker 3: if he only had the first act in the second

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Speaker 3: act but no third act, he couldn't do it because

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Speaker 3: he needed know where the story was going. But of

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Speaker 3: course those twist endings are terrific. But the thing is

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Speaker 3: also because there's such a human heart to these stories

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Speaker 3: and such compassion and such wisdom and insight, you can

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Speaker 3: watch them again and again and again even when you

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Speaker 3: know what the twist ending is. So it wasn't solely

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Speaker 3: reliant on those twist endings. That was just sort of

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Speaker 3: like the cherry on top.

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Speaker 2: What percent of the episodes did Rod Shirley write.

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Speaker 3: He wrote ninety two out of one hundred and fifty six,

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Speaker 3: which is an incredible output. He was also writing movies

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Speaker 3: like seven days in May and writing those short story

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Speaker 3: collection adaptations of Twilight Zone episodes. I mean, he was

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Speaker 3: a very busy man, but he was very committed to

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Speaker 3: Twilight Zone. He turned down a movie contract that would

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Speaker 3: have brought him over a million dollars to do Twilight Zone,

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Speaker 3: and had it failed, he would have lost a lot

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Speaker 3: of money. But but he was he was doing it

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Speaker 3: for the right reasons. He was doing it because he

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Speaker 3: had a passion and stories to tell, and he was

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Speaker 3: he was just an astonishingly gifted and talented man.

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Speaker 2: Tell us how Rod he used to do dictaphone writings

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Speaker 2: in his pool.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, he Rod would dictate into a recorder.

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Speaker 3: He he would lounge by his Olympic sized swimming pool

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Speaker 3: and Pacific palisades and and dictate these twilights On scripts

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Speaker 3: into into a recorder. He used to joke that he

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Speaker 3: was the only writer who could write a script and

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Speaker 3: get a tan at the same time. And and yet

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Speaker 3: that was why he was able to write so quickly.

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Speaker 3: And then his secretary would type up what he dictated.

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Speaker 3: And it's amazing. I've heard these recordings and he's not

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Speaker 3: only doing all the characters, he's also calling all the shots.

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Speaker 3: It's like, you know, extreme close up, you know, wide shot,

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Speaker 3: all of that stuff, and so the fact that he's

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Speaker 3: able to hold that all in his head. Richard Matheson,

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Speaker 3: who was also one of the writers on Twilight Zone,

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Speaker 3: told me that he tried to dictate and he couldn't

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Speaker 3: do it. It's a it's a rare talent, and but

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Speaker 3: Rod was just a master at it because he was

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Speaker 3: he viewed himself as well, east to call himself a ham,

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Speaker 3: you know, because he liked performing, he liked being able

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Speaker 3: to be all those characters.

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Speaker 2: Well with the Hollywood producer writer director Mark's decree. After

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Speaker 2: the break, we'll come back and talk about some of

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Speaker 2: the programs Mark is working on, including Space Command. We

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Speaker 2: know a mutual fellow who was in Twilight Zone. He

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Speaker 2: was a little kid at the time, Billy Mooney.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Well I'm working with Bill on the new show,

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Speaker 3: so we're going to be shooting with him in the

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Speaker 3: next month or two. So it's it's a joy. And

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Speaker 3: I've known him since I was seven, so I love,

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Speaker 3: I love having known him for the such an incredibly

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Speaker 3: wonderful long time.

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Speaker 2: Was it the Twilight Zone that got him into Lost

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Speaker 2: in space.

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Speaker 3: You know, I've never asked him that, but I would

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Speaker 3: think so. I was doing a lot of shows and

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Speaker 3: movies though he was doing Hitchcock, he was doing he

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Speaker 3: did a movie with Bridgid Bardow. And but certainly Twilight

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Speaker 3: so showed him to uh, to great, great advantage, and

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Speaker 3: so it's very probable that's what that's what nailed him,

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Speaker 3: uh nailed the role for him.

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Speaker 2: How many Twilight Jones was Billy in He was in.

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Speaker 3: Three and and they're all terrific. I mean, it's a

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Speaker 3: good Life, which is you know, the wonderful one where

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Speaker 3: we which is People of the Cornfield, and in Praise

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Speaker 3: of Pip, which is a terrific episode with Jack Klugman,

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Speaker 3: and Long Distance Call, which was one of the six

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Speaker 3: episodes done on videotape rather than film, where his grandmother,

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Speaker 3: his dead grandmother is calling him on a toy telephone

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Speaker 3: trying to beckon him to uh to come to the

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Speaker 3: other side, you know, to kill himself and and join her.

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Speaker 3: And so they're all wonderful, absolutely wonderful. And he was

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Speaker 3: he was he was a very rare commodity, a really

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Speaker 3: really really good child actor. And he still and some

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Speaker 3: people grow up and then they're not. They never are

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Speaker 3: able to find that kind of creative path. But Bill

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Speaker 3: has always been torific. And when when I wrote for

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Speaker 3: Babylon five, he was a cast member on that show,

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Speaker 3: and he was he still had it and he still

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Speaker 3: has it now. It's it's so much fun to work

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Speaker 3: with him.

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Speaker 2: I love his line you're a bad bad man.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, iconic use that.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes when he was on Coast to coast with me.

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Speaker 2: What was his name in Loston space, was it Will Robinson?

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Speaker 3: Robinson, Will Robinson, Danger, Will Robinson exactly, Yes, yeah, it was.

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Speaker 3: It's a it's a fun show. And we're working with

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Speaker 3: one of the other actors from that show, Marta Christen,

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Speaker 3: who played his older sister, and so she's going to

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Speaker 3: be in a show we're doing called Sweet Haven that

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Speaker 3: we can talk about as as we continue talking.

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Speaker 2: Great tell us about Twilight's old companion. People still can't

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Speaker 2: get that book.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I just recently updated it. So there's a third

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Speaker 3: edition that has one hundred more pages and five hundred

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Speaker 3: new photographs and links to audio and video, and and

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Speaker 3: it's on sale on Amazon and wherever good books are sold.

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Speaker 2: Remember we wrote that editorial about Ray Bradbury's I sing

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Speaker 2: the Body Electric.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, yes, I got.

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Speaker 2: A letter of him posted up on my wall that thing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you and I are truly blessed, George, that

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Speaker 3: we get to know so many amazing, you know, unique people,

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Speaker 3: and I consider that a great gift to what When

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Speaker 3: you present your authentic self to the world as you have,

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Speaker 3: people are attracted to that, and people are drawn to that,

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Speaker 3: and you end up having wonderful friendships and wonderful conversations.

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Speaker 3: And you and I of course clicked from the very beginning,

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Speaker 3: of course. And you know it's been it's been a

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Speaker 3: while that we've been doing this.

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Speaker 2: How many shows have you done with us on Coast God.

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Speaker 3: You know, I'm on every few months and it's been

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Speaker 3: at least twenty years, probably more so. But I always enjoyed.

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Speaker 3: It's my favorite interview show. It's always so much fun

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Speaker 3: talking with you, and you know, I always look forward

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Speaker 3: to it. And Tom dan Heiser, your producer, is a

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Speaker 3: swell fella and he's again, you know, one of the things, well,

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Speaker 3: good people attract good people, as you know.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at

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Speaker 1: one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to coastam

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