Perhaps the most important and wonderful TeeVee shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s was The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling was the genius behind it, and drove it to the top ratings for quite a while.
This was a show like no other before, and never used the same cast twice. Only Rod Serling was the anchor, and almost always did the introduction, often after the opening setup.
No one has ever duplicated what Serling brought to the small screen. Even after more than 60! years some of the stories are as fresh as if they had been written tomorrow.
Most hack writers, like me, just write and write and write to no avail. I can write three stories in a day, but they are no good. Serling was a genius. He could write three stories in a day, and all of them were outstanding. Many of his were the basis of The Twilight Zone, and he never even took credit for them. He was probably the most prolific writer for the TeeVee that ever lived.
The Twilight Zone was unique. The actors that Serling attracted were marvelous, some of them new, and some of them very, very well established.
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