Sky Room Talks
At The Gates of The
Twilight Zone: The Early Rod Serling
Monday, February 29 at 7:30pm
$10 Members | $15 Public
Film Historian Philip
Harwood takes us on an exciting journey into Rod Serling’s early years of
television.
Before The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling wrote plays for television, during the medium’s golden
age of live dramatic broadcasts. His plays could be seen on the Kraft Television Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lux Video Theatre, Studio One, and others. As with his later television scripts,
Serling touched upon serious social topics, alternating with lighthearted fare.
After many scripts, his first big success was Patterns, starring
Everett Sloan, Richard Kiley, and Ed Begley, first broadcast on the
Kraft Television Theatre in the Fall of 1955: an emotional, intense
look at the corporate world, in which one man rises, while another man falls.
We will view and discuss the aforementioned Patterns.
Such a successful show, it would be repeated a month later. We
will also view Serling’s political
drama, The Arena, starring Wendell Corey and Chester Morris, as seen on a 1956 broadcast of Studio One (complete with Betty Furness Westinghouse commercials).
Corey is Senator
James Norton, who follows in the footsteps of his famous father, an ex-senator
who considered the senate floor his arena. Norton must soon decide whether he wants to
keep following in those footsteps, or beat a path of his own. We will see that
Serling’s themes and ideas would pave the way for future projects.
Philip Harwood teaches film studies in the Hutton House
Lectures at LIU: Post, as well as at the 92nd Street Y and the JCC
In Manhattan. Philip was Coordinator for Lifelong Learning at Queens College,
and is a published author. Philip was recently a scholar in residence at the
Adat Chavrim temple in Dallas, TX.
