The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television by Koren ShadmiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Imagine if you will, the creator of one of the best anthology television series of all time, on a plane, relating to a passenger his life story. But an airplane ride is not just an airplane ride... in the Twilight Zone.
I'm a lifelong Twilight Zone fan so I was jazzed when my in-laws got me this for Christmas. It hooked me right away.
Drawn in a style evocative of the stark black and white of the Twilight Zone, The Twilight Man covers the life and times of Rod Serling, from his early years to his stint in the military to toiling as a teleplay writer for years before his big break finally came. It's mostly downhill after the Twilight Zone is canceled.
It's crazy how much work Serling put in during the Twilight Zone's three year run, working fourteen hours and smoking four packs of cigarettes a day, which undoubtedly lead to his downfall years later. As with most figures of this type, Serling's downhill slide after Twilight Zone was sad, the Night Gallery movie excepted.
That's about all I want to say for fear of spoiling my favorite parts of the book. Koren Shadmi did a great job capturing Serling's look and personality and also did a great job on other celebrity faces like Burgess Meredith and William Shatner. On a side note - isn't it crazy that we owe DesiLu studios for Twilight Zone AND Star Trek?
Five out of five stars.
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