My Dad, Rod Serling

SerlingsAnne Serling is interviewed about her memoir As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling in the May 29 issue of the LA Times.

Not only did your father have physical issues because of the wounds he suffered in World War II, he also had nightmares of his experience in combat.

He absolutely did. I vividly remember him having nightmares and when I would ask him what happened he said, “I dreamed the Japanese were coming at me.” Back then post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t even a term.

He always planned to go into teaching kids physical education, but because he had been so traumatized by the war, he switched to language and literature. He was quoted saying he needed to get it off of his gut and out of his system.

Part of the soundtrack for her promo video comes from Mike Wallace’s interview with Rod Serling, first aired in 1959. The most eerie thing in the interview has nothing to do with Twilight Zone — it’s seeing both men puffing away on cigarettes behind the opening title.

[Thanks to John King Tarpinian for the story.]

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