- Apr 30, 2013
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Anybody else a fan of this TV series?
I became curious about the background of the creator of this series, Rod Serling, since many of the episodes he wrote had moral or religious themes. It turns out he was a Jew who converted to Unitarianism at a time when church membership was normative in the US, because his wife wasn't Jewish and they needed a church to go to together (his wife had been Protestant). The preaching at his Unitarian church had an influence on his appreciation of the value of religious symbolism. He also was a WWII veteran (Marine) and saw fierce combat in the Pacific on the Filipino island of Luzon, something that made him detest war and nationalism the rest of his life, and which lead him to seek to become a writer as an outlet for his trauma.
My favorite episode is Night of the Meek, written by Rod Serling in one of the later seasons, and aired December 23, 1960. It's sort of like a much less cynical version of"Bad Santa". Art Carney plays a drunk, Henry Corwin, who lives surrounded by poverty and once a year gets a job as a department store Santa Claus. Drunk at a bar, he makes a wish that "just one Christmas... the meek would inherit the Earth", and then he finds a magic bag that gives people whatever they want. He gives away so many toys, the police end up suspecting he must have stolen them, but then is exonerated when he gives one of the police detectives a bottle of brandy out of the bag. At the end of the episode, he laments having to go back to his ordinary life, and wishes he could be Santa every year. Which of course leads to a Rod Serling type of ending where the camera pans to show a sleigh appearing, pulled by reindeer, upon which Mr. Corwin boards the sleigh and rides away.
I became curious about the background of the creator of this series, Rod Serling, since many of the episodes he wrote had moral or religious themes. It turns out he was a Jew who converted to Unitarianism at a time when church membership was normative in the US, because his wife wasn't Jewish and they needed a church to go to together (his wife had been Protestant). The preaching at his Unitarian church had an influence on his appreciation of the value of religious symbolism. He also was a WWII veteran (Marine) and saw fierce combat in the Pacific on the Filipino island of Luzon, something that made him detest war and nationalism the rest of his life, and which lead him to seek to become a writer as an outlet for his trauma.
My favorite episode is Night of the Meek, written by Rod Serling in one of the later seasons, and aired December 23, 1960. It's sort of like a much less cynical version of"Bad Santa". Art Carney plays a drunk, Henry Corwin, who lives surrounded by poverty and once a year gets a job as a department store Santa Claus. Drunk at a bar, he makes a wish that "just one Christmas... the meek would inherit the Earth", and then he finds a magic bag that gives people whatever they want. He gives away so many toys, the police end up suspecting he must have stolen them, but then is exonerated when he gives one of the police detectives a bottle of brandy out of the bag. At the end of the episode, he laments having to go back to his ordinary life, and wishes he could be Santa every year. Which of course leads to a Rod Serling type of ending where the camera pans to show a sleigh appearing, pulled by reindeer, upon which Mr. Corwin boards the sleigh and rides away.
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